Familiar face!

You last saw Felipe Nieves in the winter, seated at my table in Isla Mujeres. He was the man who did the final edit on my stories at The Plain Dealer and wrote the headlines. Now that he can't correct my copy, as a bilingual native of Puerto Rico, he corrects my Spanish!
Felipe took me to lunch after the final visit to the accountant, just a couple days after lunch with Mary.. This was the day Ohio had an earthquake at 1:47pm, and we later compared notes and the earth did not move for either of us.
We wanted to eat at Clyde's, a bistro in an old remodeled stainless steel diner in Cleveland Heights . But it wasn't open for lunch.
We went down Lee Rd. to the old Shujiro location of a relatively new sushi joint. It was disappointing for both of us, but we had a great time, a long lunch!
Afterward, I was heading home to Malvern, when the skies opened up and tornado warnings went up. I pulled off I-77 in Akron and went into a Target. Very disappointing for a store I used to love.
During a break, I headed further south and it was getting rough again. I pulled off at Belden Village and took a room at the Red Roof Inn, where they have free wifi. And Motel Six had no wifi the whole time I wan in the area.
I had this new Dell laptop I wanted to load with as many Zina things as possible, should customs try to declare it an unused import. Brother also provided me with pics from a year and a half ago,
So I checked in, thought about surprising someone at Christie's but decided against it, and went to Max and Erma's in search of an old Columbus style supper. Let me just say the franchise does no justice to what the original Max and Erma's was in Columbus.
Afterward, I stopped at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and picked up a half dozen, new in from retailers, cotton shirts - and one pure linen - and a pair of shorts and discovered a nice surprise at check out. Everything was a dollar!
Feeling special, I got a nail polish change at the Vietnamese salon that's been there for 14 or so years.
That set me right and the sun was setting, so I went to the room and played with the computer until it was time to sleep.

I'm a lucky one!

Some six years ago, I was freaking out. I was "bought out" at work. They sent me home first, to return to Human Resources, and bargain my exit. I was the first of dozens and as someone with a disabling illness, would be the test case for how to COBRA a long time employee with health issues being severed to save money.
Since then, there have been dozens. Hundreds actually. Now, the worst. The books don't balance and 37 were to be laid off this month unless volunteers stepped forward for a not very generous severance package. Two weeks for every year worked. No health insurance compared to the paid two and a half years I and the others in the buy out groups got. No one year or more salary. Two weeks immediate pay and the two weeks a year somehow parceled out. They'll get to come back for their stuff and final paycheck in a couple weeks.
No, there is no good way to do this, as the editor wrote the staff this afternoon in an email. So here is how they will do it at The Plain Dealer tomorrow:
Reporters, line editors, photogs are to get up and sit by the phone. If the editor does not call you by 9:30am, you are safe, not one of the 27 who didn't leave of their own choice. Report to work and watch the continuing decline of advertising revenue on the antique vessel, turning your own work product into blogs for the newspaper's web sites.
We all knew this was coming for a couple months now and I said more than one prayer of thanks as I shared my Thanksgiving traditions with my Mexican neighbors and talked to my American neighbors back home.
A couple weeks ago, John Tidyman declared my contributions to his book a wrap. I haven't heard yet when it will be published. But I look forward to reading the volume put together by those of us who worked in the newspaper business when there was still competition and a market for newspapers. So sad!

Facing time

Facebook ate too much of my day yesterday, what with getting caught up on Isla Mujeres's Halloween doings, and getting Fairy'd and Walled by my Friend's kid! I barely had time to Twitter!
But in my daily readings, I learned my former employer, The Plain Dealer, has added Twitter to it's election coverage. I guess you Twitter as you stuff the ballot box! No, I think folks are supposed to Twitter the newspaper if they wait too long for a ballot or something. You can Twitter from your cell or PDA.
At any rate, Eriso never came back after taking the kid to the Centro de Salud. He said the line was really long to be seen. I need to get a flu shot, so I think I'll wait til Thursday.
Lora and I both ate our chicken yesterday. Well, she still has some left. My breasts were so yummy I ate both by the time the day was over. Drunken chicken took one Stella Artois and one Sol. The broth was just too good. I used some chili max, a Maya wild chili, about the size of a pea. I used to just throw a handful in soups and stews. In Sacalum, I learned to pop them like popcorn on the skillet first. That makes them really potent!
Lora and I went out with the Gentle Leader head collar twice. It's making a difference! She is on a short leash, so to speak and there is no pulling!
I did not post last that she took me down twice on outings last week. The worst was at the ATM, when she pulled the leash so hard she just flipped me on to the floor of the bank!
A nice man helped me up and called her what Eriso and the neighbors have started calling her: El Torro.
The golf cart physical fitness program has developed her front body into a board shouldered physique and if she wants out, she just barrels though the screen door, Like a bull!
Last night, I took her running again. Without the head collar, naturally, which makes her really sense the freedom. Of course, with that, goes not listening. So doggy mommy has to stop the golf cart and yell, sometimes get out, to make her pay attention. I think it's her age. By people years, she approaching her teens now. If she had hormones, they'd be raging. It's all attitude!
As for Facebook, I think it's all attitude, too. My friend's daughter and I are friends now. Pretty amazing considering we never met. But like her mom, I promised I won't show Kelly's Facebook to her dad, so I guess I'm kewl or whatever 18 year olds say these days. Ugh.