spring is here!

I'm sitting in a typical grey office cubicle in Colorado, eating a sandwich at my desk with nothing but the buzz of fluorescent lights, the clicking of fingertips on computer keyboards, and the occasional "blrp!" of the telephone to interrupt the otherwise typical monotony of my work day. It's atypically warm outside, but the mountains are still covered in snow and the north winds are still blowing cold. More snow and blizzards are definitely on the way.

But then I put on my headphones, log in... and suddenly springtime is here! Fluorescent lighting becomes hot sunshine, I've traded my desk for a grandstand seat, keyboard clicking turns to clapping and cheering, and my cheap sandwich is now a wonderfully tasteless, over-priced hot dog.

February may not be over yet, but spring is already here -- spring training, that is!

My winter always ends with the first warm-up toss from the major league mound, the first loud "thwup!" of a baseball in the catcher's massive mitt, the first "Play ball!" enthusiastically hollered from behind home plate. They may only be spring training games right now, but the excitement of watching that first batter digging into the box makes me just as giddy as it will in 38 days when the real Opening Day arrives.

This is the only thing I miss about living in Arizona -- I miss soaking up the warm sunshine from a sticky plastic seat while munching on stale nachos, sipping a warm soda, and taking in all the sights and sounds of a Diamondbacks spring training game.

Thank goodness for MLB.TV!

valentine schmalentine

My annual rant still rings true today...

I hate Valentine's Day. I hate the aisles and aisles of pink and red fluff in every store I enter. I hate the excessive commercials full of happy, kissy-faced couples all enraptured with each other over stupid things like new cars or chewing gum or Caribbean cruises. I hate all the ads for diamonds and tacky heart-shaped jewelry. I hate the love song infestation on all the airwaves and in all the stores and restaurants. I hate how the price of roses is jacked up when the same dozen costs a third as much on any other day of the year. I hate the aisles and aisles of cards crooning about how wonderful the love of my life is. I hate that I don't have a love of my life. I hate that I have no one to buy such a card for. I hate that no one I like has ever given me such a card. I hate that the only Valentine cards I've ever received came from my reluctant elementary school classmates and were covered with happy buddy-buddy images of Garfield and Odie or Snoopy and Woodstock. I hate that I don't have a time turner like Hermione in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so I can fast forward to February 15th. I hate those heart-shaped sweetie candy things. "Be mine." "You're cute." "Kiss me." Bah-humbug!!! I want to cram a whole bag full of those candies down some little cupid's throat until he chokes and turns blue and then I can steal his bow and arrows and break them and toss the splinters into a fireplace somewhere along with all those stupid school-kid Valentines and then dance a little jig while they burn to ashes.

Most of all, I hate that I don't have any reason not to hate Valentine's Day....

back to tennessee

For the first time since my family moved from there to Arizona in 1987, I'm returning to Tennessee this weekend! My first business trip ever is taking me to Nashville this weekend, where I'll be attending the National Religious Broadcasters Convention at the Opryland Hotel.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to be going on this trip, and I honestly can't decide! I'm not really sure why my boss thinks this will be a good way to "expand my horizons" professionally, but that's because I really have no clue exactly what I'll be doing at this convention! So perhaps his reasoning will become clear once I get there.

The only thing I can look forward to for now is the fact that, for the first time in 22 years, I'll be returning to the "wrong side of the river," as we Californians have always referred to anything east of the Mississippi. I know it's not the correct thing to be looking forward to about a business trip, but I'm really hoping for a few free hours over the next four days to do some exploring and make some jaunts down Memory Lane!

We used to live in a gorgeous house on 2012 Sunnyslope Lane in a little Nashville bedroom community called Goodlettsville. I hope to walk up to that front porch again, knock on the door, introduce myself to whoever lives there now and say, "Pardon me, but I used to live in your house 25 years ago, and would like to know if I may take a picture of the outside?" Perhaps they'll be so tickled by the idea that they'll invite me in for sweet tea and let me see the inside. And then I can tell them all about how we practiced our sledding on the basement stairs, or how we found a dozen old, moldy cheese balls in the nooks and crannies of the kitchen as we were moving out, or about the night my great-grandma died right there in that living room while watching "Dallas"...

Hmm... on second thought, maybe not...

There are other places I hope to see while I'm there, like the old church where we used to ditch Sunday School classes to go climbing in the old belfry, or the park where we played softball and decorated an old historic mansion with themed Christmas trees (where my own Christmas decorating madness first began!), or the school where my crazy fifth-grade teacher decorated our classroom with Barry Manilow posters... wrong side of the river indeed!

One of the places I used to visit all the time, though, I know I'm going to see -- and that's the Opryland Hotel itself! We used to visit there every Christmas to see their amazing conservatory transformed by hundreds of poinsettias and twinkle lights, and several other times during the year to play at the theme park or tour the conservatory and gardens. And now, I'm going to get to actually stay in the hotel!

So whether or not I see the old house, the old church, the old park, or the old school, I will have at least one chance this weekend to reconnect with a part of my childhood, and that's something I am definitely looking forward to!