Riding with a long distance friend, books, and a tribute to my friend - a hero.

This morning I drove into work because I had to be at our R&D facility for the day. I popped in my favorite cd in the whole wide world. It’s called Ear Candy and it is a mix that was made by a friend. And even though we have never met it was as if she was sitting in the car with me singing along. We live 2,000 miles apart but for 15 minutes I felt closer to her than ever. What a fabulous way to start out the day.

I am 5 pages away from finishing Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. And I’m very sad that it is coming to an end. My dad warned me I would be. In fact he put the book down and avoided reading the last few pages for several days. This has been a marvelous adventure. One of those epic novels that you don’t just enjoy reading but you fall into. The sights, the smells, and the friends you meet along the way. I can’t say enough about this story. It’s simply a wonderful read. Don’t let the daunting size fool you. At almost a thousand pages it would seem like you would be reading forever. Unfortunately that is not the case. It ends. Despite the fact that you don’t want it to. Honestly, this is going down on my list of favorites.

After finishing the book my dad was trying to figure out what to read. I’m sure if you read a lot you know the feeling. Coming down off such a literary high you want that feeling again. You don’t want to just read a book. You want to fall into a book again. So the book his coffee shop buddies told him to read was Lonesome Dove. I told him that it was on my all time favorites list as well. He called last night to tell me he was only on page 24 but was in love with the story already. Yippee!

In other thoughts:

Over the weekend we had dinner with a group of people. One of the couples we were with have been married some 20 years. I have never been able to figure out how strong their marriage is or if they are even in love because they are not a touchy couple in any way shape or form. No signs of affection what so ever. Not even “honey” or a smile or a kiss on the cheek. Nothing. So I have always wondered………….But while having dinner she choked on a piece of chicken. So seriously that her husband had to do the Heimlich maneuver on her several times to get it out of her throat. In that moment when he had her in his arms trying desperately to help her I saw so much love and tenderness it stopped me breathless. I can’t even begin to describe to you the emotions that crossed his face. The funny thing is when all was said and done and she was settling down he moved away from her and they went back to their separate “bubbles”. He didn’t check on her further, rub her back, or anything. He separated from her completely and they returned to their usual distance. I guess I am sharing this with you because I have a passion for observing people and trying to figure out what makes them tick. I guess I should have thought about that when I picked a major in college eh?

And lastly:

A very very very good friend of ours is a police officer. He was involved in a bank robbery in which the robber was shot and killed. Thankfully the officers were ok. This situation could have gone a million different directions but in this case it worked out for the best. I want to say that I am very thankful that my friend is out there doing the job he is doing. He’s very intelligent and level headed. And he is exactly what a police officer should be. Everyday we are faced with the travesty of loosing our soldiers in Iraq because of Bush’s little war to make his friends rich. And maybe because I get so angry when I hear about another senseless death I forget that there are other American’s putting their life on the line for us every day in every town in this country. So I want to say thank you to all the men and women that have chosen to serve and protect us. Thank You to Officer S of the West St. Paul Police. Thank You to all the police officers in the country. And thank you to all the fire fighters in this country. You put your life on the line for us every day.
THANK YOU!