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Again, for those of you who may not know, I am an avid blogger and this is where most of my work is located:

Living a Quotable Life
This is where I write about my life ... past and present.

The Poet Hiding Within
This is where my poetry muse hangs out.

There you go. My business trip to Shreveport, LA in a nutshell. Should I elaborate? I suspect I must seeing as I have been absent for the better part of a week. If your eyes begin to droop in reading this and a snore escapes your lips – please know that I forgive you in advance.

 The purpose of our (my coworker Linda and me) trip to Louisiana was to work the boat show sponsored by one of the local television stations. It is a well publicized event and a number of boat sellers and manufacturers are present to sell the next greatest thing in boat design. In addition to the boats, vendors such as ourselves are there to represent additional outdoor activities and the like. The show is open to the public for a nominal fee. Seeing as we represent the largest state park in the state of Arkansas this show is a good opportunity for us to push information on DeGray State Park and the pristine 13,800 acres of DeGray Lake to those who are both buying and selling boats. Parker (another fellow from Arkansas there to represent Suzuki) pointed out to me that we needed shirts that read, “Let me show you where to float your boat!” Nice. It would not have done any good seeing as the flow of traffic throughout the show never elevated itself past the point of a trickling stream. Advertising aside, there were no waves of individuals in attendance like there have been in the past. Trust me, it takes a lot of patience to stand in a convention center for ten hours with very few people coming and going. Boredom. I had nothing better to do than chat up the hot boat salesmen which, despite the fact they were all married, was quite entertaining and made the time go by a bit quicker.  

Sunday, the last day of the show, finally came and attendance was even smaller than the days prior. To top off my frustration it was game day … NFL playoffs (National Football League for my international readers) … and I was stuck behind a booth. Well, Linda’s husband agreed to text the scores so I could keep track and I finally found a television in another vendor booth that was broadcasting the first playoff game between the Patriots and the Chargers. Patriots won (duh) and the show ended. We sped off to a local pub so I would not miss the beginning of game two. After some excellent fish & chips we sprinted back to the hotel between the first and second quarter in order to finish out the game between the Packers and the Giants.  

“Football is an honest game. It's true to life. It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.” ~Joe Namath

 I will choose this moment to merge the football and pseudo-celebrity portion of my weekend. The Shreveport, LA area has become quite the location for film production. Apparently it has been dubbed “The Hollywood of the South” which seems appropriate considering two years ago stars like Sandra Bullock and Kevin Costner were in town while we attended the same show. This year, there were a number of pseudo-celebrities staying at our hotel … you know them – those people that are in a ton of films, but always in the background … you know their faces, but you can’t think of their names. Pseudo-Celebrities. Having met them, I could now give you their names, but I will not be the one to invade their privacy and plaster current locations across the internet for all to see. Several of them teeter precariously between being a pseudo-celebrity and the real deal. There was a leading man much shorter than expected, a funny man even wittier and more sarcastic in person, a bona fide hottie who has been in a Shakespeare adaptation (which is always a good thing in my opinion) and several others I could never quite place. Each evening we would stop by the hotel bar between dinner and bed just to see who was about, but it was the final night … game night … before I ventured forth into conversation with the pseudo-celebrities that were present.  

Apparently, I was the only individual in the vicinity routing for the Packers and I am rather vocal during football games. A competition of sorts developed between me and one or two of the pseudo-celebrities regarding the game. Linda had removed herself to the room so I found myself in the midst of these guys as we yelled and cheered and … ultimately … the game ended with me pissed and them rubbing the win in my face. At some point a group of young girls showed up with paper and pen in hand looking for autographs. I laughed aloud and received a quizzical look from one of my new pseudo-celebrity acquaintances to which I responded, “Don’t worry! I don’t need your autograph to know who you are.” Celebrities are people just like the rest of us … they just have much cooler jobs.  

Well, there it is … my rundown of the week and why I have been much more silent than usual: boats, boredom, football, & pseudo-celebrities. All in all it was much better than sitting in the office or alone in my apartment. 

“Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.” ~Daniel J. Boorstin

I'm off for a week on a business trip. I'll be spending untold hours of every day in a convention center, so not sure how often I'll be checking in. I hope 2008 is progressing well for all of you!

 Cheers!

I sleep in a king size bed. I am single. 

0 months
There are no confines. I can sleep wherever I want and I do … often waking sprawled diagonally across the surface of my sheets. I think I have used all six pillows at some point during the night. I do not have to justify why I have all the covers or listen to someone else bitch about how quickly I can destroy a well made bed. I have no need to explain why there are so many pillows. There is not snoring. I am not disturbed.

 6 months
The novelty has worn off. Somewhere along the way I come to a startling revelation that folding king size sheets without a second pair of hands is nigh impossible. Ditto for making the damn bed. Back and forth. Back and forth. All attempts to get the sheets perfectly taut fail me. The task has become a mini-workout. Recruitment of oldest child takes place to make this job easier. I have insomnia. I haven’t had to make the bed in three days because it has not been slept in. I am relieved … yet exhausted. 

12 months
I have migrated back to “my side” of the bed … when I sleep – if I sleep. I have stopped stealing all the covers. Half the bed is undisturbed. Books and notebooks and various writing instruments litter the space intended for another body. Pillows untouched. My feet are often cold. The bed is enormous. I should downgrade. I should sell. Thoughts of doing so are met with resistance … fear. Fear that doing so indicates bed will never again be cohabitated. I rationalize that this is the only bed for years to not cause back pain. The bed stays. Still, I am not disturbed. 

I sleep in a king size bed. I am single.

For those who haven't stopped by for a visit, you can always reach me at:

 http://livingaquotablelife.blogspot.com/

and

http://thepoethidingwithin.blogspot.com/

pho·bi·a  [foh-bee-uh] –noun a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.  



Do you have a phobia? I do … and it frustrates me that I can not banish it.  

“The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Right now our entire region is under a tornado watch. I am at work with my ipod on my head as I do everything in my power to drown out the world outside. I am terrified … I repeat, TERRIFIED, of thunderstorms. This is not a good phobia to have seeing as I can not control the weather and it does seem, as the definition suggests, to be completely irrational.  

I know what you are thinking. I should go “see someone” about my problem. Well, I have. My therapist at the time traced this particular phobia back to an evacuation from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi that took place due to Hurricane Frederic (I think) in 1979. We were in the States that year and my parents own a home in Gulfport, Mississippi. I have strong recollections of packing quickly and beginning a drive north to avoid the storm … but my father stayed behind. To this day, I do not understand that decision, but apparently it made a huge impact on me and my childhood psyche. Twenty-nine years later and I am still shaking in my boots in the midst of this bad storm.  

Does anyone else out there have an unexplainable phobia that you are willing to share?  

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." ~Frank Herbert, Dune

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” ~Bill Vaughn
 
It has happened: a new year … and, yet again, a new beginning. I have never quite figured out why we all make such a big deal about this event. Time resolutely progresses forward. The New Year is no different than any given day coming to an end and moving into the next one.
 
“The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence” ~Marie Edgeworth
 
Inevitably, I have been asked repeatedly on what resolution(s) I have made for 2008. That response is easy. I haven’t. I do not believe in making annual resolutions. For that matter, I am not resolute enough to make resolutions. The majority of humans on this planet are not steadfast enough to stand by their resolution(s) which is why those well intentioned but inevitably doomed goals end up shattered within a few weeks. I do have a type of mental “to do” list, but the items (eat right, work out, become more organized, etc.) on that list accompany me always. They are a piece of my daily survival and I do not add new items simply because it is January first. I add things to my “to do” list as they become important to me and carry them around with me as a continuous reminder that it is good to strive for the betterment of oneself each and every day that I continue to walk this rock.
 
“New Year's Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” ~Mark Twain
 
I rang in my new year at a late night movie with a friend from work. We had emailed earlier in the week and were resolute in our plan. Therefore, I was in the cinema as midnight came and went without notice or fanfare.  It should have been accompanied by a lot of yawning considering the late hour, but I was in the middle of an insomnia streak. This one lasted the better part of a week. Last night I finally found sleep. (I should be grateful that my insomnia does not last weeks or months as it does for some unfortunate individuals.)
 
It takes a couple of nights of not sleeping before I resign myself to the fact that staying in bed is doing me no good. This time it was Wednesday night and I had been attempting to sleep for well over an hour before I finally resolved to get up, brew a pot of coffee, do a bit of straightening up and some writing until morning came. I dislike giving up. I hate quitting, but sometimes resignation is inevitable regardless of how much we may dislike it.  
 
While I may give up on my ability to sleep from time to time … I still know that my body can only take so much and nature will eventually take over for me and sleep will come. When it comes to resolutions Mother Nature will not step in and get them accomplished. I suppose my dislike of resignation is behind my flippant view of resolutions.
 
Here, is my list of resolutions for those of you who feel that every human must have one of some sort:
 
1. Do not make any resolutions.
2. Resignation is not an option.
 
Happy New Year!
 
“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” ~Henry David Thoreau