Was That Stuff Enough?

Was it enough, the stuff that we did while you were here?

Green grass in January. Sun and sky and sitting outside. Walking on the tiled floors in the rotunda downtown. Looking at the pansies (but not picking them). Taking the kids to the park with the swings and the stones and the places to run and jump. Napping or trying to. Eating enchiladas and tacos and queso and beans. Shopping for running shoes. Eating cake with vanilla ice cream.

Was it enough?

We didn't wrap your presents. And there was a pair of socks in the lot that weren't meant for you. And in spite of the colored pens on the table, we didn't give you a card to commemorate the day.

But we sat at the table in the evening trying to keep our eyes open until the last person played their tiles on the Scrabble board. And although you were stuck with a 'Q' at the end and I with a 'K', it seemed to me that that wasn't so bad.

I think it was enough, the stuff that we did.

The little stuff. Not the big, go-out-on-the-town stuff that I've never been good at. But the I-remember-when-we-went-to-Texas stuff that the kids will carry with them for the rest of their years.

Yes, I think that that stuff was enough. Happy Birthday!

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Business Woman in Black

She was a business woman. She wore a black suit and shiny black heels. As soon as she got off the plane, she made straight for an empty seat in the terminal. She threw down her rolling suitcase. It hit the floor with a loud bang.

The woman was on the phone, holding it between her shoulder and ear as she leaned over to unzip her suitcase. She unzipped with one hand and held her purse with the other, all the while talking into her tiny phone. As her suitcase opened, she completed her call and dialed another.

The inside of her suitcase was a shambles. It held an over-full notebook, loose papers, and a bulging daytimer bookmarked with even more papers and two spiral notebooks. There was a bathroom bag in her suitcase, too, but no clothes. This was clearly her office.

The woman in black opened her daytimer and explained to the person on the other end of the phone that she had another phone conference in a few minutes. Evidently the person on the other end corrected her about the time.

It's at 2pm Mountain, 1pm Pacific, the woman in black said.

I looked at my watch. At that moment it was ten minutes to 3pm, and we were in Denver. If she had a 2pm meeting, then she had already missed it.

The person on the other end of the phone must have said this. But the woman in black repeated herself, thinking that certainly this other person was confused. Then she looked at her watch, apologized, and scheduled a meeting in her daytimer for some other time.

The person on the other end was evidently her secretary. The woman in black said that she had lost her travel itinerary and needed to know where she was staying that night. She wrote something down in her daytimer, and then she asked where she was going to go tomorrow. She wrote that down, too.

With all her questions answered and meetings rescheduled, the woman in black zipped her suitcase shut, grabbed the handle, stood up and walked away.

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