Signs

I've been so wrapped up in my daily hectic life (basically I've been working waaaaaay too much), that I have forgotten or neglected certain people and things in my life. Someone or something (God, Buddha, Karma....you pick) intervened and sent me some pretty clear signals that I need to change my ways.

Now if you are a regular viewer of my blogs (or work with me, or talk to me on any basis) you know I am addicted to Starbucks. There are some people who compare my desire for my White Chocolate Mocha to those addicted to far worse substances....like smoking or drugs or hogging the tv remote. This, however, has not swayed me in my (now) daily quest for the green-and-white logoed coffee that costs me $6 (I always buy a bottle of water - somehow that makes it less bad for me, like drinking Diet Coke is sooooo much better than regular Coke). So let me get to the point, the signs. Last week, I had two rather disturbing instances that caused me not to have Starbucks that day. The first episode involved me pulling into a parking space at Starbucks, while another patron was backing out. Now, I clearly had the right-of-way as I was almost into the space when my not-so-observerant neighbor was backing out of her space. I thought she could see me, but she kept right on backing up and was millimeters from my car when I finally honked my horn and she stopped. I clearly saw this as a not-so-subtle method of telling me not to get out of my car but to instead flee the Starbucks scene, which I did.

The second instance was less dramatic (although I will gladly kick it up if need be). I was in line at Starbucks, planning to order my White Chocolate Mocha when the cashier tells the patron three people ahead of me that they are out of hot lids. What? Huh? It's only 8:30 in the morning and you have no to-go lids for hot coffee? Could you just run now the street and borrow some from THAT Starbucks? But back to my story, I was so disappointed to hear that, I left the line, not even considering switching to a frappuccino drink, thereby gaining me a drink because they use different lids for cold drinks. I left sans Starbucks.

And the only signs don't pertain to Starbucks, but I haven't figured out the meaning of this sign, although it was very very obvious there was something behind it.

I recently bought a new bottle of hair conditioner. The day came when my current bottle was empty and I transfered my new bottle into the shower. The morning in question I was looking forward to new experience, and I got into the shower and immediately started daydreaming about winning the lottery. (Don't ask, but that's what I do in the shower, daydream about winning the lottery. This is most definitely the reason I will never win the lottery, besides the fact that I don't buy a ticket, the fact that I fantasize about it....) Anyway, I pour a whole heaping amount of conditioner in my hand and I start to massage it in my hair. And that's when I realize that this conditioner is pretty darn soapy and I am getting concerned. I squint at the bottle (because I'm blind as a bat) and it says SHAMPOO! So I've effectively experienced the miracle of turning Conditioner to Shampoo because I will bet eveything (including my lottery winnings) that I definitely and unequivocably bought Conditioner at CVS. So now I have a head full of shampooed (which means when it dries it will be like straw) hair. I'm not happy.

So I figure I will use the generic bottle of conditioner in the shower in order to counter-act the effects of this mistake, so I once again dump a huge amount in my hand and commence with the massaging of the hair, and guess what? MORE SOAPINESS! What??? I look at the generic bottle and I've just dumped more shampoo (and to make it worse it's the stuff that even the Dollar Store doesn't carry) on my scalp. My hair is going to fall out. I'm now moaning, and NOT in a good way. It takes me 15 minutes to rinse all of this stuff out of my head and my hair is drying quickly, even under the full blast of the running water.

My hair survived that day, after I used a bottle of leave-in conditioner in it (I read the label twice), but I was moved by my experience and I know that there is a reason for what I went through. This is not a trivial matter because whatever lesson I was to learn I'm not sure it got through.

I would like to apologize to Hillary, if she is reading this blog because she had to suffer through these stories once already. And I would like to thank her for not publicly calling me crazy.

I know there are many other things in my life right now that are pretty clear and explicit about their meanings. But I tend to selectively examine the minutia because I'm just that damn cerebral and obsessive.