Oasis

Last week my wife and I received some great news, which we will not get into here just yet…

I began the personal process of moving on from a job that I had great hope for. It bothered me more so how much it bothered me than what actually happened. There are also some opportunities that may indeed be better, but as usual, only time will tell.

And we began concluding the process of moving our 86 year old Mom from her home of 21 years into assisted living (been going on for a few months). The circumstances behind the move were preventable and angered me beyond words. I had to play the heavy to defend Mom. As I was the necessary a-hole, I reminded the people that did Mom wrong that this was my Mom, I would go above and beyond for her. Reasonableness was not an option. But again, why bore you all with the details.

My escape was the namesake of this blog and I threw myself into her as often as I could and more frequently that was possible over the past few months. Kandi is an oasis. She is an escape. Understand, that smile you see in photos here is ever-present when dressed, always. She is joy squared.

Forgive me for the bragging, but my absolute super power is putting together an outfit on me. I probably could not do so for anyone else, but I know how to dress myself to simply be noticed, to stand out and to be so very, very proud of myself. Every single aspect of this outfit was spot on, every aspect noted admirably by others who were kind enough to tell me so. Compliments on my glasses, of all things, the bow, the blouse, the skirt, the shoes, everything. I floated all evening.

I went to another Plexus networking event, this time in Akron, but not before a stop at Vaccaro’s, my favorite of all places. It had been a while and I was reminded of such when I took my corner barstool. I spent an hour, had dinner and some Happy Hour wine and cleaned up some e-mails. No words as to how wonderful doing that, looking like this, is!

January 26, 2025 was a long, boring day in the truck, followed by a literal 180. Getting home, washing off the grime of the day and prettifying myself.

After my dinner, I headed in a driving rain to the Plexus event. It was simply wonderful. I saw friends, got hugs and compliments, made new friends. I was in conversation with someone and many different people, the entire time. Near the end of the evening, two women were leaving and one simply gushed over my outfit! Yes, it certainly was a friendly gathering (an LGBT event), but we change minds, we make impressions, one person at a time!

I had planned on volunteering at a small local short film festival the following two days, but begged off. I needed to let the merry-go-round slow down a bit. I am finding great pleasure from having lost that job as net, net, I expect to be better off now, but it took a couple of weeks and a few cocktails for me to get into the right frame of mind. That job required frequent attention, every single day including weekends. I was trying to build a business and it was all-consuming and the ROI blew. Breathe, let things marinate before making rash decisions.