I am sitting in my very favorite coffeeshop,  Dubsea . Over the years, I have probably spent more time drinking coffee and eating Mighty-O vegan donuts here than anywhere else. I’ve also had some of the most important conversations in my life here, even if I didn’t always know it at the time they were happening.

I came here around 12 this afternoon. It’s now 4pm *snicker*. Shortly after I got my first coffee, Sibelle walked in. What followed, after I walked up to her and said “Ma’am, I want to make a complaint” was three hours of totally amazing conversation. I am collecting inspiration to draw on for what kind of impact I want my new job to have. I have Sibelle to thank for today’s dose and Jan for yesterday’s.

The day started a little rocky because I needed to sign over all the documents for my mom’s van and send them to my brother. So, you know, signing the title was another concrete reminder that she’s gone. My brother had a really good idea to donate her van to an animal rescue group where he lives in NC. This has been a struggle for me. So many memories of my mom involve her boxy white 1989 VW Vanagon. If I wanted to know where my mom was hanging out, I’d check the usual places for signs of her van. When I was getting ready to move,to the Netherlands, I shipped the van to Cedric in NC, thinking he would get good use out of it and go camping with his dog. Well, Cedric has a truck and turns out he didn’t really need a van. While we were in Cologne, he said he wanted to donate it. I know it is a really great idea, I am just having a little trouble letting it go out of the family. Really, my first instinct was to have it put on a ship to Rotterdam and I would get it from there and drive around Europe. Hello. I know. I barely drive Astrid 8000 miles a year now, what the hell would I do with two elderly cars?

So , I sniffed up the tears and went to the post office and sent the documents off to NC. While I was standing in line, I noticed that they now have Wonder Woman stamps!!! You bet I bought a sheet, exclusively for framing. I thought that was so cool, Wonder Woman stamps. If I still lived here, I would be writing extra letters just to send mail with these stamps!

I am sitting at the long table at Dubsea and the women at the end of the table are having a huge discussion about their sexual choices. Whoa. I am not sure if I should put my ear buds on out of courtesy or if I should give their conversation the space it clearly needs – public airing.  Well, the question answered itself, one party left.

I have another 90 minutes before I am due to meet my tenants. The point is to hear if they have decided to stay another year or if I am going to need to make other arrangements. I think they will stay, since the housing market here is pretty competitive.  In the mail, I had 8 unsolicited letters wanting to buy my house, as-is. Umm, no thanks, creepy property tax stalker types.  They range from the down home aw shucks kind of letter to the would be sophisticated types with made up names that sound like pharmaceuticals. I haven’t finished opening the mail, I kind of got tired of it.

Tomorrow, I’m off again. I’ll be landing Thursday morning, heading home to unpack and shower, and then off to the TechSummit, where I am expected. I guess that means that I can’t be watching movies the whole flight home. It’s a good thing I watched three on the way over 😉