Ready for my close up, Mr. Demille�

2002-12-27

So. I'm down to my final days here. It's very quiet. The place is like a ghost town. Between the layoffs and the holidays the people in this building could be numbered on two hands. Just as well, they're digging up the tanks of the gas station out front and parking is at a premium. Someone almost brained a person from the building next door that parks here. It was just about as loud an argument as I've ever heard here.

I am so ready to leave here. The tension is so thick most days I can hardly stand it. The current favorite hobby is standing in small groups and whispering in the halls. It's been a little over two months since I found out I was laid off and it just seems like it's been forever. I want to get the heck out of here and start my next life. I've found it. I'm ready to start it. But I am bound by word and the lure of eight weeks of severance pay. Mmmm. New computer. New digital camera. Mmmm.

I've already mentioned that we went to the Mission Inn in San Bernardino for Christmas brunch with my mother-in-law. What I haven't mentioned is what a people show it is. I swear the heat and the smog out there must cook peoples brains or something. Last year there was a lady in what I'm guessing was a Kwanzaa outfit. It was orange with lots of gold thread woven through it. She had on a matching cylindrical sort of hat and carried herself like a queen. Everyone else in her party was nicely dressed, but no one matched her splendor. I don't think there's a white lady alive who could have carried it off.

This year there was a lady in what appeared to be a red chiffon bed gown. Complete with maribou feather trim. She had on something sparkly in a clashing shade of red underneath. She had huge red Christmas ornament earrings and shoes that would have rivaled Dorothy's. She had glitter on her face and in her hair. Unlike the Kwanzaa lady, she did not carry it off very well. When one is over sixty it is probably a good idea to eschew glitter face makeup. She was over the top as it was. That put her straight over the edge. I couldn't help wondering if she was ready for her close up.

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