2/19/09 Thurs
Got an email that I have a box in the mailroom for pickup yesterday. Everyone gets that sense of Christmas when they get an email from the mailroom announcing boxes to be picked up. I went and snagged it, thinking it was the watch I asked Jack to get me in Cheech since mine is circling the drain. I was a tad surprised when the mailroom clerk handed me a 40 lb box the size of a microwave. Jack said he would be tucking in a "little something extra", but I didn't think it would be a moose! I snagged it an moved it out of the mailroom into the cubicles so maybe I could pick it up later and get it down to the dorms (no way I was carrying that the 3/4mi in 40 knot headwinds and -20degrees). In a bout of pure genius (quit laughing...every dog has his day), I thought I could bum a ride from Mike (one of the guys I came down with) back to the building and get it with a truck since I was going to help him move after hours today anyway. I have been feeling a bit blue, but the stressful day was well worth it when I realized the box return address said “Pajama Posse”. Tel, Oonah, Amanda, Lynnette, Dalia, Cindy, and Annie sent 1lb beef jerky, some awesome shampoo and conditioner, nail polish, Glenna McReynolds books (Tara Janzen Crazy series and her new Loose series), Cocoa roasted almonds, Eckhart Tolle books, 7 greeting cards and boxes marked for opening each month, and all the love you can pack into a cardboard box. I am blessed with great friends and am humbled by this gesture from the other side and hemisphere of the world.

Said good bye to Lori Haugen (rad tech) and Barbie Binnelli (PA) over tea and a bitch session in the galley, then went to bed. There are an amazing group of strong women down here who remarkably still struggle with the same issues plaguing women everywhere – am I good enough, does he love me enough, where will I be next year? These universal questions seem pervasive. Maybe part of me hoped they would be to give us immediate common ground, and part of me hoped they would not be so there would be clear tidy role models for living life well. Perhaps that is the challenge and the struggle – to live life well without a blueprint or a roadmap. Time will tell.

To the Pajama Possee:
YOU GUYS ROCK (and you are all my rocks of stability as well!)