Sophie's Story

   Last Wednesday I decided to do something I hadn't done in a long time. I had a bunch of nice containers that I had collected over the years. I was going to pick one out, take it to a local floral shop and have them fill it up.   This was something I used to do a lot when I was single. In fact I used to buy a fresh bouquet of flowers about every two weeks. Most of the time I bought carnations. I like the shape, the variety of colours and the fact that they tended to last a long time. I even had a florist make a couple of silk flower arrangements in various vases and baskets. Flowers were my favourite decorative item and I liked to have some sort of fresh, dried or silk arrangements in almost every room of my house.    I liked to scope out different florists and look at the arrangements in the coolers. If I liked what I saw I would buy from them. If they had nice or odd containers with arrangements in them I would buy the arrangement and bring the container back for a refill.

   I was surfing through the internet news when I found something that made me stop. The teaser line said something about a way that introverts can be happier. Since I am very much and introvert , I was curious and clicked on the article.    The article was about how introverts could be happier if they acted like extroverts. I was mad. Thermonuclear mad. I couldn't believe what I was reading. There in front of me was a neatly written article complete with citations of a study done that proved that introverts should act like extroverts in order to be happier. To me the thought of encouraging people to act in a manner contrary to their personality in order to gain happiness is offensive, obscene, abhorrent and wrong.   A quick explanation is in order. An introvert is someone who is energized by and  works better alone or in small groups. Extroverts are people who are energized by contact with others and tend to find enjoyment in crowds and large gatherings. There was a suggestio

   Last Sunday did not start well. C and I were going to do a musical number during Sacrament meeting. I had practiced as much as I could and we had several good run throughs. We found an empty room to practice in. The first time through was awful. The second one went better although it wasn't perfect. I was happy with it and was ready to play.   The meeting started. After the Sacrament was blessed and passed, the Primary children sang a song. Then the Bishop motioned C and I to come up. I was taken aback. I was expecting a speaker or a few comments from the Bishop and was caught off guard. We went up and prepared to play.   Right from the start it didn't go well. I fumbled the beginning and started over. I fumbled over the first verse, the second verse and part of the end. It was not one of my better performances.   Fortunately for me I've had this happen before and have learned to have a sense of humour about it. I sat back down in the pew next to my friend Mandy and

   I found out yesterday that Helen Thomas died at age 92. She was a reporter who worked for United Press International and was also bureau chief.  I had dabbled in journalism in high school and in college working mostly as a copy editor and proofreader. I loved reading the newspaper and could be found sitting on the floor of the common area of the dorm I lived in newspaper spread out in front of me. While I didn't want to be a reporter I liked to read about them. I read about Woodward and Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, Bob Schieffer and Walter Cronkite.   I also read about Helen Thomas. Although I never read anything she wrote at that time I felt a sort of kinship with her. She started in a profession that was considered for men only. When I started out as a pharmacist most of my colleagues were male. I knew what it was like to be treated differently and sometimes badly because I happened to be female.   Both of us worked hard at our careers. Her job entailed long hours and all hour

   Bishop Nealy called me several weeks ago. He wanted to know if I would be willing to teach Relief Society which is the last meeting on Sunday morning. The Sunday meeting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints lasts three hours. The first hour is Sacrament meeting which is a worship service. The second hour is Sunday school. The third hour is when the men, women and children break into separate groups for lessons. The women's group is called Relief Society. RS concerns itself with education of women in the Church and philanthropy. It's motto is "Charity Never Faileth". (Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)  What I was being asked to do was to, when needed, prepare lesson from the manual being used this year and present it to the women during the third hour meeting.   I was waiting for this call. Bishop Nealy had made some remarks now and again about finding something for me to do. One thing I know about the LDS is that they don't like t

  I'm sure you have all heard the Perils of Paula (Deen) lately. For those of you who have somehow missed this, chef Paula Deen admitted to using the N word at some point in time. She has been dropped by the Food Network, where she had a cooking show. She's also been dropped by all of her sponsors and the cookbook she had written that was going to be published this fall has been cancelled by the publisher.   I'm going to go off topic and rant for a moment. Why is it always called the N word? I have heard a lot of racist terms used by public figures and others and those words are always printed. I never see the S word used instead of spic or slut. I never see the G word used instead of gook. It's always dago, never the D word.   OK, back to the topic at hand. There were articles and opinions littering the web. People on comment pages were having a field day. There were people saying that she deserved what was happening and some who wondered why rappers can use the wo

  There is a section on Blogspot called "Stats". It shows how many times my column has been looked at, how many times each post has been looked at and where my audience is. I like to look at the stats once in awhile. It's interesting to see what posts have been looked at.   I'm a little nervous about looking at the stats. (Me nervous? Go figure.) I don't want to be one of these people who gets depressed if I see that no one is looking or reading what I write. I don't check it often for just that reason.    Sometimes I'm surprised at what I see when I check the stats. For instance,the column with the most page views is one I wrote almost three years ago. The second one after that is a column I wrote about my favourite hymn. The biggest surprise is when I look at the audience statistics.   Most of the people who read my column are in the United States which I would expect. The surprise is that there are people in other countries who have read what I wro

     The second intern that I will work with this summer started yesterday. The first day is spent getting oriented and getting to know each other a little better. Somehow we got on the topic of internships and how she decided she wanted to come to my store. It turns out that she is friends with an intern I worked with last year. She was so pleased with her experience that she recommended it to my current intern.   Part of me was very pleased with the compliment. It meant that I was doing a good job. It meant that my intern had felt it was a good learning experience.    After the intern left for the day, I told my boss about the compliment. He congratulated me.  I demurred. I told him that it was a compliment to all of us. I can't do what I do without help from my staff.   I meant that. It's not easy to put a new person in the middle of an established team. They've been understanding and helpful. If my store is a good site for interns to work in, it is because we have