Sophie's Story

   Our first step in our home improvement plan is to reorganize. So far we (or rather he) has reorganized our music/instrument storage room and the computer/ craft room. The next thing we needed to do was organize closets.   The first closet to be organized was the one in the music room. That is where my hats and some of my clothes are kept. As the hats would be the easiest to organize we turned our attention to them first.   We decided that a hat tree would be a wise investment. This would get the hats out of the closet where they have been stacked in a haphazard fashion. I'd tried to be careful about stacking the hats, but there is only so much you can do with so many hats and a small closet. We looked on Amazon for hat racks and trees. There were several nice ones, but given the amount of hats I had, they were just too small. We finally found a rack that would hold 35 hats. It was designed for displaying hats in retail stores. The racks rotate. It looked nice and sturdy. We

  Last summer we got new computer software at work. It was a big change from our old software. It isn't quite as efficient or as easy to work with as the old system. As a result it took us longer to do things. This resulted in a backlog of work.   In order to deal with this backlog and attempt to keep up with the amount of prescriptions we were filling, my manger and I were coming in on our days off.  I thought that this would only be for a few months. All we needed to do was get used to the new system and we would be fine. I can handle a 14 days on and two days off schedule for a few months. Right?   At first it was just a few hours in the morning. Then it started to be early afternoon. Sometimes I would wind up staying as late as 3 o'clock. I came in a few times at six in the morning to try and get more work done. Most of the time I would come in at seven. Eventually my manager and I would make it a point to leave at one or so. I always felt guilty about leaving. There wa

   Normally I'm not bothered much by age. It's only a number. I've never believed that younger is better and more beautiful. It makes me sad when women do things like Botox, cosmetic surgeries and other things in the quest to look young. I'm of the opinion that I am lucky to have lived this long when many other people have not been given the opportunity. Some of those people are friends and relatives.   In the past few weeks some things have happened that have made me feel old. I'll share a few with you.   Last week our new pharmacy manager started. She is a younger pharmacist. I knew that this meant I would be the second oldest person working in the pharmacy. (There is one tech that is older than I am.) It also meant that I would be the most experienced person on staff and the one who has worked for the company the longest. I wasn't prepared for just how young our new manager is. She is the same age as my stepdaughter, Carrie. She was two years old when I

   I checked the schedule for the names of the relief pharmacists that were going to be helping us out this week. One name stuck out to me, Karina Andrews. That name sounded really familiar. I couldn't place it though.   I checked through the names of all the pharmacists that had credentials in our computer system. Her name didn't come up. I was baffled. I knew that name. I would just have to wait until her day to work to figure out who she was.   The rest of the week was kind of busy. I didn't have time to think about it. The day arrived. My curiosity was about to be satisfied.    She came into the pharmacy. She was thin with dark blonde straight hair and a soft voice. She did not look familiar to me. I gave her the code to the lockbox so she could get the pharmacy keys. She got them, came back and went straight to work.   As we worked I asked her the usual questions, where did you go to school and when did you graduate. She went to the U of M and she had graduated

   Several weeks ago C, my Dad and I went to the town my grandparents lived in. Every so often Dad drives out there to check on the trees that were planted on the land my grandparents used to farm.   Whenever we go out that way we make several stops. We have to go to a local meat market, the cemetery near the family church and an Italian restaurant. My grandmother worked at this restaurant as a cook.   It's only open for supper. During the day you can get take out. They sell handmade frozen ravioli, cavatelle, sauce, sausage and pizza. I got a couple bags of ravioli and a couple bags of cavatelle.   Cavatelle, for those of you that may not know, is type of pasta. It's about an inch long. C says it remind him of one of those small, cone shaped sea shells. It could also look a bit like a raisin shaped piece of pasta. I've never seen it anywhere outside of the area where my grandparents lived.   I could never understand why people liked cavatelle so much. My grandmother

   I got an email from my friend Mickey a week or so ago. She was taking a class to become a med aide and had passed her test. This means that she is now certified with state board of nursing and can pass medications to patients. She wrote that the class was hard and that she was worried about it. She couldn't believe that she passed.   I wrote a hearty message of congratulations. I was not surprised. I've known for a long time that  Mickey could do anything if she put her mind to it.   A little background is in order here. Mickey and I go back a long way. I've known her literally all my life. Although she is two years older than me, we were in the same class at school. I'm not quite sure what happened but Mickey sustained a brain injury during birth. The result of this is that when it comes to learning, it's a little difficult for her and she's a little slow. When we were in school she took classes with the rest of the kids. She also took classes with the s

   In case you hadn't heard, the big news over the weekend was that the wrong film was announced as winner in the Best Picture at the Oscars. The mistake was caught fairly quickly, but not before those representing the film that had been announced has come to the stage to accept their award. It was a bit of an awkward moment when the Oscars had to be given to the correct winners.   I didn't think it was any big deal. Obviously I was mistaken. It was described as a "major flub" and an "epic mistake". I've been told that there are some who are saying the company charged with tabulating the votes and printing up the cards with the winning names on them should be fired. There was speculation on how it could have happened. One person commented that it was actually a blatant act of racism on the part of the Motion Picture Academy who clearly did not want an African American film to win Best Picture. There have been apologies, explanations and opinions from