This Too Shall Pass...

5:30ish am on this Thursday morning while I sit and wait on a cab to take me to ATL Airport to take me back home. A lot of things go through my mind. 1st this touchdown will change many things going forward in my life. I'll be on the last leg of employment with a company that I have worked for one month shy of 14 years.

When all the final negotiations went down and how they went down, it clarified something for me - I CAN DO BETTER. My problem was loyalty where there should have been limitations. And to think the final negotiations ended with a piece of e-mail and a text.message, it really let me know where I stood, absolutely no where.

When the realization hit me during a meeting, I sat there for about 10min letting it register, although in my heart of hearts I knew the answer long ago, I guess I just needed that final crack to let it really hit the core.

I got up from the meeting grabbing my belongings as quietly as I could, no one in the meeting could be all the wiser and I went back to my room. Sat on the toilet and I admit to shedding some tears for about three minutes. No screaming and hollering "oh lawdl" just wiped them away and washed my face. Went to my laptop and told the travel agent to book me the quickest flight back to California.

After making that call I immediately started to pack and once that was done, I went and said my goodbyes to the key people that I know I would miss that deserved a better notification than by a mass notice.

Went to dinner with other key people and acted silly with other key people later that evening.

As I always knew it was about the people and not about the company. As I told one of my longest friends here, I leave jobs not relationships.

So am I sad? Who wouldn't be? But I'm more hopeFULL than anything else. It's my job to make me happy, not a company. Although I must admit, the Oakland in me did want to throw up the peace sign and yell "Miss Me Bitchez". ;)
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What To Do on Father's Day When He's No Longer Here?

LIVE - and do something you enjoyed doing with Him. My Father & I loved Aquariums and since I'm in Georgia which has one of the largest Aquariums, I'm living and He lives through me. Happy Father's Day!
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ATL Trip...

okay...

here for training more like brain storming.  little did i know that it would be lightning and thundering and me w/ a summer cold.

it's Friday and I'm stuck here for the weekend alone.  so now i have to figure out what to do to keep me occupied.  Aquarium A MUST... maybe on Sunday, I need to find some cultural things to get into - what's the purpose of being down south without doing that?  only problem is i have to be strategic in my choice and time because Monday is coming around soon and I don't want to be like my mother was the day after watching Roots back in the day.

So I have to seek and hopefully absorb some good stuff that will keep the brain sharp.  Too bad none of my family history links to ATL, that would be great, but I'm sure I have a cousin or two this way. LIGHTBULB... I do have some peeps... I'm always here for business and never have time to visit - but now I do... woo hoo!

The Fish Monkey Story

Sitting here relaxing when I need to be packing, going to work finishing up the pile of work that can't wait until my return.

I know this trip is about work, but I'.m getting excited about finally getting a chance to visit ATL's aquarium.
This love of marine life started as a child, my Father loved to fish and also kept awesome aquariums and a vast library on aquatic life.. (To those reading from my genealogy blog this will eventually tie together). So I've always loved fish in the water and on my plate (okay, a bit ill).

The first memory I have of fishing with my father is actually when we (he) had caught an abundance of Crappie & Blue Gill and it was time to clean them to prepare them to fry with fried green tomatoes and french fries. I had to be about three. And I remember us being at Mama's house (my granny) on her kitchen floor with a bunch of newspaper and brown bags covering the floor. He'd take a fish out of the bucket and hand it to me with a tablespoon and show me how to scale it. Once he figured I had that job covered, that's when he started chopping the heads off of the fish and cleaning them. I'd scale, he'd chop and clean.

As we were doing this I suddenly thought of the fish in his aquarium, how I could go up to that aquarium and stare at them for hours, watching them swim, fight, eat when he dropped some flakes or shrimp in there and I also remembered a time they looked thirsty and I thought I'd share my glass of milk with them (different story, let's just say I got popped and had to take a nap). And I suddenly got real sad as I looked down at the chopped heads of fish. I stopped scaling and he looked at me crazy as if why am I stopping the rotation? I asked him if we were going to eat these fish, were we going to eat my favorite Guppies and his favorite Arawona named Roscoe?

He laughed - hard. Laid all out on Mama's kitchen floor getting fish juice all over the place. And I looked at the fish heads and could of sworn the were still living, their eyes kept moving and in my mind staring directly at me. My Granny got upset with him for laughing at me and kicked him in his side and told him to shut up. She picked me up and took me to the bathroom for a bath, where she explained to me the difference between pets and dinner.

I was cool after that. She told me I could enjoy them both ways and I have ever since. My favorite food is Seafood and I love me a nice Aquarium!

Oh the Fish Monkey story... Well at three I couldn't really pronounce my name Felicia Monique correctly, so when asked my name I'd have a big smile on my face and scream FISH MONKEY ADDISON!
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