Furloughed
We held out as long as we could but this past week my contract was furloughed. My employer said if you have Paid Time Off (PTO) you have to take it. I hate situations like that! I'm frugal with my time off, I don't take days here and there I try to save them for special times and trips! Since there wasn't any way around using PTO for what looked to be 3-4 days I decided to take the four days off and go see my mother.
You may or may-not remember that I went on a trip about this time last year with my mother to Crystal Bridges in Bentonville AR. That trip was around her birthday and intended to celebrate her 80th. I'm not feeling quite as rich this year -property taxes on two houses due September 30 may have contributed to that- and anyway she's only 81, so I settled for a trip home without the side excursion.
We had a good time, went shopping, ate out, saw Captain Phillips -again!
By the time that Congress came to it's senses and opened the place back up, without defaulting on the debt -never a good idea in my book- I was satisfied with my decision. It was a relaxing week visiting someone I love.
Thursday we went into Kansas City and attended a Junior League Christmas Bazaar. That was interesting. After a summer spent at the shore it was fun to browse Christmas ornaments that weren't sea shells. I mostly bought foodstuffs, dried soups, artesian marshmallows. I'd been looking for some bacon jam, but it was nowhere in sight.
My mother has a ceramic cat that sits under a glass topped coffee-table, eyeing the birds who flutter on the glass top.
Wednesday we went to the Spenser Art Museum at the University. This was from an exhibit of James Turrell, an artist whose work was created to make light the art. The exhibit included the quote, “Light is not so much something that reveals as it is itself the revelation.”
I found some light as art at the airport on my way home.
The weather was cool but clear and I enjoyed a big sky for my early morning walks.
It was an unexpected week off, and I'm glad I decided to do something instead of hanging around at home watching the news waiting for Congress to do something.
