This morning I’ve spent a good bit of time “on hold”, strapped down to the telephone to the tech department at a national bank where I have a few accounts. I am trying to print off my tax documents but the system doesn’t seem to want to display them to me. An odd error message and I’m a unique creature to the tech department.

Nice people. Polite talk. But as I’m sitting here on hold, listening to calming classical music, I am trying to find a way to multi-task without it requiring additional brain exercise. I need to fill the time without distracting me from the interruptions by the tech folks.

Here are some ideas for being “on hold”:

Clean out email. While I should do this throughout the day, I’m guilty of letting the spam and unimportant email fill up my inbox, cluttering up the space so that the important email is hard to find.

Tidy up the desk. Another area requiring constant attention but my urgent things tend to land on top while the other important stuff ends up buried.

Straighten up the pen jar. Believe it or not there are broken tipped pencils that need tossing along with some dried up vis-a-vis markers that have seen better days.

Send mass email to friends: I’m trapped in my office on hold. If you don’t see me by January 31, please send help.

Browse Drudge Report for news items not found on main stream news sources.

Write a blog entry

Plan Disneyworld vacation

And I mean it when I say, if you don’t see me by January 31, please send help.

Its been a busy week, one that has kept me on the move between meetings and obligations with family and friends along with a healthy dose of brain exercise. So rather than try to write about things that are meaty, I figured I write out six things you don’t know about me. And then of course I’m asking you to tell me six things I don’t know about you. Kinda like tag without the tag.

1. When I was 9 years old, I was a human jukebox. My dad had taught me to play guitar and I sat inside a big box on the playground near our home and played 3 songs for a nickel to the neighbor kiddies. The song selections were written on the outside and inside the box with a hole next to each one. The purchaser inserted the nickel into a slot and poked a finger to make the choices. I made a hunk of money that day.

2. My family is living proof that wiener dogs are genetic. I was raised with 2 wiener dogs and now my sister has two, my brother has one and I have one pure bred and one wannabe. The dogs are named in honor of favorite family members. Grandmother. Great aunts. I expect that one day my children, nieces and nephews will demonstrate this particular gene.

3. Even in the winter I drink iced tea. Its my beverage of choice. And my idea of “roughing it” is coke without ice.

4. I attended three high schools. I graduated with approximately 650 students and was number 13 in rank. The guy I misplaced and bumped to number 14 wasn’t happy with me.

5. I became a christian at age 14, during my freshman year in high school through the youth group at church which was led by local Young Life leaders. In college, I plugged into Campus Crusade for Christ which is where I met my husband.

6. While living in California on an Air Force Base with my dad about to be deployed to VietNam, Jane Fonda used to stand outside the gate to the base and throw stuff and shout profanities at passing cars, including ours. Yes, even when it was my mom and us kids alone.

How about you? What are six things I don’t know about you?

A friend posed this question on her blog: What was your first car? Here it is. My first car.

It was a 1969 Austin America, 5 speed automatic. These were the days when cars did not come equipped with air conditioning unless you count manually rolling down the windows as “air”. If the car happened to have a radio, it rarely had an 8 track tape deck. The seats were vinyl.

It actually was my dad’s car as I was raised in a much simpler lifetime when parents did not automatically purchase a car for their kiddo just because they turned 16. I drove my dad’s car to school during my senior year because I had an after school job at an advertising agency.

It was a fun little car to drive during the 1970’s when the gas was under 40 cents per gallon. Remember the oil embargo of 1973-74? We could purchase gas on certain days and would sometimes sit in long lines waiting for our turn at the pump. That was my senior year.

Funny memories about my car: It was very very very light. I’m sure by today’s standards, it would not meet safety standards by any stretch of the imagination. It was so light that I believe I could have easily picked up the front end to change the tire. Probably not but it seemed very very lightweight. And it was very very small.

A group of friends would use the little car to play practical jokes around campus. I would come out of class at the end of the day and my car would not be in my assigned slot. Glancing across the parking lot, I’d see my yellow Austin America car in a new spot. Not driven but picked up and moved manually.

Sometimes my car would simply be in another student’s slot. Other times I found it up on the sidewalk. Once it was perched on the fountain in the middle of the quad. Always, nearby was a pile of grinning boys as evidence to the crime and they also enjoyed being the heroes, lifting my little car down and setting it back on the ground to take me to work.

When I left home for my freshman year of college, my dad re-inherited the car and I was dropped at college in the same condition as all my other friends. Car-less.

It wasn’t until I married that I got a car of my own. It was a red, 1977, 5 speed Honda Civic.

We’ve had a wonderfully busy weekend. It started on Friday with a birthday. We (Kateroo the birthday girl, her boyfriend, my husband and I) ate dinner to celebrate at Cheesecake Factory in Southlake Town Center (yum with the Cherry Cheesecake!)

On Saturday, the four of us ended up in Ft Worth at a couple’s wedding supper shower for my niece and her almost-husband. The room was filled with family and friends as we celebrated with nachos and enchiladas and a round of the “Oldly-Wed and Almost-Wed Game” (Think Newlywed game….) for their upcoming wedding.

Today, the four of us drove over to Mesquite for the retirement of our friend and pastor from earlier days, a celebration day honoring him and his 31 years in ministry at the same church. He and his wife became great friends of ours and we stayed in touch even after we moved away. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning. We saw friends we haven’t seen for many years. It was extra special to see “children” who are now all grown up with children of their own. Loving God. Sharing Christ.

The celebrations in our life are a hint and a glimmer of a time yet to come. Heaven. The marriage feast of the bridegroom, Jesus, and his bride, the church. The celebration of redemption of family and friends who have trusted Jesus as Savior. The celebration of the faithful who journeyed onward, sharing the life of Christ from the Word of God.

I’m sure heaven will be much better than our worldly celebrations, but I can’t think of anything more wonderful than being with family and friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and celebrating the lives and memories we shared year upon year.

“O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can’t contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory’s side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!” - Chris Rice’s “Come to Jesus”

Kate, since the day you were born you have been sunshine to those who know you. Your spunky character, quick wit, sweet songs and bright smile has carried you from little girl to lovely young woman.

You are strong willed and sensitive. You are kind-hearted and loving.

I adore you and pray that God blesses you with many more birthdays full of love and joy. I’m so glad God sent you to be my little girl. I have loved every minute of it.

P.S. This photo was taken at Penny Whistle Park in Dallas on your fifth birthday. From birth to twenty-seven years old, you are still my Kateroo.