Chatted with an architect today who had designed a CEO's office on the 38th floor of a New York City building. The big boss wanted a fireplace in his office. The designer found that opening a flue at that height created an air flow strong enough to suck the CEO's secretary right up the chimney.
This story beat my cautionary tale about opening the damper to prevent singeing my eyebrows. I never saw the woman architect before, but I'm sure she was real. I hope her story is true. Even if it's a fable, it reminded me how life often feels like being drawn up the chimney and blasted out into the sky above a teeming metropolis against one's will and without a superhero cape.
I'm more scrambled than usual transitioning from two half-time jobs to one full-time position with actual big-girl grown-up benefits. I'm filled with gratitude for this opportunity. The only damper is working a year before taking vacation days flying to see grandkids.
In dreams I flew, body-surfing the warm air thermals above a mall food court, amazing the cosmetics clerks from Macy's and Foley's. In nightmares I can never reach my parents or my sons by cell phone in the cosmic labyrinth shopping center. Plus, there are no clean restrooms at the mall.
© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder
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