Claire's 5 Stages of Techno Grief

Friday, Jan 23: Claire arrives home from work, only to notice - NO cell phone! Where EFF is it? Claire freaks. Decides must have left the thing at office. No biggie. <----DENIAL

Saturday Jan 24: Drives all the way downtown to office. Ignore security guard and get onto elevator, up to 10th floor and my desk. NO CELL PHONE! <--- ANGER

Sunday, Jan 25: Claire fretting, as well as packing bags for work trip to L.A., flight leaving at 2:10PM.

Barbara Via email offers the obvious suggestion that Claire was to freaked to think of: email phone company OR get ready to shell out $100,000 for phone calls to Istanbul.

Claire cancels cell service. Is upset. Wants blankie & bottle (a good '49 merlot) <----GRIEF

Claire flies to Los Angeles. Picks up rental car. Finds hotel, an Omni; a HUMONGOUS hotel. In room Claire is mesmerized by key locked, in-room snack bar containing food, only affordable if Obama names Claire as U.S. ambassador to Japan. Claire chews her own limbs rather than spend $4.75 on .o24 oz of gourmet gum drops.

The sun sets. Claire decides to listen to some podcasts. NO iPOD! (Repeat previous 3 stages of Grief, i.e., Denial, Anger, etc.). Last place iPod was relished was at Sacto Airport. Claire concludes, gods are livid & her electronic toys are being brutally taken from her.

Claire, tucked in HUMONGOUS Omni bed. Promises to stop pissing on gods lesser electronics if only errant techno toys return.<---- BARGAINING

As Claire mopes, here is nighttime scene from hotel room window.

Night view of Walt Disney Concert Hall
Fancy Shmancy restaurant below

Next morning. Bright and early Claire arises to mope while looking at daytime view out of window. Claire concludes, 'Oh well! Who needs a cell phone anyway. And now that the iPod turned up missing to, maybe I'll just go ahead and get that iPhone I've been wanting. <--ACCEPTANCE

Sun is up on the Disney Concert Hall
Museum of Contemporary Art is in the foreground
Fancy Shmancy restaurant by daylight
Time to go to work! Claire goes to court with Lawyer. Defendant is a no-show. Whole court scene is intimate - only the judge, a court reporter, the lawyer and Claire. Claire takes the witness stand and manages to give testimony with no outrageous mistakes or flubs. The gods, for now, are pleased.

Case over quickly and Claire is back at hotel checking out by 11:00. She gets rental car back. What is on the floor of the car, sticking out its virtual tongue? iPOD! Joy of joys, what was lost is now found. Now where the eff is the damned cell phone?Oh well. For now the ancient gods of techno geeks are pleased.

So as the Sun set on Phoenix...

Due to my scrambled brain, when I first scheduled my flight to Phoenix, I leaving the day that Dolores and Bea arrived. That wouldn't do, and though I added another day to my stay, one day with one's family just can't really be enough, but it would have to do. *heavy sigh*

Uncle Matt having a go at flying his remote controlled helecopter
So on Sunday, my last day, the ladies decided that a breakfast at Cracker Barrel would hit the spot. We all had Mamma's Pancake or French Toast breakfast - eggs, sausage the works.

The Ladies having a rock outside the Restaurant after,
perhaps,a bite too much of breakfast (ok, I had too much!)

Arna enjoying some cracker barrel peppermint

After breakfast we stopped by Hilda's
And next thing you know, I was on an early evening jet back to Sacramento. Rats.

Hurrah! They're Here!

10:00AM, EEEEKKK! Get up! They're here - almost!

You never saw people move so quickly; Uncle Matt was up, dressed and out the door, headed for the Phoenix airport to pick up the newly arrived. Arna toured her HUMONGOUS home, tidying here, touching up a detail there, lighting candles, etc. Of course, the house was already perfect already before she started, but then, what do I know? At my house tidying up consists of throwing dirty clothing into the closet and tossing the dirty dishes & clutter into the dishwasher.

Before we knew it, just as Arna's beautiful home hit guest ready perfection, Matt was back with my sister and niece; Dolores and Bea. It is always precious time that I get to see my East coast relatives. Bea, who so radiates peace & calm she makes the Dali Lama look like Robin Williams on speed. She and her mom Dolores, my incredible 'Sis' are on trip that on Wednesday take them to Maui, HA, and back eastward to San Francisco before returning them to Baltimore.

The travel weary guests got the grand tour after which we collapsed into chairs on the back porch to soak up some sun - Doris (my niece, HI DORIS!) forwarded via cellphone, a photo of a snow strewn panorama in New York - 19 degrees and snowing. Big treat was my cousin Dovin dropped by with the masculine portion of his entourage - Matt (named after his Granddad) and Timmy (not named after the kid with Lassie - or maybe yes, what do I know?) The other half of Dovin's ensemble consists of his wife and daughter. The boys are adorable, I know at 10 and 11 they wouldn't appreciate my adjectives, but damn it, they are. They have big eyes with Bambi lashes just their Dovin did when he was a kid.


(left to right)DOLORES, Daddy Dovin with sons Matt & Timmy, & Bea

Timmy and his Uncle Eddie

It was a great day for chatting and swapping family stories. Towards evening Matt, Arna, Dolores, Bea and I went to the new Gila River Casino for dinner and some big time gambling - Dolores won $8, which is way better than me; I lost $5.


My Aunt Arna, Sister Dolores, Niece Bea and Uncle Matt at the Gila River Casino

For a bit of idle fun, here is some video i took at the casino: the water fall and then the colorful dancing waters. Hopefully the casino won't hunt me down for posting these.