I checked my email before work and found this note:
Dear John Martin–
We’d like to publish your story “My Detainment” in an upcoming issue of the Urban Hiker. Would you please send us the following?:
* your address, for our files.
* a short bio.
* a photo of yourself.
You can send the written info directly to me, the Urban Hiker production manager, as a reply to this e-mail. If you can also e-mail the photo as an attached file, that would be ideal; I can open TIFF, JPEG and most other common formats. Otherwise, call or email me as soon as possible so we can arrange a pick-up. Time is short, as we’re putting the next issue together right now. I promise we’ll return any photos we borrow.
If you¹ve got questions, feel free to call me at (919) 493-2620.
Thanks,
–V. Cullum Rogers
1002 Wells Street
Durham, NC 27707
At work I completed the three new Will & Ned scenarios and sent them to Richard B. I’m so grateful that Richard called on me to do this work for him for his meeting with IBM Canada executives next week. It will be good exposure for me, and it jumpstarted me to do something I’ve been wanting to do anyway. It’s amazing what a commitment, and a deadline, will do for motivation.
I received some good feedback on my email to Reenee today, two from executives, and from Mark, meeting him in the coffee room. I’m glad that happened, because I’m 95% sure I wouldn’t of heard from him about it otherwise. And he was positive about it, which I definitely would not have assumed. I didn’t hear anything back from Mel on it, which is no surprise.
I left work at 4:40, and rushed to the RTP post office to get mom’s Mother’s day card in the mail in time. I called Richard from there asking him if he needed any help getting ready for his 6:00 party, since I was an hour ahead of schedule.
There, I suggested he take his pile of laundry on the kitchen floor, and stuff it into the washing machine to hide it. He asked me if his toilet bowl was “clean enough.” Fortunately, it wasn’t drastic, but I, personally, would have cleaned it. Oh well.
He asked me to take Anna Banana for a walk, since he hadn’t had time to. He gave me some empty grocery bags to use as “pooper scoopers.” Wasn’t too crazy about that. But being the dog-lover I am, me and Anna went a couple of blocks to the park. Fortunately, she waited to “do her thing” there instead of on peoples’ lawns on the way.
Unfortunately, and at only five years old, she has been diagnosed with liver failure, and she hasn’t been eating well lately. When she did her first poop, it was kind of “wet,” and at the end a blad of grass was hanging about 3/4ths of the way out of her. Poor thing; she just stayed squatting, legs trembling, trying to push it out. I finally got out the bag and reached over and pulled it out for her. She seemed grateful. Poor thing.
Folks arrived at the party at about 6:10, and it was a nice little pre-Drag Bingo soiree. Robert and I spent most of the time talking with Jay, David L., and Howard. Howard brought some killer hush-puppies, made from batter bought at Bullock’s. Yum!
We got to the Armory at about 7:40, and got seats next to Gordon, and several people he works with, mostly women. After a while, another guy he works with, named Josh, came up to sit across from me. Huge, bulging, muscles. I immediately thought, “Steroids, and too into his own body.” I guess that’s a little prejudice I have. He seemed nice enough though.
We said hello to Van and Adam, and shortly after that Ross came and sat next to us with a date. We ordered the hot dog special during the third game, didn’t win anything, and left at intermission.