What with Jupiter moving through Pisces it doesn’t surprise me that I’ve been dreaming like crazy lately but it does make me gear up for bedtime as if I am going into psychic battle. What demons, anxieties, fears, and monsters are waiting in store for me as soon as my head hits the pillows, inviting me to work out and express what lurks in the attic and basement of my deepest self? Well whatever has been hiding out is no longer. Everything is up in my face, begging to be noticed, acknowledged, and, on a good night  – blessedly released.

There have been the usual anxiety dreams like I still have my flower shop, it’s Valentine’s Day and I forgot to go to the wholesalers and buy flowers all the while fussing over forgetting to get the little cards printed out that identifies the arrangements as coming from my store. The next night I was in the passenger seat of a giant RV (HATE to be in the passenger’s seat). My collaborator and videographer of my TV show adventure is driving. We are on a treacherous winter road on the mountains. Huge boulders of snow right ahead. Swerve left and we smash into the mountain. Swerve right and it’s over the cliff. No choice but to plow right through that snow boulder, which turns to puff as we come out the other side. And then yesterday morning I awoke to the tune of Rocky blasting in my head as I easily jogged up the stairs of some monument.

Rocky? The quintessential “I come from nowhere but have a BIG dream for myself” movie. In real-life Sylvester Stallone was offered big bucks for his screenplay but only if the part of Rocky was to be played by someone else. He refused the money and shopped around until someone would make the movie with him as the star, for hardly any shekels at all. The rest is history.

Ah, the pattern emerges. No more flower shop but endless details to manage with my TV show project, especially making sure it is identified as coming from me. What appears to be life-threatening turns to poof as I go through it. Ultimately I triumph as long as I do my own thing my own way, which is good because I can’t seem to do anything any other way anyway.

And so I carry on in the face of all kinds of seeming impossibilities, putting myself out there, inviting, coaxing, urging women to participate in speaking their voice, their experience, their challenges in a very public way, an avenue to help them get their own work seen, validated, and supported. It’s a work-out.

It’s Sunday and I am working away on my website and my writing and my reaching out and I get a phone call that I have won the 2010 Words of Women Essay for the Women’s Herstory Initiative. “You mean me?”  Does she mean me? There are other Cindy Morrises, even writers with that name. “Oh yes, you. We loved your piece. We felt it was so relevant to our time, personal and political. We cried.”   I had long ago forgotten I had even submitted the piece on Gloria Steinem and her influence on me and all women to speak our voice, to take our place at the table of Life.

I cried when last night watching the Academy Awards as Barbra Streisand, a rebel and feminist leader herself, announced Kathryn Bigelow as the first woman director to win an Academy award for best director with: “The time has come.” And it indeed it has.

So here I am today, feeling a little Rocky-esque, knowing my essay will be available for generations to come, a small window into the journey of finding and speaking our voices, as women, as leaders, as creators and contributors to the world that is our own. I celebrate my little triumphs as Kathryn Bigelow celebrates hers and Moni’que celebrates.

The rest is herstory.
And yes, she meant me.

Click here to read the winning essay

When you get the website click on 2010 Winning Essay

I had an interesting thing happen recently with a fellow businesswoman that got me to thinking about bad habits we bring into our business dealings and how damaging they can be. Here goes.

I contacted a woman with whom I have done business and to whom I have sent many referrals. I have also offered up public kudos for her work. I offered a trade/barter deal for her services in exchange for promoting her business (even more than I already do) in a more public venue. She thought about it for a day and then gave me a big YES! she would like to do the trade. I let her know that the project she would be doing for me was time-sensitive  and I would need it done soon. In exchange I needed her to commit to a time when I could fulfill my end of the agreement.

Then I did not hear from. I emailed her a few times.  No response. I called and left messages and then got a message that her phone number had been changed. I knew from a chatline we are both on (that’s how we met) she was online because I saw posts she was making to the group. I also knew she was attending group gatherings. mmmm…why was she not contacting me?

Finally she responded to an email I sent. With apologies she said she changed her mind about the trade and had been procrastinating on telling me for nearly a week. That was the week I thought she was working on my project! I was not too surprised because I have found that if someone is not getting back to you it’s because they don’t want to.

I understand minds get changed. I don’t have a problem with that. I would have appreciated knowing sooner so I could have moved on with my work. I also felt it would have been the professional thing to do to say ” I realize I left you in a bind, how can I make amends?” Then we could have healed the damaged trust that I now feel. She didn’t offer anything to compensate me for my time lost. Unfortunately for her I , who was one of her biggest supporters and who freely recommended her services, will no longer do so. I can’t, in good integrity, recommend her services because what if she takes on a client of mine and then drops them, as she did me?
I will never speak against her but I will no longer refer her business. An unfortunate lose-lose for both of us, a case of damaged trust. In business engendering and maintaining TRUST is a basic component of success!

Trust-damaging behavioral that can get us in trouble:

1. Procrastination - It would  have been preferable if she told me as soon as she was hesitating that the trade was probably not going to work  for her. Her procrastination just made the situation worse. As as you know a situation has to change that involves another person, tell the other person. Crap happens but it doesn’t have to clog up the whole process.

2. Avoidance – Not returning my calls or emails when I could clearly see she was online emphasized that she was avoiding me. That actually made me feel badly, wondering if I had caused offense or was in some way responsible for our lack of communication.  Don’t avoid. Deal with things as they come up so as to avoid the pile-up.

3. Fear of confrontation – Hey, if something’s not working out for one party, it probably isn’t working out for the other party either. Just say what is and let the situation resolve so both parties can move on.

4. Offering empty apologies – Apologies are meaningless without amends. The professional thing to do when someone’s time has been  wasted is to offer something to compensate for that. No offering of amends discounts the value of both parties.

It’s not life and death. Both us will move on in our lives. It just always saddens me to see a wasted opportunity to support and encourage another person’s business. If we each do not make the effort to heal damaged trust and to adopt behaviors that make that healing unnescessary who is going to keep our world moving forward in the best possible way?

My mother always told me to marry a plumber. He’d always have work, my toilet would always flush, and I’d never be without hot water. 50 years later I find myself living in a Victorian house, circa 1911, who periodically wants to return to the days of its birth, when plumbing was an outhouse and a please-God-don’t-let-it-be-frozen pump in the yard. Today, as in many days since I first moved in here 12 years ago, the plumbing has decided not to work. I’m talking about a no flushing situation. Need I say more?

Seven years ago it was related to tree roots getting into the sewer pipe that leads to the street. Christmas eve day of that freezing year I had an entire crew dig up my driveway and half the street to replace the sewer line to the pretty tune of $7000. Of course it wasn’t covered by insurance (it’s outside the house proper). I’m still paying the credit card on that baby.  That  was a week of hell  when each freezing morning I had to bundle myself up and drive like  a madwoman over to the local hotel to do my morning business. At least I knew the hotel facilities would be clean. And they had lovely hand lotion too.

During the diagnostic period before it was identified that the sewer line was the cause of the back-up I had some buffoons from Roto-rooter stick a huge cable down through the system to try to figure out what was going on. Those two fools never did figure out what the problem was and ended up leaving the cable in the line, which I did not learn until years later when the line was blocked again and we knew it couldn’t be the sewer line. That cable is still stuck in there, clearly the cause of the present-day back-up debacle.

My sister, who can’t go to the bathroom anywhere but in her own home, actually suggested I poop in a bucket in my yard. Right. Clearly more acceptable than going to a public restroom. I don’t think so. I pray that a day never comes when the only choice I have is to poop in a bucket in my not-so-private backyard. 

As luck and providence would have it my best friend (not quite a husband) is a plumber. He is the type of person who will leave no problem unsolved. This week he will be getting that cable out once and for all, come hell or high water. No way he is going to let the plumbing of this old glorious house win one over on him. He will crawl into a nearly inaccesible under-the-house space and wrestle with pipes, cables, elbows and all kinds of horrible unthinkably cold and dirty  things. I will pay for parts , offer eternal friendship,  and keep him laughing through his football team being cheated of their trip to the Super Bowl this year.

We each do what we can. And I am grateful for that.

I don’t know about what happens at your house but at my house things disappear on almost a daily basis. Socks I am used to losing. I know all the socks that have disappeard into the abyss of the dryer will greet me at the gates of heaven. Animals I have known and loved will be holding them in their mouths, or wearing them. My concern lies more with the larger items that seem to be disappearing. Like the lid to my soup kettle. A large item, the kettle being a 12 quart pot.

Actually I am impressed with the disappearance of such a large item. Surely this means the faeries and mischief makers co-existing with me have become strikingly more bold and creative.  Are these stolen treasures hidden in plain sight to them and hidden from my mortal eyes or spirited away to another realm of reality? I looked in all the familiar hiding places. The freezer (I have found MANY things in there). The laundry hamper. The refrigerator. The various kitchen cabinets. The trash. I even checked the car, just in case their antics are extending outside the perimeters of the house. I found a lid in the dishwasher but it was the wrong size, fitting a smaller pot.  Just to make sure, and because I often don’t trust my own spatial perception, I took the lid out of the dishwasher and placed it on top of the soup kettle. Nope, wrong size. I put it back in the dishwasher.

That lid was nowhere to be found so I moved onto other chores. I figured it would show up eventually, or not. A friend of mine had a frying pan disappear from his house. It has never showed up and it’s been over a year now. I didn’t even know that faeries ate fried foods.

So then I fussed around tending to other things when I  had a thought to try the lid from the dishwasher again. I took the same lid out that I had taken out moments before and when I placed it on the soup kettle it now fit. Of course! I should have known – shape-shifting. The beings that do these things made the lid smaller and then  returned it to its original size. Well two can play this game. I didn’t even make a fuss about it. I just carried on as if yet another prank had not been pulled on me. Because really I like living with mischief-makers faerie types. Makes life much more interesting.

Gotta go. My glasses have disappeared and I better check the garbage disposal before they head out into the city disposal system on their way to greener pastures.

Well it may be still winter in my ice-encrusted yard but I myself am emerging from my years of semi-seclusion in my ice-encrusted crysalis. I am finally filming and promoting my TV show Priestess Entrepreneur The TV Show: Kitchen Conversations.
I am interviewing people in business, in transition (who isn’t?) to hear their story, distill their process and experience as info to help the rest of us. We are truly inspired by one another and need to hear each others’ stories to help us on our own journey in these amazing times of transformation and change.
At least that’s always helped me. I HAVE to know I am not just doing this by my lone some.
The show will be aired on Boulder’s Cable channel 22 and blasted into cyberspace on YouTube channels. And you know things can just take off when they become viral, and in the strangest, most unlikely ways.

The coolest part is we are filming in my kitchen! We all know that the BEST info is shared over tea at the kitchen table. The Win-Win is that as a guest you can then use the video to promote your own message and your own business. Your storefront is your website and video is proven to be the best way to attract and keep people coming back to your site. And believe me, you will be MUCH more natural when filmed in engaging conversation (that’s the part I guarantee!) than just talking into a camera.

Check it out! See for yourself.
Here I am interviewing Tobi Hunt, a Priestess Entrepreneur extraordinaire.
Besides being employed full time as a Relationship Manager at KeyBank, Tobi is the creator of endless networking venues in the Boulder area and the brains behind Purse Power pins.

Click on the link to check us out!http://tinyurl.com/yflq4wr

Here I am with Debbie Stringfellow, animal communicator, Equine Therapy practitioner, and author of
The Wild Mustang Chronicles Watch for our interview available on YouTube next week.

I am collaborating with Bill Kennedy of Move Your Message. He is my fabulous videographer and film editor. We have created a few different packages to accomodate many levels of video usage.

Check out my TV show website and see if it’s a fit for you to come be my guest on Kitchen Conversations.
http://PriestessEntrepreneurTheTVShow.com

Collaborative, community ventures that support the good of all – that’s the true Aquarian vision. Come join the creative venture of reaching the world with your message. If this interests you let’s talk! If you know of someone who might be interested send them my way!
Cindy, host of Priestess Entrepreneur The TV Show: Kitchen Conversations

I don’t know about you but personally I have had my fill of the Capricorn energy. With Pluto in Capricorn until 2024 clearly we will all be dealing with plenty of Capricorn enegry to keep us busy being serious for many years to come.  At least the Sun is moving into Aquarius today for his yearly visit in the sign of Aquarius, joining Venus who has already stuck her toe in the water bearer’s jug.

Aquarian energy is like a breath of fresh air. Much needed, I might add. Aquarius is ruled by the rebel planet Uranus, heralding new ideas, innovative solutions to nagging problems, coming together in groups (where innovative solutions are more easily found), and expanding our vision and intention to include the community of all of us. I myself am hosting THREE (count’m) THREE group events coming right up.

Intorducing the gorgeous skin care line from England called Neal’s Yard Remedies. 99% organic, made from flowers and all kinds of yummy faerie-kiseed, heavenly scented products. I am so hooked on these products I decided to actually rep them. Monday evening, 7 p.m. I am joining Women’s Quest innovator Colleen Cannon in an evening of fun demos and noshing. Contact me at cinnabelle@earthlink. net if you would like to join us for this FREE event. 

Doing a pre-valentine’s day partenr hook-up talk in Denver at Full Moon books on February 6th. Then on February 21st I am joining up with Karen Rice King to do a presentation on Evolutionary Astrology and Soul Retrieval in Boulder. Details on my webiste, click on Calendar onthe Home page for more details. http://PriestessAstrology.com

Collaboration and group activity are Aquarian themes.

Venus in Aquarius is going to let us try all kinds of new approaches to relationship. Clearly I could use that as the old ways are hardly tried and true.

How perfect that the Winter Olympics will be happening in Vancouver and Whistler, BC during the time of Aquarius. The Olympics is the essential representation of the Aquarian spirit: indiviuality within a group context. I have been obsessively watching the pre-Olympic trials, which have been even more exciting than the Olympics, with a lot less hype. Many of the athletes have been interviewed, which I just love. Athletes are like alien beings to me . I like to hear about their training and what it really takes to be at the level of competing that they are at. I thrill to watch their grace, beauty, skill, strength, courage, and commitment to excellence. It boggles my mind. Then I look up their astrology charts.

Unfortunately birth times seem to be missing so accurate charts are not  always available. I know that Apolo Ohno is a Gemini, which he spoke about himself during an interview. He misquoted Gemini traits, which I forgive him for. It was still fun to hear Astrology mentioned in the pre-Olympic trials.  In classic Gemini style, emphasis on fleet-footedness and versatility, he also won the Dancing with the Stars competition.   

Apolo! Call me with that birth time. I’ll do your chart for you. 

And wildman Shaun White, snowboarder extreme, is a Virgo Sun, Virgo Moon, no birth time available. Ask your parents, Shaun, then call me! I know we’ll NEVER see you dancing with the stars. That would take entirely too much time away from your video games.

But if they help you do airs like this, who am I to disturb you?

Mining the magic of Mercury retrograde

Pretty much for most of us it feels like Mercury is always going retrograde these days. Things going wrong. Endless juggling of different sized balls. Life generally askew. Every time Mercury goes retrograde (which is three times a year for three weeks at a time) a collective groan can be heard and mournful sighs of: “Wasn’t Mercury JUST retrograde?” Well, it can certainly feel like that, especially in these mercurial times where communications have speeded up to a point where we can hardly keep up and so things start to crash all about. Cars break down. Motors need to be replaced. Belts in washing machines need tightening. Everything needs to be re-written (I mean EVERYTHING) and cell phones might as well be flushed down the toilet for all their mess-ups. You can do pretty much do anything on your cell phones these days but hear the person on the other end.

So the best thing to do during Mercury retrograde, which is challenging at best, is to tap into the magic inherent in this part of the Mercury cycle and find new ways to flow with the flow that’s already flowing. In other words stop trying to make things happen. Tune in to what is already happening and go with that. Mmmmm. Interesting concept. And so not easy to do.

I have been working on creating a TV interview show for women in business. You know, a show where we can just talk about what it’s really like to be in business, what the challenges really are, and maybe even uncover some tricks, tools, and templates to bring about success for each of us. The process of getting this together has been monumental and often I have found myself literally paralyzed, unable to move in any direction at all.

I  need funding for the project (that’s a given) and I also need paying guests on the show. It’s a win-win for everybody because show sponsors will get blasted into cyberspace through all participating guests Youtube posts, Channel 22 and their YouTube posts, and my blasting in my own cyberspace launching frenzy. Viewers will aee those businesses as supportive of Priestess Entrepreneurs. That’s good for them. And great for us. In order to get funding I need some good sample footage of the show. This has been so much harder to get to happen than I could ever have imagined.

A guest gets to talk about her business in a normal, conversational style with yours truly (who get make ANYONE comfortable to chat). Video snippets from the interview can then be used on the guest’s own website. If you’re going to the expense of having a site (and if you don’t have site, come join this century) you really have to have video. If you just talk into a video camera it’s pretty much guaranteed to come out awful unless you’re a natural ham. For most people they come across actually normal when in conversation but not so much when talking to a camera. That’s what you want on your website: you talking about your services in a normal, relaxed, engaging style.

So I tried to do the tv shoot at the cable station studio. That was less than a good experience and that was months ago. Until this past week I was stalled as to how to move forward. It was only because I talked with a very wise friend in San Francisco, who could see my stuckness and had a brilliant idea to get me unstuck. In a mercurial flash Priestess Entrepreneur The TV Show: Kitchen Conversations was born. Remember that Mercury rules communication!

As soon as that venue and name was suggested to me I knew it was 100% right for me and I was able to move forward swiftly and with enthusiasm. Now I film out of my kitchen, with all my pretty things around and I have total control of how and who and when and well, everything, which is what really works best for me at this time.

Video snippet samples to be viewed in cypberspace next week! At last. And it happened during Mercury retrograde, when the re-working of a stalled project got it moving again, finally on the right track, heading right to SUCCESS.

I hear Oprah is retiring. Surely a replacement is needed. I could sure use a staff and a whole lot more shoes.

Mercury retrograde: Enjoy the mischief! (if you can)
26 December 2009 through 15 January 2010
Mercury in Capricorn

Mercury goes retrograde (looks like it’s going backward from our viewpoint on Planet Earth) 3 or 4 times a year for three weeks at a time. Generally speaking Mercury retrograde is known to bring a time where things just seem to go wrong.Mercury, the fleet-footed mischief maker of the zodiac, likes to make sure that you are not TOO attached to any plans and that maybe, just maybe, things are working out in ways other than what you had expected, for reasons you might never understand! Prepare for any number of communication glitches from missed appointments to emails sent you didn’t mean to send (oops!) to phone calls cutting off right at the crucial time (oops again!). Avoid signing any contracts during these next three weeks but if you have to, scrutinize the fine points. Try not to purchase any electronic or appliance type devices (especially a car!) and if you do, save the receipt. You might very well be returning it.

This Mercury retrograde period sees our mischievous friend in the constellation Capricorn, a very serious and somber place for our fleet-footed friend to be hanging out.

Capricorn values success gained through hard work, perseverance, persistence and commitment. Those sound like fighting words, my friend! Lighter spirits can have a hard time with the buckling down energy of Saturn-ruled Capricorn but keep in mind that the rewards and benefits harvested from this plan of action are most definitely worth it. See where you can streamline and get more efficient in your systems to create more of the success you desire or maybe just a better way to get through every day.

Where does this transiting Mercury fall in your own chart?  Schedule a session and let’s take a look-see.
http://PriestessAstrology.com

Let’s see, for me Mercury is already wrecking his usual havoc, irritating me just enough to make me want to weep a bit. My hot tub is broken, which I use for heating myself in this frigid Rocky Mountain winter and keeping myself sane.  My washing machine is making threatening noises, or it’s possessed, both of which are expensive fixes. The man who called me once and I wish would call me again hasn’t. Neither one of my browsers will let me log in to my Astrology blog or my  PriestessEntrepreneurTheTVShow blog. No one in my family sent me a Channukah present or card, though I sent to them. I think one of them called.

 I really think I need to head out for a little holiday cheer. Of course none of this is nearly as bad as when my sewer line broke some Christmases back and I was driving frantically to the local Hotel at 6 a.m. to do my business before the line could be fixed! Still think I need some holiday cheer and I am going off in search of it.

 When Mercury is retrograde magic is afoot so loosen the reigns a little and let the magic flow! Miracles are waiting everywhere to be welcomed into your life. I could use one right about now.

You’d think that by now since I know what is and isn’t good for me that I would make only the bestest choices in every area of my life. HA! You’d think so, I want it to be so, but it just isn’t so.  It’s December and in my world that means potato latkes and too many food products with wheat and sugar. Every day I argue with the powers that be that put such delicious items within my lustful grasp only to have the consequences of digesting them paralyze my digestive tract and put me into some sort of full-waking coma.

The other night, after a heavy storm of inches of powder snow, a firece wind blew in from the East, creating drifts of snow hard as cement. I could barely open the gate to my yard and many items I had hanging decoratively on tree branches will hopefully be revealed come the next thaw. That concrete covering of the drifts is exactly what my digestive system feels like every time I eat all those  foods I love so much but  who clearly don’t love me. The Mafia could mine my insides for one of their send-offs. The deadly nightshades are killing me slowly.

Potatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family along with paprika, tobacco, petunias, datura (a toxic hallucinogen) and belladonna. You can see the digestive drift here. Those with O blood types should stay far away from these plants as they are, in fact, toxic to the Type O system. I have a degree in horticulture from Cornell. I KNOW this and still I eat those delcious latkes. What is wrong with me?     

What is this bull-headed insistence on ingesting things that aren’t good for me?  And I mean this on very level. Somehow it seems connnected with what I learned about myself in a very revealing (and painfully excrutiating in the exposure department) numerology session I had the other day. Being an astrologer and having an inherent love of numbers I can hardly believe it has taken me this long to delve into this amazing field of study. The study is great, the session was torture. We used Dan Millman’s numerology book, The Life You Were Born to Live.  I felt like a trout being eviscerated while I was still alive. The man who did the interpretation for me hit my issues spot on.  I just wish they were somebody else’s issues.

 Having a 5 somewhere in my configuration one of the things I struggle with is freedom vs. discipline. I feel like I am more disciplined than I really like to be  and my level of discipline is at a fraction of the  full throttle that it needs to be to get going on any of the endless promotions and projects I have dreamt up for myself that I clearly need to do to keep myself thriving. My stubborness and insistence on being free and doing whatever I please whenever I please to do so is not working so great for me, though I so desperately wish it were. My mother was right. I should have married a wealthy man. Yet every time that option came up I ran the other way. Rebellious. Will I ever move past age 17?

How does one confront the core resistance inside oneself to being all that one can be? How to fight inertia? How to hold off drifting snows?  Today I’ll start with one little thing. I will not eat any of the leftover oil-laden potato latkes in the fridge that are calling my name verily as I compose this piece. I will resist another dance with any potato, eggplant, or tomato. Today I will set myself free from rock-hard digestion with the discipline of saying NO! to the deadly nightshades. Well, it’s a start.

I was traveling back from Newark to Denver on Monday and, as usual when I am trying to escape the orbital pull of New York (my birthplace), there is some snafu at the airport. I deliberately chose to fly out of Newark because the last three trips into and out of LaGuardia felt like I was traveling third class through India. The only thing missing was the goats. And don’t get me started on the filth and the stench.

So Newark airport is a little cleaner but you actually have to skirt the city limits which is frightening enough for anybody. The skies were murky, the early morning traffic dizzying. My brother stopped to get gas.  In New Jersey they still pump gas for you and the attendent was so snarly I wanted to get out of there before the tank was full. I’m not sure the shekels saved at the Jersey pump was worth the bad attitude that slimed our lovely last moments together before I was deposited curbside at Newark.

The United terminal was empty. Am I the only one flying? I hesitated checking my luggage. I already had my computer carry-on case and my ridiculoulsy overly bulky purse (do I actually need ANYTHING I carry in that beast?) United charges $20 per checked bag. When will Southwest start serving non-stops to NY? $20 to check a bag?  That’s a manicure and a chile rellano. I paid the $20 overriding the wastefulness with my desire to be shlep-free.

The bag was heading down the conveyor belt as they told me my flight was delayed over an hour. I was already 2 hours early. Oh well. That’s traveling. And I am compulsively early for everything. I’m sure I’ll be waiting at my gravesite wondering where everybody is. 

I headed to the gate. Did my full strip-down at the security check point. I filled 4 bins and still left my Leo necklace in one of the bins, which of course I did not realize until I got home. Can you imagine the stash of stuff they must accumulate at those security checkpoints? It’ll be a great Christmas for some of those people. I hope a Leo ends up with my necklace. I really liked that thing.

So I make it to the gate area and I notice there is another flight boarding for Denver. Three attendants are at the desk. The two women comepletely ignore me but the gay-ish guy waves me over. I tell him my story about the delay and  is there a seat on this flight? I have to get off the East Coast.  I just have to. My hair is frizzing out with the humidity and there are no granola bars in sight.

This new flight is heading to Chicago with a plane change to Denver.  He said: “Listen, your flight is delayed due to mechanical problems (I immeditely flash to a scene of a wing hanging precariously off the side of a plane heading towards a fiery crash) and when it arrives here it might have other problems, as they often do (deep gulp). I can give you some really good seats on these flights and you’ll probably arrive sooner into Denver than if you wait for the other flight.”  I’m in. Let’s do it.

I sat in business class in super cushy seats. I had more leg room than I have in my own living room. My brief stay in Chicago was fun and easy. That airport is bright and festive and sparkly. I found some good treats and piping hot Earl Grey tea with half and half.

And then I thought about my luggage. Oh no! When would my luggage get to Denver? Would I have to return to the airport later in the day to get it? Would they deliver it to me? Was it on some fated plane never to arrive? My favorite clothing items were in there and my camera with the pictures of my family and the new babies!

When I arrived in Denver, which always thrills me, coming out of the clouds to the wide open fields and the dramatic tents of Denver International Airport, I went right up to the luggage service desk and asked about the fate of my checked bag. The guy said that that flight had arrived in Denver a few minutes ago and maybe my luggage was already there. I headed to Carousel 14 where, by God! there it was, the last piece of luggage making its way around the carousel. I didn’t  even have to wait.

So there you have it. I had a moinor adventure. I lost my necklace.  I found my suitcase.  And I had a cushy ride all the way home.  Surprisingly, things just seem to work out.