Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 31, 2006

December 31. Sunday Night.

Hi Journey.

Happy New Year. I do love this night, Journey. That a new year can begin and an old one end is just a kind of magical, mystical time.

I've made a decision, J. I'm taking one month off from writing any more. I need to concentrate on Tea Time all this next month. Sorry--but with Joni gone I just need some time away.

I'll be back in a month, Journey.

Goodnight--and thanks for a great year!

Crystal Trino's Journal December 28, 2006

Thursday, December 28

Hi Journey.

Hey, Journey you know I really, truly do loathe self-pity. When I catch myself wallowing about in it. Well, that's exactly what happened this morning.

I was missing Joni. And the new girl, Amy, well she tries hard, and she's efficient, and she certainly gets on well with Viv and Dana, but she's not Joni. I can't just go into her office and spill my fears out and find some reassurance in the calm listening of a trusted employee.

Funny how you come to rely on another person in work, J. I know I'm strong, and I'm the leader of the company, and all that, but dammit, without Joni there to back me up I feel like a soldier going into battle without her rifle.

I couldn't roll around feeling sorry for myself too long, though. I had a ten o'clock with the tellers and the loan officers at the Stubborn Branch of First United.

A truce! Amazing! My little ploy of using the tellers to leverage the loan officers worked. The original plan has been approved.

Not a bad way to end my last client call of the year.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal December 26, 2006

December 26. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

On the plane I can just sit quietly alone in a kind of solitude I don’t feel anywhere else. Strange, eh, Journey, this coming from a girl that lives alone? Maybe, but at Whitby there’s always the TV and the internet and the phone. Up here alone among these strangers I find an energy to push my imagination beyond its normal comfort zone.

Maybe that’s why Case travels so much; she feeds off the rush of change.

Great time at Dakota’s family, Journey. I’ll have to tell you a bit more about it when I have time. But just now new ideas are flooding in, and I want to jot them down and then flesh them out a bit before I lose them. It’s only an hour flight home from St. Louis, and I must be quick to pull as much creativity out of my mind as I can at these times when the muse graces me.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 24 2006

December 24. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

Oh J, you know what I love? Just running far on a Sunday morning with that light coat of snow under my feet.

I can never get enough mornings like these in my life, J. I puffed along for six miles, and at a steady clip, too.

Tee and Jack Heckstrom perfectly played the Holy Family--no fighting at all. And I'm not relieved or surprised. Mostly I'm just bursting-out proud for both of them. For all their squabbled sparring, thre is a tacit respect between my two most headstrong students.

Maybe it's closer to like, J.

Scary.

Percy orchestrated a four-way Skype call between Egypt, Florida, New York and the Midwest. The twins and Cora entertained us with a surprisingly in-tune rendition of "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem". For a moment I thought I heard Casey sobbing in the background. I lied to myself that it was just the connection, that my valiant little circle-the-world-on-a-whim sister wasn't desperately homesick.

But I hate lying to myself, especially at Christmas.

Going to bed now. Early flight tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 21 2007

December 21. Thursday Night.

Hi Journey.

A good week for me, since Christmas shopping wasn’t too tough this year. Actually, I ordered most everything on line or just bought folks coffee and tea at CoHo.

We held our office Christmas party at the maternity floor’s waiting room. Brady was just beaming as he held little Manny. You know how overprotective those first-time dads are, J—I thought he might break a rib from holding his breath so hard each time we passed the baby from one of us to the other. Finally Shelly poked him in the side just to get him to lighten up a bit.

I imagine that’s the same way Joseph felt on that first Christmas, so many years ago.

Like I said, a good week. No client complaints, plus several of our vendors have brought food plates over to the shop. Heaven.

Goodnight, Journey.

PS: I do so love palindromes.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 19, 2006

December 19. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

A quiet, serene joy grips me tonight, Journey. Today was Emmanuel Anthony Clover’s first day on planet Earth, and I am grateful.

Mom, son and Dad all doing quite nicely. APGAR scores great and no jaundice for young master Manny, who burst on the scene at 3:20 this morning.

Shelly and I both dawdled about the hospital most of the afternoon, just looking at little Manny through the glass and cooing like a couple of teenagers. I could tell that Shelly really wants to make one of her own with Dirk.

I don’t understand why that lunk doesn’t just propose to her.

Me? I’m in noooo hurry, J.

Viv and Dana plus the new temp, Amy, kept the shop under control all afternoon. Although this week has been pretty quiet, all-in-all.

Grateful tonight, J. Grateful for a new life, and that my friend Joni is OK.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Entry Dec 17, 2006

December 17. Sunday Night.

Hi Journey.

Dakota is the one friend that truly knows when I am full o fit.

OK, maybe Sid does, too.

And Carmen.

And Mom.

“Alone? For Christmas? What about your friend Shelly?” Dakota asked.

“She’s heading to Dirk’s parents’ home then.”

“What about your Church friends?”

“We host the pageant on Christmas Eve, but that’s it. Most everybody has family time on Christmas Day.”

“Plains, fly down to St. Louis and just chill with my family. C’mon, it’s only an hour.”

“Too much hassle, flying on Christmas Day.”

“Not that much. Or are you afraid you’ll have to spring for Christmas presents for my whole family?”

“Maybe I’ll give them a free house makeover.”

She just laughed. “Bring a book of matches and a Debbie Gibson song; that’s the best makeover our old house could have.”

Even I had to laugh at that, self-pity and all. We talked another half hour. It was good to unwind.

Goodnight, Journey.

PS: OK, I couldn’t sleep, so I booked the flight on-line just now. Leaves at 6:00 AM. Ugh!! Later, J.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 14, 2006

December 14. Thursday Night.

Hi Journey.

Finally done with all that Christmas shopping. But no slack time in my itinerary, J. I’ve swapped out one perennial chore for another.

Cards. Haven’t touched ‘em.

OK, that’s not totally true. I have found time to verify and update all my personal contacts’ address info. I actually tackled that right after Turkey Day. Now the big pain will be addressing all the envelopes and signing the cards. A fine weekend project.

At least the CD cards are all done. Joni and Amy wrestled that project all yesterday morning.

Journey, I found a fabulous English picnic set on eBay. I can see Dad nestling it into the trunk—sorry, the boot--of his Mark IX and setting off on a long trip with Mom along the Gulf Coast.

And the two of them have been making noise like they are actually going to go out touring this spring. About time. What’s the use of having a glorious Jaguar saloon if you don’t enjoy it for more than the occasional trip to the grocery store?

OK, scratch that last. My dad is happy just sitting in that car, even if it’s in the driveway.

Mom’s up for a trip. They’re actually talking about taking a three day drive and hike along the Blue Ridge Parkway and then heading up to New York to visit Percy and Sisi. A huge part of me wishes I could tag along for a few days. Just me and Mom and Dad.

And Case.

I do miss her. Badly enough that’d I’d gladly put up with a couple days scrapping with her in the back seat just to have the time with her.

I just pray God she’s OK in Egypt. Need to email her this weekend.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Entry Dec 12 2006

December 12. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

I don’t know exactly when Joni will deliver, but any day will be fine with me.

Worries? None this week. Joni’s temp and her confidence have simply evaporated them for me.

Her name is Amy Karet; she’s a whiz at QuickBooks and spells like a dictionary. Plus she really has a decent sense for lighting.

She’ll start next week full time, and run through the end of February. I’ve decided to pay Joni for an extra month of Maternity leave. Lord knows she’s earned it.

Had a quick Bloom Team meeting today. Amy sat in on it; might as well have her learn a bit about what we do.

Viv and Dana both hit it off well with her. Shelly…not so much. I don’t know if Shelly’s under the weather or maybe fighting with Dirk but something’s not right with her. She was recipe-book civil to Amy: just so and not a pinch more.

No new marketing ideas. Mostly we just discussed the website. Joni passed ‘round the next two issues of the newsletter for review. She claims she’ll try and pen out a half-dozen more while the baby’s napping.

We’ll see. I remember Carm relaying to me how bone-tired she was after Cora came along.

I do have a few ideas to share based on those WriteBack cards, but I want to wait to share them with the BT until I flesh them out a bit more in my own mind. It can wait til after the First of the Year.


Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 10 2006

December 10. Sunday Night.

I really just love when I can run through any new snowpack.

That's whay I did this morning, J. Way before Sunday school I tugged my bones out of bed and slipped on the Nikes and sweats and just ran and ran.

And it was good. Just the whispery puff-puff-puff of the snow gently rolling out from under my feet and the streetlights glistening on the flakes...heaven.

And for once, no worries.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 7 2006

December 7. Thursday Night.

Hi Journey.

Shelly out sick today. And so it was just me pitching our latest concept to the last of the First Unified Bank branches this afternoon. Viv and Dana were both out on client calls, and I couldn’t very well pull Joni out of the office and leave the phones on auto-pilot.

The presentation went well--initially. Their branch is a bit different than the other two we’re redesigning. Their lobby is shoehorned in between two huge offices. I think the building was originally designed for an insurance company. Our plan calls for a tripling of the lobby space and moving the loan offices side by side with each office ending up with a little less than half the current space.

So we’ve got a couple of angry loan officers but hey, I do what’s best for the client. People come into the lobby twenty or fifty times to every one time they step inside a loan office, right? Besides, when their in the loan office they’re so uptight anyway I figure a little intimacy in that space can’t hurt.

But no matter; the loan officers both whined so much I promised I’d bring back a slightly different design in a few weeks.

This time we’ll knock off some space from the teller counter, keep the lobby spacious, and add a bit to the two loan offices from the teller space.

Then we’ll have four whining tellers against two loan officers.

Hey, a girl has to find some strength in numbers when she can.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 5 2006

December 5. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

Joni! I always can count on her; I know I’m cutting it close every day I don’t get a temp hired to come in here and train-up on the books.

Maybe I’m too cheap. I’ve tried my best to keep costs down all year; I think I’ve done a pretty good job. Almost all our additional costs that are up from last year are tied to promotions like the kickoff B-B party at the Crowne Plaza or our web marketing. The only other cost that’s really increased has been labor and again all that has been tied back to the bonuses that are tied to the profits.

Our overall margin is actually up 12% over last year. Chalk most of that up to Joni and more effective purchasing.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that our web development and IT costs were massively mitigated by males who happened to like us; at least at the time.

OK, I think Eddie still probably likes me, although I haven’t spoken to him in over two months. He did email me a Happy Thanksgiving cartoon with some flying turkeys dressed in chicken suits. It came when I was in New York visiting Carm, but since it was part of a mass-email distribution list, it doesn’t really count as a real personal message from him.

And before month end Joni’s going to have that baby and I’m going to need some serious help during Jan and Feb.

But before I left today Joni assured me she’s on top of it. She’s located a woman from a temp staffing agency who will come in and train all next week.

I just need to have faith in her. She hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

Goodnight, Journey.

Crystal Trino's Journal Dec 3 2006 Entry

December 3. Sunday Night.

Hi Journey.

Everything back on an even keel with kids; I’m not planning on missing any more Sunday school classes the rest of the month. Two in a row was enough, J.

Good time with the kids today, though. My class is in the spotlight at the Nativity Scene on Christmas Eve this year.

Of course, Jack Heckstrom and Tee suckered the rest of the class into voting them in as Joseph and Mary.

I wonder if the real Holy Family ever nearly broke into a fistfight over who would stand on the right side of Jesus’ crib.

At least there’s plenty of time left to rehearse.

It was great to see the class. Between missing last week for Thanksgiving and then oversleeping three weeks ago it was good to feel needed for something other than auto-spewing my advice on paint chips and carpet swatches.

Was at the shop all day yesterday, catching up. There were a few good ideas came from the WriteBack cards that I’ll try and flesh out before the new year begins. Maybe I’ll bring up a few at Tea Time this January and see what other clients think of them.

This afternoon I just stayed home. I pulled out that red journal and leafed through it. I still think Percy’s “lawyer magic” was an exact-o knife but I’m not sure. In any event, I promised you the full text of that letter on those sheets that were stuck together. Here it is:

December 19, 1944. Tuesday.

Dear Tam,

Had the most wonderful time today. Father and I have just returned on the train from our Wisconsin excursion. I believe I once mentioned that he grew up just outside Appleton. Just since forever Father has followed the Green Bay football team, the Packers. Well, he bought tickets for the big championship game against the NY Giants. Tam, I was just joyed-over when the Packers won. Of course, football is the most roughish game, but oh how smart those young men looked in their big shoulder pads and tight knickers. I must confess my heart leapt up when they trotted out onto the field.

But enough of me. How is your latest cartographical quest coming?

Or should I say cartological? I’ll have to ask Mom for sure. Are you still working on that Barbary Coast gold rush map? I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

All during this train trip I’ve been reading a simply scrumptious book about Cleopatra. This book is part of the Young Reader series, but I understand most of the words, even though it says on the cover For Fifth Grade and up.

Oh Tam, but she was just so beautiful! We simply must learn more about her and her friends.

Well, better go now. I might see you before you’ve a chance to read this, but I just had to write these thoughts down--the pen was about to burn clear through the seams of my purse.

Your Friend Always,

Auto6

A nice note, J. It seems there may be a few more pages of the journal are stuck together, but I haven’t probed about and tried to pry them apart, yet.

All in good time.


Goodnight, Journey.