January 1, 2009

My eyes popped open at 5am and with a catch of my breath, I thought,

"Ohmygosh. I have no job. I have no writing prospects and I am turning 50 this year."

A breath and sob catches again in my throat and I quickly admonish myself,

"Get a grip girlie! If you die this morning from asphyxiation, you will never know what could have been. Just go back to sleep. You don't have to freak out about this for another 3 hours or more if you are lucky..." 

and I went back to sleep...thank goodness.

The answering machine switching on with my prerecorded message awakened everyone in the house later that morning to hear the surprising news that the article had come out in the paper about me and the fact I had lost my job doing marriage preparation at the Old Mission church.

It finally ran in the paper!

It was a huge picture and very sweet article written by Bill Morem at the Tribune. Of course I had to buy 14 copies of the newspaper! 

I was still in shock!

Being the first day of my 5oth year celebration, I wanted to do something I had not done before and also take in consideration my sweet husband's wish list for the day. He stated he just needed to watch on T.V.  a little Rose Bowl football but the rest of the day he was all mine.

 On the agenda: Visit Mission San Antonio.

We took all back roads, drove into Fort Liggett where the Mission is actually located and started to absorb the history, fauna and sunshine! Glorious, golden, old, Californian native oaks; pink scrub brush; huge sprawling, green manzanita; and rough,  dark grey, slate rocks covered the valleys, hills and mountainsides. As we approached the coastline on Highway One, the soft, white, marshmallow whipped clouds sitting over the ocean made us feel we were sitting up in the heavens gazing down on earth.

We ended up listening to the Rose Bowl on the car radio, sharing fish and chips in Morro Bay and returning home with pictures burned on our minds of majestic landscapes, humble Mission beginnings and stolen kisses in valleys of purple sage.