At last, the first daffodil. You know, February is traditionally my least favorite month, but now that I'm a gardener I think I'll have to change my mind. February is when things start to bloom around here. It's very exciting to come home and see new flowers or more advanced stages of flowering trees every day. I go out into my yard and croon to my plants. I can just tell I'm going to wind up as one of those potty old ladies who wears flowered dresses and dodders around the garden looking for fairies.
I meant to transplant those violets this weekend, I really did, but I woke up today with a badly wrenched neck and when I made my painful way across town to see Dr. Bob the chiropractor he pleaded with me not to do anything to ruin his work. Actually, he said, "You need complete rest. No physical activity at all. Your chronic upper cervical problem needs a break." I came home feeling better, if not absolutely well (I'll feel better after some sleep and an ice pack applied to my neck), and happily informed John I would be unable to do any vaccuuming this weekend. I find I can't sleep, though, nor watch tv with the residual headache, so I'm "resting" here at the computer.
Luckily, since I'm not supposed to be leaning my head over a computer keyboard or a book, I have something else to amuse me. One of the perks of my job is earning points by selling particular vendors such as Hertz or Radisson when making reservations. If the cost is the same, I steer clients towards the vendors that give me points; I hasten to point out I have never tricked or forced anyone into using our preferred vendors just so I can earn neat stuff. The points reward system is common in the industry, and I've been part of several programs over the years. The most rewarding one gives me actual money on an American Express every quarter. Recently, I noticed I'd accumulated 75,000 points on another program, having never redeemed any of them in the past two years. The gifts were boring, I thought, things like cameras (I have three), luggage (I have eight or nine pieces already), and gift certificates to restaurants I don't eat at (Olive Garden, TGI Friday's) or stores that don't carry my size clothing (Victoria's Secret). Two weeks ago I got the new rewards catalog and discovered they offered gift certificates to Barnes & Noble. Yay! I turned in my points and went shopping.
I bought a Spanish language kit. This one uses cassette tapes. No more compatibility problems, and it's free thanks to my reward certificates. It's the same company I used when I was taking French conversation classes a few years ago, so I'm comfortable with their system. I expect to be speaking Latin American Spanish like a gringo any minute now. What was really interesting about the selection was the number of situational Spanish tapes available. I could have bought a program that would help me communicate with my staff of domestics and gardeners. I could have selected Law Enforcement Spanish. I could have boned up on dealing with hospitals and health care workers, or taught myself Business Spanish. It was California on a bookshelf, right there in the language tape section.
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