Crazy Cat Lady

Well, when I bought them they were $3.00 cupcakes. But after I was nailed by a cop doing 51 in a 35, they became $200 cupcakes. Maybe more, maybe less. I just got the ticket on Friday, so I have a little while before I find out what my contribution to the City of Chino will be. But I would not have been in that 35mph zone, had I not stopped for those damned cupcakes.

Funny enough, at lunchtime my colleagues and I were just discussing getting pulled over and how entering Carbon Canyon from Lambert is the hardest place not to speed. You see, for those who haven't driven "The Canyon," the worst thing is getting stuck behind a snail. It's one lane each way with no opportunities to pass said snail. And it's really annoying. My thought is, if you're going to go slow on The Canyon, then you might as well just take the freeway and go slow there, in the SLOW LANE. Anyway, I digress. That day, I made a concious effort not to travel at breakneck speed entering The Canyon. In fact, I've even been watching my speed and lowering my normal lead foot pace just for the reason that I've been trying to save money and don't want to get nailed for a ticket.

Well, this day I was distracted. You see I've been craving these cupcakes from this new bakery in downtown Chino called Royal Cakery. By no means am I dieting. I quit dieting because I hated it when I would take a break from dieting and people would point out the fact that I was consuming a product not in line with something one would consume with an end goal of losing weight. So I'm just trying to make better choices. As Queen Latifah would say, a "size healthy." So here we are on Friday afternoon, after a busy week of whining clients and "better choices." I decide to detour on over to a "weaker choice" and hoped to soon meet my lips with a lemon cream cheese cupcake. They didn't have lemon, and I couldn't decide between cherry chocolate and spice with cream cheese, so I went for both under the assumption that I would share with my mom. (Though we all know that more often than not the extra cupcake rarely makes it within smell shot of the person intended to share with.) So I happily depart with cupcakes in hand, eagerly anticipating getting home, kicking off my heels and fully enjoying this sweet delight. Well, my stomach must have been sending a signal to my brain to deliver a message of "go faster" to my foot. Which led me to a future date in traffic school. No cupcake is worth that.

In the last month or so, we've had about four of our clients die. Today I found out a client for a different broker that I used to work for recently passed. He was a sweet, old man that I used to talk to regularly who was always so kind on the phone. Another client just came in for an appointment a few weeks ago and seemed perfectly fine and healthy. He was just 75 and doing well, then out of nowhere had a massive stroke that ended up killing him.

I feel bad when I sometimes get annoyed with older people. We were at House of Blues the other day and I was talking about cruises and how there was a Mediterranean one I wanted to take. This lady chimed in on our conversation and said she took one, but warned me not take Holland America. She said they have the best medical care and therefore, the most old people. We joked about how slow they moved, and how cranky and easily annoyed they are. I often joke with colleagues about the grumpy old men who call in and bitch about anything, or the ones who call and won't let you get off of the phone because they'll bring up any possible topic just to have someone to talk to. I even get annoyed sometimes when my grandpa comes over, because he always seems to come either when I've just sat down for Sunday dinner or when I'm half naked and laying in front of a fan trying not to die of heat exhaustion. So I grumble a bit as I'm throwing on some clothes, then trudge into the living room and hang out and read the Chino Champions he brings me while he visits. Bad granddaughter.

But one day, and thesedays it seems that one day soon, he's not going to be there. He's 91, and even though he's fit as a fiddle and his mother lived past 100, he could be the next massive stroke victim. And its going to kill me. He's my last surviving grandparent. I never got to know my maternal grandfather, who my mom said was just like me and we would have had so much fun together. I miss my grandmas a ton and the more I type the more I'm starting to cry. Damn, why did I pick such a sad topic? Anyway, I know everyone knows this already, but enjoy the time you have with your family. Be kind to old people. Because before you know it, we're the ones moving at a snail's pace.