ODE TO THE OFFICE GODDESS

Since my picture host seems to be down today, I figured I had better get a content piece of really quick or readers would be scratching their head in wonderment that I chose to display those little white boxes with red "x"es in them.

You have all heard of the sore throat. (Still here on Saturday.) I have been going to work throughout this, working half days at the office and the rest at home thanks greatly to USB memory devices, a laptop I can operate from bed, and bad movies from the Lifetime Movie Network (aka Battered, Oppressed, Eating Disordered Network.) I usually get my coffee fix at work. Since I drive 45 minutes to get there I prefer to drive there asleep. The other reason is that Sandra makes the office coffee first thing in the morning and it there and waiting for me when I arrive. This also allows for approximately one half hour of paid wake up time. (Don't tell the bosses, oops, I already did!)

Sandra is the Office Goddess who is always there when someone says, "Anybody got a safety pin?" Or, "I have to leave early today, would someone cover my phone shift?" She's the one that brings in the braided bread and fruit loaves. (With cream cheese, too, I might add.) She's the one who takes care of her family...extended and otherwise and she's the one who rocks.

She is also the one who has the Advil, the aspirin, the scented candles or anything else you might need during the course of the day. And, she is the "wife" I have always deserved. Last Friday, when I showed up for work on the seventh day of some holy sore throat pain, I went to the kitchen, poured a HALF cup of coffee since I needed the caffeine yet the heat on the throat was less than soothing. Sandra walked into the kitchen, opened the freezer and said, "Here, I brought this for you, it's so you can have your caffeine and also have something cold on your throat."

She handed me a quart sized thermal cup full of some brown frozen slushy stuff. "What is it?" I ask with my usual paranoid, who-is-trying-to-kill-me-now, tone. I can't remember what she nswered because I had already tasted it and all senses were void to me except the one experiencing the cold, pain relieving feeling in the back of my throat. I was as close the "big one" as I have ever been.

I carried that cup and the spoon with me through five hours. A small bit, held on the back of the throat, relieved the pain, staved off coughing spasms and was the best medicine I could have received. PLUS, she gave me the recipe so that this weekend I could make it for myself. I am absolutely sure that no matter how many times I do, it will never taste as good as the one given to me by:

SANDRA

OFFICE GODDESS EXTRAORDINAIRE