I can’t NOT be doing something.

Sometimes, when things get to me, I wish that I could take a vacation. Then, when I do, I end up doing just as much work on my “break” as I do when I’m working!

I imagine that when I (finally) retire, I’ll end up doing volunteer work.

My favorite bartender (and my biggest cheerleader, after my husband) is already 62 years old. She’s a Vietnamese immigrant. In the last month, she slipped and knocked herself unconscious. Despite a huge bump on her head and two black eyes, she came right back to work, despite speculation to the contrary. Then, she ended up in the hospital with suspected hypertension. People just KNEW she was going to take some time off. They were wrong. The same day she got out of the hospital (after a two day stay), she was right back at work. She is pretty much the sole bread-winner for a family of three (her two youngest daughters and a granddaughter live with her, although the daughters work, it is not nearly enough to provide for them all without her income). But, despite the fact that she HAS to work, from my conversations with her (we work together two nights a week and chat about her life in Vietnam during and after the war), I believe that she would work, even if she didn’t have to.

In so many ways, she is my mentor. I call her “Mama” and many people tease us that we are sisters because on a lot of issues regarding our business, we are like-minded and stick up for each other, often, when others are trying to change how we do things. In fact, my business would not be nearly as successful if it were not for her efforts on my behalf.

If this sweet “old lady” can find the strength and indeed, courage, to continue to get up every day and come into work for a sometimes ungrateful employer and take care of herself and her family, and stay involved in her community, despite her age and sometimes her ignorance of the world around her (she often asks me to explain world events and politics to her)…if she can do it, then it is nothing for a young lady, such as myself, to get up every day and put myself to work and make accomplishments that I would never have dreamed possible even a decade ago (or even a year ago).

Women like Pamela and Diep (my favorite bartender) inspire me to keep going, even when I would rather be sleeping. The world is full of people who would rather take the easy road (only work when they absolutely HAVE to) and sometimes we all take for granted that somebody somewhere probably broke their back to give us what we now consider the creature comforts of life. I know that I am paving the way to make it easier for someone else and I hope that my efforts inspire someone else to go “that extra mile” when they would rather be sleeping

Now, where’s my coffee???

It’s something — not sure what that. Maybe the curse of the women who do too much!

Amazing!