Remembering Bud

Bud was an early boss of mine. She was a beautiful older woman, with silvery gray hair that she wore sort of pinned up in this bun. She was a widow. The year I graduated from college, I worked in a hospital, at night, in the accounting department typing (yes TYPING!!) bills for the outpatient department. I believe my hours were 5 pm to 10 pm.

Anyway, today I was having a new mattress delivered. I had planned it for today because my cleaning woman comes today and changes my sheets and so I planned it that the delivery would be in the morning and the clean sheets would be applied in the afternoon. No muss, no fuss... for me. No wasted energy of taking sheets off and then putting them back on.

When my mattress was delivered, I was patting myself on the back for my organizational cleverness. The angel on my shoulder was telling me what a genius I am to have this work out, while the devil on my other shoulder piped up with how incredibly lazy I am to have plotted this.

And now we're back to Bud.

She once said to me, "The laziest people in the world are also the most efficient because they will figure out the easiest way to do something." This is why I loved this woman -- she made my laziness a virtue.

I was thinking about her and I have to say she was one of the first independent women I knew... she wasn't the "poor widow" but she was this dynamic woman who was living a life she enjoyed. One day, on the way to work, I had a fender bender car accident. No one was hurt, but it was my first car accident and it really shook me up. I called Bud, voice trembling, saying I'd be late for work because of the accident and she told me to not even think about coming to work, that I should go home and pour myself a stiff drink and relax. I couldn't believe it. It never occurred to me that I not go to work and it was great to just go home.

On this night shift, there were Bud, me and one other woman. I can't remember her name, but she looked and talked like Fannie Flag -- deep southern accident. Whenever it was stormy, very cold or raining this woman would say, "Tonight's the night to be in bed with a good book or a good man, and you know which one I want..." and she'd look at me expectantly.

And I'd think... good book? good man? Hmmmm... both have their virtues. But all these 30 plus years later, on a stormy dark night, I often say to myself, "Tonight's the night to be in bed with a good book or a good man."