Welcome to "the engines of my love," a regular review
of why I love you, Martha Ellyn Sharp Nelson, and no
other woman.
I love you because you are Rob's mom. Pattie Dunn, the lawyer,
told me it was not a good idea for me to go to the hearing in front
of the judge, and she was pleased when I told her I was going out
of town. I actually did a pretty good job of completely putting out
of my mind the fact you were going downtown to get the divorce decree
finalized on Friday. I had been up most of Thursday night, following
the tantrum, packing for the river trip. I was able to stay awake to
get Rob and I to the airport, but as soon as we got on the plane I
was out like a light. I do not even remember waking up until we arrived
in Salt Lake City.
My friend Raymond Levey at the Bureau of Economic Geology had made
arrangements for me to have lunch with Bob Ehrlich of The Energy &
Geoscience Research Institute at The University of Utah. Rob and I got
to their office, which was just above Evan's & Sutherland's office on
the East Bench, right at 11:30. When the secretaries found Bob, the
three of us went to eat at a Greek restaurant named Hungry's on Foothill
Boulevard. It was a great lunch. Bob and Rob told bar jokes to each
other and really hit it off. For instance, there were these two strings
who wanted to go to a bar, but the bar refused to serve strings. So they
decided to disguise themselves by unraveling one end, and sticking the
unraveled end through a circle. When the bar tender came up he said `Are
you a string?' The answer was, `No, I'm a frayed knot.' Once we got
through the jokes, Rob got busy eating and actually listened to Bob and
I position our technologies against each other like a couple of male
peacocks. It was really a memorable lunch. The food was great. It
was a Gyro, but was called a Hero Sandwich. The dessert was the same
sweet layered desert you and I had after we got back to the main marketplace
in Athens following our tour of the Acropolis. I told Rob and Bob about
our trip, but other than that was able to keep my mind off the divorce.
Based on this lunch I am sure I will be doing a lot of work in Utah with
this group. Would not be surprised if I don't move to Salt Lake sometime,
to work for them full-time. I hope you are with me if this happens.
Following this meeting we drove to Provo (on the way down 5th South
I showed Rob the apartment where Roice was conceived) where I waited for an
hour and then had an hour meeting with John Pasket of The Covey Leadership
Center. It was really exciting to see how much they have bought into the
stuff we did for them a few weeks ago, and the steps they are going
through to make sure the technologies and ideas are properly introduced
into the company. I was higher than a kite by the time Rob and I left
Provo. Rob was really tired of waiting. He was bored to death, and it
was quite obvious.
We stopped at a Subway Sandwiches by Beaver for dinner. Got to the
house about 9:00. Talked to Cameron and Leslie, looked at all of the
boxes he had labeled for me, and then took Rob up to Sara's. We decided
to bring Rob back out to the house and to do a basic division of stuff.
I was surprised at all of the memories, including thins like my clay
3-D castle I built when I was in 8th grade. I really do not want any
of the stuff, but Sara is probably right I will change my mind with time
and once I am not feeling so much pain. Because Sara feels a need to
rent the house, it seemed like the best thing to do is to go back to
Utah and drive a U-Haul Truck back to Texas with all of the stuff being
given to our kids. Rob wanted the cow skull which the Medicine Man had
brought for Mom. I got to bed about midnight. I remembered you in
my prayers before I went to bed because I love you.
I'm interested in sharing why I love you. I know how important
the written word is to you, and if you ever feel neglected,
ignored, or unloved, and would like an up-to-date bound copy of
these lovelets or any subset of these lovelets for any purpose
you might have come to mind, please tell me or e-mail your request
to rnelson@walden3d.com with the request 'lovelet update.'
With all my love,
Roice