Singing Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long...

It was only a few days before she passed away that Bonnie gave me one last huge belly laugh.  A group of us had decided to be totally nerdy and play along with the Cranium daily calendar via e-mail.  Somehow I ended up being the moderator this year, so I sent out the trivia question, regarding the size of major landmarks.  I remember that the options included the Washington Monument, The Space Needle, The Empire State Building, and the Cincinnati Arch.  While I can't remember the question exactly (it was regarding the weight of the landmarks), I do remember that the answer was the Washington Monument.

Bonnie answered incorrectly that day, and I responded her her e-mail by telling her the correct answer.  The silly woman e-mailed back with, "I should have known that the Washington Monument was the answer-all of those heads on one rock have to weigh a ton!"  I had to re-read her response about three times before I realized that Bonnie had confused the Washington Monument with Mount Rushmore.

****

When I wrote a previous post remembering Bonnie, I told you that she was as country as they come.  I wasn't kidding.  When we still worked together, I would leave my office from time to time to stretch my legs and rest my brain.  I walked into her office and she said, "Whatcha need honey?"  I responded to her with: "Oh nothing, just wandering."  She looked at me, waiting for me to go on.  When I didn't, she finally said, "About what?"  Again, it took me several minutes before I realized that I had to explain to her that "wandering" and "wondering" meant two different things to most people.

****

Bonnie was definitely a go big or go home type woman.  When she reunited with her true love from the past (and remarried him) she spent every hour of her time outside of work with him.  She spent so much time with him that she was getting no sleep at all, except the sleep she was getting at her desk.  Her first offense resulted in a prank of setting an alarm off right by her head, only to watch her jump up a mile and fall out of her chair.

Her second offense was a little less startling, when our boss sat outside her office window and stared at her until she finally woke up.  She woke up, rubbed her eyes, noticed she had an audience, and immediately began to giggle.  There was no apology, no reprimand from our boss, no need for an explanation.  She just laughed at herself, shrugged her shoulders, and went on about her day.  Bonnie was never afraid to just accept the silly things she did and laugh at herself for them.  That quality made it so much fun to join in laughing at her.  She loved it when we laughed at her.  It was refreshing to be around someone who never took herself too seriously.

****

No doubt the woman loved her country music, as do most of us in Kentucky (shocker, huh?).  One song that she LOVED that I absolutely hated was Kid Rock's "All Summer Long."  Our Kentucky radio stations played the song what seemed like every hour on the hour.  Bonnie loved it so much that she would turn it on full blast every time, and even created a ringtone on her phone to play her favorite part of "tryin' different things, we were smokin' funny things..." and sing as loud as she could.  It drove me insane.  Not only did I hate that song, but my favorite co-worker blasted it out of her office nonstop for months.  

That stupid song came on the radio in my car for the first time since she died last week.  Now not only is it completely impossible for me to change the station, but I felt like I had to listen to it as loud as it would go, hoping maybe she was rocking out in heaven on her air guitar, talking about smokin' funny things.

Today would be Bonnie's birthday, meaning her boss would buy her lunch, and she would probably pick Mexican food like she always did.  We asked her if she always picked her favorite Mexican restaurant on her birthday as an early "Cinco de Mayo" celebration, and she would always say "Well sure! When is Cinco de Mayo anyway?"

Happy Birthday Bonnie Mae.