"Sashenka"

This novel by Simon Montefiore takes place starting in 1916 Russia as it sits on the brink of revolution. Saskenka Zeitlin is just 16 but already she's playing a dangerous game of conspiracy. Twenty years later she's married to a powerful, rising Red leader with whom she has two children. All around her people are disappearing. She thinks she's safe because of her long time service to Stalin until she allows herself 11 days of passion outside her marriage and that's where her life and the lives of everyone she loves changes. Fifty years later her story is uncovered by a young historian who goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers her heartbreaking tale of betrayal and cruelty. A great read which is similar to that of "Sophie's Choice."

I hate the expression "between a rock and hard place" but today I find myself there. I've been friend with a former client that I sold a farm to about 15 years ago. She and her husband started a vineyard (with everyone's help they could find; mine included) and every year until last year, we harvested the grapes. The marriage ended a few years ago and she bought him out and continued running the vineyard and her own successful business. A new love in her life and her busy schedule has now convinced her to sell off the vineyard and she's called me to help her out. I've been giving her real estate guidance for many years so I got the call today. Just when I was feeling comfortable about my decision to escrow my license I'm faced with having to pull it back out and find a company that will let me work part time at it. Of course I could turn her over to another agent and kiss that huge commission goodbye. Oh my! I swear I could have continued to pay my fees and dues for the rest of the year and not gotten one call and since I've cancelled my license this is my second one in two weeks. Murphy's Law! I had hoped she'd find someone to run the vineyard for her and rent the property out until she was sure of her future.

Things have picked up at my job. I got extra hours working for the scheduling coordinator who is so busy she hasn't had a vacation since she took the job. She thinks that my record of dependability speaks well for me so she wants me to fill in for her while she takes that long awaited vacation. That means learning a whole different job on top of what I already do. The extra hours are great and I do get to sit down a little at a desk but it's a little overwhelming. Hopefully I have three Mondays of working with her to get it down "pat" before she heads off. And I was silly enough to think that when I got to be this age I could start thinking about retirement.