Classic Late Bloomer, Happily Divorced, Proud As Punch Mom and Grandmother. Attempting To Accept Golden Years As An Adventure Rather Than A Curse. Typical 21st Century Girl? Read on!
Having clean sweats and bath towels and all is very nice.
But the best of all has nothing to do with laundry.
Most Friday afternoons my glorious Middle Daughter (I've got to find a better pseudonym for her. "Middle" has some inappropriate connotations that don't hint at how swell this young woman is.) and her equally glorious little girl stop by.
Yeah, I know, my pictures are always blurry.
This is an old one anyway.
Check out those chocolate filled Twinkies.
Believe it or not those were a BIG disappointment.
Her Mommy lets me share one cookie or saltine with Miss Ellie Bananas.
Fair enough, it is close to her dinner time.
Twice now I offered the classic:
She doesn't have the hang of nibbling the cookie while it remains like a ring on her finger. But she's got the gusto already!
This time I was left slathered in shortbread mush on both shoulders and chest.
I LOVE THOSE GIRLS!
Now if I can get the rest of my precious offspring and their precious offspring to drop by also...
Meanwhile I am revelling in those Lucky Fridays and nice clean clothes.
Chemex coffee carafe. I wish I had mine back again. This is an item I literally saved pennies to purchase. (Embarrassed to admit that I first saw it on "Friends" long, long ago.) It worked like a charm and I felt ever so sophisticated every time I used it. I think I know where it is and if it is I will never see it again. Alas. For many reasons.
However recently I found some white plastic boxes in the trunk of Ancient Vehicle. I have not removed them yet because planning how to get them out of the boot (always wanted to use that British vernacular...), into the rolling basket, up the ramp, through the ass killing entry door, and completely down the hallway without severe tears and injury... well, more than I can muster. What I need are Old Testament slaves.
Anyway, there is a very, very slim chance my carafe is in one of those boxes. I doubt it. But if it is I will apologise on this spot. And make an exquisite pot of coffee for myself and anyone interested.
And it really DID snow last night. My photos suck as usual. But the lilac leaves crumbled and the newly trimmed trees glowed. The best part of the evening for me was Miss Ellie Bananas and her Mommy stopping by. Ellie chomped on a cinnamon graham cracker and covered me with mushy crumbles. I wouldn't accept that from almost everyone. From that one, though, I relished it.
Both days had glorious special breezes (required for swell weather). Leaf breezes. Grass breezes. Sifting evergreen into the windows breezes. Even the ridiculous squirrels were stopping and popping on the sidewalk breezes.
The sky on both days were worth writing home about. But, less admit it, sky blue in and of itself isn't something special. There are a jillions blue shades that I prefer. Cobalt. Turquoise. Cerulean. Beany Malone bed room walls. My grandchildren's eyes.
But when the sky has the cloudy condiments in the usual blue it is damn well acceptable.
Yesterday was a sweet shopping day. Found each item: wooden clothes pins, the blue toilet tank bowl freshener, hot Oke Doke cheese popcorn, votive candles, key lime yoghurt, and the giant coral cactus I've been scouting for two months. Such a happy girl.
AND... I got to drive myself home in my precious Ancient Vehicle with two new tires!
Today I replanted plants. Met the PT chap. Spoke to five (FIVE!) of my favorite peoples. Watched the Children Parade which I've missed this summer. Made an almost perfect tuna sandwich. Realized how lucky I am to have the daughters, friends and grandchildren that I have. Especially today I am grateful
Oh, it got dark at 6:26 pm. If it stayed a bit lighter a bit longer....oh, yeah... I'm focusing on gratitude.
Are we allowed to use Indian Summer as the title for this current season? I hope so because today was absolutely glorious.
If a Top Month Contest was taking place, I think September would be way out in front thus far. My ballot would include:
1 to 3. Days with Baby Sister
4. Shower at home
5. Tried to read
6. Library Guy
7. Did my own laundry!
8.Enjoyed aroma of burning leaves outside my window
9. Emails to friends and instructors
10. Check in on new blog lists
11. Broccoli quiche'
12. This date open
13. Ancient Vehicle has been repaired
14. Household plants
15. Send cards and thank you
16. Carnation shopping
17. Sister's birthday!
18, Company
19. Doctor appointments
20. Another
21. Glitter letters
22. Therapy progress
23. Daughters
24. Company
25. Grandchildren
26. Ex-husband's birthday
27. Library Guy
28 to 30th Eldest Younger Brother!!!
Saw several of the interiors of my body that I never expected to see. Listened to the underground music of a "fancy schmancy brain scan" which was surprisingly entertaining. Lost the ability to speak and gave gallons for blood tests. Ate really crappy food and ate unusually yummy food. Watch, I think, every Star Trek movie offered on the television. Missed my own little apartment very much and ever so grateful to be able to return eventually in one rather piece.
Phone calls with precious friends, Baby Sister and visits from even more precious friends, Sister and son, cherished Darling Daughters and their babies. Visits from others I never would have imagined ever occurring; and am still trying to fathom and determine those events. People who went out of their own busy lives to check up on me and to let me know they care. I am incredibly blessed with these remarkable humans.
September is here now. Trying to catch up on all I left on my desk a month ago. Suddenly even my life has becoming hectic. Paperwork and phone calls and emails that are all vital and new. I will be on a priority and a new schedule I really do not prefer. Yet glad I have a bit still to attempt.
Even though the heat has temporarily broken, the humidity has not. Typical of a Midwestern summer all us ladies of a certain age and weight class are sweating like pigs. We do not glow nor do we perspire. There is nothing pretty about our wringing wet faces on a day when the heat index is in the triple digits.
I lolled in my breezy bedroom later than usual cramming in the last few pages of the last book which is due today. Such luxury. I had opened the living room window before bedtime and so the rest of the house had baked while I rested. Needless to say my trundling to the shower was a scorcher.
And so I am squeaky clean and smell delish thanks to Eldest Daughter's LUSH body wash, the cheap-oh shampoo, and my third most favorite cologne. I burned some incense to banish the smoky smell from the crowd that gathers in the driveway at the crack of dawn. Down for some serious blog trolling, when what do I feel? The beginnings of a sweat sheen on my forehead!!!!!
Screw savings! I cranked up the air. Enjoy this instead of a cranky post about the weather. Oh, yeah...I kind of did that already. Well, instead of another cranky post about the weather then.
I tried to paint on this photo of my daughter and some of her friends. The paint part was all pink and squiggly. Apparently it didn't work, or did not survive the copy and paste process. Maybe the image is floating in the cyber ether someplace, wafting on the currents of the interwebs.
Never fear. The important portion is there.
My beauteous Eldest Daughter "hugely pregnant" as she'd be the first to say. I can't believe how gorgeous she is. Well, actually I can. I don't think she's ever taken a bad picture. You know the kind. One eye is squinted crookedly closed. Or spinach flecks are clinging to front teeth. Or, and I see these a lot lately, gang signs are inadvertently flashed with mouths open and tongues outstretched. Yuck. But this girl has always photographed well. Especially now.
In a few days she will deliver this new baby. Her first child weighed over ten pounds. This baby is also predicted to be big. It is such a blessing that my Daughter will be spared the work of labor and delivery and the baby can join the world safely. Sometimes technology is a beautiful thing.
I think it is so cool that babies can just join you, just fall into a family as it were, and they are instantly loved and cherished. I can't wait to meet this new little person.
Very bad week finally ended with an entirely too brief but incredibly welcome visit from two of my Darling Daughters and the Winsome Granddaughter. I must say that little girl is becoming even more of a delight. Dug her chubby baby toes into my tummy as she jounced around. Blew innumerable spit bubbles as we spoke fart noise/zerbit language to one another. My shirt was soaked and I loved every minute of it.
Next day long awaited visit from my Downstate Best Buddy. Tears, reminiscence, good Asian take-out, more tears, and solving most of the world's problems. (If only the guys in charge would listen to the elder women things would go much more smoothly. Alas, it is not to be.) Lots of hugs.
That night, in terror, I began the new drug regime. Blah, blah, blah. I woke up and was still alive. Okey dokey. I'll give this thing a shot. Gritted what's left of my teeth and swung both legs over the side of the mattress.
Yikes! The same pain in the same place with the same intensity. AND I knocked a pile of folded shirts onto the floor. Damn. Gimps will understand how a little goof up like that can spin a morning almost out of control. Let's just skip it. I soldiered on.
Kitchen to cobble together the usual breakfast. The margarine tub winds up on the floor. Who did THAT? It fell opened but right side up; so that really was a comparatively minor set back.
Hobble hobble hobble to the chair with coffee and toast. Sit-um-down gingerly adjusting for leg position. Place canes at the ready near the bookcase. KEE-RASH!! Glass container with rooting pothos smashes to the floor. Damn, damn, double damn,
I wasn't crazy about the vase and the plant was pilfered from the lobby anyway. But cleaning up this mess may take me the better part of the day. Reaching, bending, sweeping, carrying. All are chores that are on my "Almost Impossible To Accomplish" list. To say nothing of the microscopic glass shards I know are lurking.
Almost forgot! Sloshed half a cup of luke warm coffee all over my phone.
Never the less. It shall be done. Tune in next week.
A really cool call from my best friend whom I never see informing me about an opportunity to obtain some much needed medical aid. She's such a sweetie for thinking of me.
Really good news for Darling Eldest Daughter and her boys. Wagons Ho!
The potential for really good things to happen soon for Sister and Son. I'm always baffled when I hear that "siblings" begrudge her any good fortune. Some of this family "just ain't right."
Really weird failure at making dark chocolate peanut butter fudge. Let's call it a learning experience. Tastes great but ugly.
Lots of really good books from Library Guy and a special order magazine that came in its own sealed delivery pouch.
Finding the really magnificent "little red rock" I've been searching for. Take THAT, Big Box. The item was discovered in Tennessee.
And, could it be? Here at Elder House the distinct aroma of a pot smoking geezer. Summer has officially begun I guess.
Woke up with this song playing in my head. Okey Dokey. Since I am always on the lookout for inexpensive (read free) ways to entertain myself I decided to take this as a tuneful omen.
Something that makes me very sad is the current situation with my family. I'm working hard at coming to terms with it,but in the meantime .....
WHY NOT GOOGLE SOME NEW FAMILY MEMBERS???!!! What a brainstorm!
I'd definitely keep two of my sisters, all my daughters and grandchildren, at least one brother (jury's still out on the other three. no malice, I just haven't heard from them in years so have no points of reference), and probably all my cousins, nieces,and nephews. And sons-in-law. That's the easy part.
As to the new members....Stick to the living? Or include admirable deceased? Imaginary folk, movie or literary characters for instance? Quite a lot to ponder here.
One thing I know for sure:
Tom Hanks is my first choice for big brother. I don't have one and I think Tom would be perfect. Imagine him bringing all his cool friends over when he was in high school. Imagine him helping me learn to tie shoes, ride a bike, drive a car. Imagine him sticking up for me when I got teased. Imagine him teasing me. Imagine him telephoning just to talk simply because he needed to hear me as much as I needed to hear him.
This time last year my daughters and I were preparing for a joint graduation celebration. Baby Sister came into town from the hinterlands of New England and my two best buds finally met. It was such a happy time. I am still overwhelmed by the love and effort put forth by so many. Thanks, Guys.
Now I'm trying. Crocheted a bundle of sleeves and covered some hideous plastic containers. Three successes there. Grew some beet foliage that was more gorgeous than I could have predicted.
And then it died.
No broken hearts. I composted what I could. Saved the soil. Reworked the sleeve. Waited for inspiration. And it came, eventually.
When I was a home owner I delighted in my teeny herb garden. Terra cotta pots on a bent wire baker's rack on my front porch. Dappled shade. Dappled sunlight. Bliss. Parsley, basil, tarragon,thyme, mint, dill, and chives in abundance. Here the scale is more limited.
And so I potted up some sage, mint, and rosemary. So fragrant. So lovely. What visions I had of yummy edible surprises. Roast chicken. Herbal iced teas. Smoothies. But disaster struck! Today I found this on my counter:
Can you see? Hideous smudgy black spots on almost every leaf. As if the poor plants had been attacked by aliens or acid rain or....who knows what. "That is a disappointment" as Ron Howard would say.
34 Trees outside my bedroom
35 Months without a cigarette
3 Precious Jewels
2,345 Messages deleted from my old aol account
7 Phone calls completed
2 Calls returned This is where the video for "Dance 10 Looks 3" from A Chorus Line The Movie is supposed to go. Anyone who knows how to find it, copy it, and actually figure out how to insert the damn thing, please let me know. Thanks!
88 Steps to the exit
17 Cars usually in the parking lot
8,450.00 Price of a motorized wheelchair
19 Trips to the bathroom
6 Nightmares last night
47 Pain on a scale of one to ten
11 Days til the card reloads
96 Sad
62 Minutes wasted waiting for program to boot up
5 Snarky emails sent to said program's network
4.09 Dollars in my account
1 Hideous runaway dog
8 Daily meds
11/2 Remaining time
In the past few days I have been watching all the Star Wars episodes via YouTube clips.
Fun, because I can pick and choose scenes, "rewind" what I especially like and skip the interminable battle scenes.
Let's face it, if you've watched once you know who is going to live or not. All the duelling seems phony baloney; those twisting jumps are snazzy but would a real dueller have time to think about snazziness? And the flying battle scenes? Yawn. Bang, bang, zoom, zoom. Where does all the sound come from in the vacuum of space, eh?
Nah.
I like the plot and I adore the characters. Even the Bad Guys. Maybe especially the Bad Guys.
And I relish the memories these films evoke for me.
I was a young married lady when the original Star Wars was released.
My brother Frankie got my husband and I balcony seats and, well... we were instantly enthralled.
Those majestic credits daringly rolling backwards and that triumphant John Williams score.
By the time Empire was released we had a baby daughter and you can bet we brought her; perched in her white bucket car seat turned toward the screen.
Her eyes became saucers as the rebels zipped by on the planet Hoth. Good times.
So, I have been enjoying this blast from the past.
If you don't have the time or luxury I strongly recommend the following.
