Party time

What a beautiful day!  Cue the opening song of Oklahoma as we continue.  It’s sunny, warm and just picture postcard perfection.  I was a little concerned that the roads would still be underwater following this week’s floods, but they were “bare and dry” (according to the City site) although what I saw had me feeling that they’d have been underwater if I’d tried during the week.  Jerry continues to milk his injury and has me trained to get out of bed, even while still not fully awake, to pick him up and put him back on the bed, or move my crochet aside so he has space on my lap for napping.  Don is again busy, as it’s Kentucky Derby day (apparently a horse race or something) and he’s been glued to it since around noon, and it’s several hours later and they still haven’t managed to run the race yet.  When they do, it’ll be run and over in the time it takes to say, “Horses up!”  Can you tell I’m not interested in this?  Yeah, I knew you could.  Don was saying something about a secretary?  (I’m kidding!  I know about Secretariat) 

I went to celebrate the 60th birthday of a friend and former colleague today — hence the dress and necklace.  I don’t usually wear jewellery at home, although I could… anyway, after much negotiation (mostly because of the flooding and concerns that the bridges might be closed) I drove over.  Waze is an excellent app and provides good directions!  If I’d followed them at the start, I’d probably have cut 15 minutes off my drive, even if I added a few extra km.  I was so very happy to see my friend, and even more to see that our other friend was there!  We hugged each other for so long that people were asking why… I really miss them.  We were all part of the same team several years ago, and were very close.  Then illness (mine and my friend’s cancer, then the pandemic) came between our meetings.  We’ll have to fix that this summer.  No arguments, delays or excuses.  Plus, of course, time for others of my truly awesome and amazing friend network, including the ones I see/speak to more regularly.  In our talk today we realized that we’ve known each other for about 15 years — and it’s so good to reconnect without awkward silences or questions.  I was able to share some challenging news with them, and their response was, “so how shall we celebrate our time together?”  That is honestly the best response I’ve ever got.  Many thanks my ladies!  I love you so much!

On the way home I stopped at the supermarket because I wanted to get a quick something to eat this week (I’m trying, really I am!)  I’d found some frozen Indian meals that I enjoyed (Some of, anyway; one that I expected to like I didn’t) so I headed straight to where I’d picked them up before… and instead there were shelves of frozen vegetables.  I hunted around the area, then through all the freezers around the edge of the store, and finally found them buried next to the ice creams.  The cashier sympathized with me, and said that they regularly rearrange the shelves to “keep customers on their toes” so we have to visit other areas of the store and possibly add items to the cart (the Cheetos were totally planned!  You can’t prove otherwise)  I also looked through the prepared meals section, which has a decent array of hot and cold foods.  I was tempted by a few items, but when I did the cost in my head, I realized that it would have been much more than my planned selection.  I also had considered driving to pick up meals from a restaurant, but I couldn’t make up my mind quickly, and my back was beginning to grumble that I’d taken it out… I’ll be resting tomorrow so I have more energy for another day.

I’m obviously back at home, with my boys.  One is still glued to the TV and I’m not entirely sure he knows that I’m in the house.  The other is on my feet, huffing to let me know that he’s a neglected puppy on the floor.  I’m going to have some tea and then play with the puppy for a bit — the only one who acknowledges my presence!  Good night.