Seasonality

Oh my!  The temperature took a nosedive last night and today.  We had a frost warning for both last night and again for tonight, so it’s a good thing that our houseplants aren’t outside yet.  These sunflowers are the work of my friend at Elegant Designs Florals who does some amazing floral work.  He’s also one of the kindest, sweetest people on the face of the earth, and he’s one of our adopted brothers.  I had a poor night’s sleep last night, no real reason for it; I just couldn’t fall asleep until almost 3am then was awake by 8 and I’m feeling a little ragged now.  Jerry is full of spring fever — he’s frequently zooming around at top speed, tossing his toys for us to throw or play with, and he stole my plastic bowl that I use for crochet yarn, and wants me to chase him to get it back.  HA!  I won’t, I’ll just wait him out!  Don is in a much better state today - this happens when the weather is milder.  So while he’s complaining about the cold, he’s actually more comfortable than on colder or hotter days.

I weighed myself this morning in preparation for my (cancelled at the last minute) appointment with the dietitian, and learnt that I lost another 3lbs.  That’s not going in the right direction, though, so I obviously have some work to do in this regard.  Annoyingly, my midsection is large, so my clothes don’t fit well, even though I’m in somewhat smaller sizes.  But we’re in an imperfect world, so there will always be a small annoyance, right?

A friend of mine is preparing to attend a reunion event, and is very unwilling to go, but it’s a “must do” type function.  I can sympathize, as there are some aspects of my past that I don’t especially want to revisit!  Some years ago (I think I was recovering from my big surgery) I offered to arrange our high school reunion.  T and J both thought I was insane for wanting to do that, but I pointed out that I needed something to keep my mind occupied wile I was home, convalescing.  I reached out to those classmates I could find via Facebook, asked them to reach others so that we could contact as many of the 40 or so students in our class as possible.  I went through a few stages of asking would people be interested, what time of year would work best, what kind of events would people want, etc. I got answers from about 20 people, made tentative arrangements with a venue, and notified everyone, asking for confirmation by date X and a down payment by Y.  Among the responses that I got were, “Oh, I wondered when someone would do this!” (From a certified event planner); “I’ll need to arrange with the kitchen staff for my dietary requirements,” and “I can’t make it at that time of year, because of reasons,” and so on.  T and J at this point were openly laughing at me when I vented about the responses and the lack of commitment.  Apart from these headaches, I had a fear that my bullies might show up to the event.  There was no way that I could reasonably say, “You people can’t come!” There was a cold worm of nerves whenever I checked the email in fear that they would respond with “Yes, can’t wait!”

As it happened, the date for confirmation came and went, as did the date for payment, so I sent out emails on both saying that due to a lack of response the reunion would not take place.  Instead, when I happened to be at home with family, I sent out a last ditch email saying, “I’m in the country, and if you’re free, how about we get together for dinner at this place and reconnect?”  Six people replied, and we had a great dinner with a lot of laughter and condensing <redacted> years of life.  One of the things that came up was that each of us was afraid that our school bullies would have shown up — they were really quite unpleasant personalities — and were thankful that they didn’t.  As it happened, the six of us had not had contact with them after school finished, and we’re not missing them.  We had enough fun that we reconvened a few days later with some more of our classmates for brunch.  I’m so happy I went, as I was able to reconnect with some of my old schoolmates of whom I have fond memories.  Each of us confessed some nerves about getting together after all this time, as we didn’t know how things would have changed.  I explained this to my friend, who is stuck in the “I haven’t seen these people in over 20 years, they hurt me badly, so why would I give them another chance to do that?”  I’ve tried explaining that they’ve all changed (including my friend) and they probably don’t know how badly they hurt them, but facing them would help realize that they have no power to affect my friend’s life any more.  Not sure how that will work, and I can’t hold out expectations that the bullies won’t appear, because their “accepted” status is visible.  

A, J & T have reminded me that I don’t need hassle in my life, so if there’s going to be a reunion, then perhaps the event planner can take it on.  As for the group of us that met up, it’s grown somewhat from the initial 6, and we’ve met a few times on my trips home — another reason to visit Trinidad! — plus I’m sure that there are others who will join in, minus the bullies.  I’ll just note that being nice is a much better long-term strategy for productive interpersonal relationships than bullying or attacking others for being bookish, fat, non-athletic, shy or otherwise different.  My friends from that era are still my friends, even though it’s been decades since we were last in a classroom together, and I still enjoy spending time with them and hearing about their experiences.  Many thanks, ladies, for being good, fun, kind people!

Don is playing some (loud) music, and Jerry would like me to get him to stop.  So I’ll be off to calm down the puppy.  Good night!