It was a dark and stormy night, and while thunder crashed and lightening zig-zagged through the sky outside, Mary sat quietly inside typing drivel on her blog, nursing a cocktail, and contemplating the Mysteries of the Universe.
Yep. Pretty much what’s happening at the moment. It’s pouring cats and dogs, and our elderly flame point Siamese cat, Cosmo, keeps meowing at the back door to go out, returning just moments later to say, “Let me back in. I’m wet!” And this is repeated every ten minutes throughout the evening. Good cat!
While life has felt like it was out of control in recent weeks, today I’m feeling like I’ve got a grip. Bills have been paid, appointments have been made and kept, chores completed, food prepared, pets cuddled, and correspondences with loved ones accomplished. I think back to just three months ago when I was 100% certain that living without children in my house would make my life dull and not worth living and have to laugh. Life is grand! Our kids are flourishing on their own and are kind enough to check in at appropriate intervals. Life is good.
We’ve been so busy: We’ve attended concerts, we’ve seen friends, we’ve taken more interest in the upkeep of our home. We’ve procured new cars and dumped the old ones. We’ve spent two weekends at the beach . . . and didn’t have to worry about trouble our teenagers might be getting into while we were away. I’ve managed to get Hubby on board with my S.W.D.N. (shit we don’t need) Project, and was proud as punch last week when he took four old computers out of our garage for donation. After browsing in my closet with Eve for a dress she could borrow (a pitiful experience), I put 15 old dresses in the Goodwill pile. After she left, I attacked my pile of 30 pairs of jeans. OH SO SAD. I will likely never again be a size 8 . . . and bell bottoms appear to be not the style du jour. Oh, how I adored you, my jeans with gems on the back pockets and silver stitching on the seams! Your flared legs diminished the size of my arse, and for that I will always be grateful! Go in peace, and know that I loved you with all of my heart!
And last weekend (this is big): We planted a vegetable garden in the backyard! We’d used the lovely garden space in the side yard precisely four times and after having lackluster results decided it didn’t get the right sun. But after gardening at the community garden last year, I figured out it was a problem of the soil not being balanced. After “borrowing” some compost from my community garden, I’m pleased to say I have mesclun (leaf lettuce blend) and pole beans sprouts which are about a 1/2 inch high. It fills my heart to inspect our garden’s progress each day. Ain’t nature grand?
Aside from gardening and home projects, this week we tried a new restaurant this week called Tompopo Ramen. Now let me be clear: I am not saying this is a bad restaurant. I am saying I did not like the food. It’s known as serving the best Japanese ramen in the Valley, but apparently, Top Ramen is the only ramen I like. When my bowl of noodles arrived with a weird slice of pork roast and a soft boiled egg floating in the broth, my heart sank. I bravely dug in, but eeeuuwww, for me it was not delicious in any way. But we left this vibrant diner feeling like we’d had an adventure and with lots of broth splashed on our shirts.
Lastly, how much fun was it to watch the Cubs win the World Series? For years we were huge Diamondbacks fans, but when all games were moved to cable tv (10 years ago), we stopped being fans. (We have never had cable tv.) Watching the World Series games reminded me of how much I miss baseball. I was born in Illinois, so, go Cubs! And what a great reminder that we need to get back out to the ballpark.
Cheers,
Mary
Cheers, Darling 