“Another thing I am enjoying about in-person meetings,” a friend of mine said, “is the excuse to perk up my wardrobe and do a little shopping!” Her comment was in response to my blog post last week, about going back to in-person meetings and events after a year of doing them online. I was noting that we once again had to factor in travel time and traffic, which we didn’t need to do when we got to these meetings by sitting down in front of [...]
The monthly book club I belong to meets on Wednesday afternoon, and is usually over by 4:00. A special, one-time event at Georgia Writers Museum, where I serve on the Board and am an active volunteer, was originally scheduled from 5:00 to 7:00 on the Wednesday before Book Club, but suddenly had to be postponed a week – which gave me a bit of a scheduling conflict. “Not a problem,” was my first thought, since a Zoom meeting that ends at 4:00, and another one [...]
I want to wish a Happy Mother’s Day today to all the moms reading this, and also to everyone who’s done any “mothering” – especially over the past year. The need for caretakers has been astronomical during this extremely challenging year, and many people have taken on roles and responsibilities they never imagined themselves in. People I already considered to be unsung heroes – teachers and healthcare workers being high on the list – found their jobs becoming even more demanding. Many of them rose [...]
I had an appointment for a medical scan Friday morning in Atlanta, which is almost a two-hour drive on a good day with little traffic. Since there is rarely a good day with little traffic in Atlanta, and since I had to be there at 8:30, we left our house around 6 a.m. It was still dark, but before long a pink glow in the eastern sky signaled the coming sunrise. My husband was driving, so I was able to sit and watch the sky [...]
We visited our daughter in Florida last weekend – the first time we’ve seen her in almost a year and a half. It was a much shorter drive than when we visited our son and his family in Minnesota a few weeks ago. Plus it didn’t involve any overnight stays along the way. Still, we took all the necessary precautions, plus a weekend’s worth of masks and hand sanitizer, as we hit the road. On the few stops we made – for gas or a [...]
Maybe it’s because the weather is getting summery in our part of the country, and we’re able to sit outside on sunny days, waving to neighbors who are also out in their yards. Maybe it’s because we just had out-of-town company, and we’re now enjoying leftover snacks, meals, and memories from when they were here, and the clean house that’s also left over from their visit. Maybe it’s because a few of the clubs and organizations I belong to are starting, cautiously, to meet again [...]
It’s been more than a year since we’ve had company at our house. Real company, not the occasional repairman, delivery person, or someone in the neighborhood picking something up or dropping something off. And in that year, we’ve done the normal chores and tasks that go with housecleaning and home maintenance. But we haven’t done the heavy-duty cleaning and decluttering we do when company’s coming. Until now. Some friends from our hometown – they’re our age, and, like us, were recently inoculated with both doses [...]
I still go back to my childhood when I think of Easter – both the religious and non-religious aspects of it. It takes me to memories of the bright colors of Easter eggs and Easter baskets, the wonderful smells coming from Grandma’s kitchen and our own as food was prepared and cooked, as cakes – in the shape of lambs – were baked and decorated, and as visions of chocolate bunnies danced in the heads of my sisters and me. Mass was early Sunday morning, [...]
Many years ago, I had surgery for breast cancer, followed by a year of monthly chemotherapy treatments. After each one, I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed, nauseous and exhausted. I was tired and a bit queasy for most of the week, then I’d have three weeks off until it was time to do it all again. One of the things I remember about that time is how eagerly I kept counting down the number of treatments I had left. [...]
We spent two days driving, then two and a half days at our destination, and another two days coming home. Some people might question whether the time we spent there was worth the time it took to get there and back. Under other circumstances, I might agree. But not this time. We were visiting our grandkids. My husband and I got our second vaccination in mid-February, and waited the recommended amount of time to allow the vaccine to come to full strength. Then we hit [...]