now here's a story....

 Well, yesterday was a good day.  To the pool I went, first thing in the morning.  I met my friend Angela there.  When I walked down the ramp into the pool, I would have to bypass a group of seven people, obviously doing a water aerobics class, to get into an empty lane.  I found myself asking is this a class?  Can I join you?  They were so nice, of course!  The instructor introduced everyone, then Angela came walking out of the locker room, scanning the pool for me...Over here, Angela, I've joined this class!

Can I mention something?  This was  totally and completely OUTSIDE OF MY COMFORT ZONE.  The word COMFORT wasn't even on remotest horizon, I hated this, yet...I loved it.  

Turns out Angela and I loved the class, which is the arthritis aerobics class.  We worked muscles we didn't know we had.  It felt fantastic, and the best thing:  they meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Accountability, that's what I need.  I told them they'd be seeing me, every class, except for when I'm in Cali next week.

After a hot shower, I left and went to the city to pick up the freshly roasted coffee, oh heavenly aroma!  Then I went into the thrift store, since I was already in the city, and no one was with me to roll their eyes.  I bought an Anita Shreve book, one small square baking pan, and...:

A countertop Brita water filter container with a spigot, brand new, never used!  It still had the instruction book, and the filter wasn't opened...$6.99.  

In the afternoon, I had to go out and about with Jonathan.  I didn't really like this outing, but I made the best of it.  Jon decided he had to get a vaccination.  Now, some of you think these are the greatest thing ever for mankind, and some of you would rather jump off a cliff than get one, and for me...I would relate more to the latter.  I wouldn't forbid him, of course not, he's almost eighteen (end of the month!).  He's traveling to Norway next week, and has a layover in Finland...he thought he needed to have proof of having Covid (he has that, as he had it in January), and at least one jab towards full vac-status.   But, he's just passing through Finland, he only has to comply with the country which is his destination, Norway.  But, he's traveling to Germany in the summer, to spend a year there, so he will need that vaccination for that.  It's all very frustrating, that you have to put something potentially unnecessary, to put it mildly,  into your body, just to satisfy a law/mandate.  

I'm not trying to stir the wasps' nest about the effectiveness of these shots (although I can't help but say this:  in my county right now, six people are hospitalized for/with Covid, and every single one of them is vaccinated.)

Once it was clear that Jon made the decision to get this, I tried to be as encouraging and supportive as I could, which wasn't easy.  We had to stay at the Rite-Aid for fifteen minutes afterward, to make sure he was going to be okay.  That part was easy:  we bought some chocolate covered almonds, Hershey Kisses with almonds, and some bars and snacks for his trip.  I also bought three cute little chocolate bunnies to put in a cute little basket I bought at the thrift store.

Taco salad for dinner, then some kitty cuddles...

Kettler (the dark calico, aka Mama Kitty) was on my lap, purring away.  Orange Guy, one of her many sons, whom we kept from our very final litter of kittens.   (We finally caught her between "batches" to get her spayed, once we had brought her in and the vet declared her pregnant, and we were not about to allow kitty-bortion, ha.  )

 

He is a bossy cat, the dominant one.  He came up purring, and reached over and batted at his mama.

Then he gave her a sniff...

...backed up, gave a growly face...

...batted again, she jumped down, he stretched out luxuriously on my lap.  What a bratty cat.

Now THIS fine morning, it was time to go to a house we own in a small city, to paint a bit.  The family that rented it didn't take good care of it at all, in fact they really trashed it.  It's a slow process to fix it up, but we're getting there.  Adrian is helping, he put in lots of new sheet rock.  Paul and I, Mariel and Sonja, went up this morning to prime...

All dressed in a bleached stained shirt and my paint-y pants...

I sent this to Jon, as he was asking me questions about his equivalency test...my hands were covered with paint, and dust, and I had to put my glasses on to see his text...

My phone was out, so I snapped a pic of the top of the stairs.  The dust is from sanding the new sheetrock, but the walls...dirty hands for years?  Unbelievable.  It made me think of this:  my mother used to tell me about my dad...he was one of 12 kids, and his mom kept an immaculate house.  Those kids were always clean and neat, I guess she used to say soap and water are cheap, being poor is no excuse to be dirty.  When I was growing up, if we touched the walls, my mother would tell us to go get a soapy washcloth, and start washing.  It just wasn't allowed.  

Paul went to get more paint, and stopped at Dunkin', brought us some iced coffees....Sonja had hers on the shelf of the ladder, then grabbed the shelf when she started to climb...oops!  (She's so much fun!)

So Mariel and I had to go to the bathroom...there is a bathroom in this house, which needs some work, but we need to clean it properly before we want to use it...so we drove to McDonalds, in our paint-y clothes.  It was rather hilarious...my old Adidas capris, my stained shirt, paint all over my arm.  Mariel had a big splotch on her face...we were laughing so hard.  

This is from Thursday's adventures...Hege, Karen, and me in the back.  

We got home today, ahh, home!  I had chicken breast marinating in lime juice and some really nice spices I bought from the Mennonite store.  I sautéed it up in olive oil, then made mine special:  a few spoons of orange marmalade, some ginger, butter, all microwaved together, over the chicken...mmm.    The marmalade is sugary, so I was cautious with that, but oh so good.

Anyway...have a good day!