Another amazing week

Yes, it was another amazing week.  Tuesday morning Ms Mary and Ms Judy met at my house and we put the top down on the toy and drove up to Thomasville.  I love driving my toy with the top down, but when you have someone all dressed up to go out with the girlfriends for lunch, driving with the top down is a lot of wind.  We drove up the so familiar road, straight north from Monticello.  Monticello, a struggling rural community with a precious sweet little downtown.  But we are struggling.  I have only lived here in this place for five years that I love to call my home and there are businesses closing that have been the heart of the community for as long as people's memories seem to go.  We drove north to Thomasville which is also struggling, but so much bigger and stronger with it's larger proportion of affluent then our dear town. 

We decided to have lunch at Henderson's.  Mary said we had eaten there before, but I did not remember until we walked in.  It still seems so odd that I have so many gaps in my memory.  That is why I am writing this journal.  So many wonderful things and I don't want to loose them.  Like lunch with Ms Judy and Ms Mary at Henderson's.  Lunch where when I walked in the door and saw the record album covers, I remembered having been there.  I still have to rely on Mary's memory for when, why, and what we were doing to be there before.  But I love stories and Ms Moon can tease my memory with one of her stories of lovely events in our lives anytime she wants.

We talked through lunch and time and the food just disappeared amongst the laughter and woman's voices talking in harmony.  We headed over to see the Amazing Dr. M.  I had scarves that I had made for the people who do so much for me.  I had enough colors for most people to choose.  When I had asked Allison what color she would like, she had asked for black, so I had it made it for her and it was was ready to give to her as soon as I signed in.  I asked her if she would get Bobbie for me.  Bobbie is one of the Amazing Dr. M's nurses.  She was his only nurse when I first started going to see him.  Bobbie has a little boy and she has the sweetest smile and I just love her and Ashley, the Amazing Dr. M's other nurse.  They are just so very precious.  Beautiful young woman, amazing nurses and I am so honored to call them friends.  Allison went to get Bobbie and would not tell her why she had to come out to the waiting room.  But she came out, took one look at the three of us, Mary, Judy and myself, and she smiled.  Nervously, but she smiled.  I explained that I just wanted her to have first pick with the scarves, Allison laughed and ran off, her black scarf waving good bye in the breeze of her movements.  Bobbie picked the blue/green one.  I gave the same exact color to Ashley, and Bobbie had said that was the color she wanted.  Sure enough when presented with 10 choices she picked up a couple of them, but chose the blue/green one.  She was shy and smiled with pleasure.  She wrapped it around her neck and hugged me and hurried back to work.  I proceeded to slip in and out of offices delivering the soft warm scarves.  A turquoise and white one to Donna, she kept commenting on it when I was making it.   Another one to Stephanie, my scheduler, one to Esther in paperwork, a purple one and a green one to the ladies in the lab.  Pretty soon there was a buzz all around the center as all these ladies wore their scarves proudly around their necks.  It was just so precious and made my heart sing with joy. 

The visit went well with The Amazing Dr. M.  He said I am doing so well that he wants me to go see his friend who works with people who have Hepatitis C.  There has been an evolving treatment out there for years, but like chemo it has been a hard bitter pill to try and survive.  I have known others who went on the treatment and they were as sick as I have ever been on those early chemo treatments.  The Amazing Dr. M wants to see if they can come up with a treatment that will not cut into the quality of my life.  Thank you Dr. M, I do appreciate how you balance quantity and quality.  The Amazing Dr. M was so happy to see Judy and Mary and we just smiled and talked to the handsome intelligent man.  We commented on his hair cut.  He said his wife told him to get it cut.  Then Judy and I told Bobbie, Ashley and The Amazing Dr. M that we would like to invite them to come to see the Spring Murder Mystery in May on Judy and I.  They were thrilled.  We said they would have to coordinate to make sure that they all came the same night.  It will be so much fun having them all there together.  I hope we can all work this out. 

We left the Oncology Center happy.  Happy for the three of us to be together again.  And for all of us to be healthy and happy.  We drove home and each headed our own direction to get things down.  I made pecan praline gingerbread, one of my new favorites.  I hopped once again in the toy and headed up to Ron and Pat's for a gold selling party.  Then I pointed west on Hwy 19 drove west to visit Janak, Geeta and Baa.  Manju and Genevieve were also there and all the ladies joined together for a guided meditation.  Genevieve ran off to a yoga class after the meditation and the rest of us, joined by Janak sat down to a delicious dinner and a lively conversation.  I love the discussions with these people because they are so smart and well spoken and will generously discuss all types of issues with me.  I enjoy hearing their perspective, which is different than mine sometimes, but really not so different.  We all live with the same basic rules of kindness, joy, laughter, learning and living life to the fullest.  I drove home and reflected how very lucky I am.

Wednesday I worked at the Opera House.  Thursday I met with my new financial Advisor, who drove out to meet me.  After he left I decided that I really was not interested in driving my loom up to the Art League when I had been so busy with other projects and had not worked on my weaving since the class on Sunday.  I did drive up to meet with the other ladies and I enjoyed being at the Art League with friends.  It is always nice to be able to sit around with friends and talk.  I seem to do a lot of that lately. 

Friday I cleaned the house.  I am trying to get back on top of my little place.  For the last two years it has pretty much been pushed to the back of the list, and there are so many things that need taking care of.  But I find if I just focus on one project at a time it is amazing how many things end up getting done.  Just one bite at a time.  After lunch I drove over to pick up Carolyn and we drove into Tallahassee.  The ride along Hwy 90 is so beautiful in summer with the frilly crepe myrtles blooming on both sides of the road like ladies in waiting with their pink, purple, white, and rose colored dresses.  In the winter it looks like a road you could see in any state, bare, gray trees standing naked in area with the undergrowth brown and broken.  A stark beauty against the memories of the green and pastel flowers of summer.  We ran here and there picking up things, talking away.  Just enjoying two woman driving into town together.  Open to new ideas and always willing to try something.  Talking about our weaving projects, the Opera House, Garden Circle, and the Art League.

After we got back from town I met Manda and Falcon at Jack and Jan's to discuss the (un)wedding this Wednesday.  Wow, Wednesday, it is finally here.  They have been dancing towards this day for ten years.  It will be small but a dear affair.  Loved ones will gather together to share this moment.  I need to finish writing the service out.  I will be conducting the service and I want to keep it short and sweet, but to choose the rights words to mark the joy and love and happiness that everyone there will be sharing with these two remarkable young people.

Saturday I worked on my weaving and baked Chocolate chocolate chip everything muffins.  Come on, chocolate has anti-oxidants in it!  I also put flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts and coconut.  So not only were they tasty, but they were also full of healthy treats.  A little after 1:00 I drove north to Golden Acres where a beautiful and talented woman from FAMU was going to show people how to build a greenhouse out of recycled materials for less then $100.  I stood at the first gate and pointed people back to where the green house was to be built.  Bobbie did not get to come out and see everyone, she is still recovering from knee surgery.  Big gentle hug, Bobbie, it will get better.......soon, really it will.  Fred looked great and is recovering nicely from eye surgery.  More then half of the Garden Circle showed up to help, so once everyone was parked I left because there were just too many people crowded around together for me.  I was so happy to see what a nice group of people turned out.  I left and went over to Mary's where she and Judy were busy away practising lines.  I jumped in and started reading the other two small parts while Mary and Judy did the leads.  Judy is wonderful to watch work.  Mary was doing much better, but she still has so much to learn.  Not the big monologues.  She has those down pat.  No, it is the small lines like, "Hello, Hello", "Hello, Hello, I am here"  "Hello, Hello, what did you say?" kind of thing.  It is repeating just about the same lines over and over.  But if you do not get them right, then the cue for the other actors is not right and it is so easy to end up in a never ending circle when people get lost because of those silly little lines.  Ms Denise came over and all the men headed to the Glen Den to watch the FSU/Duke game.  I slipped away to get changed and ready to go to my second vegan dinner and meditation for the week.  This time at Ms Genevieve's.  

Carolyn drove over to my house and then I drove us down Hwy 19 to Hwy 27 and turned west toward the horizon already growing dark with dusk.  It was a small group of six woman who came for the vegan food and guided meditation.  We were a new group, but we all knew someone and it was short order before we were all talking and munching and getting into very in depth subjects.  And the honesty and humor had us laughing until our noses ran.  We went into the bedroom and sat with our backs to the beds, giving each of us a little privacy as we listened and responded to the Guides words.  After unfolding ourselves from the floor, we enjoyed more eating and then some sparkling grape juice and more loud hardy laughter.  It was after 10:00pm when Carolyn and I finally made our way  to the car and drove back through the dark night, ever watchful for deer standing along the grass beyond the road.  Beautiful creatures that could leap out in front of you in less than a moment's warning, wreaking havoc on an automobile.  Usually worse on the poor dear.  We made it home in the muggy winter's night safe and sound.  

Today I got up and did my Sunday morning ritual of hot tea, fruit and yogurt for breakfast as I watch the Sunday morning local news and then Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.  I worked on my loom as I waited for oils and beeswax to melt on a slow warm stove.  I mixed flowers, rose petals, lavender and chamomile along with lemon peal  into the oils then made a hand moisturizer, that I am not sure about.  It has honey in it, which draws moisture into the hands, but it is tricky to get the right amount.  I also made a scrub with salt, sugar, honey and oils.  I will test market these on my friends and see if I can tweak the recipes, working and evolving them until I am happy with the recipe and then I can put together spa bags with soap, scrub, lip cream, moisturizer, massage oil and herbal tea for bath, shower or to pour out water over to make into a relaxing beverage.  I love trying new recipes in the kitchen.  So far I am happy with my 5 basic winter soap recipes and the lip cream.  The other two I am still working on.  

This afternoon I drove once more to town for the first rehearsal of The Fantasticks.  I have to give it to Melanie she has cast an amazing group of people.  We have two beautiful and talented young ladies splitting the part of Louisa.  I have to tell you I could not have chosen between the two.  Each one so amazing.  We also have a father son team of Dave and Jacob Smith.  I have gotten to work with Dave on a Radio Play with the Opera House Stage Company's 1940 Radio Show.  He played the part of The Shadow and Tonto in the Lone Ranger.  He is extremely talented.  And the apple fell straight down into the roots of these talented parents iinto Jacob.  This 11 year old has a better bio then I have and does the most amazing death scenes you could ever want the opportunity to witness.  He has at least one death scene in this production.  I am so looking forward to that.  The rest of the cast, four men, all amazingly talented and I so enjoyed getting to sit in and listen to them as they read through the play for the first time together.  We listened to the music for the show, they read their lines and and I sat quietly highlighting my parts as the muse, as the wall.  Our next rehearsal will be Thursday.

I ran though the grocery store picking up food for the week and food for the wedding and trying to keep so many different events straight in my head.  I rushed home and made it in time to see the last half of the fourth quarter of the Ravens/Pats game.  The Pat's won.  I am sorry, they are just not my favorite team.  The Raven's looked so good.  I can't believe it.  It was going to be so easy to tie the game, just one field goal.  Just. One.  Field Goal.  A field goal that was wide.  That is a lot of pressure.  Now the Pats will play the winner of the Giants/49ers game.  It is the beginning of the 4th quarter and the 49ers are ahead.  It is also a good game. 

And now I think I shall weave a bit more.  I have a very busy next several days.  Mostly Tuesday and Wednesday when I make the cakes and the flower bouquet.  I will also make some appetizers for the wedding.  I have a friend coming for lunch tomorrow and then by Tuesday I need to buckle down and bring everything together.  I also need to get more rest, we are in rehearsals.  I need to make sure not to tire myself out.  It has been a wonderful first three weeks of the new year.  Such delightful moments with sweet beloved ones.  Phone conversations, promises to stay in better touch.  Quality time spent with friends.   Working so hard to get all the scarves made and the reward?  Smiles and sweet hugs.  Life is great, and I am so happy to be in there participating.  Baking, knitting, weaving, driving, calling, talking, laughing, be amazed by so many talented people.

A busy week, filled with beloved ones, whether talking to on the phone, or sitting across the table from. It was also filled with great excitement when my interview with Jeff Pearlman on the Quaz came out. The Amazing Jeff Pearlman's Quaz.