There’s a reason I used to get on
a plane the day the books closed. This year they closed on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
but I wasn’t leaving until Thursday morning. Can we say endless Wednesday boys
and girls? Sheesh!
The reason I’d postponed this year
was that Mary had scheduled two meetings for the day after fiscal year end and
since Carolyn and I had decided the late flight wasn’t worth the sleep
deprivation (that flight leaves Omaha at 6:00 p.m. but gets me to RI after
midnight), I was flying Thursday morning. After I’d booked the ticket, Mary
rescheduled one of the Wednesday meetings to September and I wasn’t going to
the second meeting because I had to go to reporting training for reports I’ll
never use (it’s a power/politics thing.) I had a hand doctor appointment in the
morning, where I was relieved to hear I don’t have arthritis in my hand – just
overuse. A fiscal year end injury is better than a chronic problem for sure. I
grabbed lunch and then went to the uber boring training. Of course Mary had
things for me to do when I got back and I ran out of time. I had missed
swimming all week and so had promised I’d go Wednesday so left at 5:00 with
work yet to do. Oh well. I’d been very good about getting stuff done all week
at home so all I had left to do was put the clothes in the suitcase (they were
already washed an ironed) and do a final neatize before heading to bed.
I was on the road at 5:30 a.m. and
the flights were completely uneventful, which is as good as it gets with air
travel. Carolyn and Aaron picked me up at the airport and we headed south to
Aunt Carrie’s to meet my cousin and aunt for steamers, clamcakes and chowder.
It was great to see them and the seafood was delicious but my 92 year old aunt
is beginning to show her age. There was some shaking going on that was new
since Christmas. She’s still sharp as a tack and a joy to be with though.
I was looking forward to a good
night’s sleep on Thursday and didn’t give much thought to the lack of firmness
of the air mattress when I fell into bed. Then I woke up at 3:30 a.m. enveloped
in deflated air mattress with my butt hitting the futon underneath. Apparently
there was a slow leak in the mattress that I couldn’t deal with in the wee
hours so I just went downstairs to the couch and fell asleep. I guess I gave
Carolyn a start when she found me there because it harkened back to Christmas
when I arrived with a stomach bug and spent my first day curled up on the couch
because of its proximity to the bathroom. A funky air mattress is preferable to
that for sure.
I blame a general lack of energy
for not having planned a cookout for all my friends. What that meant was I had
to see people individually or not at all. The only firm plan Carolyn and I had
made was an Ikea run on Friday with Sharyn, who we picked up at Brown at 10:00
because she had to post some batches (something like that) before taking the
rest of the day off. We had fun at Ikea and then Carolyn’s friend from South
Carolina, who was north of Boston doing research, met us for a late lunch. It
was a fun day and I found some great stuff for my Ravelry color swap and
Christmas stockings. Yay!
I got home to a message from
Cornelia, who I wanted to plan a breakfast with, which is our usual thing. She
had sad news. Her husband had been battling cancer but was losing the fight. He
was on hospice and couldn’t be left alone so seeing Corn meant going to her
house. I asked if I could do anything to help (she’s gotten no help from either
her family or her husband’s) and she wanted me to run some errands. I happily
did some grocery shopping and a post office run for her on Saturday morning. I
didn’t see much of her that day before heading back to Carolyn’s. We had plans
for lunch and some shopping before my early dinner with Deanne. We had my
favorite fried clams at The Crow’s Nest and then went to The Christmas Tree
Shops, where I scored yet more swap and stocking presents. Deanne picked me up
at 4:00 and we went out for amazing Italian food. Are you seeing a trend here?
I’d been in RI less than 48 hours and had Italian twice and seafood twice. Yum
yum. It was great to catch up with Deanne, who is my oldest friend – since 6th
grade so more than 40 years. Yikes!
The plan for Sunday was lunch with
Bob. This time I combined seafood and Italian with yummy lobster tortellini.
After a nice long catch up with Bob and a bit more shopping, Carolyn and I
stopped at Cornelia’s to drop a goodie bag off. I wanted Carolyn to see where
Corn lived (just a couple of miles from her house) because Carolyn had offered
to pick up groceries for Corn since she goes to Stop & Shop nearly every
day anyway. After making plans for me to go back the next day for a long visit,
Carolyn and I headed home to cook the first meal since I’d been there –
hamburgers on the grill so our own mini cookout. I think we watched a movie
afterwards but it’s all a blur so I can’t be sure. It certainly couldn’t have
been a memorable one.
It was hard to believe my trip was
already half over. I’d had a nice relaxing time visiting friends and was happy
I could help Cornelia out. I went to bed Sunday (we’d bought a new air mattress
after a 2nd night of slow deflation) grateful for my friends and
family and the wonderful life I have. And I still had another day and a half.
Would there be more seafood? Probably. Certainly more friends. : )
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