Meme Monday – Catching Up

Looking at this meme, you might think I had been to the beach. Perhaps back to Hawaii. Nope, life has been very local lately. I have no excuse for not posting here, other than laziness. I’ll catch you up, OK?

Back in April, I took a drive out to see my Great Aunt for her 98th birthday. One of my cousins arranged a party at her retirement home, which was great. We had family come from as far as San Diego and Reno, and I saw folks I haven’t seen since I was 5 or 6. It was a relaxed event, KFC and strawberry pie. Aunt Flo’s memory is horrible, and her hearing is pretty bad, but she was so very happy to have everyone there. One of my cousins bought her a hearing aid for her birthday (which was not available for the party, sadly) so hopefully the hearing issue will be improved.

On the way out, there is a kind of dive bar that I always see and makes me laugh, that serves delicious items like deep fried gizzard. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn’t, so Ted found this one on the internet for me. Thank you Ted, thank you internet!

What else is new…well, Ted started a new job at the end of March. He has left radio, and is working as a Public Information Officer for the county District Attorney’s office. He’s settling in well. It’s strange not having him here with me, after him being home for the last 2 years. The good news is that his commute is against traffic, so it’s only about 15 minutes each way. Nice.

This last weekend, we had what used to be a pretty normal weekend. We went out for a nice dinner on Friday night, and on Saturday we went to see a movie…crazy, right? We didn’t have any popcorn, because we wore our masks the entire time, but it felt really good. We saw the new Downton Abbey movie, which I loved. I had a good cry (not great under a mask). It was the most normal that I have felt in a log time.

Speaking of normal, there is some exciting news for me. (Talk about burying the lede!). My cousin and her partner have a time share, which they mainly use to go to Maui and sometimes Mexico, but can be used anywhere. Well, she has been wanting to go to France for ages, since she lived there for a bit in the mid 80s. Her partner has no desire to go to France, so she has invited me to go with her! CRAZY! I’m so excited. We are planning two weeks in September, 1 in Paris, and 1 in the South, not sure where yet. I’ve been to Paris twice, and both times, my big regret was not spending more time there. So a whole week will be REALLY nice.

In other news, my step mom, Julie, has a new man in her life. They’ve been together for about a year now, and they came to see us a few weeks ago, so we could meet him. He’s really lovely, a kind, intelligent, happy man, and they seem to be doing very well. It was bittersweet, though, because seeing them together reminds me that my dad is gone, and I will never see him again. But it is good to see Julie happy, and stronger. She has had a rough few years, with losing my dad, and COVID as a single person, it was very isolating.

I’ve been listening to a lot of ’books on tape’, aka audio books via audible and our local library. Perhaps I will catch you up on some of those one day soon. Playing Wordle every day, and some of its derivatives. I love it. I’ve been doing some yoga lately, just 20 – 25 minute YouTube videos in the morning before I take Mulder for his walk. It has been helping with my stiffness, which is great. I had to stop for about 6 weeks, because I fell and hurt my lower back. That’s mostly better, though I do feel it sometimes.

I guess that’s it for now. What’s new in your neck of the woods?