A leftover day

 

Sue and Jordan

I think that’s a perfect name for Saturday. After a work week and before Sunday starts a new week, Saturday is the day left over. I had a busy week and a more active day yesterday than I am used to, so I promised myself a slow, easy day today. It turned out to be a day of leftovers.

I wrote like a fiend much of the week, averaging over a thousand words a day plus, most days, my blog. That wasn't drudgery—it was joy. I’m in one of the spells when the words seem to come easily and the story flows—and writing is fun. But yesterday, no writing. I was up early making tuna salad for a lunch guest and a dip for happy hour guests. At noon, my long time (50 years?) friend Linda arrived. She had the good manners to rave about my tuna, and we caught up with families, the few old friends we still know about, life as elders, and touched on the world situation. Her (relatively new) husband had an appointment elsewhere but popped in. and they both left shortly after two, because Linda insisted I need my daily nap. And I do. Sophie and I are always overjoyed to have Linda in the cottage.

In the evening, Subie, Phil, and Renee came for happy hour. The discussion was wide-ranging but got particularly spirited when we talked about wolves and their effect on the ecosystem and about the city of Greenville (see below). It was all fun, and we were tempted to stay where we were, but a little before seven we left for a farewell party for Teddy and Sue. I’ve explained this relationship several times, but fifteen or more years ago Sue moved into the house next door to me. I can still see her dad walking down the driveway when I asked him, “Are you my new neighbor?” and he replied, in a wonderful Canadian accent familiar to this daughter of a Canadian, “I’m your new neighbor’s father.” Sue, newly divorced, moved in with two young children, and her parents went home to Ottawa, Ontario. In time, Sue declared she needed a Fort Worth mother, since hers was so far away. I was honored and consider her my Canadian daughter. Along the way, she bought a house ten minutes away and married Teddy (one of my favorite people in the world). Now they are moving to Greenville, South Carolina—because they fell in love with the area. My parents retired to a small North Carolina town nearby, and I can easily understand the pull of the region. I’m excited for them but will miss them.

The party was fun, and I even knew a few people. But there were two stairs to get in, and we had to recruit a friend from the party to help me. That sort of got me off on the wrong foot, and it was hard to get my party face on. Still I knew a few people and enjoyed visiting. The setting was a gorgeous house, and I was particularly impressed by the hostess’ daughter who acted as the party angel. Teddy, bless him, helped me out and saw me safely into the car.

So that’s why today is my leftover day. I confess I am still wearing the flannel pants and T-shirt I slept in, and I think I’ll just fall into bed tonight, still wearing them. My work today was leftovers—my neighborhood newsletter, some bills and some insurance matter, more worry about the trees. Kept me busy all morning.

Even my meals are leftover: tuna salad from yesterday for lunch; a bowl of split pea soup brought to me some time ago by a friend. It’s been waiting for me in the freezer for another cold night, and tonight is perfect (at 6:30 it is 41 and headed down). The Burtons are going to Plank, the new seafood restaurant I really want to try. I threatened them if either one came home and told me they had a steak or a hamburger in a seafood house.

Tomorrow won’t be as easy. I’ll go to church in the morning, and I’ve promised to make Norwegian hamburgers for Sunday dinner. Norwegian hamburgers are something we learned about from Colin’s mother-in-law, who lived in Norway until she was seventeen and came to the US to marry Lisa’s father. The hamburgers are meat patties in beef gravy, but don’t dismiss them as like our hamburgers. Different texture, different flavor and delicious. We love Torhild, and we love her cooking. I hope I can do them as well as she does, and I hope there are leftovers.

How about you? How was your Saturday Stay safe and warm on this chilly night.

Reprise of the Derby and Mother’s Day

 

Two of my girls

Jordan and Christian were among the hosts for a Run for the Roses Party Saturday, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society where they are both active. In the picture above, Jordan is shown with another of my daughters, though they aren’t sisters. The girl (she’ll like that) on the left is Sue Springfield. She calls me her Fort Worth mom, and I call her my Canadian daughter. The temptation is always there to call her my adopted daughter, but as the mother of four adopted children, I think that muddies the waters.

Maybe fifteen years ago, maybe more, Sue divorced, and she and her two young children moved next door to me. We became fast friends and spent many an evening sipping wine on my front porch and solving the problems of the world. Sue’s kids finished at the elementary school across the street, she was unhappy with the condition of her rental home, and she bought a house about ten minutes away which, over the years, she has transformed from ordinary to extraordinary. And then she met Teddy Springfield, a doctor and business manager from California. They married, and instead of whisking her away to California, Teddy moved here. And through all this, Sue and I have remained friends. One of my happiest happy hours is when Teddy and Sue come to sit on the patio.

So this picture reminds me again what a lucky mom I am. And since I spent Mother’s Day home alone, due to an unforeseen set of circumstances, I needed that reminder. The Burtons met with Christian’s family at Joe T. Garcia’s. At first, I cancelled some plans I had made and planned to go with them. But the more we talked about accessibility, the less enthusiastic I became. Finally I decided to stay home, and Jamie said he and Mel would come over from Frisco. But yesterday morning, he called suffering from one of the dizzy spells he periodically gets and has since he was in elementary school.

So I stayed home, and the day was like any other. When the Burtons came home, they were exhausted (post-Derby, I’m sure) and wanted nothing more than to sleep. During the day Jordan flitted in and out a couple of times, and Jacob came to blow the tree droppings off the patio, but that was my human companionship. I talked to each of the other three, had a sweet message from Sue, and spent the day at my desk.  Cooked myself a good dinner—crab cake, carrots cooked in olive oil and brown sugar (I love cooked carrots but no one else here will eat them), and guacamole Jordan brought home from Joe T.s. I was really fine alone, except for a couple of minutes of self-pity—which only proved that I’m all too human.

In posting about Mother’s Day yesterday, I forgot to acknowledge four women who I think of each year—the biological mothers of my children. I worry and wonder if they still feel a hole in their lives, have they moved on? I cannot believe that my babies don’t linger in a small corner of their hearts, and I’d like to reach out to them and tell them how healthy, happy, and successful those babies are. The social climate was a lot different fifty years ago (yes, three of them have passed the fifty-year mark), and I am grateful that these young women carried their babies to term. It’s particularly poignant right now.

A day brightener: yesterday I saw a male and female cardinal right outside my desk window. For several years now, this pair has made their home in our yard. They are, like me, homebodies and not given to wandering, so we see them frequently. Beuse of the old belief that the sight of a cardinal means someone from the other side is thinking of you, I always think this couple means my folks are watching over us.

So that was my Mother’s Day, a bittersweet one, now consigned to the past, while life goes on. Today I worked on recipes for my new novel, talked with someone about a small free lance project, and made plans for a new project. And just now I realized I was watching the news on BBC instead of NBC—an interesting change! Wondered why none of the newscasters looked familiar.