A wasted day saved by a great dinner

Today was an absolutely wasted day --or at least the morning was and after that I just gave up and decided not to try to be brilliant today. I arrived at the doctor's office at 9:55 for a 10:10 appointment--being a physician's daughter, I was taught to be prompt. And 10:10 is such a precise time that it indicated efficient scheduling to me. Not so. Ten-thirty came and went, people who had come in long after I had were ushered back--to see different doctors, I suppose. One other woman waited as long or longer than I did--she as there when I arrived. Waiting is not something I do gracefully, even though I had my iPhone and my iPad. I inquired once a little after 10:30 and was told I was next--then, oops, sorry, there's one more patient ahead of you. At eleven, they announced that my doctor was running  late--it would be at least another hour. I went to the desk and they asked if I wanted to go have lunch and come back. No, I emphatically did not! The doctor's next appointment would be July 31, so I rescheduled to see the P.A. on June 14--specifically asked for and got the first appointment of the morning.
Next stop--after a necessary potty stop at my former office--was the bank to look for some papers in my safe deposit box. It seems the bank no longer staffs the safe deposit desk, so I would have to sign in and wait for a bank officer to admit me--once again there was one person ahead of me. But I could see no bank person rushing to help, and I got the sinking feeling that one person ahead of me had been waiting a long time. I left, saying I'd try again tomorrow. What I didn't add was, "When my mood is better."
A whole morning wasted Came home, had lunch, checked emails, and napped--time to get Jacob.
Tonight Jeannie, Betty and I went to a reception to get a farewell hug from a favorite minister who's leaving the churchfor new opportunities. A bittersweet moment. Then we went to Piola for dinner--we meant to sit on the patio until the waitress asked, "Are you sure?" It was pretty hot and steamy and we stayed inside for a wonderful meal. Betty had Chilean sea bass; Jeannie had penne Bolognese, and I had veal piccata with asparagus risotto. I swore I wouldn't eat much risotto--so fattening, you know. I ate almost every bite, and it was a generous serving. The whole wasted day was swept away with that meal and a good glass of chadonnay.
Yeah, maybe I'll work a bit tonight.

So much good--and a bit of sadness

Story Circle Network has named me a Star Blogger. They praised me for blogging about life stuff that comes my way in an in-the-moment style and said I'd given myself permission to stick a piece of tape across my editor-self's mouth and ramble from idea to idea. I think that means what I've always thought--my blog is disorganized, sort of stream of consciousness, the kind of fiction I don't like to read but maybe in a blog it's okay. I hope you all think so. I will eventually get a "badge" to put on my blog but in the meantime it was featured today in the national SCN newsletter that came in my email. SCN is an international network designed to encourage women to write about their lives--and it's the basis of the most rewarding course that I teach on Thursday nights on my front porch. Teach? Shoot, the women themselves teach it by sharing. Wonderful experience. Not sure if you can read the newsletter if you're not a member of SCN, but here's the URL: http://www.storycircle.org/eletters.shtml#national.
Today I was happily and busily working, mostly on compiling a file of my short storycollection so I could send it to my agent, Roger Williams of Publish or Perish, to put on Kindle. Now I'm proofreading it and finding mistakes I guess were in the printed version but I hope not. Sort of fun to read those stories again, because I still like them, egotistical though that sounds. I also sent off for printing the new stuff on my  Blue Plate Cafe mystery so I can give it to Fred Friday to read and a segment I wrote for class Thursday night on anxiety disorder. And spent a lot of time on emails--the Sisters in Crime  and Agent Quest lists are always much busier on Mondays, it seems. So even though my lunch pal got mixed up and forgot me, I had a really pleasant, busy day.
Tonight, I had dinner with good friends Kathie Allen and Carol Roark--we mostly talked about university presses (Kathie is senior editor at SMU Press, which is in a great deal of jeopardy, and we also talked about the new director of TCU Press and Carol is a frequent contributor to TCU Press, so it's an interest we all have in common). Then we talked Carol's trip to Portugal, aging parents, and other depressing topics, but we had a good visit. Ate at Piola, where we all had piccata--veal for Kathie and me, chicken for Carol--with asparagus risotto. Absolutely delicious. A pleasant evening. And it rained tonight and turned blessedly cool--when I went to water porch plants about 5:15, it was in the upper 70s and I wished I was cooking a porch dinner for the ladies.
The note of sadness: Megan had to put down her Tsi Shu--Jackson was I think sixteen or seventeen, but it seems like she's had him forever. He had gotten so his back legs wouldn't support him, and he'd fall, couldn't get up. But he was the sweetiest bad smelling dog I ever knew--he loved to be cuddled, but a day after he was bathed, he smelled bad again. Never did figure that out. But I knew the last few times that I saw him that he was pretty miserable, blind in one eye from poor vet care among other things. It's such a hard decision to make, but it's one I've made too many times in my life. My heart's with Meg tonight--but then it always is.