Day 470billion

Day 470billion and counting....

Well, here we are still...smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. I finally caved and bought myself a laptop because this thing doesn't seem to be going away and I need connection. 

How is everyone holding up?   My former home state of Texas is getting hammered right now and I know sooo many people who are sick and too many people who have lost loved ones.

Still unemployed although my benefits will run out before the end of the year so...yea...that's a problem. I am trying desperately to come up with a way to support myself that does not include going to a 9 to 5 job. If anyone has suggestions, I am all ears. 

And how have I been passing the time?  Surprisingly, by traveling. 

I spent a week in Texas packing up my mom's house. 

One closet down, the rest of the house to go...

Visiting with friends was cut short by my brother's announcement that he tested positive for Covid19 about an hour after we had lunch together. Fortunately that was a false positive but still...no one (including me) was willing to interact with that possible diagnosis hanging over my head. 

My most favorite discovery amongst the millions of photos
and souvenirs of lives well lived:
My Great Aunt Louise and her sorority sisters
at the University of Texas
Circa 1919

Anyway, I got the house mostly packed up before heading back to Colorado.

Bunny graduated from Ole Miss (YAY!) and moved to Tampa.  She liked the idea of being closer to her sister but wasn't that fond of the East coast of Florida. Current boyfriend lives in Tampa and his mom was a lifesaver in finding her an apartment. Of course, the job opportunities that were everywhere in March completely dried up by her move in May and she has just now gotten a job.  Anyway, I wanted to get to Florida to see both girls before life intervened and we all were working and unable to visit. A long weekend in Tampa at the beginning of June was perfect. 

Belle, Me, Bunny
at the beach in Florida

Belle and her BF came over from Palm Beach and I got to meet Bunny's BF for the first time. 

Love love love Bunny's little apartment-walking distance to restaurants and stores- and the beach at Clearwater is gorgeous.  Her job starts this week so cross your fingers all goes well. Belle is also back to work after being laid off but she says it is impossibly slow. Florida being another hot spot for the virus makes her job a challenge. 

Home from Florida I headed to the cabin for a week to supervise a new roof installation. I'm on the fence about what to do with that cabin. 

New roof, fresh paint. 
Want to buy it? 

Love it dearly but it has its drawbacks.  I've been staying in Golden for 5 months now and enjoying being back in civilization. After my hospital stay last November I realized that living in a rural area was maybe not the best of long term plans. Add to that the need/desire to be within an hour of the airport and the cabin looks less and less inviting. Welcoming any suggestions or extravagant offers to purchase it...

For July 4th we drove to Montana (No. 65: Visit a new state!) to visit Friend's brother. We took the RV which was a fun experiment, my having only been in an RV once before. (And even then we stayed local.) So we drove for two days through Wyoming and Montana to Bigfork. I expected the Eastern side of Wyoming to be more mountainous...I guess because my only other experience with Wyoming was Yellowstone National Park.  I had volunteered to drive the RV until I realized the speed limit was 80 and that sucker was bigger than I expected. Nope, couldn't do it. 

Ok. So it doesn't seem that big here. 
But I was more comfortable driving the Smart Car....
And isn't this a magnificent Montana Sunset? 

Working on No. 99, we stopped at the Battlefield of the Little Bighorn (aka Custer's Last Stand). It's fascinating to drive through the fields (I had my own personal historian and park buff driving me) and even with other cars and people, I could imagine the horses coming over the hills, how easy it must have been for Custer to miscalculate the number of Native Americans down below, see the whole scenario play out....

Bigfork, MT is darling and the brother's house on the water was perfect for July 4 fireworks. Honestly, I've never seen so many explosives in the sky in one night. There was a professional display from the Lodge across the lake and then the neighbors were all competing against each other and it was almost overload. And that's from someone who ADORES fireworks. 

Magical

Love!

Like the Milky Way exploding!

We tried to go through Glacier National Park but, like many public areas, it was overwhelmed with visitors and many parts shut down. We ended up with a picnic by the lake and a stop on the way home for cherries. 

A particularly awful pic of me in front of 
Lake McDonald.  
Riding in a convertible will give you that lovely hairdo. 

Home from Montana for two days and then off again to Texas. JeanMom's house had sold and the deadline to be out was fast approaching. Fortunately, emptying houses is my jam. I packed, I sorted and I emptied. 

Little house ready to move on to a new owner.

We did not disclose the ghost that came with the house.

He's friendly.

The Ft Bend Women's Center was the beneficiary of some items, the rest went to storage to be sorted through when it isn't July in Texas.  

Someone at the Women's Center has a sense of humor.
Woody hanging on to the back of a moving truck!

WHY do I seem to end up doing my moving in the heat of the summer? No clue. I'll probably end up moving out of the cabin in the middle of January during a blizzard. 

The storage unit filled!

And now, as the Corona virus seems to be having a come back and states are grappling with masks and shut downs and the impending school year, I am back in Golden. The one project I started back in May, a baby quilt for a friend, has FINALLY been completed. Like everything else this year, this project was filled with false starts and corrections and mistakes. I completed the top once, only to trash it and start completely over. The new top was attached to the backing and  then ripped apart to be redone because I didn't like the batting. This is one project I will be happy to put in the mail. At least I can say I am happy with the results. 

In progress here, and now done. 
Into the mail today!

So. Any suggestions for gainful employment, creative (paying) endeavors and or housing solutions will be welcomed. 

Everyone stay safe, wear your masks and wash your hands.

Another New Restaurant!

No. 63: A New Restaurant!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. In our house we 200% get stuck in a rut when it comes to eating out. One of us doesn't like change, leaving the area, anything unfamiliar.

So usually I have to depend on the kindness of friends to adventure out to new restaurants. 

And I did just that last week. 

Been trying to reconnect with a friend from junior high/senior high for a while. She doesn't live that far but we are both busy and it just hadn't happened. 

But finally! 

And we went some place new to both of us... Cedar Creek Bar and Grill. It's in the Heights area of Houston, an area near where I spent the first five years of my life. My grandmother lived in the Heights for years until she passed away at the age of 100. It was an area that went into decline but has since reimagined itself. I love that kind of story.

The sign says Austin, Texas but I promise we were in Houston. 

Cedar Creek is one of the four "Creek" restaurants owned by the same group. It's got a fabulous patio (but no dogs allowed-we aren't in Colorado-although there is  Onion Creek which does allow dogs outside) and a funky bar/restaurant inside. The sign says "Welcome to the Hill Country" even though the actual Hill Country is a good 100 miles away. But it's got that Austin vibe which is not a bad thing.

A great patio for lingering.

I had crab balls with chipotle dip, my friend had a sandwich. Food was good.

Me with Tricia....older, wiser and better looking. 

And my friend?
Tricia found me in 7th grade when I was as homely and awkward as a kid could get. Huge glasses. Short hair. (NOT a good look for me.) Braces. Shy.

Seriously. 

How did she manage to see past this to want to be my friend? 

We had gone to different elementary schools so she was a whole new experience. I was so amazed that someone so fun and so crazy wanted to be friends with me. She opened me up to a whole new group of kids and a whole new kind of fun. I spent four years of my life practically living at her house. (Except when she was at mine.)

Tricia at my house learning to macrame.

1974

And what happened? Why did we lose touch?
What do you think?
Boys.  (sigh)

One friend ran off with another's boy and there was a domino effect of girls switching guys and guys switching girls and I don't even really remember anymore exactly what happened but typical of girls that age....friendships were damaged. 

However....

Years later there were apologies and water under the bridge and we all ended up getting ourselves guys that were more reliable (and not as likely to dump you for your best friend) and we realized that guys come and go but a true friendship weathers. 

So Tricia and I spent about 4 hours "having lunch". Such a fabulous afternoon. 

I hope we can do it again soon.

And if you need to "waste" away an afternoon chit chatting with someone dear, try one of the Creeks.

No. One Explained

No. One Explained

Hmmm. I like that title.  No One Explained.  No. One Explained.
That's life pretty much. No one explains it in advance.

Because I realized that unless you know me well, some of these challenges might not make sense.

So before I explain number one, let me give you a little back story.

I grew up in and still live outside of the enormous, under-estimated city of Houston.  There were a few years in San Antonio as a child, a couple of years of university in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, almost a year in Hartford, Connecticut and a couple in north Texas but mostly I have been stuck here. So many of the challenges are related to the area I live in but, like most natives, haven't fully taken advantage of.

But Houston has formed my life.


These are my high school friends:

On the ferry to Nevis

Allison, Me, Ann, Liddy, M. Anne, Peggy.
They are amazing women, one and all.

They have also formed my life.

Liddy and I go back the longest- through elementary school, church and multiple trips to San Miguel and a gazillion years since.  Ann and I carpooled together all through high school. M. Anne was in my homeroom although she doesn't remember that, probably because she seldom made it to homeroom. Peggy and Allison I knew in high school but we have grown closer since we graduated.

Every year since before I had kids we have all travelled to the Hill Country of Texas for a "girl's weekend". That's a euphemism for "ditch all responsibility, drink copious amounts of wine and grouse about the spouse and kids".

The wine count from our most recent weekend

As a group over the years we have had kids, lost parents, divorced, married and lived life.

And Ann got breast cancer.  But she beat it. She's been free and clear.

When we turned fifty we went on a fabulous, once in a life time trip to Sonoma, California.  We visited vineyards, ate amazing food and had a BLAST.

Dinner at the Lady and the Fig in Sonoma

When we turned fifty five we went on a fabulous, once in a life time trip to St. Kitts. We got tan, ate amazing food and had a BLAST.  On the plane home we started discussing where to go for our sixtieth. Paris? Montreal? Sonoma again? 

St. Kitts harbour

But then that enormous, crushing ogre that is cancer reared its ugly head.  Ann's cancer came back, only this time it is the bad kind. Metastatic. A word I cannot say or spell without stumbling.  She got the double whammy- her diagnosis and the news that her dear dad also had cancer in the same week.  He passed quickly, the same day that my brother died. I've decided it must have been a good day to move on.

So maybe we need to celebrate early. Because the reality is Ann may not be able to come if we wait until we are sixty. Those are whispering italics because I don't want to say those words out loud.
Because Ann is a girl that knows how to celebrate.  And she will not go "gentle into that good night".   She's never done anything half-ass. And she needs to celebrate with us.

So where should we go?

And to learn more about Stage IV cancer and support research, please click here.


(And I just learned a VERY important new blogger rule. SAVE as you go. I clicked on the link for "gentle into that good night" and erased my entire post.  Silent scream. )