It was going to be a quick trip to the supermarket. Walt left this morning to fly to Santa Barbara to see his mother (who is doing fine--he just hasn't seen her since we were there in December). It was my first time to drive on the freeway since my surgery and it was fine, even with the wrong prescription glasses. The improvement in my vision is so amazing that I didn't get at all nervous and I know that when I finally have the right glasses there will be nothing stopping me.
On the way home, my plan was to drop by the Kaiser pharmacy in Davis. Lizzie got hold of my little bag of eye drops earlier this week and took them into the living room to play with. I found them before she'd done too much damage, but she did puncture a hole in the largest bottle. (Someone suggested I should use Bitter Apple to keep her away, but I figure that eye drops, being medicine to begin with, should be its own Bitter Apple!)
I had patched the hole in the bottle and I store the bottle upside down to keep the drops away from the hole, but still each time I go to use it, there is moisture. I was afraid that I would run out of the drops before the end of the month, so I sent a "the dog ate my eyedrops" note to my doctor and he called in a new prescription for me.
After I picked up the medication, I decided to go to the supermarket and pick up a few things. I've been invited to join many of the other people who are going on the trip to France and Italy that Jeri and I are taking in June later this week. It's a pot luck dinner and I volunteered to bring boef en daube (since all the food has to be French). I could have found a simple recipe, but this one is so complex it starts several days ahead with peeling and drying your own orange rind, so I needed to buy oranges today so the rind would dry in time to start making the stew on Wednesday.
I rarely run into people I know here in Davis. I don't get out and about all that often and I can't remember the last time I accidentally encountered someone I knew anywhere, without having made an arrangement ahead of time. So it was a surprise when I was going down the first aisle and someone called out "Bev Sykes!" At first I didn't recognize this "old" woman. (It's a good thing she doesn't know about this journal!) But when she identified herself, I recognized the face, now some 20 years older. It was so good to see her. Our kids were friends when they were in school and I babysat for her for a brief time when she was taking classes at the local art center. We spent a lot of time standing there getting caught up on what her kids were doing, and what our kids were doing. I cringed a bit when she asked what "our youngest" is doing, because surely she knew about David, but she meant Tom, so that was OK.
She told me how much she loves my letters to the editor (does nobody know that I write theatre reviews and haven't written a letter to the editor -- except one -- in years?)
It was delightful to see her again, to share our good news about Brianna, to hear about her child's upcoming marriage this summer (and to learn that I was NOT the last person my age to have a grandchild.) We parted with the promise for us each to say hello to our family from the other one.
I continued to push my cart around the corner and hadn't gone 10 steps when I ran into another woman I once knew quite well. Her kids were in theatre with our kids and together we hosted foreign students. At one time we used to have lunch together periodically but we hadn't seen each other in a very long time, except for a chance encounter at a formal dinner a month or so ago.
We talked about her child's recent trip abroad and I commented on how I had followed it on Facebook. We talked about how much she hates Facebook and how much I like it -- and why for both of us.
She confessed to feeling guilty because she keeps meaning to call me to get together for lunch. We realized that neither of us could make a date without checking our calendars (she knew she had next week, Tuesday and Wednesday free, and I knew that Tuesday is Cousins day, which cuts out both days for me). So we agreed to go home and check our calendars and let each other know what dates are free.
Thinking what an odd coincidence it was to run into not one but two old friends in the space of a couple of minutes, I continued on toward the yogurt display when someone called out "Hello, Bev..." This was someone who is a member of a board that I'm on and I do see her regularly, though not for a couple of months, since the last meeting was held the day of my surgery.
We talked about how I'm doing post-op and how thrilled I am with my cataract surgery.
I didn't run into anyone else on my trip throughout the store, but this was such an incredibly unusual day, to run into three people I know in the space of about 10 minutes.
Well that's gonna make it difficult to continue to claim to be a hermit these days!!!
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