Nights when I have to get up early for something are often
nights when I can't sleep at all because I'm too worried I'll oversleep. I got home
after La Cage aux Folles last night and started the review, and then I took a
break, as I usually do. But I wanted to be sure to finish and submit the review
first thing in the morning, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it when Jeri and Phil
woke up and could concentrate on them. So I set the alarm for 6 a.m. And then I
couldn't sleep. At all.
Finally at 2:30, I got up and finished the review and sent
it off to the paper. Then I tried to get to sleep. I did get a couple of hours, but
the alarm I had set went off at 6 a.m. anyway. I knew I wanted to make blueberry
muffins for breakfast, so I got up then, made the muffins, fed the dogs, and went back to
my recliner to see if I could sleep a bit more, knowing that as soon as someone of
"those people" sleeping upstairs started down the stairs, I wouldn't need an
alarm clock. Polly would be barking her fool head off.
And she did.
It was so nice to see Jeri and Phil...and later, Alice Nan.
We sat around drinking coffee or tea and eating the blueberry muffins and just
having a great time. The kids decided to take the dogs out for a walk. Walt decided to go
along, so all three dogs were very happy.
Alice Nan decided to go along for the exercise, though we had run out
of dogs who needed walking. This picture reminds me of following the yellow brick
road...
After they returned, Jeri had to go downtown to pick up a
cello she is borrowing for the week (she is learning the cello and needed one to practice
on. A guy who owns a music store doesn't know Jeri and she doesn't know him, but he
knows her name from Lawsuit and figured she was OK to use his personal cello while she's
here. "It's nice to be Davis royalty," Phil joked!). She and Phil
took off for downtown in our car while Walt, Alice Nan and I took AN's car and went to
Atria.
We had fun visiting. I just love
how my mother comes alive when visitors are there. The old sparkle is back. I
had gotten to the apartment before Walt and AN, and she was looking distressed. I
asked what was wrong. She said she just didn't feel good and thought she might
vomit. It was the old, droopy, unhappy mother I visit every day. But when
Alice Nan got there and they started reminiscing about working together at the Bank of
America, my mother lost the hang-dog look and joked and laughed just like her old
self. When I asked her, on the way to the restaurant, how she felt she grinned
"fine!" and when I asked about her nausea, she said it was gone.
Of course the best part was when Jeri arrived and there
were warm hugs all around. Those two have always had a very special bond and a hug
from Jeri is like a magic tonic for my mother. It amazes me that with the number of people
she doesn't remember, or has to be reminded about, or has to have dates written down for
her, with the fact that she doesn't know her great grandchildren, or recognize their
pictures, and has to be told who they are when you talk about them by name, Jeri is the
one constant (well, maybe I am too). She knows when she is coming, she recognizes
her, she knows her name, and just having Jeri here has always been a great boon to my
mother. Jeri, with her unflappable optimism, brings out the best in her and I just
love it when she is able to be out here for a visit.
We went to lunch at the Atria restaurant and my mother
ordered her usual vegetable soup and fruit salad, but when she saw everyone else going to
the salad bar, she decided she'd have a green salad too. The waitress (Sara) was
very surprised. She was even more surprised when my mother decided to have the
dessert of the day instead of her usual ice cream cone.
When we finished lunch, we went back to the apartment, where Jeri
gave us some examples of her growing cello prowess. Alice wanted to sit close so she could
watch better.
Walt just found the whole thing very relaxing.
Alice Nan had things to do and was going to Norm & Olivia's this
afternoon, so she had to leave, and the rest of us decided, after looking at Walt, that
naps all around sounded like a good idea -- and I could tell my mother was getting sleepy
too -- so we told her goodbye and came home, but first we made a reservation for dinner
tomorrow night back at Atria again.
Everybody kind of crashed after we got home, but I made the mistake
of checking something on the internet about an article I'd written and got livid at what
had been done to it, so I had to get up and Contact People. Fortunately it was
ultimately resolved (mostly, but not entirely, in my favor), but my adrenalin had been
stirred up and I never did get my nap.
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| Day 52: Everybody was happy especially the dogs! |
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