Quiet Sunday

It's been a pretty nice Sunday. First, I received a call from a good friend and we chatted for quite awhle. She was as excited as I was about my mother's new duplex. You see, my friend and I have known each other since our first years of high school, so we have a lot of shared history. I was there when her mom died of cancer, she was there while I struggled through the after-effects of my abusive childhood (She met my dad on occasion, but he managed to put on his "company" face), we were there for each other's marriages and we shared the joypain of parenting our chldren. Occasionaly, we meet for breakfast and catch up. I've been pretty bad about staying in touch, though, so I was glad to hear from her.

I stumbled across another couple's blog today (http://wwwnewbohemians.blogspot.com/) while googling for coffee shop info. (again) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't read all of it, but I like the writing style, and it seems we have kids around the same age. it reminded me that I hadn't posted that my 16-yr.-old daughter just picked up her provisional driving license last week. She's not overwhelmed with joy, though (and that may be a good thing), because she knows I'll drive her places and that we're going to wait awhile before we let her drive without my husband or me in the car. Our funny drive-along parent experience with her came when all of us piled into the car and let her drive us to the home of one of her friends. Everything seemed just fine until we asked her to parallel park in front of the house on the other side of the street. Well, she parked alright! She managed to knock against the mailbox and flip open the mailbox door at the same time - then she broke out in laughter! (Silly girl! :-)) It turned out that the mailbox wasn't damaged, but she had to endure ribbing from for awhile after that. I told her she should get a job driving in front of the mail trucks to make the mail carrier's life a bit easier. lol I still remember my mom crying, "Take it out of first!" when she taught my younger brother to drive on my volkswagon. The poor transmission!

I had two wonderful thrills of victory today. First, I forced myself out the front door for another 40 minute walk (sounds of a cheering crowd) and I found another great story about coffee groups. You can read it in the newsletter at this link: http://www.ypsilantihistoricalsociety.org/publications/winter2006.pdf The participants played a game called "Honest John" to decide who gets to pay the bill (sound of the cheering crowd again!). I enjoyed my walk. I tried to communicat with a squirrel I saw, but he wasn't interested. When I was in fifth- or sixth-grade, I named the squirrels I saw outside of my bedroom window. I think it's funny that our family pets (since I've been married) have been gerbils and hamsters (similar to squirrels). I had cats and dogs while I was growing up. Someday, I'll tell the story about how I snuck the gerbils into the house culminating with quite a few aquariums full of gerbils. My husband, you see, is allergic to cats (and doesn't want a dog), so I've had to make do with the smaller pets. Otherwise, I'd get another cat in the blink of an eye. When I was little, we had one cat - a silver tabby - that was so gentle that I liked to think of her as my grandmother (come back to visit me). At least, I get to visit my mom's cat Penny whenever I go to Florida and my sister-in-law's cat Socks when we stop by there on the way to Michigan.

Y'know, I don't wish anyone harm, but this duplex Mom just got seems like it was meant for her. It seems like poetic justice that she got this duplex after a foreclosure (Thankfully, the man had bought it as extra property to try to buy and sell) since she lost the home she loved the most when it was foreclosed on because my dad hadn't paid the mortgage. We were essentially homeless for awhile - living with relatives, running up a bill we couldn't pay at a hotel... So, you can see where it sort-of seems like poetic justice to me...