Friday, Feb. 26

It was a good day. We were up about 7:30, and after breakfast, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises.

Then I dressed to go to the 11 a.m. Go Red Luncheon at the college down the road from us. Mother went, too. It was a very nice affair, as usual. This year, the decorations included huge red and black Japanese lantern-like spheres suspended from the ceiling. The tables and chairs were dressed in red or white, with red or white napkins, secured with black ribbons. Each table featured a smaller white cloth patterned with a stylized black flower pattern in the center, and a glass vase centerpiece filled with silver branches.

The tables containing the silent auction items were dressed in white table clothes, and red clothes with clear acrylic hearts sprinkled among glittering branches. There was a nice selection of auction items, none of which appealed to Mother or me.

Red-clad, bejeweled women were escorted to their tables by "Heartthrob" gentlemen in tuxedos. My dentist escorted me, while our bank's president did the honors for Mother. I wore a red jacket over a black turtleneck shirt and black slacks, along with two heart-shaped necklaces given to me by Hubbie, and Mother wore a black outfit with a red turtleneck shirt. We both added Go Red pins to our outfits.

Lunch was a choice of cheesy broccoli or creamy chicken noodle soup, served in bread bowls, with scoops of chicken salad and diced fresh fruit on the side. Desserts were cheesecake or chocolate cake. Mother had the cheesecake, and I opted for the chocolate cake.

Three heart survivors told their stories via video. There was also a fitness expert speaker, whose theme was basically that we should "take time to stop and smell the roses," rather than fill our lives so full that we exceed our physical and mental limitations.

The entertainment was especially good today. Two local singers, a man and a woman, wowed the 300 women in attendance, and we all jumped up at once to give them a standing ovation at the end of their performance.

The event ended at 1 p.m. Back home, we basically relaxed for the afternoon, though I did upload photos to both the one-hour service and to Facebook.

Later, we heated pancakes for supper. We each had a couple of those but nothing else, since we weren't very hungry. Mother went home after that, but came back around 7 p.m., so we could go to the other college to hear the concert chorale perform the Easter portion of G. F. Handel's "Messiah." We enjoyed the hour-long performance, particularly the Hallelujah chorus a the end.

The room the concert was held in was packed to capacity. I was surprised when we walked in to see two of my old college professors acting as ushers. One is now the college president, the other is a retired biology professor.

We were back home around 9 p.m., and finished the evening watching TV.