Friday, Jan. 11

Up at 8 a.m. this beautiful morning, and did a treadmill session after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and she relaxed while I got ready for the day.

When I got back downstairs, Hubbie and I put things back in order in the living room and dining room after taking down the Christmas trees and decorations. Until now, too many other things had interferred with this task.

Hubbie vacuumed the rooms and brought in the tote of decorations for those areas, and I arranged everything. It's good to have things back in place. The holidays are nice, but disruptive.

Once that was done, I made a call to a lady I know at Caring Hands Hospice to get information about certified nursing assistant opportunities for my student. She said that immigrants need to have a green card, a work permit, or some other authorization to enter the field. So I will check with the student on Monday to see what, if anything, she has. We can pursue the idea further after that.

After that, it was time for lunch. Mother finished her jigsaw puzzle and started another one after she'd eaten. I did this and that for an hour or so, until time to go back to the coffee house, this time to meet with the director of the upcoming readers' theater play.

We agreed to meet at 2 p.m., which turned out to be closing time for the coffee house, but the owner said that he needed to do clean up, which would take about an hour, and he didn't mind if we hung around during that time.

The play director (my old professor) bought us each cups of coffee before we began talking. We had a productive meeting, and got publicity matters lined out, before the coffee house owner announced we had fifteen minutes until he closed the door.

I took only a couple of sips of my coffee while we were there...it was stout enough to put hair on one's chest...so I brought it home with me. I'll have to water it down to make it drinkable.

Not long after I got back, I prepared dishes of leftovers for the oven. I added ketchup to the meatloaf, and Monterery Jack cheese to the mashed potatoes to kick them up a notch, and then opened a can of whole kernel corn to have with it.

Slices of homemade wheat bread from a loaf that Sis brought the last time she was here completed the meal. The bread had been in the freezer, and today seemed like the perfect time to pop it in the oven, and serve it hot.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house after supper, and then I turned off the TV, so we could read for an hour or so. Hubbie did read, but soon after I turned the TV off, my friend from Texas called to wish me a belated happy birthday. We finished our conversation an hour and a half later. We only talk, or write letters, about once a year, so it takes a while to catch up on each other's lives.

Toward the end of our conversation, she remarked that someone at her workplace seemed very surprised that we have continued our long-distance friendship after 32 years. We became friends while we worked for the same agency in the Capital City. We both left the agency at about the same time, and vowed we would keep in touch. We have even visited her a few times over the years, since she lives in a town on the route to the town in Texas where Hubbie's aunt lives.

Spent the rest of the evening watching TV....a couple of one-hour shows.

Note: concerning the story of the doctor who is in jail for toting a gun to the hospital and threatening staff with it....we received several emails this evening letting us know that his wife died in her sleep this morning. We understand that the daughter who had gained guardianship over her mother had shielded her from any information about her father's escapades and subsequent incarceration.

Later, we learned that there will be a memorial service for the wife on Monday afternoon. Hubbie will attend, though I will not be able to, since it's scheduled for the same time that I am to meet with my student. After a few weeks off for the holidays, I don't feel it would be right to cancil the tutoring session...especially since the school will be closed again on Jan. 21 for the Martin Luther King holiday. It's more important that Hubbie attend the service, anyway, since she was a Master Gardener.