Welcome Back

 Yesterday I did all of the things.

1) Went to the park with mom and her caregiver

2) Took a long walk with a friend

3) Cooked dinner for a friend who we thought would leave by 3 or 4pm but who stayed until 10:30

and I am exhausted.

Mom was funny. Lately I need to multitask when I see her because her caregiver needs some love, too. So I am literally negotiating two conversations simultaneously. The caregiver gives me the dirt on the mama and tells me things that she sees as potential problems or injustices. And the mama wants to do the usual: vaguely or outright complaining about the current moment, which she will then praise to others later.

The park was gorgeous and it was a beautiful day. A squirrel came to say hello. Mom tried to convince me to move to where my sister lives. She wants to start a board and care home in the midwest, in order to make enough money to buy a house. She has plenty of money. 

The caregiver says that mom got in trouble in the dining room at her community. She wants to sit in a particular seat, and that's not allowed. Also she called the dining room manager over and chewed him out because the tablecloths in the dining room are not ironed. Holy cow, woman! I'm mortified. She has no idea how good she has it. No idea.

Then I went to see my friend from college, hugged her for the first time in about 20 years. She was the first non-relative I have hugged in 15 months. We walked a few miles to a rose garden and took photos of all of the unconventionally colored roses, like one called Ketchup and Mustard, that has petals that are yellow on the outside and red on the inside. And vaguely green-pink ones and brownish ones. Our 18-year-old selves would never believe that our 58-year-old selves would be doing this in the future.

When I got home I was beat. And our friend never left the house so I got up the energy to cook and we invited him to stay. He was our first dinner guest in at least 2 years. I can barely keep my eyes open and am unable to leave the sofa today. The boy kitten had too much excitement yesterday, himself, and he's sacked out like a real cat in the crook of my leg.