My friend and Pilates instructor, Miss T, is a powerful woman. We've been working out together since January of 2015 and that means that we have seen a lot of each others' major life transitions. When we met my mom was still living at home and T's son was in middle school. Mom has progressed into memory care, and T's son has graduated from architecture school, has his first professional gig as a junior architect, and is living in his first apartment.
She's flying off into a new future as well. Over the past 8 years she has set and met all of her goals -- without a partner, I might add. When we first got together she was a corporate trainer for the forklift company. And we started working together in the gym. Then she decided to get certified in Pilates. I hated Pilates but was devoted to her. She's sooo observant and smart and this is exactly what she should be doing. She made me like Pilates again.
Three years or so she decided to branch off and start her own business. She has developed and nurtured a whole group of people, the Strong Squad, who are devoted to her practice. I stayed a private client, so I'd say I'm Strong Squad adjacent. As Covid approached, she was the first person I knew to really take it seriously. She brought her clients onto Zoom without a hitch. She took masking and all protocols seriously, too, which is important to me even if we were not going to be seeing each other. I love her.
Her next goal was to buy a house. Home ownership was not possible here, and she worked with some real estate agents who probably didn't take her seriously, given her price point. She was briefly boo-ed up with someone in the Las Vegas area, and that expanded her view of what was possible. Her new agent there was not successful, so she moved on from him. One week after engaging her new agent she was in escrow in Henderson, NV. A perfect little flip with an out building where she can teach her clients. Room for her flock of tiny dogs and baby grand piano. She is moving pronto.
By way of goodbye she invited her people to ride the merry-go-round where a friend of hers works, but it rained. I would have missed out, being a cruise ship captive that week. But I had offered to help her pack, and she decided that I should help her pack her art. We were able to use most of the packing materials from a shipment that came to the archives before we left for the cruise, which was great reuse of materials that would have been otherwise discarded. And I suggested that she get some bedsheets (which were super helpful for some of her more substantial pieces). Those came from Buy Nothing. I bought us some of that stretchy cling wrap that movers use (which I felt bad about but was essential), and we were in business.
Our day was fantastic. I made her a plate of deviled eggs. And we picked 70's Soul music as our soundtrack, which is a place of overlap for us (I'm her mom's age). Then she turned me on to the only podcast she listens to, which is about music. We learned that "Got To Get You Into My Life" is a song about drugs. But more importantly, we howled with laughter and outrage that a) she had never realized that The Beatles wrote and performed it first and b) I had never realized that Earth Wind & Fire also made it a huge hit. Each of us had never heard the other. Then anyone coming through the door of her studio was quizzed about whether they knew that the song was by The Beatles. And we *both* wanted to tell people immediately -- just not the same people.
One of the folks who came by brought us masking tape for taping the glass on her artwork so it doesn't shatter in transit. And she brought the best garden burger I have had in a very long time.
Oh my gosh. We had a great afternoon. I got Private Playtime with T (and her flock) for most of the day. And then I went home and got into bed, cause that was a lot of work. Can't wait for her to get settled and put that art up on the walls of her new home. In just a few weeks we'll be doing the Pilates in a new setting, in the home that she owns and can do anything she wants in.
Hoo-ray.
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