Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Two For

I stopped by the Highland Park Improvement Club to attend a meeting about developing community, lead by the Center for Ethical Leadership www.ethicalleadership.org. I left early to pick up Nessa from work. I took a couple of plants over to the new store on Henderson where the other day I'd chatted with a lady preparing a garden out front. All in all, a friendly and low stress evening. I missed the convention coverage but it sounded great.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Level 61

This weekend was my 61st birthday, or as I like to think, the weekend I reach level 61.
I celebrated by stopping by a bank and starting the process of figuring out how to refinance my home. It will be a long process but now that I have started I am going to find the process fun.
Kiara and Nessa made me a very nice dinner, first asking me what my favorite thing was and of course I said, nicely grilled steak. They did a wonderful job.
Dan stopped by and gave me a nice bottle of wine and talked for an hour.
Barre class was delightful as usual and I noticed that the weights are lighter semicolon I am still not fond of planks but I could not go the full 3 minutes without distress.
I delivered books to the VA twice - a full load on Saturday, and then since I had some on Sunday I stop by and discovered that there was room for 3 boxes on the shelves already LOL. This means I took a quick walk in the garden twice, which was very nice.
I practiced breathing and stopped by Pegasus which I always enjoy.
I pick my huckleberries and got more than a quart They don't seem very flavorful but they'll make a nice sauce or go into smoothies.
The cats were affectionate or demanding, as you wish.
I had a bit of fun with the bookselling. The coach for "Mahomet Seymour HS boys Cross County in Illinois" wrote and asked if they could get a discount on a particular book about cross country, because their program was short on funds. At first I reflexively started negotiating, trying to make a sale by giving up some profit. Then I realized "What Am I Doing?" - if they had asked for a donation I'd have given them some money but this was even better. So I dropped the price to the fees Amazon would charge me, they ordered the book and thanked me and told me how its author had inspired the team, and I feel great! Also I got to tell them that I had run cross country for St. Ed's - the price of talking with older people is that you have to hear our stories haha! And now I have a cross country team in Illinois to cheer on - so it's all good.
After barre I gave Kris her ballot which still comes to my home, and she thanked me by declining to pay her share of Y expenses. This helped me come to the realization that she will never be anything but a deadbeat and I need to accept that, severing that final minor connection. It is to the minor financial advantage of us both, but she's just taking advantage of me and it is a stressor to have dun her into paying her share. It is helpful that she styles herself in so homely a way. I miss the companionship.
I am looking forward to the refinance and more time at the Y, both of which make me happy - as well as the kindness of my dear housemates and the many birthday wishes of my Facebooks friends and family!