no to the third

I met some friends for coffee this morning.  Turned into breakfast, which was nice, except for the edge of my sleeve that kept dipping into the gravy on my biscuits.  Soggy sleeve, interesting art project on my blouse. 

One of my friends does not drive because owning a car is too expensive.  Very frugal, that girl.  She has a standard and sticks to it.  Another of her practices is that the rest of us get to drive her around.  So, anyway, eating is pretty much done, although there was still plenty of refreshing beverages to be enjoyed, and she asks who wants to take her on her errands today.  No one said anything.  Man.  I almost jumped in to offer, but then I realized that not answering, not saying yay or nay, is what the rest of them do, like all the time.  Those other magnificent babes have that sort of thing covered, and I never noticed it before, probably because I would do the whole jumping in and offering thing.  I am slightly less dumb than I was yesterday.

Thus encouraged, I decided to drive to Walmart, my favorite place to shop.  Low prices, nice people, and I get to drool over the art and crafts stuff.  So much fun.  I found the stuff I need and a nice set of oil pastels that I can pair with a great drawing pad for an end of the year gift for my mentee.  We have only three weeks left before school ends for the summer.  Sometimes we read together, sometimes we chat, but mostly we draw.  And, draw and draw and then do some more drawing.  My mentee is a sweetie and I love spending time together.  Oh, and the pastels was a big set for only $4.00.  Yay.

When I left the store, I was nearly struck by a car that popped into gear and backed up.  I jumped back, as did another woman with a cart, and she took off and I stepped back and to the side to wait for the guy to finish.  This part is funny.  He pulled partially out of his parking space and began to drive forward, directly towards me.  I moved out of the way and again stayed out of his way.  He again backed up and the other woman yelled at him, about how he did not even look before backing up.  He just stared at her and when he pulled alongside where I was waiting in a safety zone, he slowed down and screamed "bitch" at me as he pulled away.  Go, Speed Racer!  It is funny, and a happy ending as well, because I did not need to be scraped off of the parking lot and my tomato cages and mixing bowls did not get smashed.  Yay, tomato cages.

The best part is a couple of opportunities to say 'no' to devolving to bad behavior, crappy responses.  Just another way to say 'yes' to being a nice person.

I feel strong today.  I think that it is connected to taking the risk in sending off the application and all that.  I really want it, although I will not be knocked down if it does not work out.  I did my part and the rest is, well, I guess it is out of my hands now. 

It has been difficult to let go of anything from my other life, you know, stuff.  Part of that is that I came out of that life with not much stuff and it is just the teeniest bit uncomfortable or something using the couple of dishes and some towels that I have from then.  Even with a tight budget I am gradually getting rid of anything that holds memory.  I would not have thought that dishes and forks and spoons could have any sad memories attached, but they do.  Go figure.  I have not yet opened the boxes or tossed the old stuff, but I have new plates, bowls and flatware.  The dishes are clear glass and it was not until I brought them in the house that their clarity took on some significance.  Crazy.  Tomorrow, I guess that is today as it is nearly the time that I usually get up, the old crap goes into a box for the charity shop.  I seriously thought about tossing all of it, but it will not carry any bad mojo for whomever ends up with it.

When I got home, I had a nice conversation with the woman who lives in the back-flat with her sons.  We are both gardening here and we are going to share what we grow and maybe preserve some of the tomatoes at the end of the season.

Then, CoolCat and I sat out on the porch.  I read and he complained in his carrier.  Next trip out I will be getting a small crate so that he can see more, groove more, out there on the porch.  Yay.