Who Knows? in Everyday Ramblings

I can almost tastes the orange here.

It is still cold and wet, but after today it is supposed to warm up and stay above freezing maybe even for the season. It is about time. And it looks like this time next week it will be dry for a few days’ stint so I can do some work in the garden plot. I splurged and ordered some Helenium’s and they came in root form. They are now hanging out in my bathroom until I can plant them, which is a cool dark place most of the time.

That is because there has been no movement on the wall. Some guy in a vintage truck bed with wooden slats and multiple gates came on Sunday evening an hour before dark and picked up all the trash that the contractor’s left when taking apart the wall . That trash has been here for weeks, on the side hill, clearly visible from my dining area.

I ordered 25 small U-Haul boxes to pack my kitchen up and they came Monday.

The last two days I have been off all day each day at a “Vision Quest” for the nonprofit board I have now joined. We now have 5 board members. I will need to come up with names for everyone. I continued with my teaching schedule so I would generally say that my demeanor currently is that of toast.

We had the first day at a townhouse kind of sort of in my neighborhood owned by one of the members. He has a cat that we did not see because he is a low-key kind of cat who is a bit uncomfortable around strangers.

The other day was in this great courtyard condo that looked like it was originally built as apartments maybe in the forties. This board member has a female cat that we did not see until lunch break. She is a bit of a grumpus and after she introduced herself to us all, settled next to me on the couch.

The first day we walked about 6 blocks up to a spacious café that served a nice lunch and ate together. Not one person in there was wearing a mask. Including me.

This is how the pandemic ends I think, without realizing it, caution slips away. All of my fellow board members are older than me. There were offhand remarks about doctor’s appointments, but the pandemic has only been brought up as a reference to that thing we all went through, you know, back then.

Social pressure is intense. I was kind of stunned to realize halfway through my sandwich that masking had not even occurred to me. I am still wearing one on the bus and in the grocery. I am taking a lot of things on faith here, oh fellow humans, that I won’t be interacting with you if you are sick.

I got to know everyone a lot better. And we did some good work clarifying what we want to do with the nonprofit. Some of these things are going to be available via Zoom if folks here are interested and I will mention them as things unfold.

For a person that is an introvert and has social anxiety this was a big leap for me. I realized a couple of hours in that I might as well relax and be my authentic self with opinions and preferences. Because of the roles I play in the other things I do this is not as easy, but these are all flawed but loving warm people with good hearts.

There is one other woman on the board, and she told me that the reason I was getting these half smiles when I talked about the Thursday group that meets for coffee and didn’t seem to be associated with the nonprofit and yet there is much crossover is that before the pandemic it was a men’s group.

Walt invited me and I went. That was how I got to be “the girl”. We have had a few other women come, (thank goodness) but at one-point last week I was on a stool at a table in the back room of a coffee shop surrounded by 11 guys. Ha.

Noko integrates local Men’s Group. Maybe it is good Walt didn’t tell me. I don’t think they are talking differently because there is a smattering of women there. They still make jokes in bad taste. We shall see.

Anyway, I am through the board initiation and now can focus on getting the kitchen packed up. I have offered the management company a time slot where I can be out of the apartment for them to do the work at the end of April. The plan is to go spend a week at Kes and Most Honorable’s house with Carlo. He will have to stay in the bedroom unless we have a good introduction between him and their two male cats.

Kes and Most Honoarable will be going to the beach for a nice getaway during that time so I will be cat and house sitting for them. It isn’t ideal but it is better than some of the alternatives on the table. I will get reimbursed for the rent days I am out of here.

I feel much better now that there is a plan. But still this whole thing has been so crazy making…who knows?

Last updated March 09, 2023