Not having to take Justin to work this a.m. allowed me to stay snug in my bed for another hour before having to be boots on the ground by 8:30. Marlena had encouraged me to breakfast at The Club saying she had a few affirmative replies to "Meet, Eat, and Play" in the morning. Last week it was only Randy and me, which was delightful for breakfast but would not work out for a game of Trivial Pursuit. He had to be somewhere afterward, his wife, Carol, staying home to give the housekeeper some instruction. Being close to the holidays, it’s more difficult for people to find the free time for an activity such as this one.
I got myself to The Club and waited for the others to arrive. Marlena had told me she invited a new gentleman to join our group, someone who wanted to meet more people and such, so that would be nice! As I sat and waited, a young mom with her daughter came in to have breakfast. Tina was a lady I had visited with poolside and it was so nice to see her and chat with as I waited. She reported that her daughter, Grace, and she were making the hateful trip to The Avenues Mall to a kitchen shop in order to find a tea strainer spoon for her husband for CHRISTmas. She could not think of anywhere else to look for such a thing. I suggested the gift shop/tea house "Basketique" which I am sure would have the things needed to make tea! Marlena happened to have one of their flyers to give Tina and off they went in search of the tea strainer.
In the meanwhile, a young man came into the dining room, escorted by the hostess toward my table. His name is Andy, a lifelong member, with his parents, of The Club and somehow, we had never met! None of the others showed up to eat or play Trivial Pursuit so Andy and I talked until nearly 11:00 a.m. He is a man of letters, a professor who has taught at Virginia Tech in the past, and is currently a blog writer and author. He is the caretaker for his mother who still has her social life. Andy had me with “I write reviews of movies, analyzing the politics in them…”
We discussed books and movies, politics past and present, the currents events, education and more. Having seen education from the inside out and been one of those responsible for “filling the heads full of mush”, as Rush would say, Andy had much to add in that regard. He made me laugh when telling me how, as a younger man, advisors told him he should keep his part-time job at Sears, that he was ‘not college material’----guess he showed them!!! I shared the story of Justin’s testing for St. Johns Country Day School, when the Headmaster told us he had ‘some verbal overflow’…This was after Andy and I had talked for almost two hours. Yes, Justin came by that naturally!
Andy is also a rabid Facebooker, as am I, and shared his e-mail, blog address, and other contact information with me. Since I had not brought my purse along, I did not have a card to give him. We talked about following Twitter, which Justin has tried to sell me on, but I have resisted. Yet, another distraction, I fear! I told Andy about the book I have about “The Dumbest Generation”, those who have not developed interpersonal skills due to reliance on electronic media. I am also sharing a couple movies, “Cinderella Man” and “Waiting for Superman”, the latter being a documentary on the state of the government school system. At least one of them has a happy ending!
Neither of us checked our phones during breakfast and conversation, much to our credit, but then I saw Justin had been trying to reach me. Nothing of urgency, only that he was home and wondering what had become of me since my purse and car were at home, and I was not! Oops! No longer am I in the habit of letting people know my whereabouts and am now scaring them half to pieces.
I let him know I was on my way back from The Club, which he then remembered was my Friday routine, and could drive him to work. He was going to work for his father for the afternoon and then asked if he could bring home a desk for his room. Sure! I am liking this, he is getting settled in. When Jesse dropped him off in the morning, he had unloaded his car with belongings brought from the beach house, including my big camera which had been borrowed last March! Clothes were everywhere as he unpacked his tightly packed luggage, an amazing packing job, if I ever saw one!
The other night I saw the “Seinfeld” episode where Elaine broke up with her perfect boyfriend because he had a flaw---failure to use an exclamation point when taking a phone message. Oh, yes, this is important! I think of that episode often when I write because I am also a huge fan of punctuation. I had been looking up vocabulary words, perhaps because of the recent conversation with some ladies about diagramming sentences. That discussion took place at the Ladies’ Group party Monday night and stirred some memories for me. What was a dangling participle and was it a bad thing? Would I recognize a diphthong if it came into the room? I wonder if I could yet diagram a sentence and identify the parts of speech, etc. It made me think of taking a drivers’ test---I can drive just fine but could I pass the test???
Tonight is “Dinner and a Movie Night”, with Judy and Judy coming to watch “Sarah’s Key”. Many of my friends who are readers and/or part of book clubs have read this story. Judy J. has read the book and said it is an amazing story. I hope the movie measures up. Supposedly it is on the order of “The Diary of Anne Frank” but some takes place in modern times. I will certainly let you know, and write my own review!
