Not too worn down this a.m.

I woke up this morning, composing the following in my head:

“This morning I awoke with one less child

But heaven more beautifully adorned.”

This was more true 11 years ago, as one might imagine the horror of waking up to realize it was not a dream, but that it actually happened.

My friend and co-worker, Betty, was slated to take me to the surgeon’s office to have my sutures checked out while my spouse was going to our place of business to get things arranged over there. As far as the surgeon could tell, there was no outward damage, which was what the nurse told me at the ER the night before. The pain killers I had been on made me droopy and fuzzy, and I needed to be at the top of my game in the coming days. The surgeon prescribed something less powerful.

The wife of one of our employees came to our house to basically hold down the fort (Amber) as we had to take care of funeral arrangements. Besides supervising the kitchen and the influx of food, Amber played games with Justin to keep him occupied. The guidance counselor from St. Johns had brought Justin home that morning, as he spent the night with our former neighbors (we had moved only about 6 weeks ago). Caroljo spent some time with us, and at some point Twila and Jackie came over, which was helpful for my mom.

Okay, that’s enough of that for today!

Yesterday morning, Justin came in my room and was talking to me about his plans for the day and so on. A commercial or news segment came on featuring hash browns and we both went “mmmmm!” I asked if he knew how to make hash browns and he said he did not know how to operate my machinery for making them. I have an attachment for the mixer which would shred potatoes plus I have a Pampered Chef gizmo somewhere for grating. At this I made a sad face and he asked, “Wanna go to Grumpy’s for breakfast?” My blankets flew off and my feet hit the ground as I scampered to get ready. He was laughing about this as he threw himself together as well. In minutes we were out the door on the way to Grumpy’s. It was just before 10:00 am I think and I feared we would be barricaded into our complex due to a Florida Strider’s race that morning. It seems the race was already underway so we were able to escape.

After a short wait for a table, we enjoyed a nice breakfast and even more talking. He asked if we could stop at Winn Dixie for the ingredients to make a pineapple upside down cake to serve for dessert that night. Of course we could do that and ended up buying a couple cake mixes and matching cans of frosting, as a sale was going on. A nice lady in the aisle who heard us talking suggested a sure fire way to make an upside down cake. We got the needed items and some not entirely necessary, then went home.

Justin had some vacuuming to finish but he told me he was taking a few minutes ‘for himself’ to play some video games and then would get busy. I had to chuckle about that, it hit me funny. Every little while he came in my room to show me something he found of interest in a “Geek” catalog I get since ordering on-line for CHRISTmas. He is all about the geeky stuff. Soon I heard him in the kitchen, making his desserts for the dinner and game night events.

At one point I went into the kitchen to hear him say, “Oh, oh…” as he stuck a tooth pick into the center of his cake. It was very runny yet, but the edges were done…this might be because he used a 9 x 9 cake pan instead of a 9 x 13, making the cake VERY thick. He overlooked the note on the box saying to use 2 of the smaller pans or one of the larger ones. His idea was to remove the top layer of baked cake and reinsert the remainder in the oven, alongside his already baking lasagna. Okay…..When it came out, it was blackened around the edges due to the oven being set on 400 degrees for the lasagna. Not his day for baking! Oh, wait, he successfully made confetti cupcakes which were a good substitute for the pineapple upside down cake. What he did salvage from that cake looks good, but he is hesitant to try it himself.

When I sat down at my desk upon getting home from breakfast and WD, my phone rang. It was my friend, Judy C., asking if I wanted to meet for lunch. Rats! I explained that I had just walked in from a rather good breakfast but was available for dinner. That was fine with her so those plans were made. Justin had to laugh, as such is my life! Other years people have stepped up, knowing or unknowing, to keep me somewhat busy this ‘funeral week’, and it was happening!

Judy and I met at Manny’s Bistro, the replacement restaurant for Sarnelli’s, now closed. The family is still together at this place, and I got hugs from all of them. They asked about Justin so I must must must get him in there one of these days so they can see him. Tina, the owner’s daughter and our waitress, said she had not seen him in a couple years, which may be true. It was good to see so many people coming in, even though it was ‘early’ for dinner standards. This restaurant is located on the same site from where Judy and I had our cars towed in 2010, so we parked very carefully last night!

When I got home after dinner, Justin’s friends were all here, but had not eaten yet. Perhaps they were waiting for halftime in the football game. There were two girls and four guys, planning to eat and play games while watching football. They did two of the three, with football trumping the board game. Not a good idea to plan game night on a game night! The ladies sort of tidied up the kitchen afterward since they were not drawn into the game. I stayed pretty much out of the way to give everyone their space but later ventured to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher and refill it.

As the later game came on, after the first quarter, Justin came to my door and announced, “Well, it’s all over…” They went home!! I guess the girls were good for one football game but not two so the guys (Josh had already left a bit earlier) took the girls home. One is in sports medicine but not a football fan, and the other a medical student.The ladies are roommates and live in Mandarin. The med student, Sarah, is expecting to be engaged to Ron, with whom Justin plans to live when he buys a house. The other young man is Jesse, Justin’s former roommate, and is helping Ron find a house to buy. The fellows are all St. Johns kids, which I think is kinda fun. I felt badly that the evening didn’t work out the way Justin expected it to and neither did the Bronco game, which I watched for a while with him. We both decided to go to bed when it looked like a hopeless case for Denver.

Today, it’s Packers!!!!!!