Saturday, May 7, 2011

Pleasant Surprises

I like surprises. Pleasant ones especially. Yesterday I had three pleasant surprises. Two of them involved my mom. I had mentioned to her that the next thing I would like to neaten was her bathroom. She asked if I wanted to do it right then and I said no. I figured that she would eventually need to be dragged into the bathroom to get the work done. Not so. At about 5, she said, are you ready to work? So we spent the next hour or so, neatening the space. We threw away a lot of vitamins and pills (some dating from the 50s) into the trash. And cleaned off the top of her dresser in there. It looks great!

Next, after I came back from a night out, about which I will write more in a bit, I found mom hard at work sorting papers! All by her herself! This is a good sign - that she is willing and interested in sorting. Sadly, she keeps most things if I am not standing right there to help. So we spent the next half hour going through a box of accumulated papers (there are at least 20 of these in the dining room alone) and threw away a hefty amount! Huzzah! Pleasant surprises indeed!

Last night I had a "date!" Ok, don't get too excited. It wasn't really a date, just a get together with a friend. Robert and I have known each other most of our lives. He is a couple years younger than I am. We went to school together off and on, traveled to China together on a semester abroad and have run into each other occasionally here and there. Recently, I ran into him and his mother at Wegman's. I suggested we get together for a beer and chat about our lives. Which we did. His mother also has dementia - sadly more advanced than my mom's case. We commiserated about that, the state of the state and other stuff. Oh, and he gave me renewed hope. He married a woman and at the age of 44, she had a child with him. So, all things are still possible. Not likely, but possible. :) All in all in, very pleasant.

Pictures from May 6, 2011:


I think these are tulips though they look an awful lot like poppies!


My mom's neatened bathroom!

2 comments:

Sam said...

Wow, I would like to have seen the pill bottles from the 1950s ... I love your tales of cleaning in Geneva but of course much of the charm of that house for me is the fact that there always seem to be corners of it that haven't been decluttered for 50 years ;)

Augustus said...

Alas, they have already been relegated to the trash. :( And I doubt all the corners will be decluttered in the next 50 years... :)