Sunday, Mar. 05, 2023 10:45 am

Baby Shower Report

Finally --- quiet Sunday morning with no commitments whatsoever. I hope by the end of the day the house is cleaner and I've got some real food in the house and maybe I've had a nap and created some art, but I'm also telling myself to just do what feels good today. Take a day of rest.

Yesterday's baby shower wasn't that bad. The sweet mother of the baby-to-be was beautiful and gracious and I love her. The country club was lovely. It was really old school rich. Not over the top, but close. Country clubs are amazing... that is a LOT of money to just be a part of a club. But I'm sure these people love their golf and the prestige and being able to take clients to the club. The neighborhood was what was really pretty. It is the "Colonial" country club and all the houses in the neighborhood are colonial! And pretty old. A very settled neighborhood. Lots of people out walking and many gardeners working on the yards. There were lots of tulips blooming in these yards. In Texas, you pretty much have to plant tulips each fall and they won't come back the next year. So you only see tulips in big groups where gardeners put them in and someone rich pays for it. It was nice to see tulips, one of my all time favorite flowers.

The shower was in a smaller room than I anticipated and probably less women than I expected, so I wouldn't have been able to skip out in the middle. Which was fine. It wasn't bad. They DID have booze. I had had nothing to drink Friday night at dinner and the musical, but free booze is hard to resist. I had pink champagne/rose and it was lovely. And the waiters would even refill my glass when I wasn't looking so I didn't have to go back to a bar to imbibe.

There were nice appetizers and I was starved. I only got a small plate though, knowing there was brunch on the way. In my sophisticated way, I bit into a stuffed mushroom and it exploded cheese all over my shirt.

I sat for the appetizers. Many people were standing and mingling. I sat with a couple of women that were very nice. One a best friend from Florida (young) and one a friend/neighbor from Texas (my age maybe). Very nice and easy to talk to, I will say. More gathered with us soon and even the mother of the "bride"/mom. She was from Florida and very nice, too.

The brunch was AWESOME. I wouldn't mind having that breakfast every single day. A big pile of scrambled eggs, a bigger pile of hashbrowns, a large link sausage (bigger than Jimmy Dean's), and two big slices of bacon on top. And a biscuit to the side. And even ketchup so I didn't have to look like a rube and ask for it (I wouldn't have but I would have wanted to).

Oh, and cake. Delicious, bakery made, buttercream frosting, real cake. SO freaking good. That's what I want for my birthday.

The gift opening was also eye opening! Every package was wrapped in very neutral beige and brown colors. I had ordered some wrapping paper from Amazon and it seemed like their color choices were limited. I chose a craft paper with yellow suns and white clouds on it so I can use it for other occasions down the line, but it fit in perfectly. And all the clothes and blankets and everything baby was brown, beige, maybe light green or teal. The only think in primary colors was a baby blanket that had been the mom (honoree)'s when she was a baby 35 years ago. I know soft muted everything is the way the "kids" like it these days, but a baby needs some bright colors! I gave him a little changing station when when they are out and about and little earmuffs to protect his tender ears if they take him to a concert or something loud. I really admire people that protect their children's hearing. Children's ears bounce back and are fine.... until they aren't. I wish I had been protecting my own hearing when I was younger.

The shower wasn't too long and it wasn't unbearable at all. When it ended I drove around the neighborhood a bit and then got antsy and headed back. This was all about 45 minutes away and you'd have thought I drove across the state from their appreciation.

I drove straight to Mother's coming back and visited her for a while. She was doing good. Monday is her birthday (augh, that's tomorrow). She's about as nonconcerned about her birthday as I am. I think I'll get a little buttercream cake and go have dinner with her tomorrow night. We're having a bigger family something later in the month when all the grandkids are free.

I have a new penpal and I will write her today. I found her blog here on Diaryland and mostly noticed it because "cat" is in the name and she was online when I was. Reading her life was interesting because it was so different, but also with the similarities of age and life experience. She wanted a real letter in the mail so I sent her address and quickly got an answer from her. What a real thrill it is to get a letter. I wrote her right back and then SHE wrote me right back. That is the best! I don't think I've had a penpal (that I didn't know personally) since back in the 90s when I corresponded with a woman in Oregon that listened to me on the radio. We ended up talking on the phone and being good friends for a while.

This silly cat is having a ball. Slippers, the middle one, sleek black panther with some Siamese in him, is frolicking with the big 5x7 rug. He's running and making it slide and then rumpling it up and getting under it. No wonder it is all cattywampus when I come in here. All my rungs need tape/anchors/nails to hold them to the floor. I'm going to be the old lady that trips on the rug and breaks a hip. Probably die on the floor and the cats will eat me.

Oh ... funny mom story... my sister saw her Wednesday and told her that I had been out of town and got to see my aunt, mom's oldest sister, at her nursing home. Sister told her that the aunt, almost 100, has not been doing well and was tiny and has been very unresponsive for a while, but that she did know me and conversed. Sister told her that it often was bad enough that the aunt didn't recognize her own daughter Donna. Mother thought about it a minute and said something like, "I guess I'm doing pretty good then ... I know YOU.... DONNA." Lots of laughing.

I also read a funny story in my bedside diary I don't want to forget. At Thanksgiving the 4-year-old Clara was running through the house being chased by her Opa. She was screaming and delighted and running as fast as she could around the couch over and over and then she would stop, turn around, hold up her hand and say, "SHIELD!!" I don't know what superhero she learned that from, but it was adorable.

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Older Entries
Exhuasted - Thursday, Apr. 06, 2023
Mother's Death - Sunday, Apr. 02, 2023
Mother is Dying - Monday, Mar. 27, 2023
Spring!! - Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023
Restless - Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023
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