Little Things

The sun peaked out yesterday. It's feeling more like spring than winter. Last night I went for a walk in a heavy sweatshirt and was plenty warm. Something tells me we are in for a brutal late winter/early spring. That will be interesting after spending the first part of February in Mexico.

I'm gearing up for our trip. I'm back and forth between excited and panicked. It's how I'm wired. I love old Mexico, but watching the news at night makes me question traveling there right now. I tell myself that Zihua is far from the unrest...that it's safe, yet I cannot shake the feeling. Once I'm there with an icy cerveza in hand, I know I'll feel at peace.

Speaking of peace, Ted is finally settled in Chicago for the semester or until he books a ticket to visit Meryl in London. He arrived home from Vancouver Sunday in the wee hours. Instead of taking an Uber to his apartment in the Loop 16 miles away, he took an Uber 90 miles home to Milwaukee and showed up at 2:30 a.m. rarin' to go. He had a myriad of stories, pictures and videos from his 10 days of travel. Lily arrived home shortly thereafter and was in one of her chatty moods. I made her a midnight snack and we stayed up until 4:30 talking. When my adult children want to dish, I'll stay up all night.

 

Ted was still sleeping Sunday morning when I left for a date with Jess. I had all of his laundry washed and folded: two suitcases worth, before going. We had tickets to see My Fair Lady. It was a first for the both of us, and despite the fact that I started to drift off in the second act, I was mostly enjoying it.

Truth is I enjoyed it more than the Packer game that night, but it was a good time to gather with family in front of the tv. I made an enormous crock of Chicken Tortilla Soup and Ted's favorite French Silk Pie. I never got the chance to bake him a birthday cake. Lils came home from Chicago in time to join us. She drove down to the city to visit her roomie.

Monday morning came too soon. I was up at 5 o'clock to make sure that Ted would be ready for his 6 a.m. train. He went straight from Union Station to the office and later let me know that his first day was "super!" I appreciated that so much more than good or fine.

Lils is home for another week and a half. When she came home in December, it seemed like she would be here for so long, but alas it goes and too soon. I'm going to really spoil her these next 10 days. Despite the fact that she refuses to put any clothes away or throw away the almost empty pint of blueberries or stop leaving a pile of rice cake crumbs under her seat, and leaves her shoes all over for me to trip on, I'm going to miss her when she goes. Gus too. The two of them have bonded and tight. When we don't know where he is these days, we can usually find him curled up in her bed that she refuses to make.

It's been so lovely spending lots of quality time together. She rarely escapes to her room for very long. Last night she returned from her workout and asked to help me make dinner. That's my favorite: cooking together. We are a good team too and we put together an impressive pot of Butter Chicken. It was scrumptious over a bowl of Basmati rice with a side of garlicky naan. She helped me clean up too. After dinner, we headed to the family room the three of us with our three cats and watched a movie. It was a great night...what I call the extraordinary ordinary. More of that please.