Victories

When you are helping to coordinate the cross-country move of your ninety-four-year-old-recently-widowed-father, there are bound to be some rough patches. But there are equally as many victories. Let’s dwell on those. Here’s my list of gratitudes for the week:

• Going on a hike with your former USC colleagues (and friends) in Griffith Park and discovering that they all share the same blood type. Just not with you. Don’t fall down.

• Sunday night dinner with Dad, and my brother Don, his wife Terry and her daughter’s family. This was a late celebration of my brother’s birthday which fell on August 31st while we were still in D.C. packing things up and an early birthday greeting for Don’s grandson, Liam. The culinary victory was Terry’s beautiful mushroom pasta, and the ice cream cake featured Mario and Luigi doing 70 on the road.

• The ability to motor over to see your father in about fifteen minutes, even in mid-day valley traffic.
• Learning the game of how to not lose your shit with the phone company while porting your dad’s phone number to a new service when they give you the wrong transfer pin number….twice, necessitating a second hellish interaction with the original phone company. The process took 2 hours! I had to go move my car so I didn’t burst into tears midway through. Deep breaths. I returned with a changed attitude, and as a result, had a great convo with Stacy at the S company and ultimately we were able to get it done with marginal help from the V company.
• Seeing a lost coyote in the neighborhood and knowing that you know where you are and what you are doing. And you aren’t thirsty or hungry.

• Not falling off the carriage in the pilates class. Surviving pilates class.
• Getting the pictures hung up in your dad’s new apartment, and finding we could slip an unframed print into a good looking frame so the preferred work could be hung in the living room in pride of place. Kudos to another perfect picture hanging encounter with Well Hung owner, Matt Morgan, who I discovered today was as much of a golf geek as Dad. They had a lovely time chatting while Matt hung the artwork around.
• Slipping away on Sunday to see the Camille A. Brown Dance Company at the Ahmanson at their final performance, one of the most joyous experiences I have had in years. I was invited by Jeff F. and we had a great time. I left the theater in awe of the dancers and the choreography and also in tears, it was so moving and celebratory in this time of political darkness. Ms. Brown dedicated the performance that afternoon to her dad, who had passed away on Sept. 18th, her company tapping the floor at their feet when she said that. She shared in some brief remarks following the performance that he’d been a parole officer and a basketball coach and used to tease her by calling her coach when she was going off to a rehearsal. I totally got what he was talking about. I’ve never seen such beautiful athletes/dancers before. Thank you, Jeff!
• Three other theater/sport events this week that I’m looking forward to attending, each with a different friend. I look forward to each event with excitement: Wednesday to the Geffen to see Am I Roxie?; Thursday to BMO stadium to see the Angel City Football Club play Washington Spirit; Friday to the Pasadena Playhouse to see Eureka Day, their first seasonal offering. I didn’t realize that the Geffen show is a one woman show about helping aging parents and the changing role that children play.
  • There is a great clip from Good Day LA about the show with the author and actress, Roxana Ortega. You can see it here.
• Tomorrow, Dad and Don will be having their debut on the golf course at Sepulveda/Balboa. My son, Chris should be receiving his golf clubs that were an extra set from Dad he was able to part with and I shipped on Friday.
• Tomorrow, I’m so happy to have lunch with Jenny at PATY’s in Toluca Lake after working at the LA Regional Food Bank. Busy week!

Enjoy yourself each day in the midst of whatever work you are doing. It is so important. I loved the text I got from my friends Tony and Rae today. See the picture to the right.

I will take some time tomorrow to relocate my sad little violets to the south/east windows so that they can be fruitful and multiply.

Oh, and have you bought my book yet? Please do! Have you read it yet? I welcome all feedback! Thank you to those of you who’ve written additional Amazon reviews. I so appreciate it! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️