I’ve had a nice few days – a lot of socializing, a lot of being in nature.
Kristen and I went hiking on Friday – starting at Brookside Gardens and spending the morning walking along the riverbank. The time past quickly and we covered a lot of ground. The weather was fantastic! Kristen works on the same unit as I do, I admire her nursing skillz – she moves with a particular certainty and calmness that I like. I’ve worked there almost 4 years, through a pandemic, and it’s only been in the last year have I felt close enough to people to do things outside of work with them. I hope we can do this regularly, Kristin is up for weekday, physical outings – which is something I’m looking for. I dream of doing Old Rag in Shenandoah – only in the winter on a weekday so we can find parking and some quiet trail time. She’s trying to get me to stand up paddle-board. I’ll have to borrow one first and hope my shoulder cooperates by the time the weather is amendable for SUP.
My parents came over for Friday night dinner. I am pretty much at peace that I’ll turn into my parents. They can drive me crazy, but in a very predictable manner. For example, my grandmother, to my mother’s dismay, believed that for her diabetes, she could counter the effects of sugar by eating more salt. My mother, to my dismay, believes that there was no cases of Covid in the west-coast town where they have their 2nd house. Who knows what I will believe? That pigs fly? Maybe? (Actually, I’m afraid I might start to believe in G*d, yikes! who would I be then? – not me now! I enjoy telling my believing patients that I don’t believe and see what they do with that information.) I’ve already apologized to Vince and Edda. How can I tell this is going to happen to me? Look at how we are all dressed for dinner:
We did not consult each other on this outfit of short sleeved puffy vests and knit hats. You see? The turning into my parents is, unfortunately, unavoidable. I also gave all the tools (hundreds of individual Allen, socket and regular wrenches) that I decluttered out of my garage to my father who eagerly took them all, even though I saw a complete new set of Allen wrenches on his tool bench last weekend when I was having dinner there. I’m going to have to declutter them again! Jeremy says that it’ll be easier the 2nd time.
My parents brought over some 24K jewelry for me that they’ve had in their stash – ostensibly for my 50th birthday which is six months in the future – but I think it’s their own version of decluttering. It’s a good trade, no? A bunch of wrenches for some 24k gold. I know this is looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I took them into my hands and I groaned – oh so Asian! And my mom laughed, yeah, they are so Asian. They are quite ugly and over the top. But I’m wearing the necklace now, because I think it’s only in the wearing of jewelry does one get affection for the piece. Or that your friends and family will remember that you wore them. My parents can’t quite remember who bought them or for what occasion. Jeremy’s like – they aren’t for wearing. I said how do you know? He said – do you think they set the price for that necklace based on weight or based on how beautiful it is? My parents chimed in, gold is good now that inflation is going up.
I ran 14 miles in the woods in glorious weather on Saturday morning (with the necklace tucked inside running-tech-gear). I’ve been consistently running 12-16 miles every weekend since mid-December. I’m quite proud of myself – but I also want it to be easier. I run really slowly, but it still wipes me out for the day. I could easily come home and nap for the entire afternoon.
Saturday evening, Rachel came over (also a nursing buddy – I admire her for her quickness and fast thinking and judgement of situations) for dinner and she gifted us this enormous jar of kimchi. It literally is a gallon of kimchi. I asked if she got it at H-mart and she shook her head and said – H-mart has bad kimchi. Korean Corner is better. I nodded as if I knew this was a fact. Jeremy served turkey tetrazzini and we all piled kimchi on top of our helpings of hot-dish. Korean/American midwest fusion. Lol. After dinner, Jeremy took the dog for a walk and I rested my head on Rachel’s shoulder on the couch and she said – you need to dye your hair. I can do that for you. I told her that I might dye it so that the white ones turn blue or green or something like that. She touched my hair and said – no! you can’t do that. Let me dye your hair for you. Then I told her if I dyed my hair then I would look too young for my husband. By then Jeremy had come back from the walk and I rubbed his grey hair to emphasize my point.
