Welcome 2017

It is almost time to say good-bye to January, 2017.  Last night, it came to my attention that my last blog post is about Christmas.   I’ve not written so much as a syllable to my blog this year.  It’s not unusual for me to take a long break from writing, but one of my many resolutions was to write more in 2017.  It’s really, TOTALLY stupid for me to make resolutions at all, because I can’t recall a single one (in my entire life) that I’ve ever carried through on.

Today, after much planning and working long hours all week, I managed to free up time so that I could clean our house.  I got up early this morning, all gung ho to clean bathrooms, scrub the kitchen floor, vacuum, dust (no really, dusting is critical at this point), and clear out and reorganize a closet.  That would have been good day’s work.  But here I sit, because I’ve not blogged in a month, and we know how much more important that is.  Me and procrastination – we are one, united for all eternity.

My girls, all three of them, and me went to visit Akiko last Saturday.  It’s extremely rare that we ever do anything with all of us together.  It extremely difficult to manage our schedules so that everyone has free time for the same block of time.  After collecting Emily and Sarah, together we drove to Louisville and picked up Erin after her shift.  She looked cute in her hamburger uniform. 

Head Cashier

 Akiko babysat my girls from the time they were babies until the time that Erin and Emily were about 11 or 12.  She is their other mother, an alternative mother, and like family to us.  She and her husband (my girls call him Daddy-Ron) made my girls at home in their home.  It was a marvelous blessing for me to have found by chance such loving, trustworthy people to help me raise my children.  I was able to work and travel for my job, and never worry about whether or not my children were being taken care of, or if they were happy where they were staying.  When Ron retired from his job, they moved to southern Indiana to live near their daughters and grandchildren. 

Kiko and Sarah open Christmas presents - many years ago

             

Erin and Emily have part time jobs to help with their living expenses.  I am grateful, because many of their friends who are also students expect their parents to keep paying for everything…like EVERYTHING!  Emily works retail and has a dress code to follow, but no uniform.  Erin has to wear a red hat, red tee-shirt, apron, and ID badge.  I remember one of the jobs I had in college.  It was a sit-down restaurant that also sold Kentucky Fried Chicken.  As a waitress, I had to pull my hair back in a ponytail and wear a hair-net over my head.  My uniform (pants and top) had broad red and white vertical stripes.  They gave me two uniforms, but both were too large.  It felt like wearing really ugly polyester pajamas to work every day.  To make matters even worse, I had no choice but to walk to and from work. Trudging across campus dressed like that every day was very humiliating.  You just can’t be cool wearing clothes like that.  Sadly, many customers are rude to Emily and Erin at work.  They talk down to them, like they are stupid.  The same happened to me when I worked as a waitress.  It’s a hard life in many ways for anyone who works a minimum-wage job (or less than minimum wage, as many still do in this country). 

This blog post has been created throughout the day – a paragraph at a time.  I did get some housework done, though not all that I’d hoped to do.  I cooked and assembled a pan of manicotti this evening for dinner.  Someone was ecstatic (he loves anything with cheese melted in it or on it).  It turned out pretty good; I will brag on my culinary prowess.  It makes me laugh out loud to even think such a ridiculous thing.  Me – a great cook?  I can remember taking Sarah and some of her little girlfriends somewhere in my car.  They were all about 7 years old then.  They were talking about their favorite foods that their mothers cooked for them.  I heard such things as spaghetti, chicken and dumplings, and chocolate cake.  Sarah spoke up and said her mommy makes the best toast.  Sad, but true.

I make a mean bowl of cereal too!!