My sweet, sweet life.

Today is Valentine’s Day and while my current heart’s desire is to take my nap, I am sufficiently grateful for all the love in my life to postpone the nap for a few moments.

First of all it is a spectacularly beautiful day!  The temperature outdoors is in the mid seventies and if I never watched the news, I might mistake it for spring.  It is still, according to the calendar, solidly winter and yet I have that spring-fever-itch to nest and create.

The day started out quite perfectly, I was up early to stare out the window and watch the yellow finches at the feeder.  Tom and Mocha got up a few minutes later and they read the paper while I wrote morning pages.  After an hour or so, we all went back to bed.  It was quite delicious!

Tom and I went to breakfast at the San Ysidro Coffee shop where we saw a most colorful couple.  She looked to be in her late eighties or nineties and was dressed up as the sweetheart of the day.  When I first caught sight of them I leaned in towards Tom and said, “If I ever look like that just slap me!” 

She was an augmented blonde with a bit of a perm.  Her hair looked a little over processed, but she had it tied up in a big red, gross grain bow on top of her head.  Her dress was bright red, a two-piece outfit of crotched yarn with a floral pattern with scalloped edges on both the sleeveless top, which showed off her thin arms, and the knee length skirt.  She was wearing two or three large, rhinestone bracelets, a lovely gold watch and red knee socks with her oxfords.  Of course her lips and cheeks were red too.

Her gentleman escort was dressed for the day as well and looked to have had his hair recently dyed a lovely shade of dark brown.  He was wearing a maroon dinner jacket and looked to be about the same age.  They were sitting very close to us in the small café and seemed to be having a lively conversation.

The reason I asked Tom to monitor me in years to come is because I know damned well, that could, or may, be me.  It was only a few months ago, when my grand daughter Brittany snatched a pair of perfectly charming denim leggings out of my hands at Nordstrom.  I was so excited to have found them, my legs being the only remaining physical asset I can still lay claim to. 

“Grandma, you’re sixty three!  You can’t wear denim leggings!!”  Why not?  I asked as her mother, my daughter gently led me away from the counter.  “Grandma, you just can’t!” Apparently the lady at the coffee shop did not have a helpful grand daughter to help her shop or dress. 

Around the same time as the Nordstrom trip my middle daughter, Brittany’s aunt Stephanie, confiscated silver, gold and black lace leggings from my shopping cart at Target, claiming the same reason about my being sixty three and all.  I don’t see the problem here!

So back to the lady in the coffee shop.  While at first I thought she looked a bit like Baby Jane from the old horror movie with Betty Davis, I later thought she looked quite happy!  She was doing her thing, being herself and not giving a big whoop about what anyone else thought.  How can that be a bad thing, except for the part where it might embarrass her family?

I remember a few years back when I was still in my fifties and I went to pick up Holland from her elementary school, or maybe it was Brittany.  I was wearing a short black skirt, tights and some high- heeled black boots.  I can say without a doubt, I looked hot!  The next time I went to pick up the kids, Holland asked her mother, “Would you please tell grandma not to wear those boots!” 

I am not sure if the problem is my looking silly or just not looking the way a proper grandmother should look.  Either way, I have a whole new appreciation for the valentine lady in the coffee shop.

After breakfast Tom and I took a walk on Butterfly Beach.  The tide was pretty high and the swell was big.  There were several surfers and lots of Sunday strolls in progress.  It could not have been more perfect.

Now it is nearly bedtime.  Yes, I took a nap.  We had a lovely dinner at the home of some dear friends, where we laughed and shared stories and ate delicious food.  On the way home Tom and I stopped to buy flowers to fill all of my vases.  I have now fed the dog, made coffee for tomorrow and arranged most of the flowers.  Tom is watching TV in our bedroom, waiting for me to join him.    It has been another sweet day for someone who has done nothing to deserve it.

Tomorrow is going to be a big surprise.  Stacy just called and I’ll be getting Shelley’s two little ones and Morgan too I think from about eight until twelve.  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to work it all in to my already chock-full day, but I know I will.  I did after all, in some moment of not knowing the future, commit to Shelley that I would have the kids this weekend while she was in Alabama.  Stacy has helped me with my commitment, but I’m the one who made it.

These are problems of abundance.  There is an abundance of love in my life.  Love of and for my family.  Love for my friends.  Love for my husband and our home.  Love for the tools I’ve been given to help me navigate this life, and love for this beautiful place right outside my door.  I have nothing but gumdrops and lollipops, as my Mother would have said. and even though today, I’m not eating sugar, mine is a sweet, sweet life!

Lucky for me, it’s not fair!  My life is so glamorous!!

 

Comments

[shelley]

Beautiful and sweet. I will be wearing that too. Actually, I did wear that exact outfit last week while working the playground as lunch lady. Love you!! ps- read my blog too. I'm getting a complex. it's www.shelleysbellys.blogspot.com

[Lucia]

I think Miss Valentine was sent your way to remind you of how we SHOULD live our lives. In gratitude - sometimes to the point of ridicule. However, I have to agree with your g/d about the denim leggings. Not because they're not age appropriate. But because anything that starts out real (denim) and ends up synthetic (lycra for leggings) is just bad, bad, bad.
Check out the trainwreck here - and these are on a 21 year-old model (granted, she's no glamour girl, but she's got potential...):
http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2009/07/denim-leggings-a-do-or-a-dont.html