The Boring Bits

When I get stressed, I love to do jigsaw puzzles. 

The past few weeks have been super stressful, like "maybe you should call a lawyer" stressful. Just plain bad. Literally insult to injury bad. Awful. Sheesh.

So I am doing a a cute cat jigsaw puzzle given to me by my friend's mom. She knows I am a jigsaw fan and was unloading one from her stash so she can make room for more. 

Anyway, it is a cute puzzle and I've been working on it obsessively so I don't have to think about the stressful thing and I'm also avoiding work on my major creative project which I need to get off my ass and do. 

So here is the puzzle. I just have the boring bits left, the sky-like, monochrome parts. 

The Apology I Made for the Thing I Didn't Say

Lydia came to dinner last night,

my elderly neighbor with

cognitive  decline.

She said she was hurt and sad

because I had said 

I didn't want her over for dinner

anymore.

Nothing could be 

further

from the truth.

Lydia is good company,

a good listener,

full of great stories.

She was crestfallen.

It must have taken a lot 

for her to tell me.

She was brave to

confront someone

who had hurt her

so badly.

"Lydia, I never said such a thing.

Never would I,"

I said.

It didn't matter. 

That was what she remembered,

no matter how many times

I told her otherwise.

It didn't matter 

whether I was right or not.

I didn't want her to think

I was a monster.

I apologized

for the thing

I didn't say.

"Lydia,

I take back what I said. 

I didn't mean it 

and 

I am sorry I hurt your feelings,"

I said.

I held her hand,

and she started to tear up.

I was forgiven, 

for something

I didn't do,

something

I didn't say.

And then 

we ate

chicken and rice.

Apple, Apple, I'm your Bitch

I've had my Apple Watch now for about a month, and I'll be damned if I am not doing what it tells me to do, like it is my boss, my master, my dom.

Today at work, it told me it was time to stand up, so I stood up. It tells me how much to exercise, how much to sleep and when to go to bed. It even knows my name, and says "Good Morning, Lauren!" It is polite and friendly and I obey.

I obey my watch, and I feel bad when I don't.

Sometimes.

Right now, I am disobeying. I should be in bed by 10:30 and I am not. I am sitting here writing a blog post instead. I feel kind of bad, but aren't I a grown up? Can't I go to bed whenever I want to?

In fairness, I programmed this watch to boss me around. It asks me how often I want to stand, and I tell it. It asked me how much I want to exercise, and I told it. It asked me when I want to go to bed and when I want to wake up. 

Is this new gadget my tech overlord, or is it helping me to stay disciplined? 

I don't know. I need to get to bed. I don't want to get a low sleep score tomorrow morning.

Red Underwear and Limoncello

Last Saturday morning at 6:15 a.m., I got a call from Claire-Adele: "I'm in Rome."

Claire-Adele was supposed to be in Bangkok this week visiting her father's family. She was scheduled to fly from New York through Qatar last Friday. The plane from NYC took off as scheduled. While she was flying, the airspace in the Middle East closed. After eleven hours in the air, the plane landed in Italy. She was even wearing her lucky red underwear, a good luck charm for safe traveling.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 264 flights were in the air on the way to the Middle East when the airspace was closed. The same article said that 10% of global air traffic goes through the Middle East. It is a major hub for flights between Europe, Asia and Africa. I guess that is why it is called the "Middle" East. 

At first when Claire-Adele told me she was wearing her lucky travel underwear, I thought "Well that didn't work." It is the opposite of good luck when your connecting flight gets diverted because of a war. 

But then, it probably was good luck. She is lucky that she wasn't waiting in the Qatar airport for her flight to Bangkok when the airspace closed. She could have been stuck on the edges of a war zone for weeks. 

Qatar airlines didn't have any information about new flights, so Claire-Adele decided to hunker down in Italy for a week, which of course is an awesome Plan B. When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.