Not especially busy, but nice

I'm talking about my Saturday. The first reasonably post-normal Saturday since my mom got sick and died. I'm starting to process what has happened, have begun missing her in a normal, dull achy way (instead of the WTF/angry/hurt/"where's my Xanax?" kinda way).

I threw on a black coat my mom gave me sometime last year. She bought it for herself but never wore it, didn't feel it fit. Still had the tags on it. Initially I didn't want it, either. It's all black and I can just see cat hairs flying through the air and attaching themselves to it. But I took it. I'm glad I did. I was happy to be wearing it as I began my errands this fine, sunny autumn day.

First stop: the food pantry. I dropped off a bag of soups and canned salmon liberated from the shelves at my mom's house. This made me happy, too. Then my mammogram. Then the bank to cash in 13 US Savings Bonds I had bought for my mom. She never cashed them. Since they were in both of our names, I was able to. It was bittersweet. I left the bank with $1,182 in cash -- $1,000 that will go to her funeral costs and boy! Am I glad to make help make that dent in that $5,000+ bill! But my mom worried about money so much in her life. I wish she had used that $1,182 herself.

Then brunch at my favorite coffee shop. Lox Benedict and a very interesting book -- Jack 1939. Historical fiction that places JFK as a spy in Europe when he was just out of his teens.

Then Trader Joe's and a ton of laundry and a new nom de blog. Yes, as of next week, I will take over as Sam Winters at The Saturday 9.

I miss my mom, of course. So many things I want to tell her. But it's normal for a woman to miss her mother. And it's also normal for a woman to go out and enjoy going about her life on a sunny Saturday.