Saturday, September 22, 2012

Saturday 9

 

1. What’s the best memory that you have of your dad, while growing up? He traded cars with a coworker, driving home in a station wagon. Then he turned down the backseats and took my favorite little classmate and I to see HELP! at a drivein. He wanted to make sure that we young Beatlemaniacs had plenty of room for screaming, crying, bouncing around, etc.

2. How boring do you think your life is? I wish it was more boring. I was named executor of my mother’s will, which gives me way too much to do in way too short a time span. Plus my older sister could not be angrier about this turn of events.

3. Can you do any accents? If not, do you know someone who is good at it? I am hopeless at this. However, I had a lover who was exceptional. He had a million of ‘em, but my favorite was when he’d call me, pretending to be Bobby Kennedy.

4. What technology did you at first fear that you now could not live without? You’re lookin’ at it!

5. Do you, or have you ever, thought you have a book in you? Oh, I dunno. I write ad copy for a living. I’m not sure I even want to try to write a book. It might just feel like an extension of my job. Maybe when I retire …

6. How does the weather effect where you live? It doesn’t. Everywhere has its extremes and natural disasters.

7. Are you more interested in your favorite artist’s next work, or the TMZ side of it all? Depends on the artist. With my beloved Boss, Bruce Springsteen, his work is all I need to know. On the other hand, I just like Jennifer Aniston very much and news of her recent engagement made me happier than some of her movies have.

8. Have you ever felt “battled-scarred” by a relationship or relationships in general? If yes, do tell. I wasted too many years on a genuinely hideous man. Every now and again he tries to contact me. I wish he wouldn’t. He’s creepy and cruel and I don’t trust him, even after all these years.

9. Do you tend to root for the bad guy? Well, Bonnie & Clyde is one of my favorite movies.



Ready for some good news?

About 15 years ago, my mother took a job as lunch mom at the local grade school. It made her very happy to be at the same school where her granddaughter, my niece, was beginning kindergarten. She made $10/day, which she put to her electric bill.

While there, she met another lunch mom. Lisa was juggling motherhood and nightschool and took the gig to see her son during the day and help out her household with a little extra money. Despite their 20+ year age difference, my mom and Lisa became friends. After a few years, Lisa moved on to her new career as librarian. She and my mom ran into one another in town every now and again, but they drifted apart.

Lisa showed up at my mom's funeral service last Sunday and remembered how much my mother loved her cat, Ethel. She found out that Ethel died a few months ago and that my mother had recently gotten a new cat, Nora.

Lisa asked if she could take Nora! She said it would be "an honor" to repay my mother's kindness in the way she believed Mom would appreciate most. Plus, Lisa's son -- the one she took the lunch mom job to be near -- is now in college and will be moving out soon. She believes it would do her good to have a furry friend to help her ease into this new phase.

I am so relieved! I figured I'd have to take Nora, because clearly that's what my mom wanted. But I didn't want to. Nora has been through a lot -- from shelter to my mom's house, and then my mother's absence due to hospitalization and death, knocking around in that big house all by herself. And so has my own high-strung cat, Charlotte. I was so worried about the impact Nora would have on my delicate old girl.

Nora went home with Lisa last night. To a forever home. I'm so grateful for how this turned out.