*Bounces in merrily*
Ahhh, nothing like sleeping in your own bed Mr. Blog!
Did you miss me? Better grab your pillow for this one!
*Waits for him to lie down on opposite couch with gold lame pillow*
So when I left here two days ago, I went down the hall
to study how to help the orphans in Botswana and saw a notice
for the Peace Corps. I tried to apply online but it
didn't work so I went to their office and talked to a nice man.
I was sad to hear I didn't qualify to go because I wanted to go
in November. Turns out if you have kids under 18 you can't go.
The time commitment is twenty-seven months. Ugh.
My teen sons hate me because I take away their awful video
games at the drop of a hate and they would LOVE to get rid of me!
Terry thinks I am nothing more than a useless parasite so
why would I want to stay here?! Short answer: I DON'T.
I called Brenny and told her I am going to join Peace Corps in 2015
when Teddy finishes Inglemoor and you know what she said?!
She said she had wanted to join Peace Corps since 1970 or go
to India to help the late Mother Theresa. Well, I thought
about India and parts of Asia then and how they can't get birth control.
The Philippines is all Catholic too so they can't get birth control.
It's just not fair Mr. Blog!
I CAN'T STAND THE THOUGHT OF PEOPLE STARVING
OR NOT HAVING CLEAN WATER OR SHELTER!
Ugh. I need to calm down, *Breathes deeply*
So Brenny said she will go with me but wonders if her husband
might not like it. Terry wouldn't notice if I was gone for twenty-seven months.
I could like, mail a pot roast Express Mail once a month
and he'd be happy.
Brenda and I discussed at depth the fact that we both come from
families of long livers and that we'd still have one
more decade of good health and two more of crappy health
after we got home from Botswana.
We agreed we've had so much fun in this lifetime that if we did get murdered
over there for being the wrong color we didn't mind.
As long as we get to help and adopt the orphans
and make some new friends and avoid mamba snakes.
Doesn't that sound like a great plan Mr. Blog?
*Looks over and smiles at him sleeping*
So our new motto is BOB 2015!
Botswana Or Bust in 2015.
So I finished packing to go visit Bonnie and asked Terry for
five dollars in case I needed coffee on the way and do you know
what he said?! "You had coffee and you have gas, you don't need money."
I was so hopping mad!
If I had a job and he didn't I'd give him ANYTHING HE WANTED.
So I buzzed down to Third Place Books and picked up a
shopping bag of used books by Alexander McCall-Smith
and put it on the charge card.
I don't care about new clothes or shoes
but I would be Jonesing bad for some new books
by Alexander McCall-Smith if I didn't have plenty
stored up. Now I have two dozen that I'm saving
up for my half-sister Heidi. She said she has always wanted
to read them, that they were her grandmother's favorite
books. I'm saving them for her for Christmas!
So, I hopped on I-5 and drag-raced up to exit 210 and
followed my mail to the entrance of Eagle's Ridge.
Now Bonnie forgot to mention that it was a private development
with a big NO TRESPASSING violators will be prosecuted sign at the entrance.
I knew from being a mail carrier ten years that I had to go in.
So, off I went and winding around through the mansions was pleasant.
A big fat deer was wandering down the road
and it looked like Mount Rainier National Park
only you got to stay in a mansion instead of a tent!
Well, then of course I thought about the people
in Botswana that are dying from AIDS and the
one million orphans in Africa and I felt sad.
It just seemed wrong somehow,
I pushed my thoughts of social inequity aside and found
Bonnie's driveway and was hoping she remembered I was coming!
I pulled up to her house and she came out and I was so happy.
She gave me a tour of her home and it was so lovely.
The decor was inviting country-living style and I felt
at home right away. Both her kids moved out since they are
twenty eight and twenty six so she told me to take either room upstairs.
I chose the one facing east and it had a panoramic view of the
Stillaguamish River and Cascade Mountains and the snow
level was at near eye-level.
Her husband doesn't want her to work outside the home
but after looking at that huge monster of a house, I knew she had
more work in that house than ANY job could entail!
She felt like getting out so we climbed into her totally awesome
pick-up truck! It was so huge and high up it had ladders built
in and on the back were duel tires in case we go a flat.
And get this Mr. Blog! The seats had built in heaters!
Have you ever heard of such a thing? Wow, my butt
was so hot I could have easily hatched an egg.
We cruised out onto I-5 and headed north and were just
cruising and blabbing a mile a minute.
For a minute I thought we were heading to Canada!
Then she hopped off on 520 westbound and we went to the
Farmhouse cafe for lunch. It was packed so we sat at the counter
and they had the coolest high-backed swivel chairs I'd ever seen.
Right across from us was the pie cooler and on the counter
was a lemon meringue pie that hat foot high meringue!
Well, my jaw dropped to my knees when I saw that!
The waitress heard me gushing about it and grabbed it
and put it right in front of us and I was speechless.
I handed her my camera and she took our picture together
and guess what Mr. Blog? Bonnie's favorite sandwich is a
Rueben too and she was buying so that was what we had.
God they were good with a million fat French fries on the side.
I will be paying for that for weeks but it was so worth it.
I had seen many dirt fields on the way and commented that
my entire life I had wanted to see the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
but that it looked too late for it. She just agreed but guess what?
When we left the Farmhouse she turned a corner and
there they were! Tulips! Millions and millions of them!
Red, yellow, purple, yellow and red and yellow daffodils too!
We took a few pictures but they didn't come out very
well on my cheap camera. Not like Jeanette Eggerman's!
Man, she takes the best pictures in the world!
So we cruised on back to her pad and looked at our old year books
and she showed me some pictures of her late husband on Facebook
and I did remember him and all his cute brothers.
She married Kevin Brockman and he was a mean drunk.
She stayed with him twenty years until he died and then
she started over. She didn't even want to remarry after all
that happened but you know what? Her cousin set her up on a
blind date with Dave and they fell in love
and got married in 2006.
Now she is the Queen of Arlington and good for her!
She SO deserves it after what she went through with Kevin.
She was always so quiet and friendly in high school and just
adorable. Like a little blond doll. She's only five feet one inch.
When it got late in the day I asked her if she minded if I took
my census renumator practice test and she said I needed to.
I finished in thirty minutes but missed ten and went back
and realized I didn't read all the choices of possible answers.
I studied for ten minutes and then Dave got home
from his job at Boeing.
God, he is such a living doll and it is rare that such a kind
man was still single at fifty! No ex-wife with kids
to make Bonnie miserable so that is nice.
She made the best pot roasted I had ever had in my life.
God it was good. Food you don't have to make
tastes SOOO much better!
After dinner we went out to the workshop and Dave unloaded
Troy and Teddy's old Ketcars for their grandkids.
I got to admire Bonnie's '67 Mustang that he bought her for
her birthday a few years ago. Man it was tricked out and very cherry!
We went back and blabbed in her gorgeous living room
and I enjoyed her giant ginger-calico cat Jewel
and dust-mop of a Shit-a-Poo Max.
They were both very cuddly and Dave entertained us with
a wild story about going to the Arctic to fish wild pike and
to hunt Moose. He had a moose-head and giant pike replica
on the wall and they were really impressive.
He was a very good story teller and I started getting
sleepy from all that food and said it must be near
eight o'clock which is when I go to bed.
Dave said it was nine so we went to bed
and I heard the music that I have loved more than any other
since I was a child: The song of the green frogs.
I opened my window a few minutes and savored the sound
until it got too chilly. I read, "Miracle at Speedy Motors"
and sat in their massage chair and I was thinking
I might have died and gone to heaven.
All that good food and fun with Bonnie all day
and hanging out and getting to know her handsome husband.
Wow Mr. Blog, it just doesn't get any better than that!
I konked out until seven in the morning
and Bonnie made me some Joe even though she doesn't drink it
and you know what? We started blabbing and it went from seven
to ten in five minutes! I was so sad to leave.
Bonnie is so awesome and I wanted to stay all week!
It was a big windstorm when I left and my van was swaying like crazy
on I-5 going back to Kookmore.
When I got home there were lots of teens and I had authorized it
so it wasn't a surprise. Troy, Teddy, Daniel, Carlos, Dakota, Sean and
Herrardo were all hanging around. I was glad to see them since
they are all nice kids. They wanted to spend the night AGAIN
and I said, "Maybe. If you can clean house while I'm gone."
Then I made a list of chores I knew they couldn't complete
and had lunch and a shower and got dressed up to go
to Redmond to take the census job test.
It was snowing like crazy when I got to Redmond so I
just crept along until I found the library.
There were about two dozen of us there and the nice lady,
Deanne Thai, told us they only needed a few people to go
through Hunts Point and Medina because no one that lived
there wanted to work for the census. So then I had a nice
daydream of being invited into a waterfront mansion for coffee.
Well, my chances of having the top score are slim and the veteran
got ten points added to his score, but you never know.
I was so tired and cold when I got home at five and boy was
I surprised when I walked in the door!
MY HOUSE WAS SPOTLESS! Not only did they dust, sweep, mop,
vacuum and clean the bathroom and both bedrooms,
they even put away all six loads of laundry!
Dude! I just looked at those six kids and said,
"You're all in."
They were so happy and excited to have a party and started
bouncing up and down like superballs.
I talked to Terry for an hour and then
headed downstairs to read my new book
and head out to Botswana.
Africa, Africa, Africa....
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