Fried Chicken and Friends

First of all, my apologies for not posting last night, but I didn't get home until midnight, and in full disclosure, would have probably made a whole lot of typing errors if I had sat down at the computer!  Yes, I had been out with the girls for The Gathering of the Goddesses!  More on that later!

Woke up yesterday to an empty house as Mom was off at school.  Comments like that still make me smile!  How many people can say that when they are nipping at the heels of 50 years old?!  She actually had a busy day - classes at 8 and 11 and a meeting at church at 1.   She was gone more than I was yesterday!   In her absence, I got to work on my chore list.  So far I have changed out a doorknob and deadbolt, put in a few light bulbs, hung some curtains and the big project for yesterday was making a set of steps for her 10 year old pug, Foster.  Seems that my mother is not the only one aging in this house.  The poor guy has a bad hip and just can't move like he used to, so he can't make it up onto the couch anymore and can't lay with Mom when she naps.  That's a problem for both of them!   He has a great "set of stairs" that he can use that my Dad built to get into the bed, so I used that as a model and made him a small two step staircase so get on the couch.  Hopefully he can figure out how to use it.  Today I will get it stained and finished and then order will be restored in the house.

Mom is off volunteering at Hospice right now, so once I am done with this it's back to work.  A few more small projects to do but today is "new" day.  Her old fridge is dying so we bought a new one and it will be delivered today, and I bought her a new, larger computer monitor that will make it easier for her to use her computer.  I want her to have every visual advantage she can have, as long as she can have it.

As for my evening, it was spent with some old high school friends, though after spending time with some of them they might resent my use of the word "old" in the same sentence as them!   I have reconnected with several through facebook so when I knew I would be here, they arranged another of what they have come to label as their Gathering of the Goddesses!  No trip to southeast Kansas would be complete without some fried chicken - a local institution.  For any of you who have ever watched Food Wars, they did a piece on Chicken Mary's versus Chicken Annie's. (I can't remember who won!)  Alas, there was to be no war last night as the destination that was chosen was Barto's - another local icon.   There were 17 people at the table last night and it was fun to see lots of familiar faces and to catch up on some of their lives and what they had been up to for the last 30 years.  That's almost embarrasing to admit!  After dinner we headed to a local bar where the big event of the evening was karaoke!  Nothing like a bunch of hot flashing women who don't really care what they sound like when they sing all standing together up at the front with microphones!  (In their defense, there were a couple who sounded pretty darned good too!)  We sang everything from Sweet Home Alabama to Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and closed out the night with We Are Family!    By then it was nearly midnight and time to head home.

Some more familiar to me than others, it was a lot of fun to reconnect and to realize that, at least with a few people, you can pick up right where you left off and with others, you can actually create something where that wasn't that much that you remembered from before.  Thank you to each and every one of the Goddesses!  I had a good time.  

It also got me to thinking about high school versus now, not that they can actually be compared at all because they are so different.  Back then, we are all so self conscious and insecure - or at least I know I was.   I cared what everyone thought and felt like I was just this shy little fly on the wall, not really sure if anyone liked me or even knew I existed.  It's funny to listen to a few people make comments about the me back then, because life would have been so much easier if I knew they felt that way all those years ago!   But then again, who I was back then got me to who I am today, so I guess it's all worked out pretty good.

The song I chose for today (okay, really yesterday!) is called "Nobody Knows Me At All" by The Weepies (yes, The Weepies again!).  I just really like the lyrics and can admit to many days in my younger life when I felt this way ..... and I suppose even a lot of days in my current life.  

Enjoy!