Oasis in the storm

I met blog pal Namowal for lunch today. When we met a year ago, I was late, sin of sins for a punctual person like me, so I made a point of being 20 minutes early this time. I ordered cafe latte at this Pain Quotidien in Brentwood Village, while I waited. It was so beautiful and tasty, and made me almost feel as if I were in a Jean Renoir film. (no handles on the cup.) When Nam arrived, she ordered one too, but by then the barrista must have been feeling stressed and there was no wondrous design on top.

I did notice that everything, including parking, was double the cost of three years ago when I used to meet my dear bud Ann here. (Before she moved to New York.)

We had a great time and talked a lot of flash and family talk. later we agreed to take pictures of our reflections, (for Linda), since neither of us wanted the point and smile shot!




wooh, looks as if I left my purse inside the cafe. And I still had a couple of twenties in it.

We're going through major wacky dreadful family stress around here. Jon's father did the humpty dumpty thing to be silly, it's not silly== he fractured his skull a few days after xmas and was airlifted to the hospital. He's been veering wildly in his condition, after ripping out all the plugs attached to him He had brain damage, he didn't have brain damage. He was moved back to his retirement complex, to assisted living, or was it hospice? 24 hour care. Asleep all the time.

Then his wife went by to see him today and he was sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch and drinking coffee, ( not being fed) while chatting with his 24 hour person. His wife wasn't allowed in because she has some kind of flu. Meanwhile the lawyers rushed to certify him as incompetent because otherwise his wife won't get any money for 3 1/2 years by law in Florida.

At the same time we're all so giddy about the good news because he's much loved!

And Jon gets stuck in Charlotte on US Air for 3 hours on the runway, because they're proud of their record of ontime departures, and as long as they leave the gate on time they can park wherever they please. Ask for water during the wait, it's $2.00. Coffee is more. Coach flight one way is more than $500, with three stops. He ends up at LAX instead of Burbank.

He returns with a horrendous cold.

I've applied to adopt another German Shepherd who looks like Molly's brother. I haven't heard back in ten days. Tonight I get a phone call, wow. As I reach for it, I spill wine on my Wacom tablet, killing it. The dog we want has hip dysplasia at age 1. I don't have a big enough heart or bank account for that.

It was really nice to see Namowal again!

Tomorrow I'm meeting Linda P (the other Linda) at the track to get our minds off things. And maybe win some money. There's a horse named Sally in the 8th race but we probably won't stay that late.