Saturday March 9, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and fell back asleep at 6:40 a.m. I had had a dream about lady wanting to fight me. She was accusing me of sleeping with her boyfriend. I didn’t bother telling her how uninterested I am in sex since going through menopause or how uninterested I am in cheating on my husband (which would really be cheating on myself). I did tell her that it wasn’t me which made her more mad. She said she was going to hit me. I remained quite calm and centered and told her to go ahead and hit me if that’s what she wanted to do. I turned my head so she could hit me in the side of the face. I calmly waited while she balled up her fist and drew her arm back. As she danced around me with her arm drawn back and I continued to gently smile at her and calmly wait. Finally she brought her arm down and said she couldn’t fight me if I wasn’t going to fight back and she walked away. It was a good dream and clearly showed me that it takes two to fight.
I prayed my thanksgiving and gratitudes:
- I am grateful for wind. Thank you for making things fresh and new.
- I am grateful for sunshine. Thank you for how good the sun makes me feel.
- I am grateful for health. Thank you for the gift of thriving.
I got up, made my bed, let the chickens out and went in the house. I greeted Christopher, made lime tea, fed the dogs and made my smoothie. Then, I headed out with Little Bit to clean 2 residential houses and go into Austin to MT Supermarket on north Lamar to buy durian for Angel’s birthday. I was glad I had gotten the office buildings and the churches cleaned yesterday because it gave me time today to make the trip to Austin.
On the way to my first house, I stopped at the grocery store, went through the car wash and filled up my gas tank. When I arrived, I chatted with my client while I cleaned. Then my friend Rosie texted saying she could for sure go on a Frio river kayaking trip we had been planning and to call her. I called her right away because I knew we had to make reservations at Garner State Park as soon as possible. I had looked at the available spots last night and the park was almost completely filled up on the days we wanted to go, which was March 28, 29 & 30. While talking to her, I reserved a spot for us. There were only 2 spots left and I was glad we had gotten one of them. Yay! The trip was officially scheduled. I texted Christopher letting him know that we needed to finish getting the pop-up camper ready to go on its first adventure.
I went back to cleaning and when I finished l drove to my 2nd house. It is way out in the country south of Thorndale which was perfect for going to Austin afterwards because I was already part of the way there. I chatted with my client while I cleaned and petted their new dog that they had just gotten from the schnauzer rescue a week before. He was a sweet boy named Benny. I got their house sparkling clean and headed into Austin. I drove the back roads there, and it was a beautiful, amazing drive. Spring is a beautiful time in Texas. The grass is bright green and wild flowers are blooming. I took my time and stopped and took pictures often. I seem to be drawn to taking pictures of old houses and buildings as well as beautiful scenery. I didn’t get any pictures of the wild flowers but I will before spring is over. I came to a town called Coupland. It is set on a hill and is a really cute town. I drove around the town, taking pictures and was having the most wonderful time. Little Bit loves driving the back roads especially if I have my window down. He loves to look out and smell things and bark at cows. It took me longer to get to Austin with all the sight seeing but was much more enjoyable than taking the highway.
When I arrived in Austin, I remembered why I don’t want to live in a city ever again. Cities have a whole different energy than small towns. In small towns, there’s a sense of accountability and people for the most part exhibit more manners. People treat each other better because they know they’re going to see each other again at the grocery store or other places around town. In cities, people don’t have that sense of accountability because they will probably never see you again. There are definitely conveniences in cities like having stores that sell durian 😁 but I don’t mind the inconveniences, I absolutely love living in a small town.
At MT Supermarket, it was packed full of people. (Note to self, do not go to MT Supermarket on Saturdays.) They keep the durian in the right back corner of the store and it took me a while to get back there because I had navigate through all the people. There was a crazy amount of people there. I also had to use the bathroom and thankfully the bathrooms were also in the right back corner. After using the bathroom, I picked out three durian and navigated my way back to the check out line. I enjoyed people watching while I waited in line and there were a lot of people to watch. When I was three people away from check out, I got to thinking that I should’ve grabbed more durian. After all I had driven all the way to Austin and I wouldn’t be coming back for quite a while. I kept looking down at the three durian and thinking I should’ve grabbed more. If I got out of line and went to get more, I would have to navigate through all the people to the back right corner of the store again and of course I would lose my place in line. Finally, I decided it was worth it to go get more and two people away from check out, I left the line, weaved my way back to where the durian were and grabbed three more. Satisfied that I officially had enough durian, I got back in the long checkout line. I went back to people watching and found it entertaining when people would look at what I had in my cart and then give me a strange look. I would give them a big smile, proud of my durian. The same smile I give to people who look at me strange when I have a cart full of bananas, proud of my bananas. When I made it to the cash register, the cashier gave me a strange look and I gave her my “proud of my durian” smile. She gently picked up each durian to put it on the scale to be weighed. Durian can be very pokey, especially when they are frozen, which is usually the only way you can buy them. They have a strong smell that most people don’t like, but I think they smell wonderfully delicious and so does Angel. When they are frozen, they don’t smell as strong. One time when I was in Seattle, I bought a durian that wasn’t frozen and had it with me in a black cloth bag when I got on a city bus. I was sitting there calmly minding my own business, when a big lady with a big personality got on the bus. As soon as she stepped in the door, she sniffed the air, make a horrible face and said very angrily and loudly, “ I smell durian, who on this bus has durian?”. I wasn’t about to confess and sat there as if I didn’t know what she was talking about. She walked to the back of the bus continuing to yell about someone on this bus having durian. I was really glad that I had put the durian in a black bag and I was relieved when the bus arrived at my stop, and I was able to get off without being discovered by the angry lady.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I headed home from Austin with my durian, proud of my durian, and called my sister Trisha. We talked the entire drive home. When I arrived home, Angel was excited about the durian. I made room in the freezer to put five of them, and kept one in the fridge to thaw out so we could eat it on Monday for Angels birthday. I will pull a few more out on Thursday so they can thaw out and be ready for her birthday party on Saturday. It will be fun to let the parents and kids try it out. I used to think it was great fun when I lived in Boise to take a durian to a city park or somewhere public. I would open it up and let people who were curious about it try it. People usually love it or hate it and it’s fun to watch their facial expressions when they try it for the first time.
I talked with Christopher and Angel while I ate a salad. Then I jumped on the trampoline with Angel for a while until my 23 year old daughter came to pick her up to take her out for dinner. I took a bath and went in the banana hunt. Christopher joined me and we talked for quite a while and I showed him pictures of my back road trip to Austin. Then we said our good nights and I fell asleep at around 8:30 PM.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
This post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.