SOLTuesday: Another Busy Day, Back Home

            So much has happened today, since I came home last night at 1 a.m. It hasn't even been 24 hours, but here are my accomplishments:

• unpacked,

• sorted through worn clothes from the suitcase,

• had breakfast,

• started the laundry in my building’s basement,

• forgot that I’d intended to go to the gym first,

• forgot to pay for the clothes in the dryer,

• learned some gossip about the vacant apartment next door to me,

• had a long conversation with my brother about some of his family dysfunction,

• had a conversation with my daughter about her fall a couple of days ago (she’s okay),

• gone shopping for lunch and ingredients for dinner tonight,

• called a friend visiting from California about getting together,

• went to the gym,

• came home,

• made soup with leftover chicken carcass from the freezer and spelt,

• now watching the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate.

            I still have to sort through two weeks’ worth of mail (I’ve already tossed a large flyer for cosmetic dentistry) and go through the travel receipts to see how big my next credit card bill will be. That’s a good job for the debate to go on in the background.

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SOLTuesday: A Busy, Busy Day in San Diego

            In my first full day here, after four days in Los Angeles and a train ride yesterday down the coast, I had a lot to do.

            First, laundry. I am staying at a Shell Vacations Club location, which means each guest room is a tiny apartment, with full kitchen, and a laundry room in the basement. So I could do my laundry just as if I were at home and not wait for the usual “next-day service” of a hotel.

            Next, I had to get a senior public transit card. This trip I haven’t rented a car, hoping to do a lot of walking, and buses when necessary. When I was in L.A., I thought I had purchased a reduced-fare card at a machine, but it still charged me the full adult fare on subsequent rides, so I decided I had to buy my reduced-fare card from a human being, showing whatever ID was needed. But how to get to that person?

            One of the desk clerks gave me directions, by bus and trolley, to the Transit Center, which didn’t take too long. Once there, I went back and forth with the clerk about what would be the best method, since reduced-fare cards were available only as a one-day pass or a monthly pass. Since I’m here for a week, it made more sense to get the monthly pass ($25) rather than a one-day pass ($23), because each day I would have had to tell the bus driver that I was paying for a one-day pass and pay $3 in cash. With the monthly pass, I just hold the card against a special reader on the bus.

striped bass lunch

            Okay, now I had the card. Where next? I had to get to an Apple Store because the battery on my iPhone has been acting erratically for the past few days. But I also needed lunch, since it was after 2 p.m. So I took the trolley and bus back to the neighborhood where I’m staying and where I’d had dinner with an old friend the night before. This was at Cocina de Barrio, an upscale modern Mexican restaurant with Oaxacan specialities. Last night, I’d had the braised short ribs with traditional mole; today for lunch, I had the striped bass fillet with a mole amarillo. Both were delicious.

            Finally, on to Fashion Valley Mall and the Apple Store. I only waited a few minutes to see a techie, and indeed, I did need a new battery. Replacement only took 40 minutes, time enough for me to visit a nearby Banana Republic and buy two long-sleeved sweaters, since the weather has been cooler that I had packed for.

            Back at my hotel, I’ve missed the wine and cheese on the rooftop lounge, but next Sunday, my last full day, there will be nachos and margaritas up there. I won’t miss that.

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SOLTuesday: Getting Out of the Cold

I’m packing today for a trip tomorrow.

            I never understood why older people became snowbirds, going south in the winter. Then, the winter my husband died, New York City’s cold weather became harder for me to take. The wind off of the river up my street felt colder. Was it just that I was older? Or because I had no one to hold hands with as we walked up the street? I’ve never liked winter weather anyway.

            I decided to start taking short trips to warmer places. I don’t want to leave the city for months at a time—there’s too much happening here that I don’t want to miss. But a few weeks away is a nice

Kailua tree, 2017

Beach near Mazatlan, 2018

break from the cold.

            In 2017, I visited one friend in Hawaii for a while, and another in central California, where I also was able to see my brother and one of my nephews.

            In 2018, I visited a friend who was herself a snowbird in Mexico with her partner—and she apologized the whole week for the colder than usual temperature. (And about the same temperature as back home!) Then I went on to New Orleans, for my first time in that city.

            In 2019, I went to Alabama. I had a friend who’d moved to Mobile when she got a job teaching almost 15 years earlier. (She arrived just in time to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Katrina.) I’d promised to visit, but this was the first time I actually did. Then I moved on to Montgomery and visited Bryan Stevenson’s Legacy Museum and Lynching Memorial. These were extremely moving places to see, and I strongly Civil Rights Institute. I happened to be in that city on President’s Day and found a Not My President’s Day demonstration there; maybe there were a couple of dozen people, and I got into conversation with one woman and we went to lunch and then I got a personal tour of the city. Traveling is such fun.

Civil Rights Institute, 2019

recommend everyone go there. And then I was on to Birmingham, to the

            This year, I’m off to Southern California. First, Los Angeles, where I have a college friend I will have dinner with, and another nephew, who I’ll also have dinner with along with my brother driving down from San Jose. Then on to San Diego, where I have another old friend, as well as a friend of hers who’s become my Facebook friend and who I will now meet IRL.

            I’m grateful I have the means to take these trips and the free time. 

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.

SOLTuesday: How Much Does That Phone Weigh?

I’m in the weight room at the gym. The area by the free weights is packed with men. There are usually four benches here, but tonight there are six, and a seventh nearby. Usually, I would have left with so many men in this area, but there's a free bench at the end, so I take it.
     I take my five-pound weights from the racks and seven-pound weights from a table where small weights are piled on top of each other, and keep them by my bench. This way, I can do my shoulder and arm exercises without having to go back and forth to the racks.
     Putting back the five-pound weights, I see that someone has put his phone on one of the empty five-pound spaces. What is wrong with these people? Fortunately, there is space for my weights, and I don't have to wonder whether I will put my weight on top of some guy's phone.

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.