Dreamer's World September 20 2015

    

    Another Sunday, another morning spent cooking in the kitchen. I have enough made now for meals for most of the upcoming week, with the exception of picking up a bottle of wine or two, but that can be done at any time. Now that the pots and pans are in the dishwasher, I can finally relax and watch some football on NFL Redzone. At least when I watch NFL RedZone I don’t have to watch Washington play and lose again. I am one of the people who will not use the officially licensed name of the Washington NFL franchise until it is changed, or until their mascot becomes a potato.

    I normally spend my Sundays with the NFL because I am staying home after cooking and saving money in the process. Hal is at work and won’t be home until late this afternoon. Initially, I had thought about going to brunch, but that would have just taken time away from cooking and pushed that back into the afternoon time frame. I think that saving the money is more important right now. I am trying to get ahead of my last bill and take care of that one as quickly as possible.

    The weekend has been a good one so far. It began with a company happy hour at a local establishment. Sadly, one of the group was only there for a short time but we still managed to mix woek and fun for a while. As I was at the place after the first coworker left, I got a call from an old friend in my hometown. She had recently lost her job and I had counseled her to broaden her expectations while looking for something else. I am very happy to say that the reason she called me was to let me know that she did find a new and better job that she is thrilled with! I was so happy to hear her news. We were texting throughout the evening, and I look forward to hearing from her again.

    Of course, for every + there must be a - and that also arrived Friday night. Hal got a call from a friend of ours and the friend told Hal that he has stage 4 kidney cancer. Since I didn’t speak to him directly, I only know what Hal has relayed to me. I am heartbroken to hear this news, and we will do what we can to help. Since the friend is usually very private about things, I was surprised that he actually called Hal at all. I suppose that is because he trusts Hal and myself, and that is something that we both treasure.

    Saturday was a blur. I was busy processing things from my friend with her good news and our friend with the bad news. Eventually, I realized that no amount of worrying would help the negative situation, and that I would help if asked, but instead I would focus on the positive situation and provide the help if any is needed there. Compartmentalizing things is a skill I have mastered through the years, it doesn’t diminish our friend who is struggling with cancer, but it does prevent me from focusing on that to the exclusion of anything else. There are several things that I need to find out about from our friend before talking more about it. Foremost is who we should notify about this, until that happens, our friend remains anonymous.

    Saturday night was the premiere of Doctor Who, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It took my mind off of Kentucky losing to Florida for the 29th straight year. I remain eternally pessimistic about UK’s football program so long as they cannot beat teams that they have to play every year. On the bright side, UK Basketball will start soon!

    Hal and I ended the night watching Svengoolie. The movie was an old Abbott and Costello film called “Hold That Ghost”. It was great for us to curl up together and relax for a few hours.

     This morning began with me heading to the kitchen to start cooking the chicken breasts that I had marinated since yesterday. I always like to take my time and cook enough ahead of time to have meals for several days since there is only Hal and myself to cook for. Cooking for two can be nearly impossible at times. I have often read that cooking for two is the worst scenario there is. Personally, I don't think it is that bad, but years together have given us the safe options that we can both agree on. The challenge is to not cook so much that the leftovers go to waste.

     Hal made it home but before we could catch up with each other on our respective days, his cell phone started blowing up. This happens a lot since Hal is from a large family. Then our friend who has cancer called, and Hal spoke to him for quite a while. He has sought out Hal's advice because Hal knows a lot about diet and what the best foods to eat are. I finally gave up and took a shower. We will catch up later this evening. With all of the time Hal spent on the phone, dinner will not be a real event this evening. No problem, because as I mentioned earlier there will be plenty for the next several days. 

     I am going to relax now before bed once I finish this blog post. I will try to keep current with our friend, and of course we all wish him nothing but the best during these difficult times.