Good Monday Evening

I am late getting this post up... sigh.

Should've worked on it yesterday.

I meant to work on it super early this morning, but that didn't happen. I had the notion to crochet and listen to some good gospel music this morning.  And that's a good thing.

Anyway, this is a food-for-thought week, with "conversations" as the theme...  Well it is supposed to be. I had such a great weekend that I need to get all that out the way...  So I may stretch the conversations posts until June 30th, the end of the month.  Go back and look at the last post ("Conversations Week"). These set of posts are part of a sweepstakes, so you must comment to enter for a chance to win.

I was in such a strange mood on Friday, and that Friday Freestyles post was a bit dark. So I apologize for that. It's just that way too much had happened in the couple days prior, and I had to be at work earlier than normal, and I was all stuck in traffic (I don't see how ya'll deal with this traffic foolishness)... And you know me, I love my Friday posts. But I like to keep it smurfy, you know?

Anyway, I had a really good weekend... I hung out with my sister.  She went with me to my doctor's appoinment on Friday, and we sat in the exam room for a good hour, waiting on the surgeon to come talk to us. We were talking and laughing so hard about stuff, that I just knew that someone was gonna walk in and say "Can you all keep the noise level down??"

But no one bothered us. The doctor came in and looked at my wounds. Lo and behold, I am allergic to the adhesive on bandages!

O_O

So that's why I was whelping up and peeling and all kind of foolishness... Well now I know. Goodness. So now I have what looks like a 3rd degree burn, and I have to take care of that. And that's cool. He gave me the news I wanted to go hear, and I was good. When he left, me and my sister high-fived each other and got the heck up outta there...

When we were out in the parking lot I hollered, "Back up!"

I needed to do my church spin!!!!

*lee does the church spin and the church shouts in the parking lot*

I know they had to be looking out the doctor's office window thinking... "What the world is that crazy woman out there doing!?"

I'm doing my church spin, honey. I was about to stick a money offering in the pretty plant in the waiting room, but I decided against it. (Ya'll know how I am about sowing some seed... especially one of thanksgiving).

Kentucky had been talking before the appointment about going to this salad place I like over by her way...

They do have the big giant salads. Here are a couple we had last time.

Oh yeah... those were the bomb. I need to bring my own dressing next time. They don't have the best salad choices. My sister likes that ranch. I settled on parmesan peppercorn.

Anyway, earlier I was like, uh... I don't know. I don't have an appetite.

I think I was just nervous about my appointment. Not really nervous, but my patience level with the unknown needs a little work. I had agreed to go somewhere, but we just needed to get this out of the way first.  I'd worked hard a couple of hours that morning and I was just tired.

So when the appointment was over, my sister asked again... "You wanna go to the salad place?"

"No!" I said as I put my seatbelt on.  "I want some food!"

I wanted a plate of chitlins! And some hot sauce and some white bread! And some Kool-aid!

 The red flavored kool-aid.

That's what I wanted!

LOL... no it's not. If I tried to eat a plate of chitlins right now, I would just now some three days later be getting up off the floor.  

No, but I wanted some food. And we headed over to this new spot we like near my sister's place.They have a big mill outside, and we get to feed the swans and turtles...

 Well, I don't feed any of the critters. I just pretend to throw something to them.

Uh, yeah... they don't like that at all. The swans and turtles.... they talk about LadyLee. Something awful.

They have a philly cheese steak sandwich she likes a lot. And I can tell why, too. It's not that ol' cheap steakumms meat. They slice real angus beef down and sautee it. I KNOW that makes a big differnce.

I wanted the fish and chips she had last time. I was skeptical last time and she let me pinch off a little piece and taste it. It was awesome. I said the next time I went, I would try that.

"I want some of that fish you had last time, gal!" I said. "That there was GREAT!"

And that's what I had. Fish and chips, and a salad. It was good.

I really like that place. They seem to remember us. (Our old waitress hollered "hey girls!!!"). We whispered to each other "They must not get that many black folks in here."

LOL

I love to get a table near the waterfalls.

Beautiful!!!

Kentucky was particulary perturbed by something we saw as we drove up.

"What is that?" my sister said. "Looks like some sheets or something."

"No, no," I said, after looking for a moment. "That's the tablecloths. They're drying the tablecloths in the sunshine."

Kentucky blinked. "Humph."

My sister was skeptical.

"They are being environmentally friendly. You know how white folk like that type of thing. Save the environment. Hang the tablecloths out to dry instead of running the dryer."

Kentucky shook her head. "Ain't nobody being environmentally friendly. There dryer broke. That's all that is."

I laughed so hard. She didn't. She was serious.

"They can save money that way, by drying them outside," I said

"Unh-unh. The dryer is broken, Lisa."

LOL!!

I smiled at the sight of the tablecloths blowing in the wind. I had to remember that my sister is not old enough to remember hanging clothes out on the clothesline to dry. Our great-grandmother had a washing machine, but she didn't have a clothes dryer. So I remember, back in the early 70s, following her out to the back yard with the day's wash. I was in charge of handing her the clothespins or collecting them, depending on whether she was hanging clothes or taking them down.

Those were days of innocence. And I laughed at my old great-grandmother scrambling up and out the back door at the sound of thunder.

"Come on, Lisa, we gotta get out here and get them clothes 'fo the rain come!"

No, my sister doesn't have those memories... She was born in 1981. Great-grandmama died in 1982, when I was 12. Great-grandmama did get a chance to hold the my little sister in her arms when she was a baby, though. Kentucky will not remember that either.

And Kentucky was still pontificating about the broken dryer during our late lunch.

And I was laughing even harder at her jokes about it.

My sister is the FUNNIEST person I know. She is 10 times quieter than me and 10 times funnier than me.

When I think of the most wonderful people I know, and those who have such a good pivotal influence on me over the last few years, I think first of my sister. She is wise beyond her years. Now SHE has become someone I can talk to, and she can advise me, and there's no judgment. I know that she loves me, even though I am probably one of the most imperfect people she knows. You know that's not common. And me, I am very much to myself when it comes to my hurts, pains, and problems. We can talk openly about our problems and walk away feeling better about them.

So for the life of me, I can't understand why our mother and her father(my stepfather) treat her like crap...

... and why I have to always pick her heart and emotions up off the ground... 

To be continued...