I was pleasantly surprised yesterday morning to get a call from Suzi D., of Long Beach Island. The director of the Atlantic County Coalition for Peace and Justice, Norm, had put us in touch a few weeks ago and we had already had contact by e-mail and phone. Suzi asked if I could possibly meet for lunch in a few hours and, of course, I was delighted to accept. (I can never understand why people sometimes insist on being given a certain amount of notice. If you're available, what difference does it make?)
We ate at the Horizon Diner in Manahawkin and stayed talking for two hours. What a terrific person Suzi is! She's a physical therapist for Holy Redeemer (visiting nurse organization) and is such a bright, interesting, and energetic gal--boy, did we click. She and her husband (they have four beautiful daughters and several equally beautiful grandchildren) just moved into their former summer home year-round. They had been members of the Coalition where they lived outside Philly and want to continue. As people do, we exchanged life stories, and found that many of our ideas, attitudes, and even--to an extent--backgrounds, are similar. She's as fierce a neocon-hater and peace lover as I am, and is a lively, articulate, intelligent person to boot, with a great sense of humor. When the next peace vigil is scheduled, I'll get in touch with her and we'll try to arrange for her to go with Dennis, Leslie, and me--her husband may come, too.
I had my regular Caesar salad with chicken, notwithstanding my little upset on Monday. My reasoning goes: 1.) it may not have been the salad, but some kind of minor bug; 2.) I eat C.s. with c. every time I go out for lunch; that's been at least once every week for the past few months, and I've never gotten sick before; and 3.) I wasn't deathly ill, anyway, the problem passing in about an hour (after Tums). However, I'm going down to pick up Betty today and will suggest we go to Saladworks, so I can get some other kind of salad. It isn't because I'm worried about Caesar, but simply that I have it so often, I'm getting tired of it.
Before I met Suzi, I went to several nurseries in Manahawkin looking for crepe myrtles and didn't find a single one. One place is getting them in soon, so I'll check back with them.
Borrowed a cake carrier from Susan, as I'm going to bring a dessert to the Respite Weekend on Saturday. I'll make my mocha chocolate cake--everybody seems to like it--and people so seldom get "from scratch" cake nowadays, I hope it's a treat.
Later: Zipped down to Weight Watchers just to get weighed; didn't stay for the lecture because I want to have breakfast, then pick Betty up. I lost another 1.6, for a total of 36.4 off and a current weight of 163.2. That's good and I'm well satisfied--aiming, of course, to get into the 150s before long.