The Club

Another full--maybe too damn full--day. I had fits and conniptions trying to arrange my flight to Jersey, but finally got tickets. Julie picked me up at 11:30 for the Woman's Club luncheon. The food was the usual and okay: some kind of beef, cut-up potatoes, salad, and gooey desserts. The speaker was my old friend, Carol L., with whom I was on the Senior Council a few years ago. Carol is now a disability advocate; she had been brain damaged when she was ten months old; also has had problems with depression and anxiety. I went over to say hello before her talk, asked about Suz Montgomery, who had been director of the Agency on Aging (I was on the oversight board). I was shocked when Carol told me she had gotten an email a few hours before that Suz had died. I guess I shouldn't have been shocked, as Suz had been very open about her terminal cancer, which she had kept at bay for many years.  Here she is, as I knew her:

What a loss.

Anyway, the actual "business meeting" was long, but strangely enough, didn't bore me.   I kept thinking of Saturday Night Live and how perfectly it would have fit in there Suburban matrons, almost all pretty long in the tooth, taking seriously the idea of conserving water by turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth. They started the meeting with a prayer, which surprised me, since it's a secular group. There was also a "patriotic" segment, during which the chair read "a tribute to our flag."  You'd swear that came out of a second-grade primer from 1920. 

And so on.

I actually won the fifty-fifty ($27.00) then, incredibly, picked Julie's number.  After, Julie took me to WinCo, where I bought a lot of heavier stuff (detergent, a large container of oatmeal, and more). When I went to pay with my debit card (WinCo takes only debit cards and cash) I found I didn't have my debit card. I finally paid with my winnings. I called Poinsettia Pavilion, where the women's club meeting took place, thinking I may have somehow lost my card there, but haven't yet heard back from them.

When I got home, I changed, then had a little impromptu Happy Hour with Suzanne. I had been pretty frazzled, but felt better after we sat and chatted for a bit.