Wednesday

I'm going to cut this short, as I had a l-o-o-o-n-g day. Revised and copied my Christmas card/letter, addressed and stamped forty-two envelopes (I didn't even realize I knew that many people!) and walked to the P.O. to mail them and the small package for the little girls in Jersey. All that took until after 2:00, then I had lunch and dove into packing. Damn, there's so much to take, including meds and stuff, not to mention clothes. Then there's so much to do, such as suspending newspaper delivery, giving Suzanne my key to collect my mail, and cleaning the apartment (I can't bear to come back from a trip to a messy place).   

A side note: Mike had borrowed my larger suitcase when he was here last summer, as he had to make a short trip to Cupertino up north. Ellen had stored it in her shed for me and these were still on when she brought it over: 

You can be sure his poor old Mum ain't goin' first; she'll be stuffed into steerage with the rest of the peons. 

Got four more Christmas cards, including from my old pal from 20 years ago at Rider, Dave Perry. Also a large and lovely, handmade bookmark from Suzanne for my birthday:

That decoration is not printed on; it's formed from a pattern of tiny beads; it's so attractive, I hate to hide it in a book. Also got an "I love HR" (referring to my career in human resources) shirt from Vickie, along with twenty bucks; I wish she hadn't added that, but we'll go out to lunch some day. I took a picture of myself with the shirt on, which I wanted to send Vickie, but for some reason, my phone balked and it wouldn't go. Texted my thanks, instead.