Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Not Jimbob, but Jim and Bob

Jim hasn't changed one iota--not even a smidgen--since he was the teenaged boaster and braggart I knew as a girl.
He and Lou got to Romanelli's just as I did and we sat down to catch up.  Lou, by the way, is very nice.  A little country girl from Minnesota, she's small and thin with a warm manner and sweet smile.  We both endured Jim's non-stop yakking: "I play a lot of golf, I was on a golf tour, that's how good I am; my daughter's a multi-millionaire, she adopted a girl from a white trash family, but they have good genes*; other daughter was with Facebook for two years, she's married to a cervical specialist**; we've been to fifty countries, we go on a lot of cruises, we have two coming up soon..." and so on and on.
He also whipped out an android so he could show me the inside of his "villa" in Texas.  It's decorated in the boring kind of pseudo-southwestern that features too much oak and wrought iron, but I dutifully expressed admiration.  
My tooth was still sore, so I ordered very soft scrambled eggs.  We spent only an hour or so together (they had driven from Texas and were heading back), but before we parted, I handed Jim the fifteen or twenty letters he had written me in 1955 and '56.  He seemed a bit aggrieved I didn't want them, but I'm sure Lou will be interested.  I assured her we were never a couple; he and my twin were.  We hugged goodbye and drove off.  It was a pleasant enough interlude, but I barely know the twenty-year-old girl involved and I was anxious to resume my real life...
...Which I did when Bob came for his coaching session.  I think he's improving, but not by much, I'm afraid.  He's not a bad guy at all, though, and we actually had an interesting conversation about politics and the state of the world today.
Said goodbye to him and immediately drove over to pick up Aline. We went to SeaOaks for an enjoyable lunch and after, I took her to the clubhouse to view the hideous new furniture.  No surprise--she thought it was hideous.
She came home with me to see the latest video from the Far East, "Mr. K. at the shopping plaza," which she loved, of course.  We then sat for an hour and talked religion, politics, and opera--it's so enjoyable with someone who can actually discuss those subjects with neither provincialism nor dogmatism.
Took her home and settled in for the night.  Happily, the tooth--rather, the hole thereof--seems to be healing well and I'm no longer as conscious of it.  
*I can't figure that out, either.
** Have no idea what that is--gynecologist?

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