I am grateful for all the thoughts and prayers for my Dad!! Thank you!

I am grateful and thrilled to report that he is home from the hospital!

Of course- there’s a story. My sister was due to arrive late Thursday evening. My Dad was actually released from the hospital in Tuesday, but she wanted to “surprise” my sister and me- so they didn’t tell us he was home…

Grateful that my Mom is such a trickster, as my daughter says…(this was sarcasm in case my intonation doesn’t come through…)

We took my daughter back to college last weekend.

I am grateful that all the things she needed from the start were able to fit in the car

I am grateful that she likes her dorm

I am grateful that she might actually get the chance to experience the college life that she spent years preparing for and dreaming about

Thanks again for all the support and love!!!!

PS

As to the Starbucks debate of Thursday- my opinion was that you just order whatever drink you want. My daughter thought you should adapt your order according to size of crowd…

It’s time to play catch up-

I have had a stressful few weeks.

About ten days ago my Dad was admitted to the hospital. Some of you may know that he has cancer. One cancer was diagnosed pre covid- one diagnosed during early COVID. I’m guessing you don’t want to hear my spiel about how people with anything other than COVID were treated back in early 2020…

But anyway- my Father was feeling weak. My Mother brought him to ER. They admitted him to hospital and he’s still there. The cancer is reacting well to treatments- but his body is still out of whack- levels and numbers and such not where they should be.

This is a tad stressful. Add to this that my Mother, (the worst kind of control freak- the one who totally dominates but doesn’t think she is a control freak) doesn’t really know what’s going on, or isn’t telling me what’s going on…Plus- she’s surprisingly calm. My Mother doesn’t do calm. What’s up with that?

So I’m worried about my Dad. Confused by my Mom.

And amidst all this, I am trying to get my Daughter ready to be dropped off at college.

Do you know how stressful helping a college student pack is?

And the mindset?

This is like when she was a Freshman all over again. She’s been back home from college longer than she was actually at college…

And packing all her stuff in a little car leaving room for the three passengers and the dog….(yes the dog because my Mom was supposed to watch the dog but now that’s impossible). I will say that I am a packing Goddess…No one can believe that I got all my daughter’s stuff into the car…

So to say that I am stressed is a little bit of an understatement…

Add to this some issues with people I know- differences of opinion, sick children, medical stuff, etc….

But at least I can say that I got my daughter off to college…

But on the way to college we stopped off to see my Dad in the hospital…wait…Medical Center…(Did you notice that they are all called medical centers now) My Mom gave us the name of the place and his room number.

What she neglected to tell us was that there are two different locations…

So we got to location A, went through the entire COVID protocol to find that we were at the wrong place…

We did end up finding the right place and saw my Father…

And then our merry little band made it’s way to DC- stopping a few times for the dog…

We wound around the DC streets and found her dorm, and a parking spot- my daughter went and retrieved her key…

Her dorm apartment is actually quite nice. Of course I have a story though…..

Her dorm meets up with another dorm, kind of, and they share a courtyard. it’s a confusing lay out. When she moved in it took her a few minutes to figure out where to go. She concluded that the elevator was for the adjacent dorm.

Which meant we had to walk up three flights of stairs with her things. (When I say “we” I really mean my Husband and Daughter- I walked up once with her belongings, and once with haul from Target- they did the other eight trips. And BTW- she lives in a duplex and of course her bedroom is on the second floor…

Yesterday my Daughter calls me. Turns out the elevator she saw DOES INDEED go to her floor- you just have to walk down a hallway through a door…

My Dad remains in the hospital. My daughter is finished with orientation counselor training and is about to greet the Class of 25…

I dusted my daughter’s room at home, which I don’t think she ever did, and made it a work space for my Husband on the two days a week he continues to work from home.

My Sister comes to town to see my Dad…

And I really need a day to just sit down and stare at the wall…

But I’m not there quite yet…

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1. I took a drawing class at Brooklyn Botanic Garden this week- while enjoyable, I’m going to stick with writing…
2. We tried a creamsicle kruller from Daily Provisions- while that was fine, the maple krullers are still ridiculously good
3. There’s a Disney themed mini golf course- the holes were all themed and it was sooo fun even though my daugher crushed me
4. We went to Mister Dip at the Seaport- I know the seaport is a tourist trap. However, lovely views and this burger/shake place was great. Also, for a tourist trap i NYC- prices were reasonable- for NYC…
5. Did you notice the revolving book case? Dream item…
6. We did not do a tourist walk, yet came across these two very inpressive looking memorials- the Merchant Marine one in the water was incredible
7. Saw the Kaws exhibit at Brooklyn Musum- you can only access the gift shop if you’ve seen the exhibit (which is odd for museum shops) and they limit how much stuff you can buy

As I live in a city, I often use mass transit.

The other day I was taking the subway- 4 train to Wall Street stop.

When you exit and enter the subway system, you must pass thru a turnstyle. Traditionally, the turnstyles are waist high. These are convenient and easy to get through, yet they are just as easy to climb over or under, making it very easy to not pay to enter.

To bypass this and make people pay, as they have refurbished some stations, they have put up high turnstyles that can’t be hopped over or ducked under. Alas, scofflaws have still found a way to manipulate these turnstyles and back into the station.

So when I got off at Wall Street I needed to exit via on of these eight foot high turnstyles. To try to thwart people coming in through these, they have made the tension very tight…

So I was trying to push my way to exit and it was REALLY REALLY difficult.

There was a point where I was pretty much stuck in the middle of this turnstyle…(FYI- those who write horror- this is a great way to trap victims)

I am grateful for my Herculean strength, because without it I would never have been able to get through this %^$&* turnstyle…

My dog’s harness broke the other day, the little plastic clip that adjusts the fit of the harness cracked.

Alas, this was her back up harness after her other one broke a few months ago and I had yet to replace the back up.

That’s on me.

What also stunk is that the harness broke on a Saturday evening as I was heading out for the movies. I knew the small pet store in my neighborhood would be closed (plus they didn’t have any harnesses for her the last time I looked) so I had to head out to a big box pet store on the way to the movie.

So I went to the big box store. And I looked around for harnesses. There were no harnesses in my dog’s size.

None.

Zero.

Zip.

Nada.

Betty is a shorkie- she weighs about seven pounds and is obviously small. But she is very similar to many dogs that live in the city. It is not unusal to see a 7 pound dog in Manhattan. In fact, extra small to small dogs are the norm.

So why are there no harnesses that fit her in a big box pet store?

There were TONS of XL and XXL harnesses…but barely anything made to fit a small dog.

Is this small dog discrimination?

My vet said that small dogs should only wear harnesses…

But I was desperate, so I bought the smallest harness I could find, which I knew would be a loose fit at best.

When I got to the check out the obviously bored clerk asked-

Did you find everything you were looking for?

I responded truthfully-

No

The cashier rang up my purchase without another word. Did not ask what I was looking for. Did not say sorry. Just told me to insert the chip when I was ready.

Not. One. Word. in response to my answer to his question.

Which begs me to ask:

Why do you have employees ask a question that they aren’t going to act on?

Do the employess even listen to what the customer is saying, or is this just scripted patter that is supposed to happen to make the in store experience better?

Did the employee asking me the question make my experience better?

On another note, my daughter simultaneously went to another big box pet store, and a small pet store. Neither had harnesses that fit my dog.

We needed to order one off Amazon- next day delivery.

I know many people commented the other day on never using self check outs because they want to keep people employed. This is a fine sentiment. But you can see that is probably not going to work. The in store experience could very well go the way of the dinosaur. If employees don’t care, and stores don’t stock what you need, what is their purpose?