Balance and My Sister

The day didn't begin well. I was awaken by the sound of the garbage truck picking up the trash...and realized I'd forgotten to take out mine. Then I was almost late for yoga class. Rose called just as we were settling into meditation. Could we switch the location from Collingswood to the Treehouse Cafe in Audubon? Fine...but I had a hard time getting back into class after her call.We worked on balance poses in class. I'm just not good with balancing. I'm better than I was, but I'm still not flexible.

There was absolutely nothing going on at the Collingswood Library, either. They already had a college student working on the DVDs. I shelved one DVD downstairs and three nonfiction books upstairs. I read a few more books, but it's just as well that I had to leave early to ride over to Audubon. As it turned out, the county was finally repairing the long-degraded wood around the train tracks on Merchant Avenue. That meant that I had to go around and down to Pine and back; thankfully, Rose was waiting for me when I arrived.

After all that, I did have a pleasant chat and lunch with my sister. She had a turkey sandwich and a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I had "Popeye's Chicken" (chicken, spinach, and red peppers) and a Gingerbread Italian Soda. (I was too hot from my ride for lattes!) We talked about everything going on at Uncle Ken's, the Secret Santa we hope to do with the Cape May side of the family this Christmas to simplify the holidays over there, my financial problems, and Rose's desire to get Khai into a program to help him with his speech. I told Rose about staying here for my vacation and what I hoped to do during it. We're going to attempt to get together again during Collingswood's big shopping night on the 27th.

(It's probably just as well that we weren't able to get together on Tuesday. The storm would have made that impossible. Rose said she had to run out in the rain to get things for dinner and wound up walking through a cold grocery store soaked and freezing.)

After I left Rose, I decided I had enough money left for a treat. I headed across the street to Desserts By Design. I bought a Strawberry Buttercream Cupcake and had a nice, long chat with the owner. I told her about my family, and we discussed the changing economy and how difficult it's been for a lot of people to cope with these changes. Many people in this area are determined to cling to the way things have always been...even if those way no longer work in the modern world.

We talked for so long, I ended up riding home and having my cupcake there. I did have enough time to do a few things around the apartment. I paged through the grocery store flyers and made my list for the Acme tomorrow. I swept the porch. It needed it badly after the storm. I did the dishes and tidied up a few things.

Work was busy when I came in, fairly quiet after rush hour ended. For once, we had so much help, I was able to spend most of the second half of my night shelving candy. There were no problems beyond a few annoying customers (and one WIC family who were confused by their checks), and I was in and out quickly after picking up contact lens solution and the Progresso's Vegetable Soup that's on sale. (I love their Hearty Tomato, which is full of big tomato pieces and makes a great sauce for meat.)