Shopping

Isn't this a pretty tote bag?  It is crocheted, and it was on SALE!  I admit I am a bit of a hoarder of purses, but I have only 2 or 3 tote bags, some very large and some quite small, so this one is Goldilocks, just right.  I looked at straw/rafia bags, but they feel so stiff in the hand (unlike this one), and have a limited life span as the straw gets brittle and cracks.  The totes I have have been with me for many years, and I anticipate that this one will last as long too.

Anyway, my big news today is that I got an email just for me; not a sale's pitch, not a campaign plea, not a notice that my bill is due.  This was an honest to goodness message from an old friend.  I don't hear from her very often.  My BFF died of cancer about 3 years ago, and we sent mail back and forth weekly or so, and I miss her very much, both the absence of her friendship and of her letters.  Everyone is so busy, I know they aren't retired like me with scads of free time, but I wish I would get a note, and short is OK.  I remember getting letters from  my grandmother when I was away at college (decades ago), and scarcely sent back a reply, I was so busy.  She died suddenly at finals time for me, and I didn't even get to the funeral to see her old neighbors and friends.  I still feel remorse at how cavalier I was in those days.

I cleared off the bed in the spare bedroom today, being a flat surface it accumulates everything on it from mail to laundry.  I have my Zappos shoes all packaged up and ready to go on Monday, once we found the package tape.  And I found the notebook that holds my retirement information, I knew it wasn't lost, I just couldn't put my hand on it right then.  And I gathered up all my cross stitch stuff and took it downstairs where I can sit in my new chair, prop my feet up, turn on my Ott light and stitch away.  Alexa plays music for me, although we have a failure to communicate once in a while.  For instance, I wanted to hear cuts from Bob Seger's album, and there were presumably only 2 songs available, so Alexa kept switching from one to the other.  I finally got us on a Tom Petty groove, and then Don Henley, and Phil Collins, and by then I was tired of stitching.  But it sure beats having to find the right CD and physically switch them as they finished.  So, what do I do with 400 CDs now?

Onward...