So Long, Cissy

Gainesville

Mom, if you saved that post, it is still on your hard drive. Your problem is you don't know where to look for it (quite a common problem, actually). Files do not just spontaneously disappear. Maybe we can look into this while we're in Alameda.

Woke up to yet more rain. It was mainly drizzle as I drove to and from the opposite corner of town for the dental visit. Was able to stop for a liquor run and to mail the cute-kitty cards I used to supplement the blank cards from Hell.

It was the very first day in the dentist's new digs, and everyone was stumbling along trying to figure out how to do things, use the new computer systems, etc. Good thing I was just there for a semi-annual cleaning. It was bad enough, as it always stirs up the old TMJ.

Once I got home, though, the clouds burst, the downpour lasting the rest of the day. The cat and I enjoyed some down time, reflecting how nice it was to be inside, warm and on someone's lap (or vice versa) on a day like this.

Got lucky with a Leanne dish tonight: Skillet Chop Suey -- browned ground beef, then chopped celery, green pepper, onion, garlic, and sliced mushrooms, with some soy sauce and bean sprouts added at the end. It was astonishingly good, and took no time at all. We were all but licking the plates and pan by the end of it. How very strange.

I eventually forced myself to go back to the Never Ending Cards. I got the rest of the message pages cut up into the little slips (incredibly nerve-wracking-- I hate paper cutters and the precision required, and there was not much margin for error) that now need to glued into the blank cards. I also printed the canned note for about 15 of my friends that I keep in touch with. I'll only personalize them with brief hand-written notes.

Speaking of keeping in touch, I happened on an obit in the Gainesville Sun for Cissy Arena. I don't know if you ever knew her, Sandy. She taught English at Santa Fe CC and I met her through Norman-- with whom she was, obviously, desperately in love. She was charming, funny, smart, and very sweet. I remember her explaining how, in North Carolina, the word "ham" had at least five syllables (and then going on to demonstrate it). And she maintained that anyone who could spell "prairie" was a better speller than she was, so don't ask her for help with spelling. She was deathly afraid of snakes-- she would not even utter the word-- if she had to use it, she's substitute, "HMMMM!!"

I lost touch with her by the end of 60's -- she was pretty straight, we, not so much. The obit said she left behind a husband, two kids and some grandkids. I was glad to learn she found someone to make a life and family with. I was frustrated to learn she just retired from SFCC in 2003-- she was here all along, and I could have reconnected with her. I wish I had.