2009/05/29 Fri

Bertha's sister, Betty Spain, passed away during the week and the funeral was today. Don went to the visitation and found Bertha very, very upset. He said she wouldn't even look up to see him but he did touch her shoulder and offer condolences to those around her and asked them to let her know when she was feeling better that he had tried to console her. Bertha has many family members around her to support her but she has also lost her husband, a boy she called her son (he was like a son to her), and now her sister, all in less than a year. The "son" and her sister were within two weeks of one another in passing away. I hope Bertha will be all right as her sister had reached a stage where the best hope was that suffering be limited.

On his way to the visitation, he let me out at SouthPark as I wanted to visit Dick's Sporting Goods to look for a couple of exercise items to use at home and I especially wanted to try and find a couple of pair of shoes that were low heeled but looked good for use during the summer. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods first and to my surprise found what I was looking for. I also found an exercise ball (which I really like using) with a pump included should I ever want to go back for that. It is just that it is too big for keeping around the house. I would need to devote a closet to it practically and I also need room to move around with the ball and that would be iffy unless I moved the coffee table out of the living room. Anyway, I bought some exercise bands and another kind of stretch band that has handles on it and that you can anchor in a closed door. This was the equipment being emphasized during my last trainer sessions at the Y and Mariel spent time making sure I understood how to hold my hands while using this stuff. I can do a lot more at home with these items than I could without them. For now, I will continue to emphasize the exercises on the ball while at the Y. They have plenty of these balls of all different sizes. (One of the exercises relaxes the small of my back really well and I look forward to doing that at the end of every session.)

Then I went to Joseph Beth Bookstore which was nearby and immediately ran into a guy who used to help me with investing (I have nothing to invest any more). I always really liked him as a person as well as an advisor. He and his wife have dogs that they treat as their children so we are on the same wave length in animal conversation. He seems to really care about people, not just his own pocket. For example, he was at the bookstore buying Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People for a client who is both young and knows she is dying of cancer. He said he has always given that book to clients who have extraordinarily bad things happen to them. He taught it 30 years ago when it first came out and met his wife in the class he was teaching. He said unfortunately he had just bought the last book for this person. He didn't know what had happened to me but when he found out, he said let's go sit down and talk a minute. He offered to look at some of my investment allocation in 401K and see if he saw a way to reallocate better. I asked him about how much would a consultation be and he said "Free". We'll see. I hate to ask people for free when that is the way they make their living but I have known this guy for many many years and we are as much friends as we are anything. He left and I ordered and got the Kushner book on my Kindle. I'm interested to read it, knowing it means so much to Tom. I told him I would HAVE to read it now that I know his story around it. Anyway, I was so excited. I hadn't been on my shopping excursion more than 15 minutes and already had not only made progress but run into a long lost friend. I looked for some books on Judaism while I was there but I thought they were all a bit expensive (as are all books nowadays) so I got one tiny one that can fit in my purse with a few highlights and definitions of things I know nothing of and left. They also had lots of Vera Bradley stuff there and I bought a cloth eyeglass holder for my sunglasses (or glasses) if I want to carry them easily.

Then I went to try and find the shoe store I used to frequent to get shoes that really fit my feet. At first, I passed it and knew I had somehow missed it because I had looked at the South Park Directory on line the night before and knew about where it ought to be. I went back and saw it from a distance. By then, I was getting tired and sat down to rest just outside the shoe store and made a couple of calls on my cell phone. I called Sandy who said she takes her daughter to this store all the time because her feet are hard to fit for shoes and they have good success finding shoes there. It is a more expensive store I find but they had a sale on today and I had luck right away finding two styles I liked in my size. The clerks were so helpful and friendly and the place was busy because of the sale. Some shoes were as much as half off and the ones I bought were about 1/3 off. Anyway, I just bit the bullet and paid the price. I'll probably wear these shoes out this summer as they are comfortable, low heeled, good looking, and in colors that go with everything. I think I should go get a couple pair each season(twice a year) and I should get a pretty good wardrobe of nice fitting and quality shoes that way. The store is Marmi's at South Park. Love it.

I started toward a big department store thinking I would go for some hosiery and maybe look in the household goods area for a new teapot. I got approached along the way with a girl handing me some lotion to try. I said, I don't have enough hands for this and she took me by my free hand and started to rub a generous amount of the lotion on my hand and forearm and also to buff one of my fingernails. She told me she is from Israel and some of these products use Dead Sea Salt to take off dead skin. We talked some about Israel and why she was here in the U. S. Man, did my nail look great and my hands and arms feel smooth when she got through. Then the sales pitch but I found her to be very charming. I agreed to buy a bottle of the cream and nail buffing stuff. It cost so much I commented on it and she offered to "give" me 3 more sets for three of my friends which she wanted named. I told her 3 first names, bought my set and she must have loaded me up with 7 or 8 free ones. (At her prices, I don't think there was much there that was really free.) She then started in on something else which was also wonderful. Then something else after that. I told her ENOUGH. During the second set of stuff, the bank denied my card. I knew I had the money in my account for it but I also knew it was not a normal kind of activity on my card. First the shoe store and now this. But nothing stopped this girl. Again with the extra packages of free stuff. This time, she told me to hang on to these "freebies" for myself. Anyway, we made that transaction and I left. She was still telling me about the other stuff and said to come back. There were so many free packages of stuff from her, she had to help carry it to an area where I could eat and wait for Don to pick me up. I was really a little embarrassed by all the packages and thought I didn't even know how I was going to get them to the car but I did. I put them in the trunk and when we got home, Don helped me get them upstairs. When he saw all that stuff, he exclaimed to the guy downstairs vacuuming the hallway, "Have you ever gone to the hardware store and come out with anything that looked like this???!!!" I'll just have to use some of it for gifts as I think it really is pampering sort of stuff. I shouldn't have is right and sure enough the bank had put a temporary hold on my account thinking there was possible fraud going on. I had gone to a shoe store and spent a lot followed immediately with spending a lot more than I would normally on lotions. I had to call and get my card re-activated, also embarrassing, but I am glad they do watch out. I told the girl that I had been housebound for a long time insofar as being free to shop or go to a mall on my own and I had gone a bit crazy I guessed. However, I had done the craziness on my own. It was not that my card had been stolen.

Then I went and got a sandwich at the food court and called Don to tell him I was ready to go home. "More than ready" was my thought. I didn't get to the big department store to look for hosiery and a teapot but maybe another time. I do still need those things as my teapot has almost got a hole in the bottom and I need a larger size hosiery to be comfortable. I have managed to wear out my hose over the last 6 months of not replacing any of it as it ripped.

I came home and tried on my shoes for Don, called Sandy and talked to her a little, and messed around with putting things away and reading on some books I need to have read before some classes next week. I also watched some of the Walk the Line movie and kept looking in on the Lakers/Denver NBA game until it became utterly clear the Lakers would win. I wanted Denver because of George Karl being a Carolina guy but oh, well. Carolina did win its first regional game in baseball today so that was something positive.

Guess I'll try and lay low for a few days now. I am glad to have some pampering stuff in the house but I wish I had gotten to the department store instead to get more practical items.

Now the cats have woken me up in the middle of the night and my brain won't quit working so I am in here writing my blog diary. Milo seems to be guarding the pet door so I imagine poor Gray is stuck outside. I am going to go try and rescue him and go back to bed.