Saturday was not my best day and yet it got turned around in a lovely way.
My benevolence/compassion/tolerance well was bone dry.
In our never ending move we were trying to sell some things on Facebook Marketplace which is a challenge in patience and endurance.
Lots of scammers, lots of people who flake on you. It is not for the faint of heart or those with no patience.
I was in a mood.
To top things off I went to several stores where evidently people have no problem walking around the many aisles, walking to the back of the store and then to the front and repeating this several times.
Yet when it comes to walking a short distance to put the cart in the corral it is just too much and they just leave it. ARGHHHH
Yes I am the one gathering the carts up and returning them. Usually I make up stories about the people who left them as in “a young Mom with tired crying kids” or “someone had an emergency”or maybe “someone who suddenly became ill and had to get home”.
Sigh..it wasn’t working on Saturday. I just went straight to the place of ” these dang lazy people, can’t even put a cart away”
Grumble Grumble Grumble.
I drove to the new house in silence.
I unloaded the car in silence, still grumbling.
Paul arrived and started unloading his truck. I ducked inside for a quick minute and came back out to find him talking to our new neighbors.
They were older, had a small dog on a leash and in each of their hands was a freshly made cocktail 🙂
I walked up to chat. Paul and the gentleman started talking about the Navy and the wife said ” Oh you two can talk that Navy stuff, I’m going to talk to Jennifer”
🙂
We chatted for a bit and she was, of course, quite lovely. She was so happy for us in our new home. They had been in the area (well at least every summer) for many years. She worked as a waitress at a local restaurant on the river as a teenager. Brought her new beau (now her husband of many years) to the river and its has always been a big part of their lives.
Suddenly scammers and abandoned shopping carts became unimportant.
The best part was the cocktails. She mentioned that her hubby had just made them fresh and they grabbed them out on their way to walk the dog. How charming and fun for me because this was what my grandparents would do. Always a cocktail in hand after 5 or maybe a tad before.
They continued on their way. I suspect they would have been holding hands but one had the dog and of course the cocktails.
I walked in the house smiling.
But wait there is more.
I very gracefully sat down on the couch ( more or less flopped) and began the search for something to watch.
A suggestion for me popped up in Amazon Prime. I was immediately sucked in to the sweetest movie ever.
It was called ” Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont”
Without spoiling it too much it is about an unexpected friendship between two very lonely souls. It is about kindness, love and has a bit of sadness but it was additional balm for the troubling first half of my day.
A grumpy day with a happy ending. Who knew a cocktail that wasn’t even mine would be the turning point.
So cheers to lovely neighbors, cheers to a sweet movie and cheers to my grandparents who I’m sure are still celebrating cocktail hour every evening.
As always… keep triing (with or without a cocktail in hand)
Jennifer
P. S. Look for my blog posts every Tuesday. It may be 11:59 pm but one will show up 🙂
Any typos or grammatical errors are gift to you!