Last night I came to visit my mom for the first time since last February! It’s been a whole year… I’m so happy. I’ve seen her since then in person, a few times, and we’ve zoomed weekly, but our overnight visits were on pause until she got the vaccine and the necessary time had passed.
She made me a long-promised dinner of eggs and fries, one of my favorite things from childhood. It was all perfect. My mom’s fries are always the absolute best —I say this objectively. Mealy and soft inside, crispy outside… just perfect.
We talked TONS, and watched part of Mary and Max (which I saw the other day and loved, and now I’m having her watch too.) We are watching the rest later today.
I got quite a reception from Sweeney, one of my mom’s cats. Sweeney was mine originally… I picked him, named him. But when I moved to be with Christopher he stayed with my mom. Sweeney is a bit neurotic. He bites, sometimes goes from purring to hissing while being pet. Can be incredibly sweet or sometimes mean and a little scary.
After I moved away and only came to visit once or twice a month, Sweeney would get a bit grumpy with me, especially if it had been a long time. I assumed he forgot me, especially because I came smelling like other cats. Still, my mom said both he and Shampoo (her other cat who was also mine/ours for many years) would get very excited when, with me maybe 2-3 minutes away, she would tell them “Here comes Marina!” and they’d perk up and go wait for me by the front door.
Last night my mom did this just as she used to a year ago. Well, the cats certainly remembered. Sweeney in particular got very excited. He was running through the house, being super playful. I could chase him or poke him in the butt or ribs and he’d run off joyfully with playful poses, he stuck his head in my shoes and played with them, and more.
Still, I could not pet him. He would bite me, hiss, be very scary. Eventually he let me pet him by the end of the night. This morning, it was different, he let me pet him lots and even hold him. I was so happy. I really love this grumpy old guy.
As you can see from the photos, I brought Barley along. Barley is one of my favorite bears. He’s a limited edition Boyds, more luxurious and bigger than the average bears of the brand. But he has a very special feel. Somehow he’s firm and incredibly soft and squishy at the same time. I’m not sure how to explain that, I guess you’d have to hold him.
Barley doesn’t like to be without his hat but I had him take it off for bed:
My fitness posts will happen, I just can’t do them properly on my phone while I’m here. I’m still very tired because the apartment is noisy especially with the dog next door so I didn’t sleep very well. I’m going to try to sleep some more.
Continuing this post after my nap and breakfast. We had mate and it was the first time since Christmas, but it was even more delicious than it was back then. I gave Barley some too:
Not long after this, Sweeney decided to come and lay with me! 😱
Alas, I couldn’t resist touching him. He didn’t like that. But he settled down and didn’t leave.
We finished watching Mary and Max. I cried even more the second time despite knowing the ending.
Also, I realized this was the part of the movie that touched me most deeply, even more than the very end:
It is so poignant, sad and glad, and full of earnest feeling, it just guts me, but in a good way.
This morning I did some more worm research. I think I’ll be ordering me some worm friends as soon as I get home!
It’s a bit unorthodox, but I guess I’m just going to continue updating this post as the day goes on. 😁
Next…
… we put together a gas station model! It’s a present for my mom’s boss. We had a lot of fun, even if it was mostly putting stickers on.
Later, we played cards. I taught my mom to play Mille Bornes. She caught on very quickly and beat me twice in a row!
It’s one of the family’s favorite games, so I’m looking forward to her playing it with us.
While playing, I arranged two new commission requests (yay for more money to pay off debt!) and got a call from my neurologist. They moved my appointment up to tomorrow to discuss the recent tests.
Now my mom is making dinner.
We had asado and salad! I had a delicious Jello cheesecake dessert. Now I’m waiting for Christopher to take me home!
And now, I’m home. This was an odd post, being updated through the day like this. I have to unpack, take care of the animals, and prepare my fitness posts.
I ordered red worm food, and red wrigglers (eisinia fetida) just 20 or so of them. Tomorrow I’ll prepare their tank, and as they grow and multiply, I’ll add some to the snail tanks. I want to keep them on their own too though, because worms are cool.
I also ordered some toys… 👉👈 But I think it’s for a good reason. More on that probably next week.
I think I’ll end the post here for real. I hope you all have a good night. I had a really fun day with my mom.
