Wade in!

The mood at the store is brighter since . . .

1. our broken glass doors and windows were replaced on Monday,
and,

2. we are opening on Friday!

We are opening in our leaders' usual half-assed way (plan? what plan?), but we are opening.
And that's great!

We're all more than ready to be done with being alone with one another.
I hope we've cleaned up the last of the glass from the ransacking after the police murdered George Floyd.

What a long haul this has been, the past two months.

I keep pondering how I've changed, as I approach old age.

WHAT? What is this, "old age"?  
Well, I'd say sixty (coming up in March 2021) is the beginning of early old age. 

Age is not "just a number"--it's a whole bunch of gradual but real and significant physical changes---and, what I didn't expect--psychological ones. 

The physical changes have mostly been losses.  I'm lucky--the losses have been minor so far--along the lines of crispy hair and crepey skin. (Though I'm happy not to be jerked around by hormones every month, their diminishment has down sides.)
Gentle reminders of More to Come...

The psychological changes have all been gains, so far.
Well, except how I don't remember stuff as well--but that's offset by having accumulated so damn much experience, knowledge, and trivia, I can afford to forget half of it. And I write down things now, so I don't forget when I said I'd do thus-and-such (and what thus-and-such I said I'd do.)

I'm glad (and a little surprised) that I can say I'm proud of how I've behaved at work. More than once I was the peace keeper, the mediator. 
And I just kept showing up.
In the past, I'd have flown out of there so fast, in the face of some truly miserable "leadership".

I've never seen before what a blessing good Project Management is (because we don't have it).
The older I get, the more I value people with organizational skills,
and especially communication skills, and emotional self-management.
That'd all have bored me at twenty, but now...?
All praise to the ones who can stay calm and help one another.
I'm just amazed that I am in any way among their company.  
Though looking back, I can see a gradual development--it wasn't until these crazy times tested me that they came together.

I AM NOT MAKING PROMISES ABOUT THE FUTURE though!!!
Who knows?
When the store opens, I might get in a huge fight with one of the management (I can well imagine this), and still fly out of there!
Ha.
It could get tense.

But... the mood truly is brighter this week, and I think we'll all pull together when we have something up-close and tangible to pull toward--serving the community again.


We'll have candy to help too.
My auntie--who turns 95 in a couple weeks---send me a box of handmade chocolates and candies, and another to take to work to share with coworkers.

The girlettes say they are my coworkers, so last night they shared a mint meltaway among themselves. (I had to help them finish it.)
This is the second box of presents they've had in two days---they are delirious with joy!

A few photos...

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen on a tea cup. Sweet milky trout?

BELOW: I'm reading Letters from Tove–– Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomin. She met her life partner, Tuulikki, when she was 41. Letter from Tove to Tuulikki, June 26, 1956 (their first year together):

“I’m so unused to being happy that I haven’t really come to terms with what it involves.

...

I feel like a garden that’s finally been watered, so my flowers can bloom.”

When I read that I thought, I want to find a life partner...