"OLD!!!! Home Week..................OR.................???!!!???35 YEARS???!!!???............"

Good Morning;

I tried to 'sleep in' this morning but, my back, my bladder, and my brain conspired against me. The coffee was fresh at he Giant this morning so I spent an hour shopping, visiting, and puttering around the store while consuming as many of those damn teeny-tiny little 5 oz. Styrofoam cups as I could. I know I should not complain, it's free, BUT!!, the stupid itty-bitty cups are a pain in the ass........lol.

Yesterday afternoon at the Starbucks (and here at the library) was a prime example of how Baltimore deserves it's nicknames of 'Smalltimore' and 'Tinytown'. I'm at the computer and when my time ends the next users name comes up, and it looks real familiar and I realize it is Neil's wife. I look around for her to tell her and just as the waiting period times out we meet at the computer and go through the "are you?..and you are?...please say hello" routine. Oh yeah, and while I was on the computer I rcv'd a Facebook invite from an old high school (Woodlawn...I went to 2 different schools) friend, someone who I had gone to school with since kindergarten, and one of the very, very few people who I could actually call a friend, not an acquaintance, maybe not intimate, but someone who was more than just a fellow classmate. Nancy wrote that she was in the process of organizing a 35th, (THIRTY-FIVE????!!!???) year reunion. I wrote back and said I'd love to catch up with her, but due to situations and circumstances, unless there is a radical change..(for the better!!)..in my life and lifestyle, I did not think I would be attending. I sent the address of this blog and my e-mail, and I await a reply. We had hooked up a couple times about 20 years ago, (I think....you know how time is a slippery concept for us old folks...[???!!!??THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!!!???!!!]......), and then lost contact. This was a pleasant surprise and i hope we can write, talk, or meet and dissect the past couple of decades.

I'm at the Starbucks and a customer comes in who I have seen a few times before, and I was at the counter when his drinks were ready so I brought them over to his table and we happened to strike up a conversation. I said he looked familiar, and we found out we had went to high school, (Milford Mill.... the 2nd high school I 'attended'......well at least I was enrolled at.........lol), and we graduated the same year...(1974....but you should have already know that if you did the math from the exercise above.......please show your work,....pencils down and pass your exam books forward at this time....LOL), and knew some of the same people. He, Dean was and is still close friends with Marc and Wendy, (see post from Thursday July 30th, "Oops...........", for reference). His father, and now he, owned/owns 'Captain Jerry's Tee Shirts', a well known, and extremely popular screen printing and embroidery business. http://www.captainjerry.com/ , if you need some shirts for an event or organization, that's the place to go to.

As we were finishing up our conversation, I see my friend Michelle and her daughter Remy walking down the sidewalk from the BaskinRobins. As they paused to pet a puppy, (do I ever know that experience, Rachel is on a quest to pet every dog in Baltimore whenever we go out..........lol), and I go out and stand leaning against the wall with my arms crossed on my chest and a sardonic grin on my face as she begins to walk by, looking in the windows to see if I am there, then looks up and does a double take and cries 'Dave'. We hugged tightly and talked quietly for a few moments about her Mom's passing. We then sat down and chatted for a few minutes and got caught up a bit. Remy who is a bit shy at times, was hiding behind Michelle and peeping out at me when we began talking, then as she warmed up a bit started to play quietly around us. i felt this tickle on my right calf and thought it was a fly, so I just shook my leg and more or less ignored it until it started again, this time I brushed at it, and kept on talking. The third time I looked down....and it is Remy tracing with her finger my tattoo on my right calf, which is the two character Japanese Kanji for "HOPE", (or possibly "To Hope", there is some slight disagreement in the books we checked, but either way the sentiment is what I want it to express), she was entranced by it, and Michelle and I had a good laugh, and Remy smiled up at me shyly. It was a Kodak/Hallmark moment.......lol.

Also yesterday at the coffee shop, another one of the regulars, and he is there nearly as often as me, who I have recently started talking with, (after a gradual process over a period of 3 months that progressed from recognizing each other as frequent patrons, to eye contact, to cautious nods of greeting, to verbal communication starting with a humorous quip about "sharing the same table, but on different shifts", to introductions, to conversation, to sharing a bit of my story and offering my blog's address, (whew!!), comes up to me and says that he and his lady friend have been reading the blog, and are touched by my stories regarding my daughter, (who they have seen, but not met, at the coffee shop.....Rachel eventually gets to know EVERYBODY!!.........lol). He, (and this is the "oldtimers disease" short term name related memory loss kicking in.....Again!...lol)..Ralph?, says that they want to do something for me, well.........I thanked him and told him that although the situation with my daughter is not making me happy with her living conditions, it is not as 'dire' as it may come off. Even though I have not exaggerated, there may be some poetic licence in my emotional commentary.

(Which is not to say that I am no less pissed off, but for future reference I just want to state that the 'ex' is a loving and caring "MOMMY", but, at the moment, and for some time now, unable and unwilling to live up to the (previously attained and still attainable, [which is why I am truly pissed], function of Mother and parent)....end editorial comment...

And my mind has just gone blank, but there was someone else who i had not seen for a while who stopped by also......(Johnny Mnemonic I'm not at the momoent, sorry.......lol), now what was I saying?.................lol!

Anyhow, I'm going to go up to Starbucks and get a 'cuppa' and make my sandwich, (spiral cut ham, smoked Gouda, and locally grown tomato w/mayo...[of course]), then I've got to go raise $20.00 immediately, to pay Monkee and get more meds. I am out of cash and trying to trade food credit off my card, but I may have to go out the 'corner' with my sign at rush hour and see what I can do, do not particularly want to, but I'm out of meds also.

thanks for reading, you make it all worthwhile, and Thanks to all who have helped, that is why I started writing in the first place.........Gratitude!!

later........................Dave