The Coffee Shop Scoop and a Parade

I slept so well I couldn’t believe it! That was probably the best sleep I had in months. I also slept pretty late for me. When I finally woke up I went down to the gift shop for coffee because my Mom only drinks instant and I don’t really like instant. In the gift shop they make perked, which isn’t the greatest, but it’s certainly better than instant.

In the gift shop there is one lady who is steel-eyed and tough who will NOT let you leave with your cup of coffee. I recognized her behind the counter so resigned myself to sitting at the counter with my Styrofoam cup. That wasn’t all bad because I got the retirement village scoop. This was the hang out for many a retiree and the big deal this morning was that Virginia had lost her engagement ring. She had apparently been sitting at one of the gift shop tables and playing with her rings yesterday. She believed she had left the engagement ring sitting on the table. Her husband (I’ve forgotten his name) was going to have a fit when he found out. She was wondering if anybody had turned it in.

The lady behind the counter said nobody had. The ladies sitting around me all shook their heads. Nobody at the tables had seen it or heard about it. Somebody suggested she look at the jewelry for sale to see if someone had put it up there.

Many people at the retirement village are somewhat hard of hearing, others are somewhat hard of sensitivity. One lady said to another, “What’s going on?” The second lady replied, “Oh, Virginia lost her engagement ring. She thinks she left it here. God knows where she really left it.” The first lady nodded. Of course Virginia didn’t hear all that.

And thus the retirement village day progressed. A nurse came looking for Virginia and told her that the whole staff had been searching for her and that she should stay right there. I thought maybe they had found her ring but it turned out that Virginia ended up in the hospital for something. I don’t know what. Always something happening in the gift shop.

Later in the afternoon we attended the village Christmas parade. I had been able to ascertain the time and place when I sipped my coffee in the gift shop. I’d also been able to get info on the grocery store bus and the thrift shop sale and other important things I should know. The parade was really pretty good. There were local high school bands, a rescue squad, several modest floats, as well as various sections of the retirement village participating in the event. For instance, the hairdressers in the village shop dressed as little snowball pompoms and danced around. The housekeeping staff had a float. The maintenance men had a Rock ‘n Roll Christmas float, etc. etc. It was all quite clever and obviously they had spent time on their various presentations. Some of them had perhaps been used and improved upon from year to year. The costumes were also very elaborate. The parade was quite lengthy and there was a lot of candy and goodies given out. Unfortunately the temperature was really cold and the sky was a bit gloomy. At least it didn’t rain. My mom seemed to enjoy it a lot and that made my daughter and I have much more fun than we might have.

Immediately after the parade we went to dinner in the dining hall with My mom and her friends, Mary and Nan. Mary is mom’s wild friend… martini maker extraordinaire 😉 She used to be a nightclub singer and dancer. Nan is a sweet lady. I’m not sure what she used to do but she is nothing but sweet and lovable now. We had a great dinner and afterwards Nan told my daughter that she reminded her of her own daughter. She said that her daughter had died of leukemia when she was only twenty-five. I had no idea and felt pretty badly for her.

We finished off the evening with television and an early bedtime. Mom was pretty tired and so were we.