What’s on the iPod: Missy by The Airborne Toxic Event
Monday’s hitting hard. Sometime on Thursday, I felt it coming — scratchy throat, stuffiness building. Friday, it showed up. Sick. Damn. It put a huge damper on my productivity, but I pushed through with the help of the right medicines. Thank goodness I’m married to a scientist.
Illness also put a damper on the weekend. The plan was to see The Airborne Toxic Event at a free concert in the city, then head over to the Mann Center to see The Avett Brothers. One out of two isn’t bad — the first concert was fantastic. I’m sure the second one was, too. I didn’t get there. However, I will point out it wasn’t because I was feeling poorly. It was because he was still somewhat sick (my source of the flu), and he thought I’d regret the time spent outside in the night air. Not sorry I agreed with him.
Yesterday you’d think I’d spend the time recuperating. Right. Daughter and her fiance talked me into a trip to Ikea, which is like a magnet for me.Such fun, neat stuff there! How could I resist? I didn’t. My husband was on a botany walk that I bowed out of, and good thing I did. It was a seven-hour event. Not that they walked much — it was more of take-a-step-and-stop kind of botany. I would have lost my mind. He said later it would not have appealed to me. He’s right, and that’s why going on his birding trips ended a while ago. I want to walk outside, not crane my neck and get tired from standing and staring. Love birding, but not the organized version of it.
I got some reading in after Ikea. I’m reading an old book — Robert Falconer by George MacDonald. It’s interesting to read something in old Scots dialect. I’ve found the conversations in the book are best “heard” by reading them aloud. And I’m getting the hang of some of the words and phrases. Not that I’ll ever use it in my life, but it’s nice to see a language revived, even for a few hundred pages.
Didn’t get any writing of my own done this weekend. I was just too out of sorts. Too much medicine and too little sleep might have made for an interesting session, but I suspect it would have been scrapped later. Best to just allow myself to rest.
We’re sorting through a lot of boxes these days. Things from his mother’s estate are arriving this week, and we just put away about 15 boxes full last week. She had 92 years of treasures and accumulation, and it took more than just her three boys to find homes for it all. Cousins and grandchildren, and even my daughter and my mom got a few things. In fact, there’s still more that went unclaimed. His brother intends to call Goodwill once everything is shipped to the appropriate relative.
It could be a sad legacy to see someone’s life packed up in boxes, but this was no ordinary life. Margaret Cross Bean — Possum to anyone who knew her — was a well-read, well-traveled person who attracted people to her like Velcro. She was interesting, but more interested in you, which made her an exceptional person to be around. And she shopped! She had a love of clothes and Barney’s. Until Barney’s opened in Scottsdale, she was a regular at Neiman Marcus, where they knew her by name. I wouldn’t say she bought clothes to wear them necessarily, but for the art of them. And she loved art.
She was an accomplished artist, you see, and we now possess more of her paintings than we have walls for. So we’ll be rotating them regularly. She also loved books. Except for the kitchen, every one of her nine rooms in the house had walls of books. It was like walking into a well-planned library. The very first shipment we received three weeks ago was 18 boxes of just books. His brother took to telling people to “order them by the yard.” So now we need to move on more book shelves. A happy dilemma, in my opinion.
This weekend will be her memorial service in Boston. We’ll meet at the Friends Meeting House and celebrate this incredible person whom we were fortunate to have around for so long.
Until then, work calls. I have a busy Monday, but I hope to have things simmer down a bit tomorrow so I can really get going on an article I have due in a few weeks. I want to get it sorted and get back to the larger project, which is due the end of next month. I’m almost done with it all, and I want to make sure it’s done without rushing.
How was your weekend? What are you up to this week?
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