Today I Love Not Knowing...Slice of Life 26 of 31

I expect either Barney or Andy to walk in any minute.

Alright now, remember when I told you I get to play my game my way?  Okay, I know that I loved "not knowing" already back in February, but that's all I can boil it down to today.  I didn't know when I started my day out this morning in this little nook of nostalgia what a joy it would be to me.  This is Henry's Restaurant, on the west side of West Jefferson, Ohio.  They don't have their own website that I could find, but here are some nice reviews.  I started my day at Henry's with a good, good, good friend.  The kind of friend who shows up just when you need her to and has all of the right words right when you need them.  

See the $.99 over J's shoulder?  You really can get bfast for $.99!

    I had set today aside as the day to get my Christmas letter done.  Yes, I know it is March.  Last year, I had a very busy (busier than normal) holiday season and didn't get my annual (21 years this year) Christmas letter out on time.  I for sure didn't want to do a double issue (did that twice...worse than childbirth!) so I just put it off a little more and a little more until I finally got it complete just in time for Easter!  The timing was actually wonderful.  Instead of sending it in time for Jesus' birth, I was getting it out there in time for the more important aspect of his life...his resurrection!  And because folks weren't bogged down by their own holiday hustles, more people commented and replied to it than ever before.  So....this year I just planned on waiting and figured as long as I had it out before the 4th of July, I'd be in business!

      Well, I couldn't have picked a better way to start a totally writing day!  Jaci and I enjoyed our breakfast (too bad I didn't order pie...Henry's is FAMOUS for their pies!) and had a great time catching up.  She gave me a good dose of mama advice and kind blog words that I really needed to hear.  Heck, she gave me banana bread to take home with me!  It just doesn't get better than that!  But it did.

     As luck would have it, our nest has recently re-filled and our son is living with us again for awhile as he continues his college.  His morning class got cancelled today and we had just the nicest time hanging out, listening to his very eclectic collection of music on his laptop, and discussing the merits of rinsing vs not rinsing when loading the dishwasher.  He had us both in absolute tears over this song that he was remembering from his younger boy days.  We talked about nostalgia, about growing up, about how the grass in all of our photos on the kitchen wall looks so much greener than in real life.  We talked about life in general.  We laughed.  He showed me Calvin and Hobbes' cartoons on his laptop.  We talked.  We talked.  And we talked.

     And when I finally did make it to the computer to start on my Christmas letter, it just rolled right out and I made it all the way to May in just a few hours!  (Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who recounts the year month by month.)  This is very a laborious process, so to make it to May in a few hours is quite the accomplishment.

     Later in the day I went a-blogging and found this wonderful quote from a blog mentor of mine, Bossy Betty .  (I wonder if she knows she is my mentor?)

 

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

                                                               Delicious Ambiguity.

--Gilda Radner

   So...yeah, a pretty ambiguous day and a very ambiguous slice, but some days you just don't know.  And you have to do just what Gilda says and take the moment and make the best of it.  Some days it's good not to know.