Some Happy Places

It's possible that I'm learning how to take life's stressful, but relatively minor fiascos in stride--the same ones that used to send me into a panicky tailspin.  I was scheduled to teach to back-to-back water aerobics classes this morning, & I pressed snooze just enough times to make my morning uncomfortably rushed.  On these self-inflicted frazzled mornings, I invariably encounter something that will test my patience and rationality.  Umm....where the fuck are my car keys??

I charged from room to room checking & rechecking all the obvious places.  I was just about ready to call my boss to cancel classes & disappoint 40-60 darling elderly people when I decided to mentally retrace my steps from the night before.  Somehow I arrived at the strange & correct spot: laundry basket!

The anxious residue that usually sticks to me for some time after a harried morning washed off easily today. I can thank my brigade sweet &/or sassy old broads for helping me take a break from worrying about troubles, large and small.  During my second class, one lady was teasing another lady about having a crush on a man half her age who was swimming laps.  "You'd need your heart pill with that one, Mary."  Mary quipped back with exaggerated weariness in her voice, "I don't take a heart pill.  I'd need a motivation pill, though."  There's nothing quite like good-natured banter amongst elderly women about flagging sex drives, ya know?

After class I picked up subs & headed over to my folks' place to watch a movie--Seven Psychopaths. (LOVED IT!)  Mom & Dad shook their heads and marveled at its weirdness when they weren't laughing really hard.  Mom said, "True to form, Tracy introduces us to another weird thing."  To me, this is the ultimate compliment.  I love taking my parents to restaurants or plays or comedy shows that they wouldn't otherwise know about or go see.  That's a really lovely thing about hanging out with people from different generations.  I'm certainly glad that my dad exposed me to The Andy Griffith Show & Columbo when I was little, & that my mom had my brother & I color popsicle sticks with a marker so we could race them down the creek in south milwaukee from one bridge to another, like she and her siblings had done when she was a little girl, & that both of my parents had really great records for me to sift through as a kid.

As I write this I keep reaching for my glass of water on the end table, but then stopping myself because I remember just in time that I witnessed Millie drinking from it and dipping her little gray paw in there a few times.  I know we all know this, but goddamn it animals are just so happy-making.  While Pops was eating his sub sandwich today, Boomer came over and sat as close to him as possible, staring up at my dad with a dead-serious look on his face.  And then, without having been asked to shake, he began lifting & extending his paw over and over to my dad, hoping for a nice morsel.  Dad laughed & looked at his giant dog with great affection.  A bit later Boomer & Daisy leapt at the chance to take the short ride from street to garage to park the car for the night with my mom, & although this is pretty much an every day thing, my mom looked overjoyed to have their company for the 45 second trip.  ANIMALS!!!!

Tonight's final notable lovely-thing was Dion's reaction, or non-reaction, to my frantic, ravenous dinner--a can of organic refried beans & a piece of chocolate cake, eaten standing over the pan (there was no time for knives or plates, I tell ya!).  I still feel a bit of shame over eating like a very peculiar wild animal, but Dion didn't raise an eyebrow.  God bless him.