Saturday, July 10

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

A nice sunny day. Hot again, but not unbearable.

We went to the city today, to visit with my sweetie's cousin and her partner.

What's nice, is for once we made specific plans to go to the city a full day in advance, not a vague spontaneous plan that becomes a plan when we get up and leaves me with an hour to get ready. That meant I could actually PLAN to wear something nice, and have my toes painted, and the car clean, and so on. Most of the time I don't get the benefit of knowing what we're doing with enough time to dress up a little. My wardrobe at home is literally shitty shirts and sweatpants because I'm always working at home, so I like having the chance to wear some of my nice clothes, but that also means having shaved legs and having an outfit planned with the right shoes and so on, so I hate having no time to prepare.

I was feeling "introverted" about meeting his cousin for the first time in ten years or more, and her partner for the first time, because she is now an adult, and both of them are medical professionals. She is an RN and he is completing his residency to be a cardiac surgeon. I am for lack of a better title, a homemaker/hobby farmer and I wasn't sure if they would find me a little boring.

We ended up having a very good visit. I did well with the social graces and asked them lots about their work and experiences. His cousin has been working with the WHO in the Central African Republic and only came back to Canada because of Covid (lucky to get back into Canada). She had some very interesting views on privilege and entitlement. She's certainly a very down to earth person, and yes she's ambitious and professional, but not in a scary way. Her partner (I'm not sure if they are engaged or anything) is also very nice, and doesn't seem snobbish though he likely comes from a reasonably wealthy background.

We made a quick tour into a fun "junk" shop that I've been meaning to visit.

Then we went to our favorite tea shop, that we haven't been to in over a year, and stocked up on some of our favorites. I got a bit of a tea that I haven't tried yet.

Then we went to the same art walk that we went to last visit, but there were a lot more artists there this time. I ended up buying a print from one artist. I'd seen her art displayed somewhere else and it made an impression on me.

Then we went for supper at our favorite vegan place. We haven't sat down inside to eat there in quite a while. I'm very glad it survived. They seemed to enjoy it too.

We were kind of giving them a tour of the area they've moved to (they just got here, so that her partner could do his residency). They don't have a car, so we showed them potential destinations.

Then we went grocery shopping, and we took them too since they don't have a vehicle.

It was weird not to wear masks, and we hugged. I really hope we aren't being too free with our lifting of restrictions, though the numbers in Alberta are down.

We dropped them off at their apartment, and then my sweetie and I went to our bookstore.

Overall, it was a nice day. I was happy with what I wore, we got to do some nice things, and I enjoyed our visit.