Giggles

It would be so nice if every visit with my mother was like today.

When I arrived, she was in bed.  I took advantage of that fact to sneak in the new package of Depends that I brought so I didn't have to answer her questions.  She talked with me from bed, but didn't seem in the least interested in getting up.  Then, suddenly, she realized I was there and sat up, wondering how long I'd been there.

She finally got up and sat in her chair and told me how beautiful I was.  Then, for the next hour she was just .... silly.  Everything she said, whether it made sense or not, made her laugh.  At one point she kind of shook her head and said "Do you know what I was just thinking?"

Then she explained that she had this overwhelming desire to pick me up and just hold me.  I laughed and told her that I didn't think she could pick me up, and she realized that, but her need to put her arms around me and hold me was so strong that I got up and hugged her.

It's nice that lately she recognizes Fred in photos all the time, but sad that she always talks about how she wishes he could be with her.  Part of the time she knew he was dead, other times she just thought was was "somewhere else" and wondered if he would ever come back.

It was interesting to try to follow her thought processes, which seemed to be bouncing all over the place, but she was always happy, reaffirmed that she loves life and wants to go on living.  I did not leave in my usual state of depression.

We were going to a show in the evening, and I have gotten into the habit of cooking something "easy" (i.e., a frozen dinner) on those night, so I went off to Trader Joe's to check out their frozen choices.

There was a guy with a violin outside the front door playing a gypsy tune with a lively recorded accompaniment that was just terrific, so terrific, in fact, that after I got my groceries, I drove past him and gave him a dollar. 

The actual shopping took longer than usual because I ran into our friend Clyde, whose son was in Lawsuit and whom we have known through various theater things in town.  He and his wife had just been to San Francisco to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, which he raved about.  He liked it better than Hamilton.  I had heard of the show and it seems to me that Jeri recommended it to me too.  Clyde said that if we go to see it I must read the book first so I would understand from the start what was going on.

I was so intrigued, I came home and immediately got the book from Amazon, and then realized that the show is closing soon and we probably won't have a chance to see it anyway--but I still want to finish the book.

The show we saw last night was On the Town, which, on top of Wonderful Town earlier this week leaves me craving a slice of New York pizza.  Both are by the team of Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein, and both are paens to New York, the latter a bit better than the former.