there's hope in that

michael w., my tiger twin from work, came to church yesterday. he came and sat behind me during sunday school. speaking of sunday school, leilani came to ask me something just before it started and she mentioned sunday school and i said with a start "it's sunday school??" she was mid sentence. her eyes darted to me and she put her warm hand on my back and laughed. "i know! i thought it was relief society at first too!" after being in 3 presidencies together we get each other at times.  anyways one time during class i put up my hand to say something and the teacher said she wanted to move on to the next part. michael leaned forward and said in my ear "i feel sorry for you." lol.  that's the least of my worries michael.

after class we chatted. he said he came because he wanted to feel peace. we talked a bit about his stressful situation and then jane came over to chat. she knew michael from english class. at another time i introduced him to norm and he also met the la barberas. he was telling them all about his life in the way that only michael can. we all have our people. he's one of my people. i have a soft spot for him.

i stayed and chatted with ev and melissa for quite a while and didn't get home until 1pm. 

spent the afternoon listening to an adagio playlist on spotify while in my happy place, cooking meditation. chopping cucumbers, slicing onions thin, chunks of feta, grating lemon zest..etc etc. that was for one of our fave salads. dad even loves it. then i roasted garlic and caramelized some onions and while having an online fight and all my sweet peace soured. by the time i brought everything downstairs i was feeling glum.

mom and i spread the dough and made the pizzas. mom's was a pesto feast. i think she might have put a whole small jar of pesto on her pizza. she is persistently pesto proud. dad's had turkey bacon, caramelized onion and bacon crumbles. mine had sundried tomatoes, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, round slices of goat cheese (thanks to h) and bacon crumbles. we all had bacon crumbles. 

the first two pizzas were done and we were sitting staring at them waiting for dad's worker to come and get him up. soon he came, and the 3rd pizza was done and we feasted. it was all good. but that salad. i love it so much.

today what is important to know is i dumped fish taco toppings down my shirt while eating lunch and had to leave them there trapped in my bra and garment top until i left the table and got to the back elevator where i shook it all out, hoping not to give the security guards a show on the elevator cam.

we had a publication meeting--productive. i did my board report early--impressive. we had a brain storm session about what to do about our supported education space to make it look like we HAVE supported education--so great. what a day.

after work i got out of the car and instead of going in, i went on a walk. because if i don't, i won't progress and i reallllllllllly want to progress. i saw the same blonde man with a dog and the same lady with the long grey puffy coat. mom knows her story from eavesdropping. i was still out of breath and my lower back still hurt. but i told myself that eventually it would be different. one day i'll feel strong and walking once around the park will feel easy. and there's hope in that.