va-va-vivitty

everything smells like covid. don't ask me how. it just does. it's this thing that happens when i'm getting better. everything smells like the disease. including pee. and sweat. EVERYTHING. i just had a long and a very hot shower. it was loverly. why is water the best thing that exists?

today was a long day for a covid convalescent like moi. but it was a good day. sarah and i resurrected our tradition of full all day whirl-whind christmas shops. we were not sure if we should go ahead with our plan but i was starting to feel better on friday--the day i left the den of disease, so we decided to go head with our plans.

she came on the stormy sunday evening and i picked her up at the ferry. at mom and dad's she gave my haiw a refweshing--a tiny tim trim and a 'lightening of the layer load' if you will. instant fluff out occurred and i concurred. mom did not want any of the tiny curls for beads and moustaches for her pinecone carolers. "we haven't had any bearded carolers" she said. well that's obviously a mistake!

dad was so happy to see sarah and kept calling her over to talk to him.

mom was making dried flower bookmarks for martha's kids because martha is going to visit for paker's homecoming. so we joined in the crafting fun. we were using cardboard cut outs of kleenex boxes that mom had gathered. there were various patterns. i used a succulent pattern and a river rock pattern. sarah used a peacock pattern and went all out glorious deluxe with sparkles and sequins. "i want this to be for michelle," she said tenderly. well hers blew ours out of the water but that's to be expected. we collaborated on one for ethan and made a series of moustaches out of leaves for him. mom gave it a cool reception.

at some point during the crafting aunty heather called and sarah and i were amused by the sisters' conversation. aunty heather's 'mmhms.' and 'ohhs' ...and then she told the story about how her daughter-in-law kathy, brought all her church books to church to give away, unbeknowst to heather and she saw them there, and most of them were gone and she was looking for something to take them home in and reached into a garbage can and grabbed something furry warm and wriggly. a mouse! then they started exchanging gross stories. mom told about the nest of baby mice in her fabric cupboard and aunty heather told about the time she used some old paprika in her pot of spaghetti just as her in-laws were about to come over and it was all spiders! so she just stirred them in and cooked them and ate them!!!

anyway. i showed sarah my solarium and she gave me some good decorating advice. then we came down and made her bed and sat on mom's bed. that's when we noticed one of my curls tufted on mom's peanut pillow and thought it was a happy accident, as bob ross would say, but mom didn't think so.

i made some chia seed pudding for our breakfast, just before going to sleep. we had a plan. a plan of a full day of shopping.

next morning we were a little slow to rise, but were preeetty much on schedule. i allowed sarah to sit at my one woman table, but she had to put her bowl on top of a pile of books. we had mandarins and a plum each. the plums are so good! the chia seed pudding was top notch. as well.

so sarah gave mom and pops a squeeze and we were on our way. the mall didn't open until 10 so we tacked on an hour by going to winners first. winners is a good place to start a christmas shopping escapade. we were full of vim and vigour and sarah tried on 3 pairs of party pants. the cute pair that had potential had a broken zipper which we both felt was inappropriate. but the blue velvet ones slapped. haha. 

i gathered armfuls of christmas wrapping implements without a shred of guilt.

we finished at winners just as the mall was opening. but first a detour to the toy section where i said i would get kimme's daughter a mermaid tail blanket and doll but the other daughter got nothing. then the cart did me dirty so i left it where it was and walked out in a weird way, shimmying past the gates. left a bad taste in my mouth.

we drove to the center area of the huuuuuge mall that is tsawwassen mills and parked in the lot that was by the giant artsy glowy thing of many colours. "let's take a video of you leaping past that," i said to sarah and she was game. eventually this involved me laying on the cold cold ground but it was worth it. a lady walking by said she didn't know whether i was hurt or not but now she saw that i was just a good person. we didn't know what that meant but that didn't stop us from repeating it throughout the day.

we started out with so much energy. dancing through h&m and thinking we should have videos of us at all times. but predictably we fizzled. we had poke bowls for lunch. we each got the crispy miso chicken bowl. that didn't rejuvenate us like we hoped so we got purdy's dipped ice cream bars and that did the trick. still we transitioned from party sparklers to slugs and there was nothing we could do about it. speaking of slugs i bought myself a slug print. as you do. it says "slug life" and it has a woman with a slug on her face. totally me. many a cutesy japanese store drew us in. and in the end it was urban outfitters, almost the very last store where we hit the jackpot for sarah's boys. 

and we were shells of our former selves. catch the 7 ferry because we have stamina? no. catch the 3 because we know when we've been beat.

and that was the fun sarah day. and tomorrow i'm going to TO. so goodnight.