The Weeklies: February 17 - 24

The highlights of last week: my two French lessons, the delicate snow that fell mid-week, and meeting a new friend, Madeline. 

Vina is one of my favorite apps. It's the platonic version of Tinder. I've had it almost a year but never met anyone from it. I've done a lot of messaging, but everyone I had made plans to meet flaked. Last week I matched with a girl who lives not far from my new home. We made a plan to meet halfway between our places Wednesday night at a German bar called Black Forest. 

The Girl-talk was delightful. I drank a large wheat beer (and told her the story of how my father discovered wheat beers). I had a few bites of a soft pretzel but without dinner I grew tipsy fast. I walked home in the dark recounting every stupid thing I'd said. When I got to my place, the two resident sidewalk rats, Merrill and Sandy, were tussling underneath a car. I startled them and they startled me, and all parties ran in opposite directions. 

I wrote voraciously Thursday and Friday. For the first time in awhile I felt my ideas mesh in an agreeable way. 

Saturday I stayed in and complained about the usual ailments. I woke up in the middle of the night with a stiff neck and shoulder. There was so much pain radiating down my arm that it took twenty minutes to sit up. I took a BC Powder, rubbed my shoulder with IcyHot, and microwaved a buckwheat heating pad and applied it to my neck. Then, like a mummy, lay stiff on two pillows until I fell asleep again. I had a nightmare that a man with no face was circling the bed, "Wake up! Wake up!" he hissed. I woke up, sweating and afraid. I was up till the sun rose and somehow, drifted back to sleep again.

Sunday I was determined to overcome everything that had made me sad at the end of the week. I took a hot bath filled with a half a bag of epson salt. I sunk down into the water till it touched my chin and felt the pain easing in my neck and shoulder. I could even turn my head. I dressed, had breakfast, and took the train to Soho. I had a long list of things to buy and I hoped to have solo tea at the Boise Tea Parlor. (I've been dying to have a tea service but I've been without a companion for it.) 

Because there was a light rain, Soho was empty. I browsed and eavesdropped. (I heard one man tell another man, "Because you're never fully dressed without the spring 2019 collection.") When it came time to go to tea I walked in the opposite direction and took the train home. I was having a good day and felt like a solo meal would be pushing my luck. I had a glass of wine at home and watched "Shetland” instead.