Just Lauren

I surprised Kaitlin at her home on Thursday. She does so much and is so thoughtful and loving to others that I wanted to do something nice for her. I also wanted to see her because I love her so it wasn’t 100% selfless but I’ll take what I can get. Showing people that I care about them does not come naturally to me, like it does for Kaitlin. I forget birthdays, I don’t buy random gifts, I don’t call to say hello. I’ve gotten better since I separated from Gene and learned how to express my feelings more, but it’s still difficult sometimes. But difficult doesn’t mean impossible or not worth a try. So I try! I had communicated with Kevin beforehand to make sure it was a good idea and got the go ahead from him so after work I drove over and surprised her! She had no clue and it was great. I made dinner with Kevin’s help and we sat around for a bit and visited. It was lovely. I am truly privileged to have the family I have.

On Friday, Elisabeth and I got pizza from City, O’ City, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant near downtown. I ate there years ago and did not have a good experience so I was very judgy with trying them again. I am happy to report that their pizza is delicious (if not a bit spicy but I’ll give them that, my tolerance is basically zero these days). Cashew ricotta “cheese” is what really made it and now I’m thinking maybe I should have made dinner before I write this because my mouth is watering thinking about it. Point is, the restaurant changed my opinion of them and that was a pleasant moment. I’m glad I gave them another shot.

Today I visited Kaitlin and the fam again as my parents were over there too. My dad, Kaitlin, and I went to Jared’s Nursery so Kaitlin could look for peonies and roses. And so I could look for plants too, who am I kidding? I had just started solidifying my own plant plans since I intend to go to Nick’s Garden Center tomorrow so I figured I could see what Jared’s had and maybe pick up a few things. Turns out they had hostas and columbines so I snatched those up right quick and am now smiling as I look at the hostas sitting on my table. I finally have hostas! I also finally went to a plant nursery for the first time since The Weirds happened (it’s the term I use now for the new way of the world since covid. I learned it from Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon’s Staying In podcast and love the term). I wore my mask the entire time and would say around 85% of the people there were also wearing masks. There were definitely more people there than I would have liked and social distancing wasn’t always an option but for the most part we stayed away from others.

I will run to Nick’s tomorrow to pick up soil and maybe some more house plants and then let the planting begin! It’s time to green up this place!