6 More Wakeups

Six more wakeups and I’ll be walking down the aisle. I am so excited!

There is still so much left to do but mostly it’s just a bunch of little stuff. The only ‘big’ thing left is picking up the marriage license which we will do on Thursday.

I’ve been spending most of my time preparing for the wedding and I almost forgot that we’ll have guests with us for the week after. One of the purposes of this visit (besides the wedding) is to show my mom how beautiful this place is so she will be more inclined to move out here with us when she’s ready to retire.

I’ve looked up a few of the things that I’ve wanted to see but haven’t yet had a chance. I can’t take the whole week off if I want to also take a week in June to go back to Colorado, so I’ve selected a couple of nearby drives and locations that I think will highlight the essence of this place.

I hope she loves it here as much as I do.

I may have found another way to integrate further into this community. I read in this week’s paper about an ESL teacher and the programs she’s been involved in here. I looked her up on FB and found we have some mutual friends, so I reached out to volunteer to do conversation practice if she needed help, letting her know I was a certified TEFL teacher.

It would be fun to tutor again. I enjoyed my time working at the immigrant center in Denver before the pandemic shut it down. Apparently, there has been an influx of migrants to the area; no doubt to the consternation of some of the locals. I wonder if they are from the fallout in Florida or maybe Texas.

Either way, I know that the area has gotten some new sources of authentic food and goodies. I need to reach out and see if my local ‘contact’ has any alfajores I can buy for Mom’s visit.

My second local book club meeting is this week and I’m a little nervous. The book we selected was “The Golden Doves” by Martha Hall Kelly. It was one I had recommended though I hadn’t read it yet.

My criteria for picking it were the author was from Tennessee, it had multiple free copies available on Libby and Kindle Unlimited, and it did not have LGBTQ content listed in any of the descriptive indicators or the book reviews. The fact that it is a spy thriller with Nazi hunters and was based on true events was cool too.

Like many events in history, there were queers in this story, which would normally delight me.  However, I deliberately tried to make sure that my first recommendation would not include anything that could be controversial.  I am determined to be my true self, but I don’t want to be accused of “shoving my lifestyle down their throats”.  

I can’t decide if I need to apologize or just let it ride and deal with it if someone complains. Okay, that’s not true…I have decided that I have to just let it go, though I may pull the librarian aside and let her know I didn’t know about the queer content when I recommended it.

To judge this book based on that small bit of queerness would be to do it a great disservice. It was well written, the characters were believable, and the intensity of the intrigue continued to build throughout the novel.

The author does not shy away from the atrocities of the war but the search for, and the unmasking of the criminal, Dr. Snow, was the main focus. I only guessed who it was just a few scenes before the author’s revelation.

This was book 30 of my quest to 100.

Books 29 and 31 were the next two Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gillman: “Mrs. Pollifax in the China Station” and “Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha”. Once again they were in audiobook form narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt and just as delightful as their predecessors.

There will not be a blog next week. I’ll be way too busy living in each moment…or at least trying to. It is my goal to savor every moment of this incredible time in our lives.

I’ll be back after Mom heads home. Take care, my friends.