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Monday, Monday -- The Mamas and the Papas, me & mom

Several days of the week, my mom and I go in her car and take care of errands. We did her list this Monday. Between 2:00 and 3:00 she picked me up in her car. She drove to our post office boxes (where we both get mail, in addition to our homes--has to do with being a single female in the business of living in the city. After that, she drove across the parking lot to the alteration place, which was closed because it was Monday. Then she drove katty-korner across the intersection, and left her dry cleaning. Neither of has a lot of dry cleanable clothes, or we try not to. Some coats and comforters have to go. I lost my opportunity to drop off my cleaning by not knowing where all we were going. It's no big deal, just something to work on.

Sometimes, from being bipolar, things start to slip away. Time passes and I don't notice. Opportunities pass, or I realize they passed three weeks ago, and I need to make a new plan. What that means is that combining our errands will help me to stay on top of chores that need to be done. If I can take care of my "chores" when she takes care of hers, it'll help train me into a system. It would be nice to have a system before she passes on, and I find myself not realizing which day it is. She got a steroid shot for her rotater cuff tear, in her shoulder, but it's not fixed things yet. Having pain really cuts down on what you can do for yourself. Mom and I have been helping each other out the last seven years, particularly.

I'm thinking now that I want my first book to be about bipolar disorder and me. I wrote a spurt of ideas, one sitting, just remembering the months when I was first diagnosed as bipolar. My life is very different from them. I am extremely fortune that symptoms of manic-depression do not fill my life--to the exclusion of being able to do any chores, or anything else. It's in the "Bipolar" folder, and called something like "Gone ballistic when diagnosed!" I should put a bitem, but don't know the number. Try to fix it later.

It would be scarey to deal with the issues I would have to rethink, and relive, in order to write about my experiences. Some things are better not remembered. There was REAL bad stuff. Some of it was ten years ago now. That's when I wasn't bipolar enough to be able to get a chek from the government for disability. I was told, if you can't keep a job taking tickets in the theatre, then you can qualify for government aid.

But I didn't want to take tickets in a theatre for a living. Last night I left a message at Barbizon Modeling, in Dallas, who are seeking a person as a teacher. I dressed the part today, thinking what it might feel like to teach acting or modling classes at a private school. I know the kids would be paying big bucks for their education. Meant to call Barbizon back before they closed, but time got away from me.

Mom drove to the bank, and the Tom Thumb grocery store, then to Target, then to the cafeteria for an early dinner at 5:00. She always eats early, I usually eat late. But how could I pass up a serving of beef liver and onions, with gravy and ketchup. Excellent source of iron every month or so. Not my favorite taste, so I put gravy, and ketchup. Does everyone else feel like using ketchup is an adolescent thing to do?

My dogs were waiting at the gate when Mom pulled in to my driveway, just after 5:00. We have another outing planned tomorrow. I broke the side view mirror on the car, backing out of the new gate, and an outside mirror, driver's side, is not there. That's a priority for tomorrow, and mom want to go to the beauty salon and have her hair done, and I want to buy "I Walk the Line", the movie about Johnny Cash with Joaquien Phoenix, is out to buy or rent tomorrow. Some stores have a dvd + cd sale, with several Johnny Cash CDs to select from.

If the weather stays warm and sunny, I need to cut down the frozen cannas leaves that are left on the side garden at the old house. Not many lookers at the old house, but the weather's been poor. If the sun comes out, I'll be ready to dig in some dirt. I find God in my garden.