It’s been over a week since I got back from my hiking trip and I haven’t been doing a whole lot. I felt like I was starting to come down with something before the trip, mainly a sore throat and I managed to keep it at bay. But once I got back and my body knew I could take it easy, it was a different story. I ended up going for a hike on Sunday, the day after I returned, but it was only about four and a half miles with a gradual elevation gain, not too steep. It was a lovely hike in the Indian Tree Open Space with my friend Heather. At the start of the trail it was very windy and cold. But soon, we warmed up as we meandered up the switchbacks and enjoyed beautiful views of Stanford Lake. I love going hiking with Heather and talking about what’s going on in our lives. She is in a really good space at work right now, having taken a few months off to reassess has allowed her to move into a better place. She is really thinking about her priorities at work and at home and realizing she has to be involved in everything. It is heartening and inspiring to see someone making those kind of positive changes and feeling like she can have a whole life outside of work and still do work she enjoys.
After that hike, I’ve been taking it pretty easy physically, getting out for walks every day, but I’m not pushing myself too hard because my body has been very tired. No other symptoms, just needing to rest. One of my mom’s nephews, his wife, her sister and brother in law came over for dinner one night. They had been to Las Vegas a son’s birthday and were heading to Portland, so they decided to make a stop in the Bay Area, as it was their first trip to California. They did a day trip to Yosemite, and spent that day at Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, doing all the tourist stuff. Since we only got back to Kentucky a few times when I was young, I was probably less than 10 the last time I saw my cousin, Danny, who is about 15 years older than I am. I always love hearing moms remembrances when she’s around family. I get to learn more about her siblings and parents and her life when she was young. It was a really nice evening.
Within a couple days the weather went from cool and windy to warm to VERY hot, with a high of 99 in Concord on Friday. I headed to the East Bay to look after Winston as Emmy and her boyfriend were away at his grandmother‘s cabin for the weekend. I worked for a while in the afternoon, but the hot weather combined with not feeling 100% meant I took it easy that evening. I had a nice long video chat with Annemarie and caught up on a series on Netflix I hadn’t watched for a while. I was up early on Saturday for a final walk with Michele and Julie before Michele headed back to Texas. It was so good to get out on our usual walking path in Concord – the place that Michele and I met each other almost 25 years ago as we were training for the Avon 3 day walk. I can’t believe it’s been that long!We were on the trail before 7:30 (which is definitely on the late side for us!) and were amazed by how many other people were walking and biking at that time. It was much busier than the last time we were on that trail, we put it down to the hot weather and everyone wanting to get out early on that before things warmed up again. It was still over 75° by the time we got back to our cars at 9:30. I had to take a nap before taking Winston out on a constitutional and getting some work done.
In the early evening I met up with my friend Nicole, who I’ve known since kindergarten, at the Lafayette Reservoir. Luckily, it was a little cooler and windier there! We hadn’t seen each other in almost three years, in the past we usually were able to get together once or twice a year for a walk and catch up. But between everything happening in both our lives, this is the first opportunity we had. It’s so wonderful to have a friend who has known me and my family for so long, we just easily fall back into chatting about our kids and other things in our lives. She has been on a roller coast in the last year with different things happening in her son’s lives. Luckily, it looks like the path is smoothing out now. I remember when my kids were young, looking forward to the day when they didn’t need quite so much, thinking that parenting would get easier. And while those days have come, I find that only half of that equation is true. While my kids don’t need me as much on a daily basis, in a tangible, physical way, parenting is not any easier. In fact, sometimes it’s harder because you can feel so helpless. Often it feels like there’s so little you can do when you know your kids are having a hard time. You can listen. You might be able to help in a few ways, but it’s so different from when they were younger and you could intervene on their behalf or just hold them. Nicole and I talked about those challenges of parenting adult children when they are dealing with challenges. At times you can feel sidelined like it you are only a very interested bystander, though one who loves the person very much.
All of my conversations with Kieran in the last week or so have been asking for name and address information for their wedding invitations. I forgot about all the admin that goes along with wedding planning. I need to find a mother of the bride dress. Clothes shopping is not high on my list of things I like to do, but maybe I could find a dress when I’m in Sweden. It would be cool to wear something I bought from the country of half my heritage!
Now I’m home for a couple of days with Mom. Her landline doesn’t seem to be working, so I need to figure that out. I hope with a couple more day to just lay low I’ll get some more energy.