Steph J.
7:13AM, Somehow I manage to sneak out of my bedroom without my two dogs, Pollen and Roe trailing behind, ready for breakfast. Instead of going downstairs, I head to the front room of my house and climb onto the roof where our beehive is kept. The bees aren't awake yet and the sunrise is so beautiful off of Lancaster, it's pleasantly chilly.
Usually I'd be up and going by now getting ready to head to my kindergarten classroom but last week I decided to take some much needed time off from work. I thought my "A Year in Philly" entry would be full of cute quotes from 5-year-olds but alas, it's getting started in a different way. Instead of heading into school, I've crafted "Steph School" for myself which is my triple-earth-sign attempts tp engage in purpose and structure while I contemplate my ~lifes path~. I write a bit each day, go for a long walk, call some people, do something creative, eat some good meals, essentially I just exist... without a job for a bit. Imagine!
7:40AM, The bees are starting to wake up, I notice I'm only wearing a long Sixer's t-shirt so I make sure to carefully slink back in through the window without mooning any of my neighbors. I go downstairs to feed the dogs and text my family about the latest regarding Tanner's dads hospital stay. "He's okay, they are running some more tests and are probably going to keep him for a few more days. The hospital is really nice, everyone is really nice there."
8:49AM, Had a moment where I missed being in the classroom but that was quickly dissuaded when I saw a video of two teachers using a counter to track how many times their students interrupted them. I'm not a bad teacher, I'm just tired. Our school district is really broken, more to say about that but maybe not here, who knows who reads this! Anemone texts asking if I wanted to have dinner at Anna's with her, Max and Leese on Friday, I say yes even though Friday feels so far away right now.
9:15AM, Get dressed to take Pollen to the renegade dog park on 48th and Chester. Kiss Tanner goodbye. Stop at Satellite for a hot coffee, and then get involved in a conversation with a dog named Professor's, owner about this place in Manayunk where you pay $10 to have your dog be chaperoned while you can order drinks and food and work on your laptop. She seems really excited about it and pauses our conversation to call her dad and ask him to go with her later today.
10:50AM, Back at home trying to help Tanner organize things for their dad. We reinstate AAA to have the car towed to a mechanic on 95, we called his apartment management company to see about ending his lease early, all the practical things seem easy and fixable.
11:50AM, I go over to Pine St. to sit and wait for the towing company and get the most depressing order of Pho Saigon pad thai I've ever had. I still eat the entire thing because it's $18 and waste not, want not, ya know. I sit on the disk chair on the porch of 4333 Pine, our old apartment building where our friends still all live and congregate every Sunday evening for "Sunday Dinner", a tradition we started a couple years ago and has remained consistent. I see my old next store neighbors and carefully avoid bringing up the fact that I'm not in school today. They ask if Tanner and I would be interested in joining their Quizzo team at Clarkville on Monday nights. "We aren't very good, but it's really fun." I consider it, making plans feels like something I'm not great at lately.
1:23PM, Tanner links up with me and we still wait for AAA to come, the route estimator or whatever they share for when they will get the car keeps extending so we're just sitting in our truck catching up on their hospital visit. We see T, whistle at them, they don't hear us so we send a photo of them walking away, they respond "Wait" and spin around to come say hi and catch up. I had tentative plans to go see my Grandmother in her assisted living facility in Bensalem for an early dinner, so I swap out wait for AAA with Tanner and start my drive north.
2:30PM, I walk into Juniper where my 86 year-old yenta of grandmother, Mitzi, lives. She moved there a little over a year ago and already dons a pin that states her name with an "Ambassador" title underneath. Ambassador means, the facility has sought her out to give prospective residents the low down on the facility, in exchange, she receives free meals. In her mind, a great deal. To know Mitzi is to love Mitzi, she's one of a kind. Today she's in the "cafe" playing Rummikub with three other 80-something year olds. I've never played Rummikub but I catch on relatively quickly and am extremely impressed when I realize how much skill you need to have to win the game. We walk back up to her apartment, passing by another table of older folks playing Uno with a man in, I don't know, his 60's? The man tells my grandmother that the women are all cheating and she quips back, "You're one guy with 5 women around you -- big whoop!" and kind of saunters away. I wonder how many times a day she has that type of interaction and mutter a sort of "Nice to meet you" even though I haven't been formally introduced and my Grandmother just like kinda roasted that guy? We get to her apartment so that I can help make her bed, something she has me do every time I'm there. She remarks on how she isn't walking as well with this new walker that should help her stand more upright but doesn't.
3:30PM, I get a text from my step-mom, Lisa and my dad, Steve that we're all going to have dinner because Gram has been complaining about the quality of food going to shit at Juniper, we'll meet at Oishi in Newtown at 4:30PM, perfect, I think, as to not throw off her normal dinner hour. Gram and I talk for a bit. I tell her about my work stuff, Tanner's dad, she tells me about how Milt passed away, how that was the 4th friend of hers in this group of five of them who's died, just leaving her as the one who remains. She says something about how when people die now it's kind of just a shrug, like yeah, duh. I ask her if she thinks she's desentized to it and she says no, but she doesn't get as sad as she used to. She tells me for the second time this visit that she loves me.
4:10PM, I pull my truck around and Gram has me throw her walker, "Bessie" in the back while making a joke to a resident who is sitting outside about taking a video of "this old lady getting up into this truck", the lady responds, "better you than me, Mitzi!" I grew up in Bucks County but forget how to get to certain places without using Google Maps, fortunately, my grandmother is sharp as a tack and gets us to Newtown effortlessly. She talks about how she loves Bobby and Luke's boyfriend, Omar, how she is nervous about Aunt Robin's house in Florida because of Hurricane Milton, she laughs a bit about the connection between her friend passing away and the name of the hurricane. She gets a text from Olivia, my cousin. Her and my dad both do voice to text instead of typing, they both mummer into their phones which I and everyone around them kind of pokes fun at. I laugh while Gram goes, "In the car with Stephanie, I love you." She's confused when Olivia doesn't text back immediately.
5:30PM, By this time we've already finished dinner, my parents are leaving later this week to go to Hilton Head for their birthdays, they are a day apart. My sisters and I got them a sunset dinner cruise which might not be a great gift on account of the category 5 hurricane that's coming through but I guess we'll see.
6:40PM, I drive Gram home and help her get to bingo which starts at 7PM. She tries to convince me to stay and shares that the "winner gets dimes!" but I tell her that I should get back to Tanner and hear about any updates with their dad.
7:40PM, I drive home in awe of the sunset and listen to Kids Corner on XPN. I grew up listening to Kathy O'Connell and am devastated to hear they've taken Kids Corner from the historical five nights a week to just playing on Mondays and Tuesdays. Maybe that will be my career change, kids radio? Kathy has to retire at some point. It would be a shame for children's public radio to just fizzle out entirely here in Philadelphia. I pull up to my house, come inside to two very excited dogs and my partner. Drink a seltzer, hand them my leftovers and get into bed to read before falling asleep.
@star__virgo
