Sunday May 10th, 2020

It’s Mother’s Day. D and I went to a local flower shop in downtown Burbank called Lavanda’s Flowers and Gifts for a bouquet for Miriam, D’s mother. The flowers were colorful: large sunflowers, sprays of baby’s breath, pink and red roses, purple daisies and fern leaves. For the price, we received a large amount of beautiful flowers. They were generous.

It took a while to spray down each of the flowers with the diluted bleach water, trim the stems then arrange them again. We had so many flowers, they did not fit into a single vase. I used a glass pitcher in addition to the nice glass flower vase I had already. The flowers came with a pretty ribbon and were wrapped in a flower print cloth. I set those aside in a dated, cardboard box so they could sit for three days, and used ribbons from our own “gift” supply box.

I save ribbons, bows, gift bags and keep wrapping paper, colored tissue, etc., together in a plastic bin. A couple fancy bows and blue ribbon from the box did the trick for the two flower arrangements I derived from our wonderful flower bundle. I stashed them in Miriam and Richard’s study to protect them from cats.

Miriam loved them, too. Richard, when he came down stairs, told me they’d noticed that the “flower bunny” had been by their study.

F and S cooked breakfast, but they burned some pita bread that they’d tried to cook in a pan. S tried to melt chocolate for his dessert in the microwave, and smoked up the kitchen. I took the smoking bowl out of the microwave with a set of tongs and set it outside. We opened windows and turned on the blower above the stove as well as the kitchen fan. I don’t know how we managed to avoid setting off the fire alarm. It smelled pretty bad for a while.

The thought was sweet, and they did eventually finish a nice meal of eggs, tomatoes cooked in oil, crunchy spinach fried with garlic in oil, with cheddar and fresh chopped cheese, served on toasted–but not burned–pita bread.

Sabrina drove over a carload of things that we will store for her. She will move back to Boston in about two weeks and live with her family during the pandemic. She and her current landlord and roommate are got getting along well now that they are both home together all the time. Hopefully this will give Sabrina a chance to save money. Since we are all working from home and may be for a while, it makes no difference whether she works from Los Angeles or Boston. It was good to see her. I definitely miss seeing her every day.

Our Religious School parent group had a meeting over Zoom with the Rabbi. One of the teachers joined us, too. Our Temple received a grant, and the school will continue into the summer for the next six weeks, giving us a chance to make up for lost time. It’s also good for the kids to have something to do, given many summer programs for children will not be available this year.

D also bought tickets for us to watch a comedy program hosted by Flapper’s over Zoom. Laurie Kilmartin was the headliner, but all of the comics were very funny. It was fun.

F also cooked chicken for dinner, and S make homemade peanut butter cups. He did manage to melt some dark chocolate, poured it into cupcake cups, then added his peanut butter mixture then covered that with dark chocolate. Those were really tasty. F baked a chocolate cake, too.

I did do a ten minute write yesterday but didn’t enter it here. I’ll have to do that soon. It’s late now.

Author: an Ichi Kyu

I study Kyokushin karate at a dojo in Burbank. I don't yet have permission to say more than this about my dojo. I am also a mother of two, both of whom have studied Kyokushin karate a year longer than I. They are instructors! My husband created the art posted on this site. I have his permission to use it, but he expressly asked me not to credit him as the artist. He's moved on to other styles, and doesn't particularly want a public association with this piece. I love this artwork, personally. And me? I work full time as a cloth and hair simulation artist, as well as a python coder, in the visual effects industry. I have roughly sixteen years experience in film and about four in television. I am 50; I suppose my decision to attempt the black belt test, along with creating this blog, represents my mid-life crisis. Wish me luck!