Thursday, December 2, 2021

Thursday, December 2, 2021 

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2008. Mattie was home recovering from surgery and that evening we met his cousins and some of his preschool buddies to go to the National Zoo's light show. Mattie's preschool was one of a kind and it was through his school that I met many of my extraordinary friends. Friends who stand behind the Foundation and are committed to its success. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 48,823,110
• Number of people who died from the virus: 785,767

Everything takes me ten times longer than I think it will. While my dad's caregiver was here today, I wanted to focus on the room that I stay in, to pack up the closet, the items in the bureaus, and the bathroom closet. I thought this was going to take me an hour, two at most. It took me four hours. In fact, after I finish typing the blog, I am going back at it. My hopes is to finish that room tonight, so that I can start combing through my parent's bedroom, closets, and bathroom tomorrow. Mind you I have been going through closets throughout the entire house all week. But each time I go at it, I am able to throw out, pack, or add to my donate pile. My donate pile is like a mountain right now. 

If there is any doubt, there are reminders of Mattie here in California. I found several of his drawings in one of the bureaus. This was actually a  menu from a restaurant in Florida called Sea Watch. Mattie and I were completely different kids. Even at an early age, I was fascinated by people watching, and enjoyed going out to eat as a child, both for the food and the people. Mattie did not have an interest in food or eating. So for him, going out to eat was a feat of entertainment for Peter and me. We had to keep him very busy and engaged, otherwise, he would want to leave the table and the restaurant. 

Another Mattie creation! I loved how Mattie wrote his name. Notice that all the letters are capitalized, except the letter i. Which had a cute dot over it!

I found some photos of Peter and me from our Alaska cruise in 2011. In this photo, we were eating outside at a BBQ of fresh caught salmon. I actually dislike salmon, but fresh caught salmon was delicious. Ironically I used to love salmon, then I got pregnant with Mattie, and my ability to eat salmon changed overnight. 

Peter and me in front of the Sapphire Princess.