At Rotary today, one of the local morticians provided our moment of inspiration. Each week, a different club member (or at least a rotating crew of willing volunteers) gives a three to five minute reading or personal story intended to encourage us to pause and reflect. As the funeral home owner introduced his message, he reflected on the process as I so often do. He talked about how he knew his turn was coming up this week, but he procrastinated writing his speech until last night. He had trouble finding the inspiration for a topic, and thought about weaseling out of his obligation by claiming he had business elsewhere or that he was "sick." In the end, he found a topic, and spoke to it. But that wasn't the part that stuck with me. I honestly don't remember what his true topic was. I was immediately distracted by the sentiment that sounded like what I face every night, the desire to cheat and call in sick. It's actually fairly embarrassing, admitting how often I do not want to write. Paradoxically, this inspired me to jot down a note to myself to make this my topic, thus making it so that I did want to reach the end of the day, and write my blog.
I spent the bulk of the day out and about. I had an afternoon meeting, and didn't want to go back to the house in between obligations. I shopped for clothes for me to wear to the wedding next week. I decided that my wisest course of action is to wear a loose, stretchy tunic over soft leggings. I'm not going to wear anything constrictive or scratchy. Much as I advised the bride that she would benefit from being as comfortable as possible on a stressful day, I know better than to add to my own stress or pain. Also, I'm dealing with a sudden, dramatic weight gain since the end of autumn, which I plan to address with my rheumatologist on Thursday, and the new gastroenterologist in two weeks. So soft, stretchy clothes are more than a fashion statement. As the foster-mother of the bride, I don't know whether I'm supposed to match the wedding colors, but since her colors (lavender and garnet) are colors that I love and that flatter me, I'd like to try to match. I spent hours trying to find clothes that fit well. I found very little that did not make me overly conscious of the ever-expanding belly. I have more shopping to do in the next few days.
My second big obligation of the day was another planning meeting for the Rotary Foundation 100th anniversary community picnic. There were more of us present than the first two times we met. It's possible that was due to the fact that instead of meeting at the church where we have lunch every week, we convened at the tap room for Left Hand brewery. Plans are moving along, and one of the past presidents of our chapter, who has a whole lot of experience with fundraisers (it was she who invited me to the tablescapes fundraiser for Meals on Wheels and the pie throwing event last year), came up with a really cool idea for getting the community engaged and committed to staying for the whole three-hour event. There are preliminary discussions of a traveling poker game, where attendees go to different booths at the park, where they get a "playing card." At the end of the day, whoever ends up with the best hand wins a prize of some sort. Between now and the day of the picnic, this game plan might change a hundred times, but the preliminary idea is inspiring me to do some design work. I couldn't stop myself from volunteering to work on the artwork for this. I need to do some sketching before I show my hand, but I think I want to design the playing cards. But first I need to finish a wedding dress.
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