The Little Old Lady from Pasadena
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
It was over to the house for the day to get through another round of English and mathematics with Rose.
News on the home-front included Joe having received an offer on Sunday from Jonas Swiss to work forty hours a week on the dikes. Joe liked the prospect.
Carrie had brought back a box of rich cake slices from the event at work the night before, including thick vanilla cheesecake, turtle cake, and chocolate mousse cake. She had also swiped a leftover roll of red admission tickets, which would have been tossed if not. These were for Francis and Linnea.
Come early afternoon, Mom, Collette, Carrie, Joe, and Rose headed out to Trader Joe’s. Rose was once again behind the wheel.
At every bend in the road, they hung on for dear life. Her foot never seemed to leave the accelerator, except when changing lanes on the highway. Then her speed suddenly dropped ten miles below the speed limit. Alas, beginner drivers… Although word on the street was that she did parallel park surprisingly well.
While listening to the radio later in the day, “The Little Old Lady From Pasedena” played on the air.
“That sounds like you, Rose,” Collette told her as The Beach Boys sang out go, Granny, go, Granny, go, Granny, go.
The good news was, they arrived at Trader Joe’s in one piece; no incidents.
While there, Rose picked out a set of five honey sticks, all of which she ate upon return to the house over working her math sheet. Collette took home pitas, Muenster cheese, Gala apples, mandarin orange chicken, a blueberry sparkler, and several other things which OLeif enjoyed to eat.
And while inside, an Orthodox Jew walked in with his two children. The little boy even wore a prayer shawl underneath his shirt. Trader Joe’s tended to pull in a variety of people from around the city.
Later in the afternoon, Rose continued her studies with Collette around an emergency feed for her toads, none of whom had eaten for three days. (Joe made a quick run to the pet store for 70 freshly picked crickets.)
And Rose’s rash from Egypt had returned. Collette had also been scratching her skin raw over the last several weeks and wondered if she hadn’t caught the same unbearable itch from Rose in the first place.
Come afternoon, Carrie signed herself up for an Arabic class at the college beginning in the fall.
And the voice recital was run that night. Rose was unable to come and instead went off to another night of Columns in her pixie hair cut and electric orange tie. It was interesting to see how the voice students progressed from six months to six months. At this particular recital, Collette noted a great improvement in Sumer West.
That night, Collette dreamt of alien invasion.