Winter is still here. I have been hoping for a spring like day, but I’ll have to accept the disappointment. I did notice green shoots in the front garden. They are the start of my daffodils so I know spring is waiting in the wings. I’ll just have to practice patience and keep my fleece handy.

Nala makes a mess, several messes. She brings in pine cones and strips them then chews the core. She hauls in small branches and gnaws them into pieces. When she wants something from the toy basket, she pulls out every toy. They end up all over the hall. I am the cleaner. I am the maid.

When I was a kid, I had a bit of a plan for my life. I’d travel and see the world, but I had no places in mind. I just wanted to travel. I loved my town, and I loved roaming all over my town and even some towns around it, but I dreamed of more. My dreams did come true. I have always considered lucky in that respect.

Joining the Peace Corps was my biggest dream. I applied without telling my family because I knew my father would object. I decided to wait and tell him only after I was accepted. The time between submitting my application and hearing the result seemed endless. Just in case, I had a backup plan. I took the LSAT and was serious about law school if the Peace Corps fell through. I asked my father if he would help me pay for law school. He told me no. He told me law was not for women. I applied to schools anyway. After I had heard of my acceptance into the Peace Corps, I called my father and told him. He told me I couldn’t go. I told him I had already accepted. He was angry but only for a while. A month or two later, my father told me he and my mother had been talking, and he would be willing to help pay for law school. I thanked him but turned him down. I was onto his ploy to keep me out of Africa.

Yesterday it rained. Today it may rain. When I went out the morning, it felt warm. It isn’t. The temperature is only 38°. Late yesterday I couldn’t stand the kitchen floor so I did a quick wipe. The dogs noticed and went right outside, and I swear they danced in the mud. My floor is again filled with dog prints.

When I was a little girl, I had a Ginny doll. She looked like a little girl, not a curvy Barbie. I had a set of her bedroom furniture, all pink. Her wardrobe was filled with dresses and a few hats. I still have a Ginny doll. She is wearing a dress, a sweater and a beret. She is on the top shelf in my bedroom. She doesn’t really look her age.

When I was young, I wanted a train set. I never got one. It was considered a boy’s toy. When I was an adult, my friend gave me a set of HO trains. I even built houses and stores from kits. I added trains. I added track. That train set is downstairs in boxes. I had to put it away as my cat used to attack it. I wouldn’t put it up now even if I had the room. I have Nala.

At the end of summer, my mother used to walk us all to the shoe store for school shoes. We never got to choose our shoes. She was into sturdy shoes, hoping they’d last the school year. Usually they were sort of clunky tie shoes. My favorite part of the shoe store was the x-ray machine. I got to see the bones in my feet. The shoe salesman measured my feet with a metal sliding measure. He used to sit on a short metal stool with an extension on the front. That was where he’d place each foot so he could put a shoe on it. He’d pinch the front of the shoe to check where my toes were. I’d walk up and down the store a couple of times to see how they looked. I’d check out my feet in the line of mirrors close to floor. If they fit, my mother bought them.

My favorite sandwich was bologna with squares of American cheese and yellow mustard. If I made the sandwich myself, I’d have to cut slices from the bologna roll. I wasn’t very good at cutting bologna. One side was always thicker than the other. My sandwich was odd looking.

Today I will be a sloth.