Kristie Strum - Independent Stampin’ Up!® Demonstrator

Movies, Tea

Heck of a Crazy Weekend

I must say, this past weekend started off on a great note. Getting together with a few of my closest girlfriends, and just the girlfriends (i.e., no husbands or kids, though I certainly like all of them too), was a too-rare treat. I hope it’s not so long until we can do it again.

Saturday, against my better judgment, I braved the snow storm to drive out to Stitchville USA. I needed to pick up a few items for an Advent exchange with my online cross stitch group, and it’s been so busy on weekends lately that I had already missed the deadline for getting it in the mail. My plan was to get out of the door by 9:30 AM, get to the store sometime between 10 and 10:15, be there no more than an hour, make a quick stop at the Jo-Ann right by the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove, check out the Teavana in Arbor Lakes, and be home by 1:30 or so. I got it all done, plus a quick stop at Trader Joe’s on the walk to Teavana to see if it’s something I want to check out further on another day (the answer is yes), and was home by 3:15, though not completely without incident.

My new Honda Fit handles even better than I expected in the snow (the freeways I took most of the distance were more or less okay, but the shopping areas were certainly not so much), but it would appear I’m going to have to check into getting better windshield wipers. It never occurred to me that the ones I got with this car would be of lesser quality than the ones that came standard on my Cavalier. Unless I was driving at higher speeds on the freeway, I had a devil of a time getting and keeping my windshield clear, which makes for some interesting driving. We’re supposed to be getting more snow tomorrow, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to driving home from work if it’s snowing then.

The highlight of Saturday was definitely checking out Teavana. My grandma’s a big tea drinker, so I’ve always been intrigued by tea, though I generally tend to prefer coffee. I’ve purchased random tea over the years out of curiosity, but only drink it now and then. Since starting the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs, I’ve become more interested in everything about tea, from what all the different varieties are to what attributes different teas might have. It’s hard to describe the experience, but if you’re interested, check out the website or, if there’s one close enough, visit one of their stores (here in Minnesota, there’s also one in the Mall of America). I ended up buying some Mrs. Earl Grey for my grandma for Christmas, plus some loose tea filters and a measuring spoon. I bought a fabric-covered tin that not only holds 3 ounces of the tea, but is refillable just by taking it to a Teavana store (the fabric-covered one was about $10, but a regular small tin that’s also refillable is only about $3). I got myself two of the fabric-covered tins, one with Monkey-Picked Oolong, the other with Rooibos Chai. I’ve had a couple of cups of both, and they were delicious. I can’t wait to acquire more! (Hint: I’d love the Teavana Gift Set — or pretty much anything else from there — for Christmas.)

Saturday evening was quiet, just sitting around reading and watching a movie with my parents. It might not be a cinematic wonder, but Night at the Museum is rather fun. I was up pretty late reading, planning to sleep in a bit on Sunday.

At some point, probably a little after 9 AM, I hear my dad yelling about something, but this is nothing new and I fall back to sleep. I’m awoken a few minutes later by my mom explaining that she needs me to get up to help dad get up as he has fallen and can’t get up on his own. That doesn’t sound good: even with the prosthetic left leg, he’s pretty good at getting himself up. I’m not sure I’m really comprehending things, but I get up, put on a robe, and head downstairs. Sure enough, Dad is sort of sprawled on the dining room floor, and it doesn’t look good. He had been outside doing the shoveling between the house and garage, just like he did all winter, but slipped as he went inside the house onto the linoleum. Dad’s saying how his hip hurts…er, a lot (I’ll spare you the actual words)…and I’m thinking that this is something we need trained EMS responders to take care of, and he needs to get to a hospital. Mom agrees and calls 911 while I keep an eye on Dad. A police officer and paramedics arrive in fairly short order, take stock of the situation, and get Dad off to Regions. Sure enough, right hip fracture, for which he had surgery last evening. It’s going to be a while before he’s home again, I suspect, with the rehab and all. Hopefully everything will go as well as it did when he had left leg amputated two and a half years ago.

Just goes to show: you think the most exciting thing that has happened to you in a weekend is narrowly missing a car that spins out ahead of you on an exit ramp, and then your dad goes and breaks his hip.

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