Of course, we’re both in a funk of sorts. I had a meltdown about a week ago and have since felt reasonably calm and content. It was during the meltdown I said, “I’m just gonna go outside and ask people to spit on me.” I call that my rock bottom, and it has been nothing but up since.
Dale doesn’t do meltdowns, but I would say his low point was after we got back from the grocery store, because that was his happy place, and it’s not anymore. It also turns out Dale is much more extroverted than I am. He misses even the smallest interactions with clerks and neighbors.
We’ve talked through it, not without pain mind you, but we’re still a unit, committed to getting through this healthy, happy and together. I read about relationships being stressed right now, and my favorite line was something like this:
Don’t search for the perfect partner. Try to be the perfect partner.
I could tell Dale needed some comfort food and suggested burgers. We have everything for that, and he jumped right on it. We’re taking an indulgence break and will have burgers tonight. Then it’s back to broccoli on Friday.
We talked about playing board games, and I did an inventory of our toy chest:
- Risk
- Monopoly
- Othello
- Scrabble
- Yahtzee
- Backgammon
- Dominoes
- Pente
- Cribbage
Most of these have been sitting idle for some time. This might be the 70s talking, but I don’t remember anything about Othello or Pente. Dale doesn’t like Scrabble or Yahtzee, my two favorites, so we’re going to start with backgammon. We used to play a lot and have a beautiful board we bought in Egypt. We’ll need to brush up on the rules.
We both used to like cribbage, but his mother was a fanatic, and we both got burned out on it during one of her visits many years ago. Perhaps enough time has passed that we can try it again.
Other unexpected items that showed up in the toy chest during my inventory include:
- German flag
- Survival cards
- Mexican game with cup and ball on a string
- Multiple decks of playing cards
- Phantom of the Opera mask
- Latin dictionary
- Arabic at a glance
- English-French dictionary
- Eisenhower postage stamps
Donna Pekar is an aging badass (for real) who lives in California and writes Retirement Confidential.
