Meanwhile, I had as usual procrastinated doing my teaching
hours for my Pilates advanced mat certification, so I was stuffing them in
everywhere I could, and I also started working on Wed & Thu at David Hill
Winery, so things had been kind of crazy that way. I needed 3 more hours of
teaching when the Bubster arrived.
Also, when we were in Newport Oct 10-15 I’d had a possible
retinal tear, which we had checked out and it was ok. But on Friday morning the
21st, when Dave was supposed to be leaving for the workshop, things
got very bad. We ended up at Dr Miller’s office, then at Hillsboro Eye Care
where my friend Jori works & kept my spirits up and Dr Finley did a quick
repair and Dave was on the road by 2.
(Dave’s story: On Wednesday morning Oct 19 we got a call
from Royal Oaks that Mama, who had stopped eating a week or so before, had
died. It was both sad and a relief, as her last years hadn’t been good. He was
scheduled for a week long recorder workshop in Monterey, so everyone decided he
should go to that (what a great memorial to Mama) and then drive down to LA for
a small funeral. Which he did, so on Monday at 9 while we were heading to
Holladay Park he was at Forest Lawn. He spent the time between the workshop and
the wedding in LA dealing with things, then drove up to meet us)
Pre-wedding festivities started on Sat 10/29 when I picked
the Bubster up at PDX at 10:30. She had a wonderful wheelchair person who wheeled
her all the way out to the car, which I didn’t know they did. She’s perfectly
able to walk all that way, but the wheelchair makes travel much easier.
Sunday the 30th we mostly hung out at home except
for a trip to the grocery store to buy food. We had excellent hotdogs and beans
for lunch because we were too starved to do any cooking. We got out the Comfy,
which was too hot even for Bubby.
Monday the 31st was when the fun really began.
Our first appointment was at Holladay Park, the least expensive option, which
did not show well. It was cold and rainy, so the beautiful views and sunny
apartments that I saw were dark and dreary, and Bubby thought it was brown and
depressing, the tan chihuli-inspired light fixture in the entryway
notwithstanding. She also did not get a “my people” vibe from the folks we passed.
We got more of a “my people” vibe at the
Screen Door Café where we stopped for a surprisingly tasty lunch, even though
it’s not really our kind of food.
Our second stop was Mirabella, the most expensive place. We
used the valet parking in their underground garage where they had many
expensive cars stacked 2 high, which was impressive. The tour went well, Renee
the sales lady was her usual warm self, and the perfect apartment had just come
available. And, of course, their chihuli-inspired sculpture is not brown. Although
it was still cloudy and rainy things felt light and bright. Unfortunately, when
we sat down with Renee to talk $$$, she said that Bubby was short by about
$200,000… but that she’d “talk to her manager.” What? We got home and were
having some difficult conversations when Bubby got an e-mail from Renee saying
that they thought she had plenty of money and she should move in. What? Dinner
was a Bubby Salad, quite yummy.
Tuesday Nov 1 we had originally planned 2 stops, at Rose
Schnitzer Manor and Terwilliger Plaza, but we decided there was no point in RSM
since 1) it’s assisted only and more importantly 2) they don’t have a pool.
That freed up our morning nicely, and we went to see JoJo at Terwilliger plaza,
which I thought was excellent, but Bubby didn’t like the dining room. It’s the
middle in terms of affordability but is not in a walkable neighborhood, even
though it has the best pool. Also they don’t have a meal plan or a SNF, so not
as good as Mirabella. We headed home with lots to think about and enjoyed
another Bubby salad and Holy Matrimony, which she had never seen before.
Wed Nov 2 Our original plan was to head to Santa Cruz on a 10:00 am
flight, but that seemed like too early. I called Alaska to see about changing our
tickets and they wanted a ton of money, but then they told me about the
check-in fares – you can change to an earlier or later flight as part of the
check in process for only $50/person. So we did, and that made for a much
easier day. We left plenty of time to get to the airport which turned out to be
a good thing. We stopped at the terminal to get Bubby a wheelchair, then I went
to park the car. Once again the blue lot was closed, so I had to park in the
red lot which I hate, because there are never any spaces except by shelter A
where the bus never seems to come. I drove around for a while and then gave up
and parked at A3, and was walking toward the bus stop when a blue lot bus from
shelter X went by and stopped to pick me up. I was the only one on the bus and
was soon enjoying my “VIP bus” with my driver Adolf… until we got halfway to
the terminal and I realized I’d forgotten my phone. Adolf took great care of me
– he zoomed up to the terminal, stopped long enough to pick up the one
passenger there, then zoomed back through the lot and stopped to wait for me to
run to get to my phone. We still had plenty of time to sit and wait in the
terminal before our first class flight – somehow I’d found a $139 first class
ticket, I don’t know how.
Your notes on the Old People's Homes are very helpful to me as I have them all mixed up in my head.
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