Long back-story: My sister-in-law, Carrie's, mom's neighbor (did you follow that?), heard from Carrie's mom, my story. It sounds like she was very sympathetic to our family and wanted to do something for us. So...she gave Carrie's mom $100 to give to us. What?!?! Wow!!!!
Carrie brought this money with her to our last book club gathering and it engendered a somewhat philosophical conversation (well, it was for me, anyway). I felt that my family is extremely blessed. Matt has a good job. We have insurance. Yes, this whole nonsense is costing us a pretty penny (which means a sacrifice somewhere else in our monetary lives), but at least we have the means to pay for it. We are not going broke. As such, I felt like I should take this money and donate it to cancer research, or to someone who needs it more than we do.
I was surprised that almost everyone disagreed. They felt, pretty strongly, that this woman (her name is Renee) gave the money, because she wanted me to have it and that I needed to spend it on something that would make me happy. Carrie knew I had been looking at some Downton Abbey-esque hats on Etsy and that they were extremely expensive. No way I could justify the cost for a hat. Carrie said, "Now you can get one of the hats you wanted." Umm...wow.
Fast-forward now to Beth being in town. She heard the story as well. I showed her some of the hats I had been looking at. She, being extremely clever, did an internet search and discovered there was a store downtown, Anthropologie, that carried some felt hats. Thus, a field trip was planned.
We headed to the Third Ward, had a grand time at Anthropologie, where I did find a beautiful felt hat, for a lot less expensive than the ones on Etsy, and some presents for some others as well. (Oh, and Beth and I got matching "Happy Socks"!) Then, we headed to Café Benelux where we had the most delicious lunch - we shared hamburger sliders and a four-cheese grilled sandwich with bacon and avocado. Yummmm! And topped off our day with a stop at Trader Joe's where they sell lots of allergy-free stuff for my boys as well as some extremely superb chocolate.
What a wonderful day!!! Thank you, Beth, for getting me out on the town! Thank you, Mom, for babysitting Hugo! Thank you, Erin Wurtzbacher, for taking Declan home and keeping him for a playdate, which meant I was able to stay out for lunch and not have to come back to pick up, Declan. It was such a fantastic day. Thank you!!!
Beth enjoying some tea at Café Benelux - this is a classic-Beth facial expression. I love it.
And now smiling about her tea.
And, me, enjoying my hot chocolate!
And here is my new hat! (Sorry, no make-up or "chemo costume" when I took this picture.) But, isn't it cute? I wore it to Thursday Chemo and received several compliments, including a suggestion that I wear it to the Kentucky Derby, which I loved, since I would really love to go the Kentucky Derby someday. Yay! A future use for this hat as well!!!
Thank you, Renee, if you read this blog. I just love it.
Love the hat, Kelly! So glad you were able to get it :)
ReplyDelete