I decided to skip Bikram today. It always leaves me tired by midday, and I wanted to get all the credit cards taken care of. Mike had 12 credit cards in his name, some with me as an add-on. I had one in my name, thank God, because otherwise, I would be without a credit card now. I called all the companies not only to cancel the cards but also to claim reward points or miles. I was wonderfully organized. Mike would have been so proud of me. I put all the cards with the paperwork and called each credit card company and when appropriate, airline company to get the miles. It took me hours. While I didn't think of it at the time, I was erasing Mike. I'm more aware of that happening. His footprint in this world is shrinking. I can almost feel it happening. It's one thing to not have him here right now; it's entirely another to have no evidence that he's out there somewhere in the world and will come back to me soon. I'm often surprised by what affects me.
I had done my morning routine before I did battle with the credit cards, walking Elsa, washing the dishes, and doing the oil rinse, I also did some work on the blog, but most of the day was devoted to making calls.
I called the department responsible for the information release forms at Kaiser. They said they sent me the form I needed to get Mike's prescription account information on January 28, but I never received it. They told me it had been sent by email. I searched under Kaiser, but nothing came up. They said they would send it again, but again nothing came through. I called and told them. Their system was down. Can you imagine a system for an essential unit, like the department responsible for releasing medical information being down? What happens if someone needs that information immediately to save their life? Finally, the form came through under 'HRoi.' I searched for that address, and sure enough, the form had come through before. I assumed it was an ad for something. There was no mention of Kaiser on the address. Really?
I need to fax the death certificate and the trust document to all these credit card departments and Kaiser.
It's a good thing I didn't go to Bikram; I would never have made through the day.
Besides not needing a nap midday, I could get the calls in while the offices were still open on the east coast. Living in Hawaii can create problems. At this time of year, there is a 6-hour difference between here and the east coast. When it's 10 am here, east coast offices are closed. I only have a small window in which to make all these phone calls. I couldn't reach two of the credit card companies because it was too late.
I took a nap after I made more calls. I did a little work on the blog and some reading, finishing a book and a bit of the NY Times.
Elsa and I did our before dinner walk. I usually shower when I come from home from Bikram at about 9:30 am. Today I took my shower right after taking Elsa on her before dinner walk. I was good and did the MELT and the Tiger Stick, which was a gift from Mike. This was one of the best gifts he gave me. He always tried to get me something he thought I would like. Usually, he missed unless it was something I already used. Maybe I'm hard to please with gifts. I don't think I generally care for surprise gifts; Christmas is not my favorite holiday. However, I was often absolutely delighted when he remembered something I needed at the store, whether I directly asked him or not.
This Tiger Stick was one gift that hit the spot, although I didn't use it for quite a while. I think it was his recognition of my love for working on my own body instead of going the AMA path, or at least starting with the AMA path. I finally placed the stick with the MELT balls instead of somewhere else. So I'm using it every time I do the MELT. I use it differently than the way you're supposed to. I don't roll the stick up and down my body, I saw it back and forth across my leg perpendicular to the bones, pulling on the flesh to break down the dehydrated connective tissue. The most substantial response is in the left calf muscle when I pull on the tissues just above the left knee.
Yvette had proposed having dinner together tonight. She and Josh arrived at 6:30 pm. on the dot. Yvette brought asparagus and bread, and a spicy tomato sauce. The salmon was from my freezer, and Yvette pulled out some pasta from our pantry. Josh prepared the salmon on the barbeque while Yvette made the asparagus and the pasta.
Over dinner, I spoke to Josh about checking our homeowner's insurance. Because of what I heard about a man whose house burnt down who had to produce blueprints of his house before he could get full coverage. I also told him about the electric meter being changed. I proposed that the bill might have been that low last month because of a problem with it. It was he who pointed out that most of our ohana was missing in action for the month, and the electric company thought it was a meter problem.
I asked Josh to check an unopened case of beer for its sell-by date. It was heavy and sitting on the floor. Bending down that low is not my strong suit. He couldn't find one, so he moved it to the back of my car, so I could return it to Costco.
The food was delicious. The asparagus was out of this world. I don't think I have ever had such excellent ones so perfectly prepared. There was lots of laughter. I said to them, "And you find me funny." Yvette said, "And I like you." The kids went down to their quarters, leaving me to do the dishes, my usual role. I moved into the library to watch TV. I had rice pudding for dessert and made notes for the day's blog entered books into Collectorz.com.
I walked Elsa, washed my face, brushed my teeth, went to bed, and then said, "Goodnight, Elsa. Goodnight, Mike."
