Psalm 89:15

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.

Today's treasure, so far, is my confused cat, waking me around 9:30 AM, because the alarm did not go off at 6:30 AM.  He kneaded my arm, sneezed in my face and tried to bite my nose.  Ain't sleeping in grand?

So, Mr. Blue Eyes asked me the next day if I wanted to go canoeing.  He silently rowed and I talked nonstop.  Wandering in a meadow and along the shore resulted in two kisses.  They say silent waters run deep.  I say they run fast.  It was quickly apparent to our cohorts that we were an item.

I don't remember with whom I rode to get to the cabin, but I rode back with A. on his motorcycle.  J., the host, helped me don the required motorcycle helmet.  I thought at the time, my he is sweet.  With time I learned J. was actually sweet on A.  Totally unknown to A.  I was a means to and end.  O dear.

My solitary existence suddenly exploded.  This little nobody was fielding the amorous intentions of A., from the cabin, J. in pursuit of A., a much younger co-worker, and ? a fellow student from confirmation class.  Mercy me.  It is a shame I couldn't bottle and sell whatever was attracting them all!  To top it off, a former flame met while bar hopping decided maybe he was interested in me.

How, you may ask, did I know J. was sweet on A.?  J.'s modus operandi was to double date with us, try to wrestle with A. during group get togethers, to have a hissy fit if A. did not come to every one of J.'s plays, to tell me all A. wanted from me was sex  and, paradoxically, to share with me his fantasies about the three of us abed.

A.'s modus operandi was to go to square dance classes with me every Friday night.  And yes, dear darling J. would be there too.  Square dancing is good, clean fun.  I enjoyed buying the twirly dresses, fluffy petticoats, and ruffly. mid thigh, flirty undergarments.  And gold dancing slippers.  It didn't hurt that after the class there would be a pot luck with lots of casseroles and desserts.  Every Friday night we had fun dancing, eating, and laughing with people about our age.  A. and I tried to find a square dance group where we presently live, but, dare I say it?  Everybody was so OLD!!

A year of dating and squaring dancing quickly slipped away.  During that time I learned this fella really, really, doesn't talk much.  One of the current popular songs was "He's So Shy!"  That worked for me.  More on his reticence later.  It was hard to resist a handsome, blue eyed sweetie that kept coming back.

I learned that he was younger than me.  I guess the Vietnam War picked off a lot of candidates my age.  I was pondering my encroaching senility while we were driving to Rochester to visit his friends, and I heard A. propose some blueprints for a house.  A house for us.  I asked him if this was his way of proposing.  He continued to concentrate on the road, and said it was.  Visions of nursing homes fled from my head and I said, "Well alrighty then!"  Or something equally emphatic.

I wanted to do the deed right quick.  My romantic man wanted to wait until the following January for tax purposes.  Many a time I filled the ear of any friend who would listen with, "For tax purposes!!!  Can you believe it????"  It dawned on me the person with whom I should be griping was A.  I duly did so.  He said, "OK then.  When do you want to get married?"  I replied, "In two weeks."

More later.  Time to practice juggling.

Psalm 46:10

"Be still, and know that I am God;  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."


Time to catch up a bit with the past.  I met my North Dakota man by one of the lakes in The Land of 10,000 Lakes.  I had just broken off a relationship with a man from Northern India, and I was done with men.  When I received my hand-me-down of a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down invitation to the lake cabin, I went for the lake, not the social experience.

To explain the "hand-me-down" bit; I was part of the Josten's Catalog Card Company (CCC) group of single people.  The other local groups were the Concordia College graduates group and the Unisys group.  Some people belonged to two of the groups, thereby creating an overlap.  For example, V. belonged to the Concordia group and the CCC group, and J. belonged to the Concordia and the Unisys groups.  J. was going to use his parents' cabin in northern Minnesota for a weekend with his friends.  He invited people from the Concordia group and the Unisys group.  M., who knew J. from Concordia got invited, but she could not go.  She recommended that J. invite V.  V. could not make it, so she suggested that J. invite little ol' me, from the CCC group.

We, the invited, were to rendezvous at M.'s Minneapolis apartment and then head to the cabin together in a caravan.  All in all a pretty amazing event in the days before cell phones.  We waited and waited, but ended up leaving Minneapolis for the lake sans one invitee.  It was dark and the mosquitoes were ferocious when we arrived at our destination.  And there was the missing member of our merry band.  A. said he had been at M.'s apartment and he had rung the bell several times and nobody answered.  He made the executive decision to head north alone.  We caught him just before he was going to give up and go home.  Turns out the doorbell was broken.  O dear.

Since we were all present and accounted for, our next goal was to transport our luggage from our vehicles to the rowboat to the cabin.  This took some teamwork on all our parts.  I knew everyone else from the group except A.  I was totally done with men and wanted to get any introductions over.  As we passed one another, hauling and loading our gear, I said, "Hello I'm Susan, who are you?"  I said this with all the warm, engaged, excited interest I would presently grant a vampire bat.  No, I am not fond of bats.  He said his name was A. and we continued our quest.

Eventually our meld of Concordia, Unisys and CCC people were settled into the cabin.  Turns out they all were avid card players, except me.  I perched on top of a nearby bunk-bed and watched the action.  How very odd.  A. was winning all the games.  He had a haircut that faithfully mimicked the bowl someone must have place on his head and used as a trimming guide.  A. had long bangs that came straight down to his blue eyes.  Despite winning every game, he still had time to peek up at me.  Pretty often, too.

To be continued!!  Today's treasure was any part I played in helping an autistic second grader to stay in his classroom, rather than running in the hall, out to the playground, or, heaven forbid, away from the school.