and i'm breathing again

I feel more relaxed than I have in weeks.
It's as if I've been on holiday somewhere, perhaps in my dear Daytona Beach area, and woken that first morning to the sound of the surf and the fragrance of different air...
realizing that I am breathing again...
not knowing that I had been holding my breath for so long.
i thank You, God.
i thank You, God, that Michael and his family had gifted me the pork loin roast.
i thank You, God, for the inspiration to cook that roast and want to share it.
i thank You, God, for the courage to finally ask Kevin on Monday to dinner on Tuesday.
i thank You, God.

It was the first "Tina Tuesday" we'd had - and on a proper Tuesday, too - since February 18th, which had dancing instead of a movie.
February 11th was the last "normal" Tina Tuesday.
Maybe we'll have those come back around, or maybe we'll have to make a new "normal".
I'm hoping, as he is, too, that this was the start of regular visits with each other.
Kevin brought cornbread to go with the roast pork.

I'd made apple-raisin salad, using more of the bounty from Michael.
And, as I had beaucoup apples, and I knew the bfrb was coming, I'd even baked a cake, as the song says!
He was rather pleased about that, and pleased, too, that I'd cut the sugar by two-thirds.
Neither of us do much with sweet things, as a rule.
He obviously liked the cake:
he had two pieces of it!

One of those pieces was eaten during this game, "The Oregon Trail".
He'd purchased it new, as he'd hoped for a dinner and games night at his place back in March.
However, that date had been the first day of the city's "Shelter in Place" order, so I had backed out on joining him and Marlow.
Kevin had brought the game,
still sealed in its packaging,
for us tonight.
Something new for the two of us to do, together.

(smile)
It was so new that he had to put the number stickers on the dice -
no, really!
Then it was to read the rules and try to figure out how to play it, as neither of us had ever played this card game before.
Naturally, as I have done once or twice before, I amended the rules for the first few games.
Then I died of dysentery - ACK! -
and he died of snakebite - ACK! -
so it was his turn to read the rules.
Then I gave them another perusal and I think we may have been pretty good at playing the game as it was intended by the time we got to that fifth game.
Those "Calamity" cards are pretty harsh, though!
Good to know we were on the same wagon team together, just trying to stay alive on that journey between Missouri and the lush green Oregon idyll of Willamette Valley.
(smile)

What did I most enjoy, though?
We had four full hours of each other's company.
That meant lots of hearing each other's voices, in person, not on the phone, for the first time in well over a month.
That meant lots of looking into each other's faces and seeing when something said was meant to be serious or humorous, a finer point which is impossible for text messages.
That meant lots of hugs, real hugs that lasted five-Mississippi's and more, at the start and end of our visit, plus during it.
Right place, right time.
(smile)

Afterward, I decided to catch a bit of distraction on tv.
Not that I was crying - in fact, I was fine, not like I had been on Thursday, sobbing and lonely.
So, I was just out to watch a show, maybe have a few more laughs.
But the program I chose was "Young Sheldon" - not my usual at all.
And the episode, set in 1990, just happened to showcase the boy playing a computer game during a talk with his older brother, freezing on the screen after he left it and as his older self continued to talk about the computer game.
And just what was that game from thirty years ago?
"The Oregon Trail" - the same one he and I had played tonight in its new card format.
I was so entranced by the coincidence that I watched the episode twice.
Right place, right time.
i thank You, God.