How can I repay a kindness when I don’t cook? Go Shopping!!!

I live in the South but I am not a cook. It’s an oxymoron. Southerners live to eat so they must cook. I eat to live. I don’t like to cook. It takes hours to prepare a meal and 10 minutes to eat it. I’m just not into that kind of energy trade-off. Anyway, my husband came down with the flu two days before Christmas this year. My son and grandchildren had left that morning to go back home to Texas and I was cleaning the house and washing clothes. I heard my husband call my name in a very weak voice. When I responded, I saw that he was on the floor and could not get up. (Reminded me of the commercial…I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!) He was really hot and feverish to the touch. He had complained earlier that he felt ill but I had no idea that he was this sick. This was not just the ordinary flu with chills, fever, vomiting and all that other disgusting bodily fluid regurgitation. This was the kind of flu that sneaks up on you before you know it and affects your inner ear. It keeps you from being able to balance yourself enough to make it to the bathroom to pee. It made him so weak he could not lift any of his extremities. I could not lift him back onto the bed because he was like “dead weight”. So I called 911. This was a first for me. The operator asked me questions like “had he passed out”, “was he breathing”, and several other scary questions about his observable condition. She told me to stay on the line till the emergency people arrived, just like on TV. Anyway, when the fire truck and ambulance pulled up to our house, it got the attention of our immediate neighbors who gathered to see the emergency vehicles and which one of us (me or him) was going to take a ride to the hospital. Then they (our neighbors) went into action. One neighbor sat with me in the emergency waiting room until the attendants got my husband set up in ICU. After he came home, Christmas Day, she made sure we had meals. Delicious home cooked meals that were part of her Christmas Eve and Christmas Day lunch and dinner from her extended family. Another neighbor offered to take care of our Chihuahua. The leaves in our front yard (that our lawn care people hadn’t done yet) were bagged and raked by our neighbor across the street with whom my husband exchanges books like a book-of-the-month-club. Another neighbor brought us a pound cake. So, how can I let these marvelous people know how much I appreciate their help and their generosity? I would love to have them all over for dinner to say thank you, but I don’t cook. I am really good at shopping so I think I will get each one a unique gift. Maybe I should learn to cook…NAH.

Unemployed…after all these years

I have recently joined the ranks of the unemployed. Taa, Daa!!! At first, I thought I might enjoy the free time. I have finished all the projects I put off for the last four years because “I was working and didn’t have time”. This was my mantra each time a project looked like it might take more than 4 hours and cut my precious weekend short. Now my house is clean and organized (way too organized). I am looking for ways to make it cleaner and more organized. Crazy? Absolutely! In anticipation of getting a meaningful interview in my field I have updated my resume, created a new e-Portfolio and burned it to CD’s with a cool stick-on label to impress prospective employers. I am a graphic designer recently employed by a company that publishes real estate magazines and, well, we know in which toilet the Real Estate Industry currently awaits flushing. The state of the economy and the time of the year means that I might just as well forget getting a job or an interview until sometime in the spring. I am willing to work part-time in another type of work. My husband transitioned from Sales Support and Telemarketing to WalMart Greeter. He is 80 years old. I am 64 years old, and age is another obstacle to re-employment. Ageism is alive and well out there! MDES (Mississippi Department of Employment Services) has been sending me literature about how to get a job, how to construct a resume and cover letter, how to dress for an interview, what to say in an interview, punctuality, etc., all the stuff I already know and the reason I have been able to remain employed for the last 39 years. The real trick is to find a job opening in my field. For that to happen hell will have to freeze over and the Catholic Church will have to sanction birth control. I am trying to use the free time I have now to get a feel for what I will experience (emotionally and physically) when I am retired. I really haven’t been able to savor the “sleeping-in late” thing, yet. I continue to awaken around 6AM, the time I used to get up and get ready for work. After I eat and take my pills, I fix myself a cup of coffee to get the neurons working at optimum speed. I walk the 30 second commute to my home-office to check my e-mails to see if I have a reply to any of my on-line job applications, then I check the current temperature and today’s weather forecast, and I look for more jobs. Can’t give up trying.