Our friend, Lila, was in town to work with Chico’s and called us. We joined her for lunch at Coconut Point in Estero. It’s an elaborate shopping village with many streets and turns and nooks and crannies -- we got lost looking for Chico’s and I finally persuaded Ed to let me go into a store and ask. You know the story: a guy would rather slit his throat than ask for directions.

I did manage to buy a pair of pants at Talbot’s to eke out my wardrobe till I solve the tar problem on all my other stuff.

I don’t remember the name of the restaurant. All the names are cutesy-fancy, like The High Grape, The Diddledy Dawg. I thought I was ordering lightly when I had the burrito, but it was substantial. Of course I had a glass of wine. So tonight for dinner, I am having a slice of bread with peanut butter on it and nothing else. Well, maybe tea.

When we got home I napped because something about a Mexican style lunch does that to you. Later I biked. There’s a woman who is visiting her parents down the street because her mom is ill. She stopped me as I was going by and we chatted. The situation with her mom has depressed her and she is leaning on the sauce. She has decided I am a candidate for friend-therapist but the combination of drinking and neediness is daunting. Actually, it makes me want to avoid her even though the empathetic side of me realizes she needs a friend. I don’t think we have much in common, or by now I would have picked up on it. Our chats started when I commiserated with her on having to put her dog down for an incurable illness. Right now I can’t remember her name. The whole thing is awkward.

My friend, Leeanne, decided to cancel her Halloween party. Her reasons are convoluted. She lately has been very volatile – not with me, but with other friends, and has decided she doesn’t want to party with a bunch of drunks. So I will stick around the neighborhood and maybe Debbie, my neighbor, who is working to get more people up at this end, will appreciate some help.

Ed said why shouldn’t I be friends with this woman, since I am friends with Leeanne, who fights to stay sober and who is bipolar, a tricky mix. I said, whatever else goes on with Leeanne, she doesn’t lay it on me and she is not needy and she thinks I am the most interesting woman alive and I do like that in a person. He doesn’t like that she is free with her favors but I have said, “You can’t catch that and if she was a guy, you’d think, ‘way to go.’”
So it goes.

xx, Teal