With the book club, I read a book called Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson where a girl named Emily suddenly loses her best friend, Sloane, without a trace. The only trace left of Sloane is a list that arrives in the mail. Well, with an awesome librarian like Mrs. Hutto I knew we would have an interesting activity coinciding with this book.
When I received a letter in the mail on the first Saturday of Spring Break I squealed because...well letters are a dying art, but when I noticed it was from school I was pretty sure it was a list like Emily got! When I opened up the letter I saw ten items on a list.
On my first look through I was brainstorming, “Hummus. Hmmm...that means trying a new food. I have to pick ONE favorite outfit??? Huh, my mom’s name is Jamie. I love cooking! Who will I write to? Exactly how far away is far away? Hmmm, so way later than 9...9:15?”
The easiest item on the list seemed like taking a selfie with my best friend, then I asked myself, “Can my dog count as my best friend? Because if not there is no way I can choose between my two human best friends.” I decided that I would go take a selfie with Goose, my dog, because she is definitely my best,best friend. So I completed 2. Take a selfie with your best friend. While she and I took a walk we took the selfie, and Goose had a photo session.
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When I got back to the house I wrote out a game plan and 4. Hug a Jamie was up next. I had to wait to the following day to complete this, because my Momma was in Mountain View with her best friends. The resulting picture is more of a personality picture than a true hugging picture. I say this because the picture is out of focus. A behind the scenes note is that this picture was taken on self timer mode and my Momma and I had to scrunch down so our faces would be in this picture because I just had the camera sat on my dresser.
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Then it was on to the next item on the list. I adore cooking, so the next item was 5. Cook for someone you love. I skipped over Monday and did not do an item on the list, but I cooked tacos for my parents on Taco Tuesday. When I was younger my family and I had tacos every Tuesday, but as I have gotten older and more places to be with my clubs and activities we have stopped having this meal as much so this meal was truly a meal cooked out of memories and love for people I love.
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After cooking I decided to stick to the food items on the list involving food, that meant 1. Try Hummus. When I saw this on the list I was really unsure about it, but when my mom read it she was excited because she thought I would like hummus. She was wrong, I loved it!
Before I tried hummus on Wednesday I did do something in between cooking and trying the hummus. That item on the list was 10. Stay up way past your bedtime. I am a girl who adores her beauty sleep so this was very painful for me. To stay awake till 1 A.M. I used many different tactics, such as talking to my Mom until she went to bed, texting one of my human best friends, watching I Love Lucy, and doodling. Finally at 1 I felt like I had stayed up way past my bedtime, so I went to bed and let sleep encompass me.
Then came Thursday, a day that promised to be busy. First on my list that day was 9. Perform a random act of kindness. My random act of kindness was to take do-nuts to the workers at the nursing home in Greenbrier. I suggest everyone make it a weekly habit to do some random act of kindness, for the sole reason of how fulfilling it is. I felt so amazing after taking these in, I could tell some of the workers were having rough days so it made me feel amazing to see them light up when I said I brought those by for them to have that morning. That feeling still hasn't left me almost a week later.
After I did this, during the kindness too, I finished 3. Wear your favorite outfit. My favorite outfit is a shirt from Cato that is flowy with black horizontal stripes across a gray shirt. In the middle of this shirt there is a Paris scene and at the top it says Paris in black rhinestones. This is worn with jeggings from Maurice's and gold flats from Old Navy. I wore this to the nursing home, Best Buy, Shoe Carnival, and the Conway movie theatre where I saw Zootopia with the ladies from my mom's side of the family.
After I got home from this I started work on 7. Sew something. I started sewing a cute little bag for my window sill that now holds my favorite perfume and a couple of different lotions.
But before I finished this on Friday morning first I finished 6. Do yoga. Yoga is an amazing stress reliever for me, I focus more on getting the poses exactly right instead of all the things on my to-do list or my worries. This just gave me more incentive to do yoga over the break. In the picture I am trying a new pose...and you can see it didn’t work out exactly the way I wanted it to.
Finally! Only one item left, but the most stressful item. I decided to write a letter to each of my two cousins in Texas. Writing letters to them was stressful because I wanted the letters to be perfect. On Saturday I finally finished writing the letters, even though I did not get them sent until Monday morning I count this item finished on Saturday because I finished writing the letters and had them in the envelopes with stamps on them.
Written by Jessie
(Many thanks to our guest blogger South Side Senior and Book Club member Jessie. I appreciate your enthusiasm and love of reading more than you'll ever know. ---Mrs. Hutto)
