Holding pattern...

Okaasan seems ok...but not great.

I had a very silent lunch with her yesterday. She answered when I made conversation. But very simple, short sentences. There was no laughter or lightness.
I really had to work it - trying to think of things to talk about...such hard work. A lot of silent eating.
Was I super-sensitive and imagining it? Was she really in a "down". It really felt it.

Finally I spied on some gift chopsticks left over from the party that were in the table. They have instructions about how to make orgami from the chopstick wrapper.
Perfect.
I got it out and started trying to make an origami cat or something on the table. Okaasan ate her food and watched me, commenting several times that "I've never heard of a cat, I can make a crane, and maybe a frog, I've never heard of making a cat. It's Japanese culture, I can make a crane..."

But it got me thru the rest of lunch. Finally when she'd finished eating I could threw up my hands in real and acted frustration about how cack-handed I am at origami - and we could get up from the table and wash dishes.
Lunch done.

Later in the day she seemed better. Chatted about the cats. Borrowed some money and went for a walk. Went out to vote. Ate dinner with us...not super-chatty but ok....

The sofa is still relatively clear. So clear that Okaasan could even curl up ON the sofa last night at one point. She usually sits and lays down on the carpet.

I worry though that this mass moving of all the reassuring stuff will upset her equalibrium generally and that somehow it will be connected in her mind with Amanda/BBQ/chilidren coming into my room...and that I will be the focus of her negative mood.

Today is raining. Yujiro's job was cancelled. Today is hula dance day. Maybe she won't go. And tonight our Couch Surfer has invited the 3 of us out for a last night sushi dinner....

We'll see how the day goes.


Oh - and Spain won the World Cup. What on earth will we do now between 5 am and 7 am every day???

Oh - and I have just got my new glasses. Have official "aged into mid-life" by getting my first bi-focals. Makes me feel woozy to wear them.....