LIVE! From Mother Earth! (Coffee)

Good Morning My Confidants!

It's a lovely, if not chilly, Saturday morning. What are you up to?

RBear has called in sick again and wants to sleep and be left alone (he's not the type, like me, that wants to be taken care of) and so Noah and I are out for our traditional Saturday coffee at a cafe, and this morning, that is Mother Earth Coffee.

(or bit for saving the Earth this morning will include taking all our glass to a recycling center)

This also means we may cancel our plans on lunch today. One of my favorite places to eat is a restaurant called Genghis Khan Mongolian Grill, one of those places where you go to a "buffet"-like sit up and pick out your vegetables and meats, and then they cook it up on an enormous flat grill for you right there. Delicious!

But they closed! After like 28 years of business and the location has been empty for months. Well! They re-opened!

"But the response from customers stuck with several members of the Biswa family, Nepalese refugees who held a variety of positions at Genghis Khan. They weren’t ready to say goodbye. They’ve since leased the same building at 3906 Bell St., purchased all the furnishings and equipment from Chang and [have reopened!] 'Everything will be the same,' said [new] owner Gobar Biswa. 'Same food, same hours, same quality, and most of the same employees.' Biswa said he worked at Genghis Khan for about a decade before leaving in 2018 to pursue different business interests. 'It was my first job in America,' he said. 'I was a busboy, then cook, server, manager. But my brother, aunt and sisters all worked there until it closed. We’re a family, and [they reopened it] together.'"*

I am so excited, and the plan was to go today while RBear was at work (he doesn't like it nearly as much as me and Noah or my daughter), but with him being home sick, we might want to be around the house instead. Taking it as we go.

And what could be better for a Saturday than just taking the day as it goes?

I need to do more of that.

For my whole life I was constrained by the need to have a job and that prevented me from doing so much of the things that I always wanted to do. And now that I don't have to work, it is time to actualize those dreams and fantasies. I have wasted enough time in the last two years not doing all those things I wanted to do...even if it is only meeting a friend for coffee!

And that might very well mean getting to know some friends that I have never really gotten to know before. Many of my friends work Monday thru Friday, nine to five(ish), of course, and so we can't have lunch at the Nelson Atkins and look at one of the exhibits. And the one or two that can, and I thought would want to join, me aren't interested. Part of that is how Covid changed our culture and so many people don't want to leave their homes unless they don't have a choice (still!) even though it is so much safer today (and one can always wear a mask).

A lifetime of watching "the girls" have a cocktail in the middle of the day and gossip, and now that I have my chance, my friends don't want or can't! Arrrrgghhhh!

(at the next table are three ladies having coffee and a Danish and laughing and sharing phone photos and they are about to head out to have fun!)

But you know, I have "acquaintance" friends that I like and have really wanted to get to know, and that can happen now and who knows what blessings are waiting for me. Recently I had coffee with a friend that I have only ever seen before at events. We have never so much as had a meal together. And we had a delightful time! Got to know them and they go to know me better and it was so wonderful!

I am 63 years of age (I almost typed "old" and remembered the power of words!) and I have no idea how much time I have left. With the health issues that I have had (I am not claiming them!), I could leave this world today or I could make it to my nineties. One of my closest friend's mother parasailed at 92 and I want to do that--at ninety-two! It's a goal and a dream!

I have decided that I am doing some male equivalent of the red hat ladies! Maybe I should get some read hats (as long as they aren't baseball hats!!). And I need to wear more purple! That is my favorite color after all. And wear my wild wonderful big jewelry. People always complement me, even when it is costume jewelry!

Yup!

Just like those eccentric "fashionable grandmas" who have been taking New York by storm lately! I want to be one! I claim eccentric! Yeah! I'll be famous!

And you will be able to say you knew me when!

With that I bid you adieu!

It's time to see what today has in store!

You should do the same! Who knows what surprises are awaiting you that might change your whole life!

Namasté,

BG "Gentle Ben" Thomas

* Genghis Kahn Reopening: //www.kansascity.com/news/business/openings-closings/article285240422.html#storylink=cpy