Galentine's Day ~ one year ago today

Can you believe it's been only a year since this gathering of "women celebrating women" on Galentine's Day 2020?  Of the people I can identify in the photos from last year, at least one has died, a couple have moved away, and we haven't been sitting together at the Café tables like this since last March.

It seems like ages ago that I posted this invitation saying, "Let's party on Thursday," and we gathered in the Circle@Crown Café.  I was going to simply link this to last year's photo album, but then decided to post all the pictures here.  You can click to enlarge the photos and have fun identifying people you may know.  Yeah, we could see whole faces back then and now have trouble recognizing each other, with only eyes and hair color to help us figure out who that is behind the mask, who now has hair down to her shoulders.

Notice that the Café was open and other customers were there, too.  Some of us brought a friend or a caregiver, so you may not recognize every person in these photos.

And this is what Galentine's Day is all about on February 13th every year, even when we have to "meet" online or by phone.

I first heard about Galentine's Day in 2018, when Barbara and Sandy and Donna helped me get a few invitations out to friends.  I miss my friend Barbara, who died before these photos were taken.

Thoughts about tragedies ~ but also about fun

Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.  I was a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler.  My daddy was eventually drafted and shipped to the Pacific; I remember standing on the sofa to wave out the window as he left.

The JFK assassination occurred on November 22, 1963, when I was the mother of three small children.  My youngest was born earlier that year.

The Twin Towers came down on September 11, 2001 (that's 9-11), a few months before I retired.  Each of these was "a date which will live in infamy..." as FDR said in 1941.  And all of these happened in my lifetime.

Greg Freeman: A Gentleman, A Gentle Man ~ by Greg Freeman, 2003, newspaper columns, 191 pages

Why am I thinking about these dates?  I had just read Greg Freeman's column (p. 138) that was published on September 12th, when our whole country was still focused on the two planes hitting the world's tallest buildings:  "Tragedies like this stay with us the rest of our lives.  For one generation, that tragedy was Pearl Harbor.  For another generation, it was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  For this generation, Sept. 11, 2001, is a date that will live in infamy."

Tuesday was Galentine's Day, a day that is now also called Palentine's Day.  Some of my friends met in the Circle@Crown Café.  People drifted in and out, so I don't have an exact number of attendees to report.  But we sat around tables, talking and laughing.  Several women from the office joined us.

Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation character, Leslie Knope, invented the holiday in 2010 to celebrate sisterhood one day before Valentine’s Day every February — and fans are still toasting their gal pals annually.  Read about it HERE, and there's also a video on that site so you can see the best Galentine’s Day moments in that show.

Galentine's Day 2020 ~ photo album

We had a great crowd for our Galentine's Day celebration yesterday.  I won't try to name everyone in these photos, but we had fun.  I counted about 40 people who had been invited, and lots of them wore red or pink, you may notice.  Around noon, two groups of women sat at tables reserved with Galentine's Day signs.  I explained what we were doing, and they smiled and said they were also getting together with their friends.  That works for me!  Staff who were able to drop by mingled with people at various tables.  Women came and stayed as long as they were able; I was there until almost 1:30 (rather than noon, as I had originally planned.)

Our Galentine's gab fest was a great success, with people moving from table to table to get better acquainted with other residents (and a few non-residents who are my friends) or else to say "hello" to all their friends who were present.  The bottom photo shows people in the back moving to other tables.  It was especially fun to see Tiny back to visit.  She used to live on my floor and now lives with her daughter less than a quarter of a mile away  See the third photo from the top, where Tiny and her daughter have just arrived.

These two shots, taken by Crown Center staff, were added at 6:00 pm.  Thanks!

Happy Galentine's Day!

Galentine's Day is the day before Valentine's Day.  It is a day for women to celebrate their friendships with other women.  Our Circle@Crown Café isn't open on Fridays, so this year I was not able to invite women friends here for lunch.  If you want to see photos from other years, click HERE.

Monday Musing ~ about Galentine's Day

I posted about Galentine's Day in 2018, 2020, and 2021.

(Apparently, I forgot about it in 2019 and 2022.)

Click this link for Galentine's Day or the label below,

if you want to see photos of us celebrating in the Café.

Join me at noon today in the Circle@Crown Café, if you're interested.

Monday Mindfulness ~ friendliness report

Since I'm writing this in the evening of the first day of this week, I can report that I've accomplished my goal to "Try to involve others and invite them to join your conversations" (see the calendar below).  Barbara and I met in the Circle@Crown Café to plan who we'd invite to a Galentine's gathering.  Already you wonder what I'm talking about, right?

I only recently learned that February 13th is Galentine's Day, a time for women to celebrate the women friends in their lives.  Apparently, it's been "a thing" for at least three years, and I was able to find lots of images to choose from to make invitations telling other residents and staff about gathering in the Café at 9:00 tomorrow morning.  It was a rush job, getting invitations delivered to the boxes beside doors of people I know.  I don't speak Chinese or Russian, so they weren't specifically invited.  I did tell the women they could invite a friend or two, and I did let the Café staff know what we're up to so they'd be prepared for the influx of women that I hope we get.

Barbara and I were joined by Sandy and, later, Donna.  They all helped me pull this thing together, making suggestions, delivering invitations to different floors of the two buildings, and so forth.  I'll try to get a few photos tomorrow.  I've been told the office staff may come in stages.  There's no program except women talking and getting to know each other, and each person can buy food and drink as they choose.  The only thing left to do is put something about Galentine's Day on a few of the tables in whatever area of the Café is not crowded when I get there in the morning.

Click on the calendar to enlarge it.

Feb. 12
~ Try to involve others and invite them to join your conversations.
Feb. 13
~ Smile at the people you're with and try to brighten their day.
Feb. 14
~ Tell loved ones why they are so special to you.
Feb. 15
~ Be kind especially when your first instinct is to be unkind.
Feb. 16
~ Respond positively to everyone you meet today.
Feb. 17
~ Call a friend to catch up and really listen to them.
Feb. 18
~ Make an effort to have a friendly chat with a stranger.

I'm an elderly "girl" who loves books

After the Galentine's Day party on Thursday, the friend who rammed a table up against me recently, slamming me up against the wall of windows (see HERE), gave me a gift wrapped in red tissue paper.  In it was this small canvas cosmetic bag that says, "Just a girl who loves books."  Is it an apology?  She didn't say, so I called her the next day to talk (for 10-15 minutes).  She has neuropathy and can't feel the tips of her fingers, so she was sitting there trying to figure out what to do and HOW to back up.  "I never, ever meant to hurt anybody," she said.  She'd bought the small bag long before, just because she immediately thought of me when she read what it says about loving books.

A fellow in a kayak was swallowed by a whale, but he must not have tasted good because it immediately spit him back out.  Wow!  Was this like the story of Jonah and the whale?  Read the news item HERE, which has a video taken by the kayaker's father in another kayak.  And HERE is a report from the victim.  (Added mid-morn:  It's ironic that I've just learned today is World Whale Day!)

I've been reading Colleen's blog almost from the beginning of my blogging days, which means since about 2007.  This week, in her Thirteen Thursdays, her comment #9 (of 13) says:

"9. I’m having a hard time following the news because there are so many acronyms and abbreviations, like USDA, USAID, DOD, DOJ, OMB, OIG, NIH, NOAA, etc etc."

Oh, yeah, I agree.  So I left this comment:  "I've been thinking the same thing.  So confusing, as I try to think what each one stands for.  Sometimes, I just give up and move to another story."

Report on Galentine's Day:

We had a good crowd with three tables shoved together for nine people, and there were three or four sitting at other tables in the Cafe.  Two more women came later, after some had left.  We even had one of my friends from the neighborhood and some new residents who have never done anything like that before, plus a few Crown Center staff were there.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I was musing about thoughtlessness, HERE.
2. My subject on Tuesday was the Chinese New Year, HERE.
3. Wednesday's word was yoga, HERE.
4. On Thursday, I said "a penny for your thoughts," HERE.
5. Friday's book beginning was from a book about life choices, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.