After a long break, I’m returning to my online blogging class. Today’s assignment, my second-to-the-last, is a virtual coffee date. In this type of post, I am to share thoughts in the informal way I might if I were actually talking to a friend over a cup of coffee. So… I have brewed up two mugs of strong, hot Black Magic coffee. Let’s sit in my sunroom and chat.

If we were having coffee right now… I would take you over to a window and show you the green shoots of my daffodils and tulips poking through the ground. It will be a while before they bloom, but just knowing that I will have spring flowers in the near future makes me happy on this cloudy day.

If we were having coffee right now… I would tell you that yesterday I finished the preparations for a cruise I’ll be taking with my brother and sister-in-law in early May. I have reserved flights, booked shore excursions, checked in, printed luggage tags, and made sure that my passport is up to date and I am TSA approved. Here’s where we’re going:

I’m so excited. I have always wanted to visit French-speaking Canada. You see, French was my minor in college—not one that I, regrettably, have used much since graduation. And now I’m a drop-out from an online French course that I hoped would refresh my skills. With only a little over a month left,  I have to resort to my backup plan of studying a list of French phrases for travelers.

If we were having coffee right now… my cat, Angie, would probably have joined us in the sunroom. She’s the most sociable cat I’ve ever had and absolutely loves interacting with humans. I’ll never figure out how she picks her favorites, though she tends to gravitate to men. But I guarantee if either of us gets up from our chair, she will jump out of a sound sleep and claim it within seconds. When that happens, the human might as well choose another place to sit. The cat calls dibs, and that’s that.

If we were having coffee right now… I might ask you for suggestions for a good book. I don’t have a book club selection to read for a couple of months. We will be discussing the novel I wrote in April, and I will miss our May meeting due to the cruise. So this is a perfect time to delve into something kind of meaty. Only problem is… what will that be?

If we were having coffee right now… I would definitely tell you how excited I am about something I did yesterday. I finally took Mom’s wedding ring to a good jeweler and asked for suggestions for reworking it. I want it transformed into a piece of jewelry that I can wear everyday, even with jeans. And so the diamonds will become a beautiful, shiny pendant that will remind me of Mom whenever I put it on. And, now that I think of it, it will remind me of Dad too because he gave Mom the ring going on 78 years ago. The pendant will look nice with the ring and earrings that I had made from my grandmother’s wedding ring a number of years ago. Being the only girl in the family is a huge advantage. You end up with all the diamonds.

If we were having coffee right now… I might ask you if you ever lose your focus for doing things that you should be doing—things you even want to be doing—and kind of float through days without accomplishing anything. Because I do, and it worries me since I didn’t used to. I miss the sense of accomplishment that comes from checking completed items off a to-do list. For example, take this blog. I feel guilty when I check my stats and see that people are visiting it when there is nothing new to read. I want to write more often, and I enjoy it once I settle into the process. Maybe I need to lower my expectations. So I tell you, kind of half-way joking, that I’m going to make a new to-do list with only two items: find that list of French phrases and begin studying it; and blog at least once a week.

If we were having coffee right now… I would thank you for listening to my ramblings. And I wouldn’t say it out loud, but I would hope that one day soon you will invite me back for coffee at your place.