Word of the Week: Choice

When we were leaving the UK almost four weeks ago for our Florida vacation, we had to make the choice to do a less active holiday and a more relaxed, sometimes nothing-to-do holiday. We wanted very much to fill our days purposefully with things, time and people that we would enjoy. We wanted very much to avoid stress, fast-paced and touristy things. As I said in last week’s post, I’m glad we can afford this because our mom lives in Florida. We also have sisters living here too, so we have choices.

On Sunday, two friends who we met through YouTube, invited us out for lunch at Foxy Brown at 12. It was lovely, albiet a little bit of a wait and also noisy. But we chose to focus on the fact that it was a lovely venue, the food was good and the company really nice. It was a really hot day and we made the choice to avoid the classy-looking outdoor seating area and opt for the airconditioned noisiness.

We then had to make our way several miles away for another painting session in Tamarac. This time our sisters and their kids, as well as our two Youtube friends also came along. We had just as much fun as the last time and the art piece this time featured a cartoon-looking fish.

This time we also had the choice of several settings and backgrounds to take our photos.

 

I like that we could makes as funny as we wanted. Leisa and I gave ours teeth and mine even had a diamond in his mouth, lol. Mom will have to find space to hang mine and Leisa’s work of art or else they’re up for bidding, lol. You can get a peek of the finished pieces here.

Monday we rested at home to give my plantar fasciitis a chance to be soothed, ready for meeting up with another Youtube and church friend on Tuesday. She picked us up for lunch and her choice of restaurant was Chillies. The food was good too although they did mess up her order by adding coriander to her salad although she had told them explicitly not to. They apologized profusely and said they would remake it. But she was of the view that they would just take it back to the kitchen and attempt to remove the offending herb. Do you think this happens sometimes? My friend chose a different order so that she could avoid that scenario.

We had a good talk while we waited about the choices we make every day. And then I pointed out that some people have some hard choices to make based on the hands they are dealt with in life. For example, children who are born and grow up absolutely sure that they are in the wrong body. That must be difficult and we resolved that it should not be our choice to judge these people or dictate to them what type of life to lead. Choices huh?

And then on Wednesday, we (Leisa and I) ventured out to a mall far away by Uber. We chose to walk around for a bit mainly looking for Fall decor items to take back with us. But this year we wanted to do white as our Fall decor colour. We even went into Goodwill and another charity shop but we couldn’t find any white decor like pumpkins and florals etc.

What we did find was Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robins. Our choice was Dunkin Donuts and after a lot of walking around we got ourselves two donuts and two of their latest Summer drinks. It was fairly quiet when we went in so we could enjoy ourselves leisurely.

My holiday book choice this Summer is It Ends With Us. I borrowed it from my niece who had gotten a gift certificate for a popular bookstore. She chose about 10 to 12 books randomly and I decided to borrow the one that looks prettiest. Wow. It’s beautiful and makes for really good reading. I laughed while reading it and even found myself welling up with tears at least twice! I finished the book today and guess what? I found out last night that the movie for the book is in cinemas now! Ofcourse if I get the chance I will go and see it. Hopefully when we get back home. I would highly recommend the book as I love the main sentiment. It’s something I believe in… someone must step up and end the cycle of abuse that seems to run in families. No matter how lovely the person is otherwise, once there’s abuse, it’s time to leave. There’s much more to the book and all of it is just lovely. I’ve not enjoyed a book so much in a long time.

Today (Thursday) it rained almost all day. We had planned to go check out the senior club activities at the church nearby but I thought I had better rest my foot. Lucky thing we made that choice as it rained really heavily. We are watching Hurricane Ernesto and hoping it doesn’t come near us.

We hope you all are having a good week too, weather and all. Thanks to Anne for letting us join the Linky.