I spent a good amount of time catching my two friends up on everything in my life. Of course, they were both very supportive of me, and were quick to agree that the mob boss vampire character was an idiot.
That I was too good to work for him and that he got what he deserved was also agreed upon.
Amanda reassured me that she was sure I would find something else soon. Saoirse reminded me I am a strong, independent woman, and that I can do anything I set my mind to.
We all had a good laugh at the part in my story of that evening, when the lights came back on and everyone looked so shocked. Amanda said she wished she had been there to see it.
My friends had their share of talking too.
After they reassured me, gave their opinions and advice, they caught me up on the stuff in their lives, including their fun at the backyard bonfire. It seems I missed out on not only "the most delicious bottle of wine", but some good jokes, laughs and grand plans for the future.
The two of them informed me about some fun summer outings they had come up with ideas for. One interesting idea was leaving early one morning to drive several hours up north to a large lake and take a two-hour ferry ride and have a picnic afterwards before heading home.
Another involved the city: there was an upcoming event at a museum involving pre- dinner drinks, the aforementioned dinner, and then a more private and up-close look at a new exhibit along with a demonstration of a few artifacts.
My friends are very diverse and creative when it comes to their interests, they always come up with the coolest plans.
They helped me clear the remains of the breakfast away and get everything cleaned up before they were off getting themselves dressed and ready for the day.
I returned to my room and put on some old music from the 1920's. I lit a mandarin orange and lemongrass essential oil scented candle.
Then, taking a sip of my herbal tea, I went through a small pile of nail polish, trying to find a colour I liked. I tried asking myself what colour I felt drawn to, which one called to me, but I still had no answer.
Finally, out of a need to just pick one already, I chose one that reminded me of a pearl. It was an off-white, with a pearlescent quality. When you turned the small bottle in your fingers under the light, you could see the silver shimmer, the metallic element ground into a dust so fine you couldn't pick out a single individual speck of it.
I was at the stage in my pedicure when I had just begun to paint my toenails when my friends came to say goodbye and let me know they were both leaving for work. I knew I might not see them until tomorrow.
If they came home late, while I was asleep, then we would be like ships passing in the night. But sometimes they would come home really late and would be going to bed early in the morning when I was just getting up to start my day.
Although Saoirse had a fairly steady shift schedule at the hospital, she stayed longer when she needed to, if a colleague got ill or there was a bad emergency and they needed extra hands.
As for Amanda, if she had an event that was later to do makeup for, then she would do it. Any time there was a later runway show and she had to do the models' makeup, I knew she would be home late.
As usual, I wished them a good shift and said bye. The next four hours after they left went by really fast.
In my own world of carefully applying several thin layers of polish to my toes, drinking lemon water, reading some poetry and singing along to some of my favourite songs, I didn't feel the passage of time until I was abruptly alerted to the fact by a grumbling, hungry stomach.
"Urg!" I said, clutching my stomach as a hunger pain rolled in. "What time is it?" I looked at the clock on my cell phone. It was now 5:15PM. I sighed.
'Of course my stomach knows it's dinner time.' I thought.
I made my way down to the kitchen.
"What do I want to eat?" I wondered. If my stomach was anything to go by, the answer was the entire contents of the cupboard and half of the contents of the fridge. But I knew better than to listen to that.
I settled on heating a frozen focaccia in the oven, while I made myself a lettuce salad. I guess I went a little crazy with toppings. I put red onion slices, tomato, some plain soft goat cheese, dried cranberries, grated carrot, sliced avocado, diced cucumber, some grated radish and finely diced red bell pepper.
I made an oil and vinegar dressing with balsamic for the vinegar, adding the herbs to taste. Then, the focaccia was ready. I took it from the oven, transferred to a cutting board, cut it and put it on a dinner plate.
I added some scoops of plain hummus, sliced cheddar cheese and tahini to the plate. Between my plate and the salad in the bowl, I felt happy with my cooking efforts.
I sat down at the table and just thought as I ate. I didn't think about anything in particular. I just let my mind wander wherever it wanted to go. Sometimes how the mind got from one thought to another was a mystery to me.
'Funny.' I thought. 'It always seems in some ways I am so different from others. I don't know anyone else who purposely sets aside time to let themself just think, feel, plan and dream. Whom else just sits with their mind and heart wide open waiting to see what will happen; where the thoughts will go? How sad I would feel if I couldn't think without restraint, to reflect on the events of the day, think of the things that I am grateful for, remember the good memories of family lost, recall the funny time period called childhood when time went so slowly, or just let my mind spread the wings of hope and fly in a daydream towards all my dreams and aspirations.'
I sighed. All that I had and still it felt like something was missing.
I felt the need to be around those who were of a like-minded sort as I was. It was not that there was any deficiency in my close friends, it was simply that I needed something more. I tried to think it through rationally.
My logic was that this realm was not the one I was born in. Their ways of life, their cultures, none were exactly like the one I grew up in. The place I once ran from, now I missed it.
Perhaps this feeling was missing my land, the culture there, my people, my family perhaps a form of homesickness?
As much as I tried to keep some of our ways alive in how I lived here, it only seemed like the ghost of what was in my own land. I knew I craved the connection with others, the healthy sense of unity, the community that acted more like they were a part of a whole as opposed with an individuality mindset.
I recalled the uneasy feeling I got after seeing Luna: The Moonlight Slaughterer, and now I was having this other feeling like something was missing, almost a pull to return to my home realm.
And then, my intuition told me that I was in the process of being prepared to leave. There was a reason that The Great Goddess of All was letting me feel all these things.
She was making sure I was emotionally and psychologically ready to leave, so that I wouldn't be resistive to leave, like I was once. I didn't know when I would leave, but I knew it wouldn't be before the ritual. It didn't matter when I left, really, this time I would be ready.
I pushed the dishes in front of me along the table so that they were far out of my reach. Then, suddenly so very exhausted, I set my head on the table, between my still outstretched arms.