Three Beautiful Things 05/16/16: Finding the Right Locker Room, Evening with Allie, Sweet Nightcap

1. After a good swimming class, highlighted by my discovering that not all aqua noodles are the same and that if I use one with a larger diameter, I can float, I was in the locker room about to get ready to shower when I saw an elderly woman, from our class, opening and closing lockers. This is the fourth time in the last five weeks she has wandered into the men's locker room, disoriented. I approached her and said, "Would you like some help finding the women's locker room?" She replied, "Oh, yes. Thank you." I escorted her back toward the pool and the hot tub to the spot where a turn to the right is into the women's locker room and she went in.  The other guy in the men's locker room who had been showering when she wandered in was good-natured and I told him this was about the fourth week in a row she'd paid our locker room a visit. He laughed and said, "Well, I wasn't sure, what with all this transgender stuff going on!"  Then he got serious and expressed understanding of her being disoriented.  I was really happy he didn't freak out or anything and that he was a good guy.  Each time this woman has wandered into our locker room after swimming class and her visit to the hot tub, she's made me think of Phoenix Jackson, the blind woman in Eudora's Welty's short story "A Worn Path". I've wondered if maybe my swim class classmate is hard of seeing or if there's some other reason she gets disoriented. I really have no idea.  I'll keep an eye out for her again next week.

2. Molly and Hiram returned from their short wedding trip to the Dominican Republic and Allie wrapped up her time looking after Olivia, David, and Ana.  I picked up Allie at the Diazes and then we picked up the Deke at school and the three of us had dinner at the Old Line Bistro and then drove on up to the Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport and dropped off Allie for her flight back to Chicago.

3. The Deke and I returned to our apartment home and split a 12 oz can of DC Brau and Cigar City Brewing's perfect imperial stout, The Wise and the Lovely. It was a sweet chocolate-y way to put a cap on a our excellent evening with Allie and to relax before hitting the sack.