I had been doing better and being more consistent with my writing. That is until yesterday, Tuesday, October 28th, 2025. Unfortunately, I did not write yesterday. I had a busy day. I worked all day and then I had my Buddhist meeting at 6:30pm. I got home at about 5:30pm and then had dinner. My beautiful husband Bill Smythe cooked a lovely meal for the two of us. He made chicken, orzo, tomatoes and feta cheese for dinner. Shortly after I finished eating, it was time to leave for my meeting. I left my house at about 6:20pm. I got to my friend Samantha’s house at about 5:30pm. I was asked to lead gongyo, which I joyfully did. As I was chanting, I focused on treasuring the person in front of me like Ikeda Sensei and creating unity in my district. I also chanted to take care of our members in our district and for our district to grow. I love chanting. I had a great chant this morning. I was able to do so for an hour. As I chanted, I thought about my loved ones all over, including my family by blood and my SGI-USA family. I have two family members who are doing very poorly. I hope to go to Florida to see them while they are still alive. I will have paid time off again on October 31st. Yesterday, was my six-month anniversary working at Western New York Independent Living for the Mental Health Peer Connection. My co-worker JJ and I went out to lunch together. Unfortunately, when we got to the Indian Restaurant, it was closed. We also stopped by the new restaurant University Heights, and it was closed as well. We ended up going to a Jamaican restaurant nearby. We were both shocked by the prices. We each got a rasta pasta and drink and that was about $22.00. With a tip it came out to over $25.00. That seemed like a lot for lunch. Although, I have to say that it was tasty. And there was enough for two meals. It was my lunch for yesterday and today.
I have not had much time to read the SGI-USA publications lately. It just feels like I am so busy and have little time. However, I enjoy being busy and I love my job. Tonight, I did outreach at South Park High School at their Community Halloween Party. I did recall that the parking was a pain there. I had left the office at 4pm. I thought that was plenty of time. It wasn’t as much time as I thought it would be. By the time I found a parking space, it was 4:37pm. Fortunately, I was able to get everything set by about 4:50pm.
It’s 10:52pm and I am still writing my blog post for tonight. I don’t like cutting it so close. I need to be done before midnight. And I also need to edit it before I can publish it. I just checked the word count, and it was 508. I generally try to produce at least 700 words. As I am writing, I am listening to popular piano love songs. I love music. I have gained more appreciation for it as I have gotten older. I really love listening to music during my workday. I do have a set of earphones, so I can enjoy whatever music I want, and I don’t have to worry about annoying my coworker. I share my office with John. He works part-time for the Mental Health Peer Connection. He works about 20 hours per week. He is a nice person and very young. He is only 23 years old. I am more than old enough to be his mom. My birthday is coming up very soon. I will be 57 years old on November 1st, 2025. I want to go out to dinner at Hutch’s with my husband Bill. That reminds me, I need to remind him to make reservations. My birthday is this Saturday.
The nice thing is that I will get to leave at 3pm on Friday, because I worked until 7pm tonight. Luckily, I had some chocolate because a coworker gave me a whole bag of wrapped chocolates. The kids came by with their parents and trick or treated the vendors at the event. I talked to 36 people about the programs and services at the Mental Health Peer Connection. That is great for being there for about two hours. It was a successful outreach.