joke picture?

Maybe this is a gag picture. "Gag" in this context is American slang for a joke. This morning on my walk with Samuel I noted that my block still has snow instead of flowers. At one point, behind the church next door, I looked back and saw this grill and thought the vents at the top looked like a flower. Later I saw the mono prompt and went out to take this picture. 

Today is International Women's Day - I know this because I saw it on Miranda's blip. I could tell you all about my amazing grandmother-in-law Sophie but it would take a lot of time to get confirmation on all the facts. I"ll tell you a little about her instead. She was fluent in three languages and could get by in Spanish and Hebrew. She thought about becoming a translator. Her parents, in addition to being sex-positive, believed in education and employment for girls. Instead, she became a doctor's wife, married to a man she loved, who also got her out of Europe, just in time. Doing laundry she actually made more money than he did for their first years here. 

When she was a little girl her parents went to a party that she, as a child, couldn't go to. So once they left, she and her sister snuck off to the same party.

Sophie was the person who knew everyone in the apartment building and when people needed to work with each other but weren't on talking terms, she was the one who could work it out. 

If Sophie had been able to look out into the future and plan her life I don't think she could have done better. She had a family that adored her and lived with or near her all her days. When they had enough money for one person in the family to travel they sent her everywhere, so she saw the world (diasporas have their benefits). 

Once upon a time Sophie was visiting relatives in Venezuela. She saw something a woman was selling and her family was prodding her to really negotiate hard - so she did - and once her family left Sophie ran back and gave the woman more money. 

Sophie may have been the only family member who liked flying with Karen as the pilot. Everyone else was scared and/or sick. 

When she was dying she was stressed that her daughter was working too hard for her, not sleeping properly. I told her she had to let her do this, that it was important for her emotionally to do this so she'd know later that she'd done everything she could. 

A psychic said that in another life I was Sophie's mother. Sophie said I must have been a very good mother because she loved me. 

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Watching a movie about Bessie Coleman tonight, the first Black female aviator in the world. Amazing story. Netflix.