A couple of pleasant surprises

Wednesday evening, I got a call asking if I was available for a focus group Thursday afternoon. It turned out that the timing worked well for me (ending at 5:30, leaving me 15 minutes from where I needed to be by 6:15), so I said yes, then went back to folding laundry. (The phone call sounded as though they had found themselves short of people at the last minute.) When I got there Thursday afternoon, I pointed out that the table tent with my name was missing, and filled out a couple of brief forms (double-checking exciting things like my age group) as the waiting area filled. When it was time to start, a man said "everyone but redbird and [name I forget], please follow me in here." The two of us were told to wait a few minutes, then handed payment for the focus group and told "you're good to go." A little puzzling, but fine with me: the Mid-Manhattan Library is two blocks away, I'll take money to sit and read for a couple of hours. A nice little windfall.

This morning, after much grumping about finding warm pants to fit, I decided to try on the ones I vaguely remembered putting aside as too big, to get an idea of whether it was worth ordering one size down. It turns out that yes, they are slightly too big, but I seem to have put them aside last spring when it got warm, and then lost track because they're in the same closet where I've been putting pants I am saving in case I regain weight. These will do with a belt, and I am considering ordering one size down from the same manufacturer, also in a "men's" style/size. (I may still go down to the second-hand shop on Monday or Tuesday, but it's nice to know I won't freeze if I don't find anything warm that fits.)