Happy Pandemic Valentine’s Day! I would like to share with you on this festive occasion the advice of my glamorous, charming aunt, who is in her 70s and absolutely still Has It; and who told me, when I asked if she was dating anyone, that she was not interested in “taking care of some old man,” and advised me to cultivate and invest in my female friendships. I have taken that advice to heart.
We are going to be taking a little break from the Galentine’s Day care package fulfillments: I’d sent 25 of them when the “Sorry, we had to cancel your order” notices began coming in from Target. Luckily, so far it seems it is only the 25th order that was canceled, plus an order I’d placed for myself (I was jealous of the packages I was sending out). I contacted Target Online Chat which, after a brief chat, referred me to an actual phone number I had to call, WHICH I DID DO and if that is not proof of my love for you I don’t know what is. I talked to a very nice customer service person who looked over my order history and said yeah, she could tell me right now this was going to have to go to a review process, and that that’s going to take a few days. Which, fair: I WANT them to be concerned if my account suddenly sends 25 packages to addresses it has never sent packages to before.
So! I have every confidence that the situation will soon be straightened out: Target and I BOTH want me to be spending lots of your money on their site. But it may take a little longer than expected. If you were in the FIRST GROUP, the group of thirty winners, then 4/5ths of you should start getting your packages over the next days/week or so (and, incidentally, an AMUSING number of items are apparently being sent out individually-packaged) (seriously, someone is going to receive a single-serve package of hot chocolate, sent all on its own), while 1/5th of you will be waiting awhile longer. If you are in the SECOND group, the group of fourteen additional winners, I have not yet even opened your emails! So don’t worry when nothing arrives. And in the meantime: CULTIVATE YOUR FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS.
My dad died when my mom was 59. We told her we’d be fine if she started dating again and she said “never again will I wash another man’s underwear”. 14 years later and she never has.
May I just add to your beloved aunt’s advice? Pushing 70 myself I am aware that I should have been more careful to develop and nurture friendships with younger people also. My favorite potluck crowd continues to be my women friends. But every once in awhile there’s some large, heavy object that needs to be moved . . . Just sayin’!
Am so glad that Target is looking out for you and that you can take a bit of a breather before enjoying even more fun. Thanks for all you do for so many of us!
Hahahaha, yes. A few years ago, a friend’s grandfather died. He and his wife had been married for noticeably longer than half a century, and I asked her how her grandmother was doing, having lost her husband of so many years, and my friend said, “You know, I think 66 years of marriage was enough for her.”
I did not participate in Swistle Galentines at all and it’s not really my thing, directly. But! I have so enjoyed seeing how much joy you (Swistle) and everyone else is getting through it, and I am deeply touched that you were willing to call Target on our collective behalf, wow.
This made me laugh. I just celebrated 6 years with my husband. 60 more would be a blessing and also…wow.
LOL, yes. Congratulations on 6 years and here’s hoping you and your husband enjoy another wonderful six decades together! Indeed one of the reasons I knew how long the friend’s grandparents had been married was that it wasn’t too long previously that they’d celebrated their 65th (obviously) and there had been a big, big, get together and party for that. I can definitely see both sides (the wow — how wonderful and the well-that-was-enough-of-that), and though it may not have come across in my original comment, think the grandmother and my friend did, too.
I hope there is a future post with links to some of the Galentines day items. Fun to see and also let’s you generate revenue which may result in future prizes for us.
That must have been an interesting phone call:
Target: We see you’ve sent orders of random items to 25 addresses not associated with your account – that seems highly suspicious and we can’t allow you to spend any more of your money on our website.
Swistle: Oh it’s fine! It’s not even my money! See, a bunch of strangers from the Internet sent money to me via Paypal so I’m spending all that money to send gifts to a bunch of other strangers from the Internet.
I am THRILLED with this whole process, and also fully baffled that you are in fact enjoying it, as this seems Very Not Up My Alley to organize or pick gifts or literally any of these things you’ve been happily doing, but I also have the type of job that other people hear about and cock their heads and go “well, I sure am glad SOMEONE likes doing that work so that *i* never have to” so I’m very aware that we all find fulfillment in extremely varied ways :D
Also: I am EXTRAORDINARILY LOVING all of these words of wisdom from our older & wiser women!
My Granny had had a really terrible marriage to my grandfather, from whom she’d secured a divorce when my mom was eleven. My whole life she never had a boyfriend… until I was in my 30s and she was in her 80s when my mom called me and said in a scandalized voice “Granny is bringing a MAN to Christmas!” She was dithering about where to put him for the night (Granny came from Montreal for visits, so they were all overnight) when I said she should ask Granny where she wanted him to sleep. Well, didn’t I arrive on Christmas Eve and ask where he was staying and my mom, in even more scandalized tones said “In HER ROOM!”
We never saw him again as she was dating him for company to go out places together like movies, and when he discovered a couple of months later that you could get movies for free at the library and his son gave him a DVD player that was the end of that. Granny decided she didn’t want to be bothered cooking dinner for him anymore if he wasn’t going to reciprocate by taking her out.
I love many things about this comment. Thank you for brightening my afternoon!
Oh, now I get it. What I get for reading posts backwards. After my husband’s grandparents had been married for over fifty years we were over there one day and Nana said “I’ve been making him breakfast for fifty-three years. I think I’d like to be done now.” We moved them to a retirement home soon after, and they were together until the end. I love my husband, but I think people making their own breakfast is a good way to go.