Old Friends Are Gold

 

The fresh flowers for my guests,

which I forgot to point out to them.

 

Barbara Bucknell Ashcraft is here tonight, along with her daughter, Amy. I don't mean to imply anything about Barbara's age (she never lets me forget she is two months younger than I am) but she was my best friend in high school. I think that qualifies us as old friends, and we always seem to pick up where we left off--no awkwardness, just old friends rehashing things. Her daughter, Amy, drove her here--I am sure I met Amy when she was a tyke, but I haven't see her in forty-some years, and catching up with her is a delight. She wants to know everything I remember about her Bucknell grandparents, and I was hard put to answer. But since they went out to the apartment, I have thought about it and have some better answers for her, especially about her grandmother. We'll have two days to talk about these things.
They brought their dog with them--Maggie, a Shih-Poo who is about one-third the size of Sophie. Sophie was so ecstatic and excited that she peed in the kitchen--thanks a lot, Soph. For a long time, while we had happy hour, we had a circus. Sophie did all the barking, but the two of them chased each other through the house, their favorite path being up and across the couch--where I was sitting. I had dogs' feet in my rib cage, my chest, my stomach, and my helpful houseguests were laughing hysterically. All of this was made worse by Jacob who was so excited he was screaming and jumping up and down, thereby exciting the dogs even more.
By the time Christian took Jacob home and we settled to dinner, the dogs were a bit quieter but we still had to talk over Sophie's barking. I had fixed lasagna soup--a recipe from Mystery Lovers Kitchen, I think--and a bread salad. Really good.
New adventures await us tomorrow, and I'll try to get pictures, but it is such a joy to have this friend in my house with whom I share so much, so many memories, so many values for today and tomorrow, so much similarity between our families (okay, she has more children and more grandchildren and has me totally beat on great-grandchildren). But we are really sisters under the skin, and I am feeling very blessed tonight.