Some days are really rare

Some days are ho-hum, with work and that’s sort of it, but some days are really rare. Yesterday was one of the latter for me.

I worked in the morning, but about eleven Jacob, who did not have school, came out to the cottage and we ran errands. He helped me take review copies of the cookbook to the post office to mail for an upcoming blog tour. Then we went to PetSmart for dog food. First big problem: I know Sophie eats ProPlan but Christian usually gets it, and I was unprepared for a thousand choices of flavors and target ages and consistency. (An aside: a long time ago I sent Christian to PetSmart with a request to find ProChoice dog food—he called me perplexed because there was nothing by that name!) Jacob had no doubts—“My dad gets this brown bag,” he insisted. So we got 35 lbs. of shredded dog food—shredded? Sophie eats kibble. He insisted. (It turned out to be a bigger kibble than usual, and she loves it.) He also chose a new treat since they didn’t seem to have the Purina Dental Chews which are a staple of her life and which I usually get on line but had run out of. He insisted again, and we came away with a large bag of Beggin’ Strips—some sort of faux bacon that the label said was real meat. She liked them so much I have to keep them hidden.

Jacob often doesn’t talk a lot on such trips, but on the way home I did my usual back-roads thing, weaving through neighborhoods to avoid congestion on major streets, and we got into a discussion about which houses we liked. He tends toward the stark and modern, while I love old houses. But it was great fun to pick out a house and pass judgement on it.

And then last night I went with neighbors Margaret and Dennis to a dinner party to meet Carol Coffee Reposa, the 2018 Poet Laureate of Texas. I had met Carol’s daughter, Ruth, and her husband, Scott at a holiday dinner party, and we’d talked about getting the mothers together. Ruth and Scott hosted the small dinner party, and I simply could not have had a better time. Carol and I had lots to talk about—turns out we met in the ‘90s at a conference in San Angelo TCU Press is publishing a book of her poetry this spring, and we know a lot of people in common. Fun to catch up.

Ruth is an obstetrician and, to my surprise, attended the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, once my stomping grounds and home to a lot of people I knew and liked. So we too compared friends and talked of the new medical school at TCU and the effect it will have on the osteopathic school. We plan to continue the discussion soon. Scott cooked an absolutely wonderful meal—pork tenderloin with citrus/ginger sauce, seasoned tiny new potatoes, green beans, and Caesar salad. The wine flowed freely.

A bonus: they have two of the most wonderful dogs—shh! Don’t tell Sophie. One is a cross of an Aussie with a poodle. He’s Willie Nelson, and he’s about the same size as my beloved Scooby with the same blue merle markings. And, as all Aussie dogs are, a real sweetheart. I was instantly in love. Then came a shaggy white dog, slightly bigger—she is a Golden Doodle, though I’ve never seen a white one, nor one with as straight a coat. But they were both friendly and well behaved—sat at the table, under our feet, while we dined.

Scandal! I didn’t get home until 10:30, and Jordan immediately came to the cottage to say that she and Jacob had waited up for me. When she tried to get Jacob to go to bed, he said, “I’m not going to bed. Juju isn’t even home yet.”