Busy day…and a good one

Every evening when I type the date on my blog post, I wonder where the month of November has gone. How can we be halfway through already, with Thanksgiving a week away? I do NOT want to hear how many shopping days are left until Christmas. Have you done your shopping? I’ve got a good start on mine—all online ordering, since it’s hard for me to get out and shop, and I never was a good shopper anyway. Bless Amazon.

Worked long and hard today on the neighborhood newsletter but it’s the kind of work I enjoy—tracking down details, checking on facts, rearranging words and punctuation. For me, that’s fun. In one article there was a reference to a Miss Maberry. From context I could tell she grew up in our neighborhood in the 1920s, but she just seemed to hang there in space. It was an article reprinted from years ago, so the original author was not available to question. I asked a friend who’s an author/historian/archivist/researcher, and she soon came up with fascinating information on Miss Maberry, who apparently lived in her parents’ house all her life, a single lady. That kind of little stuff really excites me.

Tomorrow, back to editing the next novel. I’ve been dillydallying because my editor can’t look at it until January. But a conversation with dinner pal Betty tonight plus a reminder from my webmaster made me realize I have a lot to do between now and January 1 and I better get to it.

Betty and I took Jacob with us and went to a reception that Jordan’s new company gave to welcome her tonight. We only planned to stay fifteen minutes. She introduced us as only staying five minutes—is there a message there? Just kidding. We had both dressed carefully to make her proud, and we were so impressed with both the office space and the people. Lots of sincere greetings, a beautiful space with a lot of wood decorating it, a kitchen that was to-die-for and chefs from a cruise company at work in the kitchen. Bonus: good wine.

The office is U-shaped and wraps around a patio that is all wooden deck, with lights in the trees. The party drifted through the offices but was centered on the deck. Really classy event, and I’m so proud of my baby child and so happy for her.

We went to a local restaurant having a lobster festival, and I had a lobster roll—good, the meat tender (sometimes it’s not when you’re far from the ocean and it’s been frozen and cooked too long). Betty, who cannot resist shrimp just because I can’t have them, had lobster/shrimp Newburg. Jacob had cheese pizza, and we brought a whole lot of it home.

Nice, now, well-fed and socialized, to be home in jammies and at my desk. Jacob is supposed to be doing his homework. I can see that he just turned off the TV, so maybe that’s a step in the right direction.

The world seems to be in its place. Okay, we won’t talk about tax plans and health care bills though I can’t help giggling: 45 cut the advertising budget and enrollment time for the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, as a way of killing it. A record number of people have already signed up. Anyone believe in karma?

Saying goodbye is hard

My longtime friend Barbara and her daughter, Amy, left to return to Mississippi this morning but not before we gave them one last taste of Fort Worth spirit. Today was the annual Lily B. Clayton Walkathon, a fund-raiser for the school, complete with the Paschal High School Marching Band. It made for a colorful and lively spectacle right outside my front door, and I convinced my guests that they would be captive until after it got under way. So we parked ourselves on the front porch, sent Amy to the curb to take pictures, and watched the fun. Kids walking by and the little girl next door were dancing to the beat of the music, and everyone was smiling and happy. Our focus of course was on getting a picture of Jacob--Amy and I were both looking for his dad's plaid shirt, but this was the first year Jacob walked without a parent (Dad had too much to do at work). The result was pictures in which Jacob is barely recognizable, but here's one of him from behind.

Barbara and I mostly sat on the porch, two old ladies watching the children with great delight, though she did venture down one time--with her dog who was so anxious to be part of the fun--to point out to Amy that she'd just missed Jacob.

They left shortly after the parade headed off for the inner neighborhood and got out in plenty of time before I heard to band signifying the parade's return to the school.
It was hard to say goodbye after such a wonderful visit, but they promise to come back soon--maybe in the spring--and Barbara and I are talking about traveling together. I am so lucky to have such a close bond with a friend from high school. We have so much in common--I have four children, she has five, and we both are blessed with fine children who are a close family unit. As the years have passed, our values and our sense of humor seem to have grown in the same direction. I don't know when I had such a good time as these last few days.
I spent the rest of the day piddling at work things at my desk and napping. Not sure why but I was really sleepy. Jacob had a friend stop and play after school and before I knew it, it was time to take him to his mom's office. I came home, had a second nap, and woke up just in time to talk to Jamie who as at the airport ready to fly to Hong Kong. He knows I don't like him to go that far without my saying "Be careful" and all those other things mothers say, and tonight he said he was a bit offended that I hadn't called. Nice visit with him, while he simultaneously dealt with a Railhead BBQ person in the terminal and found to his dismay they didn't have ribs.
Had a good dinner with Kathie--lobster at Lucille's--and home. And sleepy again.

food and friends

Every once in a while a day away from our duties--for me, a day away from my desk--is good. I had such a day today, mixing food and friends. This morning I had breakfast with the Book Ladies, a group that meets once a month, sometimes talks about books, sometimes talks politics, too often talks about who is ill (the joys of getting older). I ate modestly as I usually do, because I knew I had a food day ahead of me.
This evening, I went to the weekly gathering of neighbors at the Old Neighborhood Grill. The cashier takes one look at me and says, "Meatloaf, green beans and wine?" and I say yes. Conversation is usually lively and fun, and tonight one couple's daughter and granddaughters--ages 3 and 4 months--were there which was fun.
But the highlight of my day was one of those memorable meals that you only have occasionally. Betty and I thought we should go see our longtime friend, Mary Lu, who has lived in assisted living in Dallas for several years. So we scooped up Mary Lu's brother and his wife, Alex and Virginia, and all went to Dallas. On the recommendation of a friend, we ate at Sevy's on Preston Road. Wonderful, interesting menu, but I had a meal I'll remember--lobster salad, which was really lobster bites on a crisp potato cake, with a creamy dill sauce, green beans and salad. I practically licked my plate, and when the waiter took it, he said, "You did very well."
The restaurant was, unfortunately, a bit loud, and with five people, we weren't seated really close. I probably have the worst hearing of the bunch, and I kept fiddling with my hearing aids, trying to make it better. But then I noticed others were saying,, "Pardon me?" and "What did you say?" and at one point Alex, seated on one side of me, said to his wife, seated on the other side of me, "I can't understand a word you just said. I didn't feel so bad. I sat next to Virginia, and since she was the person I could hear best, she was stuck with me. Never did get much of a visit with Mary Lu--the whole point of the trip--but had a good visit with Alex and Virginia and enjoyed it a great deal.
As good as the fellowship all day has been, that lobster plate will stand our in my memory. Wish I'd thought to take a picture of it.