Old Friends, Renewed Spirits

Tonight we had Chinese take-out for dinner. My fortune cookie said "You will have a surprise visit from an old friend." Well, as a matter of fact I did! On Thursday, my friend Susan came to visit me (and brought her adorable dog Lucy). She lives in NYC, but she'd been in Michigan for a couple of weeks, and then had gone down to Florida, and decided to drive through Birmingham before heading home. I haven't seen her in almost 5 years, and I hadn't really talked to her all that much in the past few years, but it felt like we were still in Hermosa Beach, just hanging out. I didn't get to spend much time with her Thursday because we had Open House at the girls' school (big fun), but Friday we had a blast. First I took her to a chicken farm to return the chicks from Sarah's class - boy do I know how to show a city girl a good time! We had a leisurely lunch at CPK and then went shopping. I hate to shop - I won't buy anthing unless it's on sale, and I hate to try things on, and it just feels like a chore to me. But we really had fun, shopping without an agenda and just catching up. That afternoon her friend Fred flew in, and I hadn't seen him in probably 10 years (other than a few hours at my wedding!!). I love him and was so thrilled that he felt comfortable enough to come stay with us. Friday night was awesome, because the girls had "Fall Ball" at school at 5:30 (dressed in their Halloween costumes - a unicorn pegasus and a cheetah), so we dropped them off and went out to eat. A two hour meal, a bottle of wine, great company and fascinating stories from two very well-traveled friends, and I felt renewed. And to top off a perfect evening, we played a few rounds of Speed Scrabble. Now how can you beat that?

Today, we girls took the dogs to a little art show and then to a great train park in the woods, while the boys played golf. When S&F (&L) left this afternoon, I was very sad to see them go, but happy that I'd emerged from my funk. The girls really enjoyed having them visit, and we've all made tentative plans for a trip to NYC next June.