Visits from Friends

Did I not just write about how lovely and relatively cool our weather has been? OK, not anymore!

It rose to the 90's today so the air is blasting in the house....weather can change so fast, you just have to adapt.

This past week, I visited with two friends on separate evenings (what? Two evenings of adult time in the same week? Amazing!!!!). Kandy Ferree was in from DC and we had a great visit in Greensboro, (about an hour from Durham for those of you who are geographically challenged). Kandy and I caught up on some gossip, and had a great dinner (wonderful restaurant and no crayons were even offered to us, my new standard for adult dining).

Then Katherine Haynes-Sanstad (formerly from CAPS at UCSF) and I went to dinner in Chapel Hill, where she is for a two week intensive business oriented seminar. I took her to Mama Dips, a legendary southern style place, great for wonderful food (much of it fried, but it is southern cooking!). We also caught up on the comings and goings of old friends, the joys of parenting, and life in general.

Instead of making me sad, these visits brought me a lot of joy. The fun in reconnecting, the wonder of how life ebbs and flows, good things and not so good, that happen to us all.

Life is what happens when you are making other plans...I used to think there was something to that saying...but in fact, life can be enjoyed greatly in the moment, without making a lot of long range plans. Or making them, but knowing that they might change quite a lot!

This past week, I heard news of two couples, both men, that have broken up. That kind of news still makes me sad, I guess I still want to believe in "happily ever after" even if not for me. Love and relationships are so painfully hard it seems. I am not even thinking of that for myself these days, I have enough on my plate just scheduling treatments and follow up visits, trying to work and parent and having the energy to read a good book. A relationship would probably tip me over the edge! Or am I saying that to avoid one? Either way, I am not missing that too much these days. And I am learning to enjoy my own company on rare Sundays like this one, when Sofie is with Jamie and I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend two who consecutive hours reading the NY Times with Peet's coffee in my cup. Those sorts of little extravagances seem like total bliss sometimes. I have started taking the NY Times again on Sundays, usually it takes a full week for me to read through most of it (basketball is over, so I don't give the sports pages much attention). But on a day like this, it is wonderful to read as much as I care to without any interruptions.