Reunion

I had a great visit with another old friend today. We met at Western Washington University and were roommates for a year. She still lives in Bellingham. I haven't seen her face to face in about 6 or 7 years. She brought me a late Christmas gift. We were going to see each other over the holidays, but that didn't work out. It was either illness or car trouble, I don't remember which. I had a small gift for her, too. We went out to lunch at a thai restaurant and then walked around the mall. We did a little shopping, too. Surprise, surprise. I needed some shower gel, so I bought a couple different fragrances and a matching salt scrub for one of them. I also had Real Woman dollar coupons to use at Lane Bryant and they are having their semi-anual sale on bras and panties. I stocked up. One of the bras is really pretty, kind of a periwinkle blue with some lace trim. Of course I bought some panties in a matching color as well as some white. Always useful, white. Don't know why you need to know the details of my little spree, except that since I'm soon to be unemployed I won't be going on a spree for a while. Could be a good while. Just thought I'd share the happiness and make the most of the moment. It's all useful basic stuff, too. I'm well stocked now and I even threw out any tired and worn stuff out of the drawer. It was fun shopping together. Over lunch and later a frozen fruit and tea drink in the food court, we talked about the old days and caught up on what's going on now. She works as a nursing assistant in a hospital and really enjoys it, although it is a challenging and stressful job. For her it is a ministry of mercy and help. We had good times in college, laughed a lot. Our favorite things to do were to get some munchies, stay up late and talk. There were dramatic times, too. It was college, of course. We had crushes and talked about guys a lot. I use guys because at that age they aren't boys but aren't really men either. We were also trying to figure out real life and grow up. I believed that one day I would have all the answers and everything would come together. I would have a map for the rest of my life and everything I needed to walk smoothly along that clear path. I realized around 29-30 years old that no one ever arrives at that point. There are always going to be surprises, crises, new challenges. That is what makes life exciting, sometimes scary, definitely not boring.

Downed Tree Roots 

Silo thing? 

Wild Flowers 

Mt Ranier 

Memorial Day Weekend

It has been a great Memorial Day weekend. My friend came Friday morning and we had a relaxed day catching up. I took her to a taqueria that has fresh, authentic Mexican food. We both love Mexican food. We also watched As Time Goes By on DVD. It's a great British sitcom that my Mom loves. I bought her seasons 1 and 2 on DVD for Christmas last year. My friend has been having health problems and she really loves things that can make her laugh. I wanted to introduce her to this series and give her a little more laughter. She loved it. Over the course of the weekend we watched 7 episodes. Yesterday we drove to the base of Mount Ranier and enjoyed the perfect, sunny day. We ate a picnic lunch at Longmire with a gorgeous view of the mountain- chicken salad, a croisant, and an apple. I brought my guitar, so we found a place to sit and sing. I brought my camera and took some photos of the mountain and a meadow that we walked around. The trail is called "Trail of Shadows". On the way home, we stopped and I got some pictures of some metal sculptures at a place called "Spirits of Iron". There was also, further down the way, a rusted metal thing that looked kind of like a silo but I don't know exactly what it was. It was really interesting so I took a picture of that, too. I'll put any really good pictures up on the site after I get them developed. I haven't switched to digital photography yet. I still use a 35 milimeter camera and have to develop the rolls as I finish them. This roll has 3 pictures left. Maybe I'll take a few pictures of the neighbors' cat. Her name is Scruffy and she comes to visit regularly.

Today my friend went home. After she left, my parents and I went to see my Grandfather and put flowers on some family graves. It has been a full day. Grandpa was not feeling well a couple of weeks ago and got dehydrated. He actually went to the emergency room. He's much better now. His appetite is back.