Saturday, we had that dinner at Katie's house to see our cousins who live in Europe. It's always great to see them and hear about life on the other side of the pond. Susie is a retired lawyer who expatriated to Italy. She lives in a beautiful little mountain town an hour or so from Venice. She did have the virus last year and after recovering, considered coming stateside for a visit but the mandatory quarantines would have eaten too much of her time. Kevin and Dominique always have fun stories; they work for Catholic Relief and have seen more of the world in its turmoil than most people, including military folks. They're currently living in Paris and working more on fundraising than being out in the field. Like the rest of us, they're getting to an age where they may be more useful raising money than actually visiting war zones or natural disasters. Kevin says his stories are always fun because none of them are strictly 'true'. He is an Irishman, after all and our Great Grandfather made his living as a traveling 'lecturer', which sounds more respectable than 'traveling story teller'. It was a fun evening!
Sunday was Josie's 26th birthday. Josie makes a much bigger deal about her birthday than any of my other kids. I think it's because she's the youngest and from a very early age she made sure she was never ignored or forgotten. Her attitude towards life itself can be summed up with "I'm Right Here and You Better Not Forget it!" Fortunately for everyone, she's a lot of fun, so we like having her right here and no one minds that she's made her birthday as big a family event as the 4th of July.
We had everyone who is in town over for dinner, including my Mom. Mom had also been instrumental in the dinner the night before, so she had a huge weekend. It was a perfectly gorgeous evening. We ate out on the deck and had a wonderful time.
Katie, Adam and the twins were not there because Katie and BoopityBoop were the western mountains visiting a friend of Katie's. They were gone two full weeks. They returned yesterday but I haven't seen them yet. I miss them.
Wednesday we had a funeral to attend. A gal we've known since high school days passed away after a decades long fight with cancer. She was married to one of Jay's oldest friends for 45 years. The funeral was attended by several other people that we've known since puberty. Two of the ladies in attendance were gals I last spoke with at length five years ago, just after Katie told us she was expecting identical twins. Both A. and D. have identical twin daughters. Annette's twins are my age: all her daughters ran with me on the City Champion track teams back in the 1970s. They were all at the funeral and we had a lot to talk about. D's girls are just a few years older than BoopityBoop.
Many people got up to talk about the J, deceased. I wracked my memory, trying to come up with a single one where J. hadn't been smiling or laughing. Couldn't do it. She was sick for years, yet I couldn't remember a time when she wasn't joyful. Isn't that a grand way to be remembered?
Two days later, our fourth party in six days took place at a Farm/Vineyard north of town. The daughter of some of our dearest friends got married.
Like so many others, the couple had planned to wed last year but the shutdowns wrecked everything. They did get married as planned but pushed the public ceremony and party for a year. The venue was as beautiful as any I've been to; the ceremony took place in the refurbished hay loft of a barn. It was modern rustic, yet lit by a trio of spectacular crystal chandeliers.
Adding to the beauty of the venue was a very romantic, pink atmosphere than can only be accomplished by massive forest fires wafting on the breeze from Canada.
We haven't walked around the lake since Thursday. I miss the exercise but I don't think I'd be doing my lungs any favors by going out in this. Just watching the sunsets (they've been spectacular!) has left us with dry eyes and scratchy throats, which I treat with a Manhattan or a glass of wine.
20 years ago, we used to be able to carry on like this and never feel a thing. It's not like we were staying up late or drinking a lot! Well, not more than usual, anyway. But Jay and I both slept nine hours last night. It felt great. Even better: the haze is gone! I looked out my windows and saw blue sky and crisp air.
I'm gonna go walk around the lake.