Such a fun weekend with long-time friends. Helen came Friday, which is always a treat, and we huddled inside while it rained outside and caught up on life. Cooked up steaks and salad and played with the kitties—yes! Nikki actually interacted with Helen and demonstrated what a rascal she is! John and I think of her as a cross between a monkey and a ferret. One of these days her l-o-n-g slinky tail is going to wrap itself around a beam and she’ll be scampering across the ceiling and swinging from the light fixtures.
On Saturday, we got up early, gussied up a bit, and headed to Johnny’s Dock in Tacoma where we met up with a bunch of ladies who all went to high school together at Gov. John R. Rogers High School in Puyallup, class of ‘74. The sports teams’ mascot was (still is) the Rams, so we refer to ourselves as “The Glam Rams!” Heh heh.
Here is Helen and Margaret and me!
And Helen and me with our long-time friend, Nancy:
This was our view from our table! (It was a pretty gloomy day…but still, yachts!)
It was really nice to see everyone, especially since I hadn’t attended one of these annual lunches for a few years. It was the first time Helen had attended, and everyone was so happy to see her! One of our traditions is to go around the table one-by-one and speak to what each of us has been up to in the past year (or years). We all run the gamut. We have either lost parents or are dealing with the decline of elderly parents. Some have lost spouses, have retired or are planning to do so in the next year or so, and a couple are fighting cancer. Many of us are grandparents (some raising them), and of course we pass around photos of our families. I have a feeling that most of these ladies are conservative and religious, aspects that I don’t have in common with them. But there is a lot of nostalgia seeing everyone, fond and fraught memories, and a bit of inward gasping as we observe that we are aging. The 18-year-old high school girls we all used to be is pretty darned distant in our rear-view mirrors. Still, we persist!
Helen and I drove back to our place for another evening of visiting, eating a light dinner, and drinking wine (and staying up LATE!) I’m hoping she’ll be able to come up fairly regularly, but since her mother died a couple of years ago and her brother passed away just before Christmas, she won’t have them to drive up from Oregon to go see anymore. Aside from her niece who lives quite a ways north, I’m pretty much *it* here in Washington.
Donald Trump must be convicted and removed from office.
Because he will always choose his own personal interest over our national interest.
Because in America, right matters.
Truth matters.
If not, no Constitution can protect us.
If not, we are lost.
–Adam Schiff