Birthdays

Amy is 19 today! She is a wonderful young woman and I am proud to be her mom. This week she is down at Winston, 2 hours south, teaching vacation Bible school along with Emily and cousin Stephie, so we couldn't celebrate her day today.

Lots of other birthdays on the 25th, for some reason--Amy's twin, my friend Judy's daughter Bethany; Paul's sister Lois and also her son Kevin; my neighbor Anita; our friend Heidi.

I am a tea-on-the-porch but not a Super-Fancy-Tea person, so today I had the abovementioned Lois and Anita over for a my-style tea on the porch: sitting on the wicker chairs and reminiscing while nibbling crackers and cheeseball or chips and salsa and sipping tea.

There's something utterly nurturing about time with other ladies like this. We each have our own stake in this neighborhood--Anita and I live next door to each other; Lois grew up in this house. So when we talk, for example, about Lloyd and Ruth who used to live just down the road from Anita's, we each have a different perspective. Anita knows them as her in-laws and tells how she had to learn not to be so thin-skinned with these blunt Kropfs. Lois knew them when they were older but still active and told the hilarious story of Lloyd and Ruth telling how they had bought an electric blanket with dual controls and didn't realize that the controls got reversed, so he was roasting and turning "his" down, and she was cold and turning "hers" up. I knew Lloyd and Ruth primarily as elderly people so this was all very interesting to me.

Lois had to leave around 5 to get to the post office, and I leisurely walked Anita out to her car, and while we were talking Jenny went and got the mail, so I read that before I cleaned up from our tea. And then I heard the dishes rattling on the porch, so I went out and there was Hansie the enormous omnivorous dog eating our leftovers--three chip and cracker dishes were cleaned out, as was all the remaining cheeseball. However, the hot salsa remained in the dish, and Hansie's eyes were watering, and he kept licking his chops, and then he went to his water dish and lapped desperately.

It turned out that Steven had seen the ladies leave so he "logically" turned Hansie loose, which goes to show that my life is allowed to be leisurely and ladylike only so long, and then the timer goes off and things return to normal.

I just realized there really is no point to this post. Well, this is the sort of rambling conversation we'll have if you come have tea on the porch with me. Just call ahead and give me time to plug in the teakettle and tie up Hansie.

Quote of the Day:
"That is how it is, Alice," said Frances. "Your birthday is always the one that is not now."
--A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban