My mind is kind of all over the place this morning, so this post will probably be a bit scattered too!
Yesterday we drove to and from Ithaca to celebrate Sam's twentieth birthday. The big day is actually Tuesday, but something tells me twenty year old guys would rather celebrate with their college friends, so off we went, leaving at the crack of dawn, eating Frito's and drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee to fuel us. But when that boy grinned at us as we drove into the parking lot, I would have driven a thousand miles for that! We ate a late lunch, showered him with gifts, hung out in his apartment, then turned around and came home. Phew!
A nice ending to a lovely weekend at home, cooking and entertaining and teaching Annabelle to play Clue (it was Professor Plum in the Library with the rope).
And a lovely event in Osterville, MA with truly lovely people there. Many thanks for driving so far and bringing so much light into that cloudy afternoon!
Tomorrow we go to NYC to take Annabelle to see Matilda on Broadway and celebrate HER birthday in style, which means a trip to the zoo and lots of scallion pancakes.
You all know this is a tough month for me (oh! TS Eliot, it is the cruelest month) including yesterday marking the sixteen years without my beloved dad, who I miss every day. And Thursday marking eleven years without my Gracie.
But I struggle during these hard anniversaries to focus on the sweet joy all around me. In that big grin. In that almost nine year old hand in mine.
