Dates with Friends

With the end of summer came the most delightful series of get-togethers with all sorts of friends. 

I must first mention one get-together that actually happens nearly every single month. I don't know when I last mentioned The Becky; probably when I started taking violin lessons from her in July. She's such a regular part of my daily life I don't mention her nearly enough. But she and I have been striving for a monthly date. It is pretty much the same every month. It's always on a Tuesday, one of my two days off. She picks me up at 9:00 sharp, and we head for the Bountiful temple for a 10am session. I attend with varying degrees of success in my focus and ability to stay awake. Following the session we always head to lunch. In fact one day this year as we were exiting, a temple worker looked at us with a smile and said, "You two are going to lunch now, aren't you." We grinned and nodded. We have reached that age. We are the ladies who lunch. It's almost always to our favorite dive in town - Yoko Ramen. Dang that place has the best ramen. You have to get it with kimchi and the daily veg. The fries are tempting but I promise it's more food than you'll enjoy. Especially if you do what we usually do...head to Hatch's in the avenues for a pot de creme with the whipped cream. I am so blessed to have The Becky.

Years ago I got invited to a brunch (gosh I sound like an old lady) hosted by a friend from my high school and neighborhood. Frankly, I was a little surprised at the time to be invited. All of the women there were people I knew somewhat well, attended church and high school with, but never ever socialized with outside of school. Yet somehow I got included and I was totally flattered. We have continued, over the 15-plus years, to get together from time to time. This summer it seemed like we made a special effort to see each other as close to once a month as we could manage. What has been special this time is that a new friend has joined the group. Well, she's new to me. Janelle was very close to all of these other girls in high school but I don't think I ever spoke with her or interacted with her once. I just knew who she was. And she's been living across the country for years and years now (coincidentally, near one of my favorite cousins, whom she knows very well) but ended up moving back to SLC. We were able to get to know each other for the first time and I found her to be an absolute pleasure to talk with. A real kindred spirit. I'm hoping for more chances to spend time together in the months ahead. 

Me with Janelle

Stephanie and Rebekah

Rebekah, Laura, Eliza and Stephanie

Time just gets weirder and weirder as you get older. I had the chance to go out to dinner with these two wonderful women. Martha, the gal in the middle was.....one of my very favorite people to babysit in the whole world. I used to feel like she was a little kid and now she seems not that much younger than me. And Nicole was one of my younger brother's best friends as well as two of my kids' 6th grade teacher. And I just adore them both. We got delicious Thai food and talked the evening away. Such a treat!

One of the best treats of all was seeing our friend Donna and her husband Mark. Donna was in our student ward when Troy and I were at the UofU. She knew Troy first, then when I started attending, she became pretty much my best friend in the ward. We just love her to death. She's from back east, and after a few years in SLC she moved back to Massachusetts where she met and married Mark. We've hardly had a chance to spend any time with him at all, and it had been about two decades since we had seen them. They don't have family or anyone in Utah to bring them out, and we haven't been out to see them either. This summer they brought their two daughters to Utah to drop the older one off at BYU and we got together twice. Once for dinner with a few friends and once just on our porch to have more of a chance to talk. Oh it was heavenly. It's so incredible having a friend you haven't seen in so long come to visit and have things feel just like they always did. She's a wonderful wonderful person. 

Our evenings were busy with all of these but it was just a great blessing.