During the third week of October, my cousin from Colorado came to town to guide her niece in the business of selecting a college. They made visits to the campuses of several within driving distance; they filled out reams of paperwork and filled in financial aid applications for each institution.
In the middle of all of that footwork and papers and drives, she managed to round up a group of family members and organized a birthday luncheon in my honor, was I available to attend? Uh, YES!
At the appointed hour I went outside and waited for her and niece to spirit me away. The next door neighbor happened to be outside as well and after chatting about photography for a minute, they arrived and he took a photo of the three of us with my camera.
We piled into the car and headed off to the big mall on the west side and found the restaurant. The others had arrived, including the Wooster contingent. It was great seeing them all.
The covid business has prevented us from any in person visits for three years, even though we are all immunized and boosted, we are also all or most all of a vulnerable age, so we do what we can to protect ourselves. It’s such a shame to keep us apart, because we have so much fun together, sharing stories, in a minute there is giggling and repeating what was funny and the laughing starts again. Well This birthday is the big 8-0, one of those big markers so my cousin was determined to make it memorable for me, which she did. They even brought cards and gifts, which was really not necessary, but I guess it added to the fun of it and we all oooooed and ahhhhed for each item.
We ate good meals, I had seafood stuffed raviolis with asparagus tips, which I found to be delicious. The time slipped away and too soon we gathered our stuff and meandered out to the cars, bidding each other farewell.
ponderingalongthemilkyway 