the weekend flew by

Our best friend Jodi arrived from Galena Il on Thursday. She is from Washington State (Tacoma) and we have not seen her in 15 years. Her mom has friends in Galena so they went there. It is only a little over 2 hours away from us. She drove up about 5 minutes after I got home from school and we squealed and ran into each other's arms. We are both older, but as the weekend wore on the age seemed to just melt away.

We talked for a little while and then just settled into our old patterns. It was nice to have no pressure to talk or keep each other company. I had to keep reminding her that she was the guest so she got some special treatment.

I had to work on Friday so she spent the day alone and made Maddie a cheesecake for her birthday. She also finished up most of my cleaning and swept all the leaves off the front porch. She rearranged the furniture to accomodate the kids who were coming for the movie marathon later so we were all ready to go when they arrived.

Maddie and her friends walked around town until 5:00 and bought some Mountain Dew for their caffiene fix. They started the first movie at about 6:00 Guests arrived for the next couple hours at different times until all 9 of them were there.


They all crammed into the living room. I explained to them all that if they stained my newly recovered sofa and chair they would be immediatly killed and they seemed to understand the threat amiably. Jodi was impressed at how nice a group of kids they are.

I took the first shift and stayed up until about 2:00 when Puck got up to take over. I got about 3 hours of sleep then woke up at 5:00... I knew a couple of the girls needed to leave at 8:00 and I wanted to get some pancake batter mixed up. I sent Puck to bed and stayed up the rest of the morning.

They had run out of energy at about that same time so they switched from the Mystery Science Theater movies to ones which were easier to watch. They watched Bikini Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Then one episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse... The boys were shocked to see the Matrix's Morpheus riding around on a little stick horse as Cowboy Curtis.. that was quite entertaining.

After that they watched The Mummy Returns and topped everthing off with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (they all seemed to know that one by heart) I told them they could watch that one to the end, but then they all had to go home ... I needed to get some sleep. They were very good about it.

Maddie got some interesting gifts from her friends. Her boyfriend gave her little plush microbes she got the common cold, the flu, and a sore throat. She got a Goodwill Gift Card, a boxed set of Big Band CDs and some other burned music and a little plush Gir and a long Gir scarf

It was a great last hurrah birthday party for her. After I sent the kids off Maddie went to bed. Jodi got up a little after 11:00. I tried to nap, but was unsuccessful and was pretty much a zombie all day. I slept good though and we decided early that we would forgo church the next day.

Friend Michael arrived at 11:30 Sunday morning and more squeals of old friendships renewed ensued. We all used to hang out and play cards and other games so much. It was so fun to have them both together.

We got dressed and ready for the concert in the park at 1:00... too bad it was raining. All the church groups were doing a musical fund raiser for our local Outreach. Our church group was set to play at 1:00. We hauled some chairs and umbrellas in for Michael and Jodi and Maddie and I joined the group under the band shell. We played and sang for about a half hour and went home to warm up. I don't think the Outreach did too well (Yesterday I found out that our pastor has been relocated and will be leaving in June... perhaps that was why it was so gloomy)

We went to see Puck at the tavern and he made Michael and Jodi some awesome Bloody Marys... I had a 7-up and Maddie was too cold to drink anything.

We went home and tried to warm up some more. We talked. Michael gave Maddie her birthday present which was season tickets to APT (where he works) Now we need to figure out dates and buy ourselves season tickets (He will get them at his cost though so it is great deal)

We played cards late into the evening... just like old times

I went off to work in the morning and turned down a sub job for Puck.. (Too much partying for the three of them) Michael spent the night and left at noon the next day. Got home from school and Jodi had gone off to watch Maddie's liturgical dance practice which got interupted by Puck telling her that she was back on the schedule to work. Jodi drove her to work and picked her up at 8:00

We were going to play cards again, but apparently we wore our friend completely out. She went to bed with a headache :(

She had a bad fall five years ago which has left her disabled. Her left shoulder is pretty much useless and her range of motion is very limited in that arm. She takes quite a few meds for pain and I think all the activity and fun and drinking just wore her right out. I sat upstairs and we talked for a little while, but then I let her sleep.

This morning we said a teary farewell and promised that it would not be 15 more years till we saw each other