Escape

A difficult Saturday, I guess.

My very good friend (is "best friend" considered too grade school these days?) is moving to Arlington, VA to start a new job as a Professor. I'm excited and so proud of her, but I am also sad, angry and disappointed that my friend will be so far away from me.

Saturday morning I drove to her place to help her pack.

Boxes everywhere, stacked in every imaginable place. I boxed up her kitchen cabinets (except the pantry). As I stood carefully wrapping her dishes in stiff clean newsprint, anticipating where in the box is there likely to be space for this dish, and space for this bowl, I had ample time to mull over my negative emotions.

Eventually I found myself folding and wrapping in to each box my love and admiration for her. I even took time to hide a small box of half eaten chocolates I found in her pantry that she had gotten on some trip to a place with pretty scenery - well, at least that is what was on the box. I wrapped the box and it's glorious sunset in a piece of the crisp paper, and wrote her a note.

"I am proud of you, and love you very much" I signed it.

I stayed with her for about 5 hours, and managed to fill quite a few of her boxes, sealing them with clear packing tape and neatly hand writing "Fragile" and "Kitchen" on them all.

Saturday evening I went to a birthday party for a friend from work. It was a nice relaxed and decidedly kid oriented event. The birthday girl has a 6 week old, and there were the 2 kids of the host, plus another co-worker brought her 2 litt'lins. We swam, ate, drank and talked about all sorts of stuff - important and not.

Sunday I woke late. The heat again bothering me, I guess. Or it could have been the pre-emptive emptiness her leaving will leave.

I took myself to the stream in the hills, and caught some sun, and swam. I realize that I am a bit of a freak in the eyes of the other folks who show up. Very few of them are there to take the waters. They mostly have "other pursuits" in mind. Not that there is anything wrong with it. We all like to frolic, which is fine, don't get me wrong. But it is a little cliche, isn't it? It started to smatter with rain, and the hot air made it quite an amazing experience, especially on the trail back to the car, where I stached my towels and other assorted stuff. I figured it was better to have a dry towel than get stuck in a downpour.

The downpour never eventualized, but I was ready to head home, where I lay on the sofa, panting in the heat, before heading to bed at 8 PM!