Weekend Pleasures

Friday was Michele's birthday. According to her sister Rachel, it should be celebrated as a worldwide holiday — and I have to agree. Michele is, quite simply, wonderful: kind, intelligent, loving, wise, playful, generous, and loyal. I am so lucky to have had her in my life for the past five years and more.

We celebrated with a fancy dinner (cooked by the birthday girl herself, who is home right now, resting between tech-writing contracts). Salmon, mushrooms, rice, another vegetable I've forgotten. . . . and of course we bought her a birthday cake. Then the presents. A very pleasant evening.

Saturday we had friends coming up from LA. In the morning, we did housework, then I took an afternoon nap. When I woke, Jim and Linda were here, and we got to do some serious talking, since I hadn't seen them in a couple of years. A good supper (ginger chicken, asparagus with tamari sauce, rice, another birthday cake). We got to talking about holidays, and I reminisced about entertaining my in-laws at the last two Thanksgivings of my marriage. Suddenly I said, "My God, I am so happy I'm not married to him anymore!" Which means I've worked through the minor discomfort, the weirdness I felt when I discovered my ex had remarried. In the evening most of us watched a movie, but I needed some alone time, so I went and worked on fixing up my office.

Sunday morning a bunch of us went to breakfast. Then I took a nap and spent the rest of the day getting wonderful phone calls: from Gwen and Adrian, from Joe, from my mother.

Altogether a good weekend. And tomorrow afternoon I should be able to post about the exciting secret events of the past two weeks.