If Memorial Day is the official kick off to summer, then I kicked it off wearing a steel toed boot while holding a mug of beer.
One giant perk of my corporate ad gig is something that management calls Summer Fridays.
Summer Fridays are you guessed it, Fridays during the summer months that we can take off.
Every other from now till Labor Day.
My weekend started Thursday night then with drinks at my favorite bar, The Black Lotus with the original Black Lotus friends. :)
Friday morning I woke up and managed to drag myself to the gym. Wasn't feeling too good but managed to get my house cleaned up a bit. Rested for the afternoon and then Becky came over and we went to dinner at Zumba and then we watched, Hangover 2.
Saturday morning was still feeling a little off and since the weather wasn't cooperating, Connie and I changed our nature hike into a trip to the movies. We saw, The Lincoln Lawyer. My review is that it was a pretty good movie.
After that we did some window shopping and I found a new beach hat for the summer.
Home after that to head to Zosia's birthday party. Stayed just a few hours because I had to get up early Sunday for a Wedding brunch in Ann Arbor.
Sunday morning, I woke up got dressed up and drove to Kim and Tom's to ride along to Ann Arbor. Yolanda and her boyfriend Nestor got married in the woods. I wasn't invited to the actual wedding but came later for the post wedding brunch. Came home and rested on the couch just for a bit.
Then it was off to an impromtou dinner and drinks visit with Jan and Greg and Trevor on their deck.
Ignoring the tornado warning, I just hopped in the car and went with it.
Steak dinner and lots of conversation later, I headed home.
Monday morning brought sunshine for Memorial Day. Headed to Pam's Memorial Day Parade Party with my brothers in tow. It was nice spending time with them and on Memorial Day.
Home for a short nap after that, and then off to Kim and Tom's for a BBQ.
Very fun and hot. :)
All in all, I feel like I crammed a few summer weekends into one.
Can't wait to see what else the summer brings. If all the weekends are like this past one, my laundry may never get done.
And that's ok.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
A Friendship in Summary
The funny thing about friendship is it’s truly a sum of its parts kind of deal. You don’t catalog this or that. You just accept what is about your friend and take it in stride.
Strange that after one dies and I think of her in a collection of character traits. Like how when we would go for our daily walks, Nevada (that’s her name) she’d always stoop down to pick up loose change. Even pennies. Most people wouldn’t bother. But Nevada would always scoop it up like it was a gold coin and say, “Hey, it’s money isn’t it? I’m not too proud to pick it up.”
Nevada was brave, strong, vibrant, strong willed, compassionate, a hater of small talk, and a lover of flowers, plants of walking outside, of a cold beer on a patio.
Afflicted with a rare brain disease called, Moyamoya that killed her.
Before she died, she lived a full life.
And I was lucky enough to part of that life. Our paths crossed in the winter of 2006. We were both copywriters for Ford Motor Company’s ad agency. Most writers aspire to write more than car slogans… and this was definitely the case with Nevada. She self published one book and was in the middle of writing her second one when she died.
And myself for that matter. But this story isn’t about me. Not really. I was just along for the ride. A friendship for the ages—that lasted only four years.
She and I shared some similar personality traits: We’d never stop talking, we loved to write, to drink beer, both steadfastly loyal to those we loved, and a wicked sense of humor.
Me though, I will say even to strangers on the sidewalk or when a new person would walk by Nevada and mine’s desk… Nevada used to tease me, asking me why was I talking to them? They didn’t know me.
We used to joke about how when we got old, we’d both be at the nursing home and I’d be saying hi to everyone and Nevada would be grumpily telling everyone to go away.
It’s a wonder then how we even became friends in the first place. Perhaps I wore her down or she learned I wasn’t as much as a dork as I perhaps originally appeared.
I can’t be sure what it was, but I am just glad it is so.
Strange that after one dies and I think of her in a collection of character traits. Like how when we would go for our daily walks, Nevada (that’s her name) she’d always stoop down to pick up loose change. Even pennies. Most people wouldn’t bother. But Nevada would always scoop it up like it was a gold coin and say, “Hey, it’s money isn’t it? I’m not too proud to pick it up.”
Nevada was brave, strong, vibrant, strong willed, compassionate, a hater of small talk, and a lover of flowers, plants of walking outside, of a cold beer on a patio.
Afflicted with a rare brain disease called, Moyamoya that killed her.
Before she died, she lived a full life.
And I was lucky enough to part of that life. Our paths crossed in the winter of 2006. We were both copywriters for Ford Motor Company’s ad agency. Most writers aspire to write more than car slogans… and this was definitely the case with Nevada. She self published one book and was in the middle of writing her second one when she died.
And myself for that matter. But this story isn’t about me. Not really. I was just along for the ride. A friendship for the ages—that lasted only four years.
She and I shared some similar personality traits: We’d never stop talking, we loved to write, to drink beer, both steadfastly loyal to those we loved, and a wicked sense of humor.
Me though, I will say even to strangers on the sidewalk or when a new person would walk by Nevada and mine’s desk… Nevada used to tease me, asking me why was I talking to them? They didn’t know me.
We used to joke about how when we got old, we’d both be at the nursing home and I’d be saying hi to everyone and Nevada would be grumpily telling everyone to go away.
It’s a wonder then how we even became friends in the first place. Perhaps I wore her down or she learned I wasn’t as much as a dork as I perhaps originally appeared.
I can’t be sure what it was, but I am just glad it is so.
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