Circles

Pat Bracewell, a writer friend and reader of this blog sent me a link to her most recent essay, "Circles," in the June issue of Skirt!.

She writes about singing Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" for at her friend's 20th birthday party, and then playing it again for her friends 38 years later. And now, of course, they all have sons and daughters of their own, and the words take on a new meaning. It's a good read, and if you, like us, also have college-age kids, it may even bring a few tears to your eyes.

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's not because I love turkey so much (I like it well enough), or because I'm a big fan of the pilgrim story. No, it's because this is a holiday that's all about spending time with family and friends. Nearly every year for well over a decade now, we have spent Thanksgiving weekend with our friends Patty and Chris and their kids. For years, we rented a house big enough to hold the two families in Galena or some other town between our home and theirs. For the past couple of years, we've made our way to their home in St. Peter, Minnesota, where Patty has a gallery that of course has to be open on "Black Friday."

We are all very well aware of how rare and wonderful this kind of friendship is. Patty reminded me that when we first met, I was younger than her oldest daughter Becca is now. (I was 29; Becca is 30 and a family practice doctor.) We've seen each other through the sadness of the death of a loved one, the happiness of graduations and a wedding, and many marathons. And through it all, we've remained friends, and I'm happy to report that my kids look forward to spending Thanksgiving with the Conlin-Gurney clan as much as I do.

Our Thanksgiving always features the battle of the cranberry sauces. Tony always makes his traditional family recipe (found on the back of the cranberry bag). Chris opens a can of cranberries. Patty usually makes some sort of elaboration on Tony's sauce. I generally make a cooked cranberry sauce, although one year I was foolish enough to make Susan Stamberg's "Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish" (in addition to fresh cranberries, it involves an onion, sour cream, sugar, and horseradish). And each year, we vie to win the battle of the cranberry sauces. Here was this year's lineup, plus a few pictures of our sweet kids with their sweet cat:

Ain't the internets great!?

Well, yes, they are. Sometimes the internets are pretty great, in fact. Case in point: I got to know Lu, aka Speaker, service dog trainer extraordinaire and terrific Mom, via my running buddy caraf. I'd met Lu, briefly, and not in any really meaningful way, at a local race years ago. But we really only got to know each other through reading each other's blogs.

This past week, Lu came to CU to visit her son, a student at the U.I. She took some time to see Gracie and me as well. My internet friend became my face to face friend in no time. Thanks, Lu.

This may be the final entry in my blog until the first or second week in November. Until then, I'm going to be focusing on my finishing my volcano scientists book. But I'm going to meet Tony in Rome for his 50th birthday the weekend of Nov. 9, and then after that I may have a body modification (no! Not plastic surgery!) to report... And that's all I'm going to say.