An old friend came to town

Life takes so many different turns, at least mine does.

I lived and worked in Asheville, N.C. for a while, and when I was there I met Lydia. She worked at a medical lab where I temped for a year. We kept in touch over the years, and then lost touch, and then I found her on Facebook, or maybe she found me. I can't remember.

We somehow both ended up out here in the Pacific Northwest. I was in California for a while, and she was in Oregon for a while. I moved to Washington, and now she's living in Alaska.

Anyway, after all this time, about 15 years, she was coming to my area for a family wedding in September. Our kids range in age from 3-13, so we decided to meet up at the zoo in Tacoma one afternoon. She and her husband Phil brought fresh, delicious, smoked salmon, which we all enjoyed during a short break before we walked through the zoo.

It was so great to see her again, and meet her husband and children.

A taste of summer

It was really hot last week. We had a couple of days in the high 80s, and that is pretty miserable for people who are native to this Pacific Northwest climate. For me it wasn't quite so bad. I really enjoyed the warmth.
Sean and his neighbor friend Kyle played with the water hose a lot, and even formed quite the mud puddle. I let them just have fun, but required that the puddle be filled back with dirt so we wouldn't have a pond in the yard. Honestly, I was happy he was able to play in the mud.

We spent the day with our friends Shane and Jacob-Joshua on Saturday. It was warm, though not quite

 as warm as it was on Thursday and Friday.  

We saw this deer as we entered their neighborhood. Shane says the new homes are on land that was wooded, so he deer is probably a bit confused. 

I kept wondering if he would go into the newly constructed home. He didn't, and instead he crossed the road and headed for the shrubs in the neighbor's yard.

The boys had fun playing in the pool while Shane and I looked through catalogs and chatted.

Ahh! What is that, I'm blind!

Talking about the weather is so boring. I hate to do it, but we have had a lot of gray days, so when we get a sunny day it is a really BIG deal to us. It always seems so bright when we've had so many days of gray and the sun finally appears.
Saturday was beautiful. First day in many that the sun was shining.
We went to the zoo with some friends and played for a while. I was pretty disappointed when Sean had had enough and wanted to go home. We spent a little time at his friend's house, and the boys wanted to play inside and watch cartoons.
Go figure.
I was able to capture a few shots at the zoo, and Sean took a lot of photos of animals.

I'm cheating a little on this one. I took one of this stained glass window in the aquarium during our last visit to the zoo. 

We love to visit the touch tank. There are always star fish, sea urchins, anemones and sometimes hermit crabs. We like to see what each one feels like, but boy is that water cold. It's pumped in from Puget Sound, and the temps are about 50 degrees on a warm day. 

We've never done this dress up activity before, so that was something new and fun. Sean was an octopus and his friend Jacob-Joshua became a sea urchin. They had lots of really cute sea creature costumes.

It was a busy day, and we were invited to dinner with other friends. I didn't get any photos there, and wish I had. My friend Kevin spent the evening playing outside with the boys while his wife and I talked. We had a great time.

This week will be busy too. Meetings, social engagements and stories to write.

Special Connections

People cross our paths every day, and we don't remember most of them. Some stand out for whatever reason - maybe because of a facial feature or something they are wearing.

Even the people we formally meet can fade into the past. I have had friends who are no longer a part of my life. They have just faded away. Some for good reasons, others, just because there was nothing left to talk about.

I have been so blessed to have some very special people come into my life, and stay.
One of those people is Jim Nave.

I call him Nave. (pronounced Navay because I cannot find the mark to go on top of the e.)
He was the first to come into my life and stay. The story of how we met and became friends is quite interesting. This is a very short version.

A friend (who has faded) invited me to a cast party at his home. Nave was there. I can't describe in this post how intense this meeting was. I remember he held my thumb, and it seemed like the rest of the room was fuzzy. There were people there, but he was the only person who was really in-focus. We talked, we went for a walk, and I remember sitting on a low brick or rock wall not far from my friend's house, talking.

Nave was living in another state, and we struck up a pen pal relationship. I visited him, and a relationship was born. Over the years (17, I think now - WOW) I have felt a special connection with him. For many years, whenever I was having a really hard time, a bad day, or just felt glum, I would find a letter from Nave in the mailbox. It always included some exotic post mark, and wonderful descriptions of where he was at that very moment.

Nave is a poet, and a performer, and teaches writing workshops all over the world. You can find out more about that here. He rubs elbows with some of the famous people, and it reminds me of how small the world really is when I read about his adventures. Here's this man who knows a lot of people with recognizable names, and he knows me too- this Southern Girl just trying to make it all count somehow in the Northwest.

And he has written a poem about me. View it here and click on poetry, it's the one called The Ghost of Sam Cooke.