...have you had a day like this?

....one of those days...no milk for the coffee - 5:04 am, chocolate syrup spattering on the floor - 7:18am, annual appointment with the tax man at 11:00am, and a 20 year high school reunion at 7:30 tonight in Queens...ugh
...and me, ever ebullient, has a dented armor today, tarnished with the tiny troubles that accumulate...so I reached into the red chest that sits in the front hall, that cheery red chest that we found antiquing in Vermont (you know the one that almost didn't fit in the car, when Micah almost left me on roadside after an hour trying to load it in the hot sun, with the little ones meandering around the gravel lot...) well, THAT cheery, cherry red chest holds all our pictures...I reached in and blindly pulled out a stack (they will be in order someday, it's my goal for my 5oth birthday some 12 years out....)

The stack of images...it was friends playing with my kids here at the house. Ro, you are always the designated family photographer...that's why we just had to adopt you. And Lisa, you party girl, you always look fab even with our mayhem around you. And look, there's Robin and Denny the couple of the century...ooohh I wish these were digital...so I am off to the digital files to see what I can share...

Here they are...found some. Our porch seems the best perch in the place...in colder weather we are all about the kitchen of course, but as soon as the air warms us, we are on the porch, living half way between the house and the yard, and that is where my friends gather. We have pots and pots of tea, tropical girl drinks when the mood strikes us, while the kids play in the yard. We watch the odd car pass by and wave...so here we are on our porch having fun...

Hi to Ro, Heidi and Jody, here's my sister Roseanna, Nicol and Stacey....and there's Pat and Leslie, oh here's Laurie and her Tasie with Jill, Niole, Nanci, Jodi, two Lisas, Danielle, Judy...what days, what friends.... ahh...I am feeling so much better...Do your friends do the trick every time? Mine do, as do the wonderful memories.

Now, if i can only face all those old faces at tonight's event....hmmm well I am going mostly for curiosity's sake...will I still be afraid of the girls who sneaked cigarettes in the bathroom on East Bottom? I went to the largest private high school in the US of A. Yep, St Francis Prep which perches on the LIE in Queens. Run around the building 2x and it's a mile, this place was huge, so were the egos, the offerings and the possibilities (do you watch HBO's "Entourage"?)...but I barely remember it seems so far away... so are the faces in the yearbook...but the ones on my porch are bright and beautiful!

Friendships cultivated in the real world with shared loves, not just circumstances. Such a treat to have real friends, true friends, fun friends, old friends, new friends...

...and I just went to call my friend Diane Allison, she's already up and working this morning, but I cannot use the phone. My "adorable" 20 monther, Rory, decided to dump it into the sink last night. It, of course, landed in the pot that was soaking...ahhh of those days...I will take them all with my friends to cheer me.

xxoo Jen
Earth Angels Toys