Tuesday and counting down...

I leave tomorrow. I am happily spending today getting a few last minute things done, but the car is nearly packed, the computer is ready to go, I've cleaned up my home office and I've nearly got the necessary outside work finished. The picture shown here only proves how chaotic things were last week when I was trying to sort out what needed to be attended to and what could wait, what I was taking and what I ought to file away. Amazing, even to me, is that by picking at it a day at a time, I managed to finally make order out of the mess.

I made contact with two old friends in Boise, Idaho, who are both as excited as I am for us to get together again. My former next-door neighbor, "D," and I had a good conversation on the phone and it was so good to hear her laugh again! I was so excited to make contact with my former boss, "J," that I called her too early and woke her up, but we've exchanged a few e-mails and I can tell that sharing time with her is going to be lively and fun as well. 

"Old" in this case, referring to my friends, is that they comprise my longest and dearest friendships. They were part and parcel of my Idaho experience and "D" was my chauffeur and a part of the "pacer" group when I went to the hospital in July of 1981 to give birth to The Little Whopper, who is now 6'4" tall! (He got the nickname because the first time we rushed to St. Luke's, it was a false alarm and the Pacers and I all adjourned to Burger King for lunch.)

I first met "J" when in Sun Valley in 1973 (I think) and interviewed for a position at the newly formed Sun Valley Magazine office. I was recently divorced, had moved to the area with dreams of becoming a writer and had been writing for the Ketchum newspaper. I sold her on my skills, which I had surely overrated, so she was largely responsible for turning me into the writer I needed to become and we had many challenges as I grew under her direction. We also became great friends and she exposed this New Hampshire girl to western country music, especially Tom T. Hall. I still smile when I hear his recording of "Sneaky Snake."

So pondering our reunion has provided some meanderings in my mind about our past and made the drudgery of cleaning up slightly more entertaining.