It’s rarely my own birthdays that give me pause, although some of them can’t just be ignored or glossed over. It’s the birthdays of those younger than me that instill a little frisson of horror about how time is flowing in only one direction. Today marks the 50th birthday of my little brother. My baby brother. Even my sister’s birthdays, though she is also younger than me, don’t have quite the same effect as my little brother’s or my children’s. At the same time that you want to celebrate their passing into a new year, you want to just stop the clock because honestly, how is that even possible? How is it possible that someone so young is so…well, old. And, of course, when I gasp about it with astonishment to the birthday boy, he simply points out how much older than him I am, which doesn’t help. Sigh. His wife says he still behaves like a kid anyway, so it’s all relative, right? Age is just a number! Happy birthday, John!
It’s been sunny but quite cold still for a few days, and today is also mostly sunny with a thin overlay of cirrus clouds along the edges of the blue sky. The green stalks of the hostas are pushing aside the soil and poking up. There are pansies, escapees from last year’s pots, in the yard. Our yard looks so sad…after being thoroughly dry-killed by last summer’s heatwave. It’s a patchy mess of moss. The grass is struggling to recover and I fear another hot summer will do it in completely. I haven’t yet seen pansies for sale at the plant nursery but soon, I hope. Hard to believe it is already nearing the end of March.
Last night, I hosted Debbie and Camilla for dinner and Camilla and I made Chicken with Gorgonzola topping and a delicious salad with her homemade dressing (lemon juice, garlic, and herb salt). It was so good that we all ate way too much and I could have happily laid on the couch groaning for a few hours afterward. We looked at Karin’s photos from Costa Rica and the photos from our Lisbon trip that Camilla was supposed to be on. Camilla has lived abroad several times and has always had a hankering to move again…she’s talked about South America in the past, and I’ve always been sort of dreading that she would disappear again someday. Her mother died a couple of weeks ago and with her dad already gone, she suddenly realized this past week that she could move if she wanted to. She had come home from Poland several years ago, specifically to be closer to her parents, but now she doesn’t have that obligation anymore.
We talked about it and she said she had already come to the realization that she really loves the time spent with Debbie and me every couple of weeks and that she would miss that friendship too much to move away. Awww! Although, I know that’s no guarantee and she could still move if something came up, since there is nothing keeping her here, but still it was nice to think that my friendship means so much to someone. I don’t know what I would do without her and Debbie. They really keep me grounded and provide so many things through their friendship to me. So many of my dear friends live so far away, and even though I’m in touch with many and see some of them as often as possible, it’s not the same as having friends nearby. Especially in this time when Anders and I are in the beginning throes of learning to live without the kids at home. 🙂
I’m feeling the urge to purge, or maybe to spring clean but haven’t quite worked up the motivation to really get something done. I’ve been sort of puttering about all day, doing little tasks and chores and, of course, laundry. We don’t have any plans today so it’s nice to just have a down day. Tomorrow we are going to Anders’ mom’s apartment again to meet a couple of people picking up furniture and to fetch the few things that sold this past week, and we’ll probably stop by his mom’s and say hello for a quick visit, at least. It’s nice to have a quiet-ish weekend that includes good friends, good food, relaxation and a sense of accomplishment. All the good things, rolled up into a couple of days. I hope your weekend is equally lovely and that you have spring things to brighten it!