better than a sharp stick in the eye

All kinds of things have been happening!

Besides for working each day, which brings new and interesting people to meet, I've been biking around on all the roads available, reading, sleeping, and also becoming a caterer, of sorts. Claire and I decided, in order to pay Carol back for the photo shoot she did of us last fall, to go to her house and make her a dinner. She was receptive to the idea, so we planned the whole thing out and arrived there at 5, whipping up appetizers, a salad, a main course (a Spanish paella) and dessert in the space of two hours. There were six diners including us. It was good fun on a rainy evening, in an artsy house overlooking the river. The food was delicious and the conversation inspiring and raucousy, by turns.

Then, last night, it was Mat's "grand march", when all the graduates of a high school dress up in tuxes and puffy dresses and promenade around the gym, which is decorated with balloons and stars. That was nice, and Mat looked stunning and handsome. All the dresses and hair-dos were mind-boggling, and at the end I felt like I'd witnessed a mass wedding.

Oh yeah and--I had a visit last weekend with some dear old friends, Kevin L, Jacky M and Jack McI. It is odd to think that they are old friends now, that time has passed since I first made their acquiantances. For a while there they were new friends. But I digress. It was a nice visit last Sunday, we lay around and cuddled platonically, like we do, while it turned dark out. We read Vogue and looked at pretty cookbooks, remembering our adventures together.

I've also received not one, not two, but three real letters in the mailbox, all on the same day! (From Morgan P, Marlo B, and Gill McG.) This makes me feel rich. I made a cup of ginger tea and read them all straight through. Perhaps it's the lack lately of Internet, perhaps it's something else, but lately I've really been enjoying the idea of written letters, sending hand-tailored packages to friends, making interesting labels for envelopes. Communication and creativity, around the world for less than a dollar!

I also met last week two cyclists from Toronto going around the trail. They stopped in the shop and we had a long chat about poli sci, psychology, and English (my three main interests) along with other countries, languages, airports, and books. You never know who is going to come into the little shop on the hill. That's one thing I love about that job. Another is getting covered with clay.