Friends

It’s only a week late, and I’ll have more to say about it beyond this post, but last weekend was just so lovely, I had to record it.

Rachel the Great did a wonderful job, once again, of setting us up in a rental home well-equipped to accommodate our crowd.

The home was absolutely beautiful–elaborately decorated, with tons of lovely places to sit and enjoy the great company/view/food.   At night, I could even hear the seals barking from the rocky shore near by.  It was just heaven.

A few important firsts on this trip:

1. Another generation!  It was so great to see Jo, Paul, and young Maria back in Cali!  Maria is 18 months-ish, and so sweet!

2. My first game of Settlers of Catan.  Not surprisingly, I’m a big fan.  Anyone up for a late-night game, I’m your girl.

It’s wonderful to have friends where you know you will learn and laugh in equal amounts–and eat and drink in near-equal amounts.  More than that, this weekend was especially good to me, as I am not in a position to take for granted familiarity and history.  These days, pretty much all it takes to rank as my friend is to pick the table next to me at Zoka.

So, thank you, Rachel and friends, for making my Labor day so wonderful and restful!

And, in the continuing theme of Life is Just Simply too Easy…

Friends!  We’re making friends!

I swear, life is WAY too easy for us.  By us, mostly I mean Matt, but I get the benefit of proximity.

I thought we were going to the cafe to get some work done, as a prelude to a walk to a neighborhood dinner destination.  Thrilling Saturday, I know, but I took Monday and Tuesday off.

Matt, on the other hand, decided he was going to the cafe to make friends.  He brought his book and his computer, and he planned to stay there until someone interesting sat down next to him.  The optimism of this action was literally hilarious to me.  I laughed and ridiculed for most of the walk to Zoka, after pointing out the easier approach to friend-making, calling people we have talked to but not actually hung out with yet.  But, he was determined.  And, like I said, I had to work, so figured there was no harm in going along for a little while.

And wouldn’t you know it, it worked.  Matt made a friend.  Just like that.  Amazing.  I swear, it drives me nuts when his optimism turns out to be justified.

Actually, it wasn’t quite that simple.  Aaron is a guy we met at Zoka the day that we signed our lease here.  He’s a geek and an entrepreneur and an all around interesting guy–our people, for sure.  So, while Matt was sending vibes into the geekashpere, trying to attract potential friends, Aaron was working at Zoka.  And happy to see us, and happy to chat, and happy to share a pitcher afterward.

Even here, in my beautiful, easy, luxurious life, the hard things just aren’t that hard.  Remarkable.