December 15, 2007

Socialities





Holiday Images: Boxed white and silver balls.




I’m a social critter at heart. Some of us are, and some aren’t. G isn’t. Yet you should have heard him last night talking to Marion B and Marta as if he was comfortable talking. Impassioned, he was.

The house was warm, the lights on, and dinner was filling the house with good smells when the M’s arrived. Marion B brought her just published chapbook. What an exciting moment to see this little book of poems. How very kind of her to share this special gift with us. It’s been a long year of “stuff” for Marion B. Painting her house, all many floors, doing stucco, getting her health in ordered lines, finishing other biggies all culminating with the creation of this lovely little book…her “chat book.”

We toasted Marion B.

Someone must have mentioned to Marta that G and his brother grew up in Pakistan. Perhaps she asked him an intelligent question about that country. What ever it was that got him started, G answered a question then kept talking. Passionately. He kept talking over the Milwaukee Settlement House pork chops with apples, the fresh steamed broccoli and tossed green salad, finally silenced by a poke in a rib over the three kinds of desert.

I’d forgotten he could get so passionate and remained so current about Pakistan. Then, after a long pause, he said yes, if the war ever settled down he would go back again. He had never said that before.

It was a delightful evening. Everyone should be blessed with guests who live full lives and are willing to “dine out” on them. Everyone should also be blessed with guests who leave at a comfortable hour.

We need to be social more often.




Duck: We told him and everyone else that we were not going to visit. He get's upset when we aren't there....and I understand. He did tell us long, long ago that we didn't have to visit every day. Today he lives in the now, and if we don't visit he get's very upset.

Me: Tooth pain gone. Some swelling remains. The pork chop recipe says, “put in a medium oven, put half an apple on top, sprinkle with sugar, and baste often until browned for 40 minutes. I didn’t think so. I had G brown them gently on top of the stove then I popped them in a 350 oven….that was a guess at medium. Uncovered, since it didn’t say otherwise, for the requisite 40 minutes. I thought them fractionally tough, but everyone else liked them. Someday I will perfect this.

G: G’s got an ingrown hair in his nose that makes him look like Rudolph. Despite alcohol wipes and antibiotic crème three times a day, it isn’t getting better. I worry.

Weather: Cold. I turned the heat on yesterday, and it was heaven. Talked with another board member late yesterday and she said she had been to visit a friend who had heat and it too was heaven. We discussed one of us who put in baseboard heaters. They paid for themselves in a year.

1 comment:

  1. Isn't it nice to find out something new about your partner?

    ReplyDelete

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