From the picture above, clearly, one of these reunions is between Banjo and my good friend Susan. It’s a little weird how well Banjo remembers people she met briefly; Susan visited us last little over a year ago, but when Banjo saw her here north of Atlanta, she buried her head in Susan’s lap and wagged her tail in a complete circle: Banjo’s signature happiest move.
Her other signature move is to lie down about five minutes later and go back to sleep, which of course she did.
We’re here in Acworth, Georgia, to see friends, but with potential bad timing all around. Everyone we’re here to see all work during the week, so we have only the weekend to try to meet up, and Tracy and I keep checking the weekend weather, catching the occasional severe storm warnings with high winds and hail and possible isolated tornadoes. Gulp.
So far the storms have missed us at the crucial moments, like last night when Susan came by after work.
She and I met when I lived in Atlanta something like a lifetime ago; we had our babies in the same hospital at the same time, and she invited me into a playgroup where it all began. Seriously, for the past 22 years we’ve gone from seeing each other once a week with our growing babies, to merely chatting while playing online Scrabble, to now a weekly ten-minute phone call. But we‘ve visited each other throughout those years. (Sorry for that time Jackie Boy peed on your carpet, Susan.)
Here we are at it again. We’ll see how much visiting we can get in this weekend; I really want to see her family, whom I know so well but haven’t seen in maybe a decade.
So this campsite is another Corps of Engineers site like the last one. They dammed the river northwest of Atlanta and built this lake for some civic reason or other, then built the campground around it. This one isn’t as spiffy with the fancy decks as the last one, and we had to get the last-available site: a pull-through site right off the road, which means we keep our shades pulled on the road side for privacy against the families walking the campground in their bathing suits (ew).
I gotta say, the area isn’t anything to write home about, either. Atlanta has lovely urban parks and neighborhoods, but the surrounding counties ain’t much.
Well, the lake side of our campsite here is quite lovely, and frogs chirp at the water’s edge at night.
It’s a little weird being here, I have to admit. I’m not going to bother visiting the two places where I lived for years; they’re far away, and I feel like I live another life now, anyway. Plus THE WEATHER is looming over us so with these planned reunions.
Another is (weather-permitting) lunch today with my friend Kathy and her family. Kathy and I went to high school together, but frankly we didn’t know each other then (we went to a weird school). It’s been through the magic of Facebook that we’re now acquainted, so it’s high time for one of those legendary IRL meetups where we put flesh and voice to the stories we’ve been exchanging on Facebook all these years.
Come on weather, let the reunions continue! (Also, please do not destroy our home.)
Tiny House Update
The downstairs is complete, with working lamps and a tiny music box behind the TV that plays a mystery song. Those throw pillows were a beast to create, with very thin material that needed every edge folded and glued over to prevent fraying. I had to ease bits of cotton into each one with tweezers, then glue them shut again without any glue showing. I feel like I gave birth to each of those freaking pillows. And don’t look too closely at the plant by the sofa; that was tricky, too. That’s why it’s out of focus. 🙂 I do wish though I’d gotten the delicate detail in the fabric of the lampshades shown best when lit.
Next up: build the library/tea room above—and behind—the living room in that big empty rectangle. I’m curious to see how this changes the footprint of the house and then how it fits in the bin where I store it!
