The rest of the greatest week

Ah, Monday. Laundry is almost done. House is clean. Little courtyard and butterfly garden are thriving, green and blooming. (I excitedly check them almost hourly, as if I had a sleeping newborn out there.) And me? I'm happily reflecting on last week, a week I consider myself blessed to have had.

Wait a minute. It's not Monday, it's Wednesday. I wrote the above on Monday though and then I stopped writing because I wanted to give last week some time to thoroughly soak in.

Now I'm ready.

A highlight of my week was having lunch with my friend known around these parts as Velvet Sacks. I've known Velvet since I was 24 when she worked for my father's company but I'd not seen her since I was 24. We reconnected after my father's passing and have remained connected since. It was so good to see her, to hug her, to sit across the table from her and talk; I could have stayed with her for hours.Velvet has two dogs and one of them, Butch, is my cross-species love. Butch is blind and he has had a special spot in my heart since I first read his story and saw his pictures. Velvet invited me to her house to meet Butch face-to-face and, for me, that was like winning the lottery. Upon meeting him, my love was sealed. He is the happiest dog I have ever known, so sweet and so strong and a kissing fool!



After leaving Velvet, I drove farther east to New Orleans and spent the afternoon strolling the city with my camera. I went there for my first Jazz Fest, and dinner with a friend who works for my old company who was in town from Oregon for the fest. Both the dinner and the fest were beyond my expectations. And I admit that my expectations were high.



Then a friend flew in from Houston and are you keeping up with me and my week or are you starting to get exhausted? We hit the town Thursday night and then walked the town Friday morning and that walk included Chartres street, Jackson Square, the Mississippi River, all through the Aquarium, up Canal Street, along Royal and to this fabulous spot for oh my goodness the best oysters and Bloody Marys and is anyone ready for a nap yet?



Yeah, I was too. But instead we drove home for five and a half hours. And then I went to sleep. Which would be a perfect place to end this post but the next night, Saturday, my friends and I went to see Fleetwood Mac and although we've seen them many times, the Mac really rocked this show and so we danced and clapped and sang and screamed all night long. And my voice went into hiding until late Monday afternoon.

So, now it's Wednesday and here I am, still happy and grinning from what a great week I had last week, what wonderful people I know and met, the great food I ate and music I heard, and how lucky I feel to have experienced it all. Sometimes life takes us away from the ones we know and love and sometimes it takes those people away from us, and yet still other times, life brings back the old and gifts us with new. That was my week.

~ The End ~