Busy days

For an introvert like me, having social events five days in a row doesn't exactly sound enticing. But I had five really lovely days last week. Here they are:

Wednesday: I met blogger Melissa! She lives in another state, but her parents live nearby. She was visiting them for the holiday, so we met at Starbucks. Just the two of us, no kids. It was great. We chatted away like old friends until suddenly it was dark outside and her cell phone was ringing with the news that she needed to come home for dinner. She is so nice and sweet and funny, just like her blog. What a delight!

Thursday: Satiation shock, infra.

Friday: Spent the entire day with friends. Okay. Yes. I admit it. We spent the day tossing dice of many shapes and colors. If you don't get it, I'm not going to explain it. You already know I like games.

Saturday: Satiation shock part 2: Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family. We did the whole thing all over again. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yup. Two huge highlights of the dinner were the salad (mixed greens with roasted beets and this amazing mild creamy goat cheese) and the homemade ginger ice cream. Another highlight was the college freshman cousin who brought along his BANJO.

Sunday: A HUGE mommy moment -- Joey's first piano recital! My mom had serious reservations about taking him as a student because, being mostly retired, she couldn't provide the experience of regular recitals with a bunch of kids taking turns playing. So we decided we'd have to create opportunities, and what better opportunity than Thanksgiving vacation, with out-of-town relatives present. Joey was very nervous beforehand (Grandpa Bookworm and I responded, "Good! You're supposed to be nervous! You think Vladimir Horowitz never got nervous before a concert?" Reassuring, I know. But I was glad Joey took it seriously enough to be nervous.) And bless his heart, he played very well. And his little cousins were mostly quiet, though at one point Daniel commented quite loudly, "Oh my goodness!"

One of my mom's recital traditions is to begin with a student-teacher duet. Awww!

So that was my busy week. During all this, I also finished another blog design. And I've been reading Birds Without Wings (see sidebar), which I am LOVING. So far. I'm not even a hundred pages into it yet. But I'm loving it. It's very colorful, atmospheric, full of peasant superstition, aphorisms, Christianity vs. Islam, oh, just wonderful. It's got all the ingredients for a Julie's Favorite [rubbing hands gleefully in anticipation, and hoping for a bad back or mild cold to keep me in bed for a day or two . . . ]