Thursday, December 29, 2005

Friendship assembly line

I like to use the analogy of Lucy's pies on the conveyor belt (I Love Lucy) for a number of incidents that occur in the general scheme of life. This time of the year seems appropriate. Instead of pies rolling my way, it's friends (the greatest of all gifts for which I'm thankful). Just like Lucy, however, I'm not a great multi-tasker, and I have a difficult time seeing everyone I want to see in such a short time.

But I do my best at setting aside moments to squeeze in quick visits with folks I don't see often except for the holidays. This has definitely been a marathon week at reconnecting. It always feels good when the holidays come to a close to know that for one more year, some good visits have occurred. And it feels good to know that those intangibles which connect us remain intact and healthy, in spite of our rare visits.

The first friend I must think of this morning will be reading today's posting, I hope. It's Edna Iverson's birthday today; she's finally caught up with me in "maturity," and she is 58. So, happy birthday, Edna. I did reconnect with her recently when a bunch of us retired teachers got together for lunch at Slate's. Edna's enjoying her first year as a full-fledged retiree so she has the luxury of "doing lunch" with more frequency.

This morning's a double header in the visiting department: Chad Berkeley and his new girl friend at the Hoot Owl at 8:30. Chad graduated from SHS in 1995; he was my student for three years, including the year he served as Cedar Post editor. Nowadays, he works in some kind of heavy-duty computer stuff at UC Santa Barbara.

He's given presentations about his work in other countries, including Scotland a couple of times. He's looking forward, however, to a move to Southern Idaho where he'll learn how to fly helicopters and eventually get into search and rescue missions. The money's been nice but Chad says he's ready to do something more meaningful in his life.

After we've drunk far too much coffee and I've headed off to the bathroom a few times, we'll hug once more and I'll drive into town at 10 to see my longtime friend Chris Moon Hengstler at Connie's. More coffee, more potty trips and more catching up as I learn what exciting research and junkets Chris has taken this year as a Pacific Lutheran University professor who also does research through the University of Washington.

Her specialty is studying the speech patterns of newborns, and I'm thinking by now, she must be a respected expert in the field. In my book, she's a respected friend who'll remain so for good. We created some lasting memories together as summer workers for the U.S. Forest Service back in the early 1970s, and after I gave up the job to go be a journalist, Edna (today's birthday girl) worked as Chris' partner.

Tomorrow morning, Bill and I will once again go to the Hoot Owl to meet with Carson Jeffres and his girlfriend Karen. Karen has semi-adopted us after meeting us four years ago at Willie and Debbie's wedding rehearsal dinner. While Carson works in fisheries at the University of California at Davis, Karen teaches middle school in Sacramento. It will be fun to hear her experiences since this is her first year.

I might also ask Sarah Aavedal to join us so we can listen to Sarah and Carson share fish stories. She took a job last April at a Salmon hatchery on Alaska's Prince William Sound. It's a very remote setting, and her contacts with the outside world have been pretty limited for several months. She's now home until mid-January, but she tells me she loves everything about her new job in the field of aquaculture. I have a feeling Carson would love to hear her stories because he's a fish man of great magnitude.

Yesterday, after hosting my niece Maureen and her husband Sean and their two boys at this house, I joined them out at Colburn where five youngsters played in the snow while three other generations sat inside visiting around Mother's dining room table. There was a brief squirrel show out Mother's new bay window and and extended period of eating donuts, candies and cookies.

During that visit, one young man named Jacob figured out how to hide under the table and reach up (hoping he was unseen) to grab yet a third donut. The only problem he encountered was a black and white Border Collie who watched his tactics and had a few of her own----grab that donut when Jacob wasn't looking. Jacob cried while Kiwi chomped down her booty.

After saying good bye, I took some belated Christmas cookies to my friend Margarete who works as administrative assistant to the big honchos at Coldwater Creek Catalog Co. Since it was the down time after the pre-Christmas storm at the company, Margarete took me on a tour of the main office at the corporate headquarters.

It was pretty interesting to see the virtual store, which is set up and photographed as a model of uniformity for all other Coldwater Creek stores across the nation. We saw the photography department with all the cameras and props, the spa, the gym and the state-of-the-art auditorium, filled with high-tech goodies. The last time I'd been in that building, it was a warehouse where thousands of shoppers from around the region would show up on sale days.

This week is definitely a busy, challenging time to squeeze in all those visits before my friends head off the conveyor belt and get back to their usual routines, but I'm happy to make the effort, knowing they'll be back on the belt this time next year with new stories to share.

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