Maude, Angie, Emily, and me

This is what a girl needs, especially after an apprehensive first week (week without kids): good conversation, good food. Cafe Maude. Asparagus and crab cakes, superintendent speeches and new job prospects. Sometimes I am so well adapted to the pace of conversation at home, little spurts, sharing news, telling small stories, and the quiet in between, that I forget what it is to have a continuous conversation. Emily is one of those rare fast friends, and this time I was lucky enough to spend time with her Angie (we spoke of "my" Angie and "her" Angie and their strange common thread, both having mothers with severe MS).

I also am always reminded of how much I miss Minneapolis when I go there. This city is so deep and so wide and there is so much to do, to explore. So many good, good restaurants with swanky music and a smoky atmosphere (without the actual smoke, of course, what with the ban and all). Charming waiters, who also happen to be social studies teachers at charter schools, and that buzz of conversation, people picking apart the regularities and vagaries of life.

Tomorrow: errands, including a stop at the DMV (half an hour away) for a new photograph and a new last name, a stop at the U of MN to set up a file for letters of recommendation through CLA, the post office, and to deposit more in the new classroom. But now, upon returning home, sliding into pajamas, receiving much wet tongue from Penelope, I will curl up on the sofa and read, drift away, and drift upstairs to sleep. The weekend before the first day of school, the true first day, with students and all. A frightening prospect, though I grow confident each year.

Gros bisous.