New Year with Old Friends

As Leo would say, "Oh, my..." has this year started off with a bevy of blessings in the form of visitations with old friends. Together we laughed, we remembered, we mourned, we cherished our time together, then and now.

Johamy, Matt and Bear spent a night en route from San Diego back to their home in Seattle. 

We love each other like sisters.

Patti and Ziggy drove from Colorado Springs to see her new grandbaby in LA. She tore herself away from the family for a few days in Laguna. We hiked when the sun shone and worked on a collaborative art piece when it rained.

And ever the agent, Patti introduced me to Nzinga Moore, an actor in Costa Mesa who will appear in the next Bare Bones playreading. Patti has such amazing energy. She's a joy to have around.

After Patti left, we drove up to snowy Idyllwild, where Ava, Jason and Miss Pickles came up the hill for a few days. Honestly, we did more than just lay around by the fire, but we laid around by the fire a lot, too.

Ava looked seasonal while working on her laptop.

And Jason treated us all to his famous shakshuka for brunch.

To end the month, we drove from Idyllwild to La Jolla to tour the old neighborhood and meet up with longtime friends Leo and Helen, who haven't aged a bit in the years we've been gone from Birdrock.

Helen still adores Buddy and Arwin, her 14-year-old cats, still plays tennis and still cares for a beautiful garden in the house she's lived her entire life.

Leo still has a great laugh and an enduring positive attitude about life.

(And Bahia Don Bravo is still serving burritos.)

Leo and Helen at the oceanside park that Helen's mother made.

Finally, we visited with our favorite next-door-neighbor Kristen Luther with her beau, Carlos. If you look carefully, you can see Maile, Jake and Noah as little kids on Kristen's old sweatshirt.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !

and gie's a hand o’ thine !

And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,

for auld lang syne.