Party Prattle

I'm receiving communications from friends wanting to know how Saturday night's dinner with friends went, after I wrote about it on Friday. I have only good to report.

The biggest challenge of the evening was getting the car out of the driveway. I spent over two hours shoveling my driveway on Saturday morning after we received around 12-16" inches of snow. My daughter-in-law's blog post will give you great visuals. The picture above shows my driveway as I'm about 20 minutes from completion. As I was near the end, my big brawny neighbor came across the street and brute-forced the final several cubic feet to the side. Two days later, I still feel aches in every muscle. This Florida girl has never been exposed to snow like this!

By Saturday evening when we left for the party, my street had still not been plowed. We backed out into the street, then had to spin our wheels and rock the car for several minutes to get going forward. Once we were out on the main road, the rest of the trip was fine.

We had dinner at a Johnny's, a local restaurant know for good, quality Italian food. There were about fourteen of us around a long table. Most were Ward Bakery Building tenants affiliated with Artists of the Mahoning Commons. Most knew my daughter-in-law, Jaci, who has studio space in Ward Bakery. This is a group who routinely meet for dinner on Friday nights. They know each other well, know the ins and outs of each other's lives. I was the only stranger at the table, but was made to feel completely included. I sat next to the new fiber friend I made a couple of weeks ago, and across from a woman who is a potter and musician. Knowing that, you can appreciate that the conversation was easy.

After tripping over my tongue a couple of times right after we arrived, I settled down and my nervousness diminished. The evening was very enjoyable: good food, good discussions, and good [new] friends.

On Sunday I took the Jazzman with me to my son and daughter-in-law's for their monthly pot luck dinner. He was, in return, thrown into a situation where he knew very few people, and he handled himself with great skill.

With every passing day, in every way, I am more and more comfortable with this fine man who has dropped into my life.