Happy Memorial Day weekend, Part 2

So, yesterday (Sunday) was kind of a mixed day. I met a good friend of mine, Paige, for brunch at Podnah's, a fantastic barbecue place where Drew, Rachel and I usually go for dinner. Paige was in town from Eugene without her two kids; she used to work for the Oregonian but now writes while her husband is publisher of the University of Oregon student newspaper. We had a great talk.

On the way home I zipped into some open houses (just to get ideas about what to do about our basement), then came back to make a chocolate silk pie and do some light cleaning before our friend Anne came to dinner. Anne is a reporter with the Oregonian. She's a widow in her 50s with no kids; her parents (90-year-old dad and 85-year-old mom) live in Ohio and she has decided to take a three-month leave to take care of them (although she has already sold her house in Portland and held a garage sale, so our guess is she ain't coming back).

Rachel knows Anne well; she was a frequent dinner guest while Drew was at Columbia and was always game to come over on Sunday and extravagantly compliment me on my cooking (and she unfailingly brought a gift for Rachel, which I always appreciated). When Rachel heard that Anne was leaving town, she decided to give her a gift -- a snow globe she made in preschool -- and insisted on filling out a card with a message (dictated to Mommy, of course) and draw a picture. I could tell Anne was really touched by the gift, or maybe it was the multiple hugs Rachel gave her, unprompted.

Drew made duck and wild rice and salad; my contribution was the pie, which came out better than it ever has. We talked even after Rachel went to bed, and I was struck with how life changes so quickly. Anne lost her husband about the same time I lost my job, and now we both are in completely different situations, moving on. I'll never forget her loyalty after the Oregonian fired me unjustly, and how she took me out for lunch and told me it was the best thing that had happened to me, that I had won my freedom and I'd be able to write whatever I wanted, the way I wanted. At the time I didn't believe, her, and I'm still not quite sure I believe her, but there was a kind of truth to what she said. And now she's leaving, and although we'll keep in touch on Facebook it won't be the same. And that makes me sad.