Bye-bye, Auntie Rachel! (Sniff)

So, today was BR's last day with us. I got an unexpected writing assignment in the morning (yay!), which put me in a good mood for most of the day. BR and I had a light lunch at Cosi, near the newspaper, then went to The Post and met Lori Montgomery, who then introduced BR to Tracy Grant, the paper's hiring manager. She and BR had a nice chat about possible employment, and BR promised to send in her resume.

Then we headed deeper into the District and hit Voice of America, where she met with some folks about doing editing/writing/working with reporters in Juba, South Sudan, which looks like it is a go. One of her assignments is to look for a story for me to do so I can pitch it to The Post and visit her while she's there, which hopefully won't last longer than six months and then she can come back to the U.S. (hopefully D.C.) permanently.

I waited until around 4:30, then headed back home to pick up LR from her latest summer camp -- art camp -- and we swung by the train station to pick up BR. Then it was home to prepare steaks for the grill, baked potatoes and salad. Drew surprised us by coming home early, and BR and I relaxed while he took over dinner. I opened a pinotage from South Africa that I happened to have in the basement, which turned out to be EXCELLENT, and we ate outside, and the weather was absolutely perfect -- so perfect that I needed a blanket to cover my legs -- and we ate, and talked, and listened to LR break in now and then with her end of the conversation -- and we all remarked that it felt like late fall, and suddenly it felt as if we were in Tuscany or South Africa or wherever, just a bunch of old friends enjoying wine and good food and each other's company. It was MAGICAL, a great way to start the week (even though I started the week on Sunday by working my usual night shift at The Post, complete with editing a front-page story, YAY.)

At 9:30 we left for Union Station so BR could get on a bus for Charlotte, NC. LR was very sad to see her go -- "I wish she could stay for a HUNDRED DAYS MORE!" she said, disappointed, as we arrived home from camp -- and BR said she has a wonderful, wonderful time, as did we, and we hugged each other goodbye. Earlier tonight as I was bringing plates in from the deck I thought, this is absolutely the best summer I've had in a long time, although last summer's trip East with LR and Molly and all the wonderful things we saw and did was pretty awesome, too. I feel like one very lucky woman tonight.