"Happy day before Mother's Day!"

...is what Rachel greeted me with this morning. How can you not want to hug and kiss someone who says that to you right after you wake up?

I went downstairs, emptied the dish drainer from Drew's utterly fantastic duck and wild rice Shabbat meal, then set out breakfast. I ate a quick one with Rachel and Drew after they came down, with Rachel insisting on reading a front-page Post story today about people who pilfer things from the White House, and then I went into the kitchen to make cookies for tonight's neighborhood potluck/block party, which I realized quite late that I hadn't made plans to bring anything for.

I just barely finished before racing into the shower, getting dressed and then driving out to Laurel, Maryland, which took me waaay longer than I thought it would, to meet two former and one current multi platform editors for The Post. We ordered lunch and oh, I wanted to drink so badly but I held off because I knew I had to drive back. Anyway, we had a great time laughing and catching up (I had to wipe tears from my eyes a couple of times, I was laughing so hard) and then I raced back to get to the potluck/block party at 6:30 (it supposedly ended at 7 but lasted until 7:30). My cookies were all eaten up; Rachel was racing around with friends and going in and out of the bouncy house; Drew was talking to a Medill grad who had just moved here from New Zealand; and a brass quintet was playing. I laid out our picnic blanket, got a burger, hot dog, some side dishes and dessert, and had a lovely meal on a day when the weather could not have been more perfect. Spring here, I told someone from Oregon this week who was in town for a book reading, is equivalent to summer in Oregon.

Drew and I had volunteered to clean up, so we helped break down tables, throw away garbage, recycle bottles, etc. Then he and Rachel walked back (actually, Rachel rode her bike with her cook new helmet; Drew got that for her today and tuned up our bikes at the bike shop so now we can all take family bike rides together, yay!) while I drove home with a big back of garbage from the potluck we had agreed to put in our trash bin, as well as some leftovers I plan to bring to work tomorrow to share. All in all, it was a great day!