Good Friends are Food for the Soul

Yesterday we drove from Effingham, IL to Columbus, OH. As many of you facebookers know, we got stuck in a long traffic jam outside of Indianapolis, which made us get to Columbus later than we’d hoped, but not too bad. While we were crawling up I-70, we noticed a cool invention – heavy duty springs that keep construction signs from blowing over. What can we say? We’re easily amused. Finally we pulled into Columbus around 7:30pm. Tracy and Pakito had a bunch of delicious snacks waiting for us: homemade layered tortilla chip dip, mixed olives and peppers, cold beer and delicious wine. Pakito had made a vegetarian Thai curry from jack fruit, which we’d never heard of and it sort of tastes like potato when it’s not ripened fruit – so yummy! But most of all it was so wonderful to spend time with them and their 6-year old daughter Katie. I will always remember what year Katie was born, and also my friends Jenni and Randy’s daughter Indigo, because they were both pregnant at our wedding! I haven’t seen Katie in over 4 years and she is just an amazing kid. While I am so sad to now be so far away from my wonderful Bay Area friends and family, it is so great to be closer to Tracy and her family – she has seen me through some serious ups and downs and some of my worst selves and still loves me. We took some fun pics and Katie showed her talents for photography and modeling:

After much cajoling and direction from me & Tracy, Lori finally looked right at the camera, so to speak.

It was hard to leave this morning, but I will get to see them again this summer 🙂