Stompin' Around

It was pretty cool to chase autumn across the US this October.  Western Massachusetts is stunning in fall, and it happened to be the second stop on our trip across the States (after a wonderful visit in New Hampshire with the nana's and the papa's).

I was fortunate to be able to visit two sets of friends from two very different chapters in my life . . . dear friends who now happen to live five minutes away from each other in Massachusetts.  Five minutes!  Within a two hour drive from my Nana's in NH, we arrived to visit them both in quaint New England towns outside North Hampton.

Our visits were brief, but super sweet.

Here's our sweet treehouse in NorCal!

We spent the first night with Bill and Jayne, our former neighbors in Mill Valley, CA.

Marin County is paradise. End of story.  Doug and I moved there in the fall of 2004, one month after we got married.  Doug had been promoted to a new a position at Starbucks, and I had also taken on a new role at Starbucks, albeit based in Seattle.

We lived in CA for four years. Four years among the redwoods, on the hills of Mount Tamalpais, equidistant from Stinson Beach and Saulsalito, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.  It was amazing.

We had 120+ steps up and 120+ steps down, and we loved every single climb we made during that time.  Even when carrying an infant Abigail in her car seat to-and-from the carport above . . . way above. 

Jayne and I immediately connected in lots of ways, not the least of which was over literature and writing and walks in the woods.  Oh, did I mention she's fluent in French (another small hobby of mine)?  And that she was the head speech writer for Apple back in the day?  And that she makes superb French toast and paella?  I consider her a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration.

Somehow I failed to snap a photo of all of us together, but maybe better still is this link to some of Jayne's poetry in the Illanot Review and, below, their summary of her professional career.  If she looks interesting and smart, it's because she is.

Jayne Benjulian’s poems appear in Zone 3, Verdad, Sequoia, Spillway, and The Seattle Review and are forthcoming in Barrow Street. Her essays are published in The Atlanta Journal and HowlRound and are forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books. She was Director of New Play Development at Magic Theatre in San Francisco and Fulbright Lecturer in American Language & Literature in Lyon, France. In another life, she was chief speechwriter for Apple.  She lives in Western Massachusetts.

I hope our chat about doing a writing retreat together materializes someday.  Excuse me while I fantasize about the cool places we could go and all the cool work we'd produce . . .

We spent Day Two with my also very interesting and smart college friend, Sara.

She and I are now forty-somethings with (little, little) kids and husbands and dogs and all that comes with that.

We were in each other's wedding and her parents hosted me for more college breaks than I can recall.

Her parents have been some of the best listeners I've ever known, and one wink or look from her dad and I know exactly what he means and that he gets me.

They gave me one of the best gifts of my life by making the trip to Washington DC to attend my wedding.

Here's a few highlights and learnings from our trip to visit Sara, Nick, Magnus and Rowan:

1. Sara is very creative and I love her hand-built ceramics (sadly, I didn't take a photo of the shelves above her stove filled with oodles of her pieces).
2. Sara is very creative and insightful (sadly, I didn't get a photo of the two of us together).
3. Abby fell in love.  With a dog named Edwin.
4. Reese loves to wrestle.  He doesn't get much of a chance to get his wiggles out this way, and now I really understand the benefit.  We need more boys in our lives!
5. Fall in Western Mass is beautiful.
6. Dogs are hard work.
7. Boys love sticks.  Girls love sticks.
8. Magnus and Rowan are "so cool" (Reese Satzman, October 23, 2014).
9. Fallen leaves are fun.
10. Reese and Abby want a lego room (yes, room) just like Magnus and Rowan.
11. Abby and Reese need new, bigger bikes (we live in Amsterdam for crying out loud).
12. Who creates a BMX bike trail in the woods behind their house?  Very cool grandparents, that's who.
13. Speaking of those grandparents, we love your new place Marsha and Dave!
14. Sara makes a mean butternut squash soup.
15. We were all sad that Lisa and Jeff couldn't join us this time.  We hope your knee is feeling better, Lisa.
16.  It's unbelievable that Sara and I have known each other more than half our lives.  27 years!
17. We love you and will miss you Bressem-Harrison's.  Sleep tight.

The lego room.

Lovebirds.

Halleluiah.  For old friends and stompin' around in the leaves.