Crazy Week (Part One)

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I met so many fabulous people who I am going to carry around with me for the rest of my life. For the first time in I can't remember how long, I felt as if I had valid things to add to the conversation, and didn't once (okay, maybe once) feel as if what I had to say was going to be contradicted or dismissed. I just felt like I could tell these people anything.

One of the great people I met this week was a woman they call "Laner." When she enters the room, the party can finally begin. She has a wit as sharp as a tack, and a circulatory system that could use a bit of upgrading. The first real night I was there, there was a nice, gentle, evening summer breeze swirling around the deck, and I was nice and toasty in my short-sleeved shirt and shorts, but I looked over at Laner, and she was covered from head to toe in blankets, and had a pair of Sallye's smart wool socks on her feet. She looked like Mother Theresa. She says that sometimes she'll be dressed the same way in New Orleans. This is probably why she took up residence in Merita, Mexico, which is on the Yucatan Peninsula.

She also took real good care of me. One morning, I had to get up at 5:30 in order to get to a foreign language teachers conference in Rockland, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from the "camp" we were staying in in Freedom, and it was Laner's duty to get me up that morning. She thought the time was around 5:30, and she raced downstairs (which is a real feat in and of itself) to go and wake me up. Luckily she looked at the clock in the kitchen and noticed the time was 3:30. She then trudged back upstairs and went back to sleep. I have never had anybody who had only known me for a handful of hours do something like that for me.

Another fantastic lady I met is kind, funny, very intelligent, and very well-connected. People call her "Missy," but I think her real name is "Lucille." She is a social work professor at the other USM, University of Southern Mississippi, and is a very devoted wife and mother. One of the great things about her is that she can talk with ease about any subject under the sun. One of the first nights I was there, we talked for about two and a half hours, and it would have been longer if Sallye and Papa hadn't finished their cigarettes when they did. We talked about a whole mess of things, from her family, to my family and the divorce... She got me really excited about maybe moving to Bonn, Germany and working in some capacity or other for the Paralympics. (Her son lives in Bonn and is the Sport Dirctor for the Paralympics.) Who knows how that will pan out, but the very idea of it is very satisfying. We also talked about how hard it is to trudge through the last few papres (this is the British spelling ;-]) to get your degree. She told me that it took her 30 years to get her doctorate. And she told me to take school one step at a time, and not to overwhelm myself. I have until September of 2007, which is ample time to finish my degree. I'm thinking that by next June, I will officially have a BA in French, and I will be able to announce that proudly from any rooftop. Getting down from said rooftop may be a problem, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Another thing about Missy is that she is an excellent cook. The first night she and Laner were there, she threw together this decadent shrimp and whole-wheat pasta with a light sauce that I ended up having 5 servings of by the time the week was over. (I want the recipe!) Also, when I heard we were having Gumbo, I have to admit that I was not that excited because I had never really enjoyed any of the Gumbo I had eaten, (that includes in New Orleans) but her Gumbo was chock-full of flaver (the newly-proposed American spelling ;-]), and I finished the whole bowl of it. It went very nicely with Laner's simple-but-elegant potato salad. It actually tasted like potato salad. So, needless to say, I was not wont for good food. I had it in abundance. Even the egg salad sandwiches that Mimi made for me were really good.

Before Missy left, she called me her new best friend. I would have to agree with that.

Edited 1/27/06 @ 3:14 pm by B. Stewart Caswell

Well, this week was so great, I have to fit it into two entries!

à + !