Saturday March 8, 2008

Best Part of the Day-

Crazy/random running into people from long ago. 

Here's the deal: Scarlet still invites many people to her upcoming (October, yes, I know) birthday party.  Her list of invitees for her 4th B-day party crossed all age, race, sex, and class barriers.  The 5 year-old party she is planning is much more elite:  kids only.   She still abides by the "come one, come all" philosophy and invites every child she sees.  So today at the nondescript restaurant (shall remain nameless), I am allowing Liam to roam free in a quiet section in the back for a few minutes before our food comes.  Scarlet accompanies us for a bit but sprints straight for the table with 2 cute little girls (with mom and dad.)  She says her well-rehearsed blanket statement about the birthday party, when it is, who she is and who Liam is, etc.   As I am leaning awkwardly to tend to Liam, the mom of the girls says to me "You look familiar".  I look at her for a second and she doesn't seem familiar, but smile and then have to chase after Liam who is running to the condiment storage area. (Ahh, ketchup everywhere.) When I come back to get Scarlet, she is still chatting away and tells me she just met Sophie who is almost 5 and Stella who is almost 4.  This time the dad at the table looks right at me and says "I think I know you from somewhere."  All I have to do is really look up and...

Well I'll be darned.  At a chain place on a family getaway we run into my aunt's ex-boyfriend of 13 or so years.  (That means I knew him for at least 12 of those years.  That's a long time!  Also, he had a slamming beach pad in the Florida Keys so I made sure we were buds.  Kidding--he really is a good guy.)   So Will-O and I and ex-boyf and his wife chat for a bit while our kids run around playing and screaming with delight.  We joked that the last time the 4 of us saw each other it was 8 years ago (at the fantastic beach house) and we drank wine all night in pre-marriage, pre-kid fashion.   As we were leaving and rounding up the kids we talked about how much has changed in those 8 years.  Ex-boyf smiled and said, "The party is sure over."   Yes sir-ree.  

Isn't that crazy?

Worst Part of the Day-

I think it is gross if one household doesn't recycle.   But when it is an entire city I am bummed out.  I 'm talking to you, Chicago, Phoenix and now, Hilton Head (the ones I know first hand).  

I had our week's worth of garbage all set to go and divied up into the standard paper, glass, and plastic and the front desk guy looked at me like I was a hippie in a co-op (I wish) and said to "throw it all in the dumpster, 'cause we don't do that here."

It should be a federal mandate for all U.S. cities.   How can a dent be made, if not?  And, honestly it's fun, it's easy... it's recycling.