The top ten list (best friend visit edition).

1. Excellent dinners, with a cheese/queso theme for several.
2. Long drives, with opportunities for long catching-up talks.
3. By paying attention to weather alerts, averting death by flash flood.
4. Through expert Yelping, finding a perfect bagel breakfast in Moab.
5. Walking down with my oldest friend into the passage and echo of time in Mesa Verde.

6. A thorough discussion of the ills plaguing public education in America. (Just ask us, our solutions would dramatically improve things.)
7. Breathing deep, opening up to the big western sky.




















8. Sharing trade secrets of all sorts.

9. The two of us holding a very new grandbaby.
10. Knowing that she knows things about me that I have forgotten, and can help me bring them to mind at exactly the right moment.

























It has been soul-expanding and amazing. I'm so glad you came.

Q: What do these things have in common?

artist's rendering
of my petite valise

• iPad
• 3 outfits
• practical shoes
• a Swedish detective novel

• a Stephen King novel
• the W magazine with Tom Cruise on the cover, bedecked in eyeliner and rocker chicks
• three lipsticks
• one camera, two lenses
• a boarding pass
• a pen
• a notebook

and a partridge in a pear tree*?

A: they are all coming with me to visit my darling friend in NoCal. I hope to bring home small treasures from this region, as well as tales of adventure, redolent of good food and good times. I am pretty sure I will succeed in these goals. Watch for updates here!

*not really coming with me, as my suitcase is, for once, small.