How can I possibly describe the events of the past 24 hours... it involves a good walk, a good cry, and a dinner party that went completely off the rails...
Dan's sister Molly and her husband Norv were in town for a visit and we hadn't seen them since Shannon's funeral. They, along with Dan's brother Mike joined us for our morning trip around the reservoir. As soon as we crossed the golf course and reached the top of the ridge where the path starts, Dan looked up to see the bald eagle soaring right above us. The five of us stood there, looking up, and it was as if the bird hovered there, positioning itself against the wind so that it could stay directly over our heads. Unbelievable. We enjoyed the walking and talking and shared Shannon memories all along the way...
In the afternoon, we attended the Mayo Clinic's Children's Day of Remembrance. It's a memorial service to honor those children who were treated by Mayo and have passed away. Needless to say, Dan, Erin, and I were pretty uptight about taking part, and Erin was ready to pull the plug and head home 10 minutes into the service. But, I'm glad we stayed. There is something communal about being in a room with dozens of other families who know the same pain as us. The speakers touched on the theme that we are all on a journey none of us wanted to take, but it's our path now and we must find ways to navigate it as best we can. Sharing stories and remembering those that we've lost helps. By the time they showed the remembrance slides on the video screen, the three of us had all worked up to a really good cry and my only mistake was not having enough kleenex in my purse.
After that, we were ready for some comic relief...little did we know, there would be plenty of that as the evening wore on.
Norv and Molly had planned to make dinner at our house for the seven of us including me, Dan, Erin, Mike and Connie. Norv, who is quite the chef, had grocery shopped in the afternoon and was just beginning to prepare the meal when our power went out just a little after 5pm. So, we took our happy hour out onto the deck and waited... and waited... and waited. After an hour, Dan began checking for info on Twitter and found out that the power outage was widespread, some 3,800 customers were without power and it might be a while.
In the meantime, we began texting around to find out who had power and who didn't. Dan texted our friend Kula to ask if they had power. Kula said yes, why? Dan said we were just getting ready to boil pasta when we lost power. Kula generously offered to let Dan come boil pasta at her house. Here's where something got lost in translation...
Kula thought Dan was coming with one pan to cook the pasta. Dan thought Kula understood that we had 7 people waiting to eat dinner. So, we loaded up the minivan and headed to the Shives house...
The seven of us show up at their door with 3 open bottles of wine, uncooked pasta, raw meat, bread and salad. Kula comes to the door and says "You're ALL here?" and then invites us in and tells us to make ourselves at home. It probably comes as no surprise - that's exactly what we did!
Norv and Molly began rifling through Kula's kitchen drawers to find what they need. We used the Shives' wine glasses, their utensils, their table, etc. We had no problem getting comfortable and Kula's husband Tom and daughter Ariana arrived to find 7 people making dinner in their kitchen. So, our dinner party turned into a party of 10 and we ate and drank and laughed. Kula just happened to have an ice cream pie made, so she even provided the dessert! It was an absolute cartoon.
You gotta admire our gumption, though - here we are, can we use your kitchen and dirty your dishes and impose on you? OK, thanks! Ariana tweeted last night: "This is what happens when O'Haras show up unannouced at 7:00 at night - #soloud #whatishappening" Thank goodness, that when we first arrived at their house, Connie and Molly made Kula promise that, no matter what happened, she would still be my friend come Sunday.
So, another day in our lives, another day on our journey. We saw the eagle soaring and thought of Shannon. We went to the Day of Remembrance and thought of Shannon. We imposed ourselves and people who have become such dear friends over the past year and a half, and guess what? We have friends like this because of Shannon...
