And it continues....

The nostalgia, that is. I'm sitting in a coffeeshop/deli (Amer's for those of you who would appreciate) where I would meet friends and study for 8 wonderful years. They're playing music that I received as a birthday gift freshman year just down the street in the dorm. I just finished a sandwich that made me the happiest girl in the world. I haven't been able to find anything like this place in Los Angeles, except for maybe The Coffee Table in Eagle Rock.

My heart is full today. Thanksgiving was hard at first. I slept in and came downstairs and mom wasn't cooking in the kitchen, and it really didn't seem like Thanksgiving, or that anything really could make it seem like Thanksgiving. But we went over to a family friend's house and it seemed more festive. It ended up being a pleasant day. The pre-meal prayer was my favorite, "God, I haven't talked to you in awhile, but here we are. I have to say that I'm jealous of Barb, because she gets to be with you now. But thank you..." and the thankfulness commenced--for healing from his own bout with cancer and for family and friends and so many other things. I got to speak with my many families--my best friend's family in Michigan who I spent 3 Thanksgivings with through the years, LA friends who were all celebrating an "orphan" Thanksgiving together passed me around. A friend and I hung out later in the evening, looking through high school yearbooks to prepare for our 10-year reunion the next evening.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was my dad's involvement in my finding an outfit for the reunion. I had gone shopping all day on Wednesday in search of something pretty and comfortable to wear, and just got overwhelmed by the plethora of options at the mall--really, how many different things can you wear with black pants? I didn't find anything, which meant I would have to wear something I had or go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving--God help me. When I came downstairs on Thanksgiving Day, my dad greeted me then said, "Well, I set aside all the ads for places where dresses or winter coats were on sale, so you can take a look at those." And a little later he chimed in, "Really what you need is a little black dress with a scoop neck, maybe with some scalloping on the edge. If you wear that with a strand of pearls, it would look just great." My dad the fashionista! He actually put thought into my outfit. I was really touched. And a little black dress is not something I've owned since high school, or early college, so an expansion of the wardrobe would have been helpful.

I had to work the day after Thanksgiving at 6:30am (I've been picking up some Starbucks shifts in St. Louis), so my dad offered to get up at 4am and go shopping with me to find something. So that's what we did. The crowds weren't too bad at Kohl's and I knew I had to leave with something or deal with something I already had. None of the little black dresses they had quite worked and after about three sweeps through the racks, I was feeling a little hopeless. But we found a nice sparkly sweater and a new pair of black dress boots, which I desperately needed. Dad was really great at helping me find something that would look good. And it was a special time for us--little did I know the fashion insights I'v been missing all these years. As we were walking into the parking lot, pleased with our purchases at 6am, my dad confided, "I really didn't like anything else you tried on, but I wasn't going to say anything. I'm glad we got what we did."

It wasn't until later that I realized that's probably something I would have done with my mom--she would have gotten up early. She would help me root through racks of clothes and approve or disapprove accordingly. So we have a new way of being that I think is harder on dad than he's letting on....

I had lunch with a high school friend who wasn't going to the reunion...we see each other once every couple of years, and it is always amazing, and this was no exception. The reunion was actually a blast. I'm one of those people that loved high school. I was excited to go the reunion and see people, even moreso people from elementary school. I went with a couple friends, and they were nervous to go. I wasn't really. The whole idea of being 28 or 29 and spending an evening with people you haven't seen in 10 years was certainly weird and surreal. It was awkward getting in the door, but soon the familiar faces began pouring in and hugs abounded. I didn't even get out of the front hallway for 2 hours, having one conversation after another until the wee hours of the morning. It was amazing what I remembered and what other people remembered about me. Some had heard about mom. Many had memories about her. The whole thing was beautiful. Seeing how people have found their niche or are still on the quest for it. Remembering my trip to Italy as a Latin student with others who had gone. Meeting people's spouses and hearing about children. It made me glad that I'm a person who can talk to anyone about anything for hours on end, because that was basically the evening, but truly, I have known some amazing people in my life, and I have been someone memorable to them, too.

Now I'm in Ann Arbor having gone to a friend's wedding last night with more old friends and more nostalgia and reminiscing. More familiar places and faces. Such good stuff, I'm bursting at the seams.