Michelle and Tom: 20 years

On the weekend, Jeff and I attended the celebration of the 20th wedding anniversary of our friends Michelle and Tom. It's hard to believe that it's been that long though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; Jeff and I will have been married 18 years this year.

In honor of the event, I wrote a song called, "Pennies For Your Thoughts," a silly but heartfelt tribute to my friends. When I performed it for Michelle and Tom, Jeff and Kaarel stood on either side of me. With their arms crossed, they wore sunglasses and baseball caps turned backward, and punctuated my song with the occasional chanted "PENNIES." Others sang along on the chorus as well as shaking improvised percussion instruments with pennies inside.

The expression on Michelle's and Tom's faces during the performance was immensely satisfying. :-)

At the end of the song, one of our nieces collected all the pennies from everyone and presented them to Michelle and Tom in a mug made by Luisa and me. {Brief background info: we used to fill Michelle's shoes with pennies back in university. Don't ask.)



The anniversary cake (a really scrumptious lemon cake with buttercream icing from Dufflet's) was imprinted with an edible replica of a group photo that my father took after the wedding ceremony 20 years ago. Looking over the faces in the photograph, I can't help but notice that most of us are still in touch so many years later.



I've changed a lot since those days, but I still have such clear memories of how we all bonded while attending the University of Toronto. It was the first time in my life I was part of such a close-knit group. We hung out together, played and fought with each other, dated and broke up within the group.

Every guy I have ever dated in the past (all three of them, not including Jeff) was at the anniversary party, each of them married to a friend of mine and each with children. :-)



After graduating, we scattered across the continent, with some going overseas. The group itself evolved (as big groups of friends often do and for good reasons) into some longterm close friendships, but mostly with people moving on with their lives. I feel lucky that Jeff and I share so much history and old friendships; getting together for a mini-reunion like the one on the weekend was equally fun for both of us.



It was especially great to see Michelle's parents again. I pigged out on a yummy Japanese rice dish that Michelle's mom makes (I forget what it's called but it has shiitake mushroom, among other ingredients); my mom used to make it but after she died, the only times I ever get to have some are when Mrs. Sagara makes it.

And I didn't even recognize Tom's younger brother (shown below with his girlfriend) until Tom's sister pointed him out:



I used to teach flute lessons to this fellow years ago, but he was way shorter (!).

And (yaaaay), I finally got to meet Tanya Huff's partner. I guess I can't keep hassling Tanya about imaginary partners anymore.

Many thanks to Michelle and Tom for hosting a wonderful party.

And Happy Anniversary!

Beckett Art

Yay, the art I ordered from Beckett Gladney's Etsy store arrived! It actually arrived a while ago, expertly packaged and looking even more gorgeous in real life than on the computer screen.

Beckett's added more art and photos to her shop, by the way, so I encourage you all to go visit RIGHT NOW. Check out this gorgeous batik case:



She's labelled it as a knitting needle case, but I can so easily see other uses for it.



My Blatherings revamp is coming along as I tweak here and there. Still working on the header.

Artsytalk at The Butler's Pantry

John and I got together yesterday with Patricia Storms at The Butler's Pantry in the Annex. There was a lot of artsy talk, which was fun, as well as comics and kids' books.

I feel very lucky to be surrounded by friends who inspire me with their creativity and passion for what they do.

Those of you who read my blog at Blatherings.com rather than an RSS reader will see that I've switched to a new Wordpress theme. I decided on The Morning After following a chat with Scott Schumacher.

He's right -- the theme seems so appropriate for my personal blog because of its emphasis on images. I also like the magazine-like layout.

The switch is requiring (and is still requiring) much more CSS tweaking than I expected, though, but I'm learning a lot more about CSS that I can apply to my other Wordpress theme tweaking.

Anyway, all that preamble is a lame-ish excuse about why things are probably going to look wonky for a bit. :-)

Friends and comics and polar bears

Watched the season finale of Lost with Jeff and our friend John Kalisz. No spoilers in this entry, don't worry. All I'll say is that I keep getting more confused.

I mention Lost because I wanted to post some cool Lost trivia. Remember that Spanish comic that Hurley was reading in the beginning of the series and that Walt was reading later (the one with the polar bear)? Well, John worked on the original comic. How cool is that?



I'm very much enjoying John's Toronto visit. I got a kick listening to John and Ruth talk computer-artsytalk on Friday. Tomorrow we're having lunch with Patricia Storms of Booklust (whose book The Pirate and the Penguin is coming out this September!).

Artbeco is on Etsy!

My friend Beckett has (finally, yay!) launched her own Etsy store. Do go over and take a look...but don't wait too long! She just opened her shop yesterday and over half of her inventory has already sold. Prices range from $5 and up.