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I keep thinking of good memories and frustrations from my week in Maryland and Virginia...

One night at Ann's we kept saying that we were going to bed but the conversation just didn't seem over. We ended up on her youngest daughter's bed talking and on the other side of the wall were Lucy and her oldest daughter. Ann and I were talking about life and trying to solve the world's problems and Lucy and her daughter were on the other side talking and laughing and probably also trying to solve the world's problems. I love that we are friends and that they are friends.

My son, Drew, loves thrift stores and flea markets. He likes to recycle the world's goods and he loves a bargain. He can be very frugal. He had $25 to spend for one weekend his freshman year in college. I talked with him at the end of the weekend and he had bought a new dress shirt and a bicycle, gone on a bike ride, went out to dinner, went to a play and had a great time. On his way to my mom's house he and his friends had stopped at a flea market and bought an old board game called Capital Punishment. Each player was given 15 citizens, 2 liberals, and 3 criminals. The goal is to keep your citizens safe and the criminals on death row or into the chair. Your liberals can put the other players' criminals back on the street. When you are down to one innocent citizen you can sacrifice a liberal to save your citizen. Of course, if you know me and my family, you will know that the political slant of this game is the opposite of ours. But the conversation around the game was pretty funny. The game was from 1983.

Right before I left for BWI, Ann's youngest daughter closed the door on her best friend's finger. She howled and we all went running to help her. Ice was found and a bandaid wrapped around her finger. We all know how bad it hurts to close your fingers in the door but I think it might be worse to be the person who closed the door. Ann's daughter felt terrible and kept telling her friend that she didn't know that her fingers were in the door. After things had settled down a little and the little girls had discussed with each other how to make it better, they came to sit with us on the porch. Ann's daughter kept touching her friend's shoulder so tenderly and telling her that she was sorry and she would never do that on purpose. I love seeing that kind of affection between friends.