2007-04-17

The weather is finally yielding a bit and letting spring’s usual warmth back into the area. After Morning Offering I kept working with my poor Traveller and finally got the Camelot Journal entry for yesterday posted before I had to leave for The Cheesecake Factory, where I had an appointment to meet Sydney S for lunch.

I studied and went to many classes with Sydney in college. She and I had both taken a test which allowed us to enter the school as upperclassmen, which meant that instead of having to take the same block of core classes as other freshmen, we could take any undergraduate or graduate courses we wished. We both took full advantage of that privilege. Our common interests were Russian and International Studies. We studied Russian for three solid years, until I sometimes would dream in Russian.

Syd and I developed a close relationship with our Russian professor, Dr. John Broderius, a very tall and broad mountain of a guy who spoke 42 languages, although he pointed out that he only spoke twelve of those well enough to pass as a native. He was kind enough to teach us extra languages for free, and each semester we would meet, off the record as far as the University was concerned, to learn about a new language. We studied Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Erse and Old English during that time.

Syd went on to graduate school and stayed within the groves of academe, getting her doctorate in languages and teaching at U of L for 35 years. She recently retired. Her passion is travel, and she saves systematically until she can afford to buy the tickets for a new trip. She saved for ten years in order to take the whole family to China. Now she is saving for a tour of India.

Syd and I were as compatible now as we were in 1962, which was a most pleasant surprise. We had a ball and stayed long at table. It was hard to leave the conversation of a woman who agrees with my point of view on so very many issues. She’s got the prettiest white hair now, and it suits her. It was swell to be with her.

I came home to find it was almost 4 PM, so worked at a few things only before quitting time. I got all the quotes together for writing my UPI article for this week and talked further with Ian, getting various matters organized on the Book of Days project. I sent a request to Gary to add a couple of people to the send list for my UPI articles – Sydney had asked to be added, as had my nail tech of many years, Tracy.

Then I took a good look at Jim’s rough draft of our letter to the four people we wish to ask to join our Board of Directors. I had asked him to write the first draft because he is so much better at being terse than am I. He had done a great job, and I did not change anything, just added a few thoughts and sent the letter back to his computer downstairs.

Then it was time for our bath and a romantic tryst as the sun set. We napped briefly and then rose and came downstairs just as Romi joined us for an evening visit. Romi was up and down working on all our computers, maintaining them. He has a remarkable record: 15 years taking care of our computers, and never a crash or real loss – only some data lost once during transfer – I lost about a year of my counseling letters. However, I do a whole lot on my computer, and Gary burns his up as well, so hats off to you, Ro-Man! it's an enviable record!

Jim offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation, after which we enjoyed an episode of House and a late supper before saying good night to Gary and coming upstairs for a bedtime snuggle with the kitties. We turned out the lights at 11 PM.