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September 19, 2004
girl's weekend (sprinkled with a little boy)
We're back from a fabulously fun and full girl's weekend in Iowa City. My dear friend, Anji, pulled a bunch of girlfriends from college back together for the weekend, and it was a ball. John and Gus accompanied me (thus the sprinkling), hanging out with Hans and Vince and Ivan when Lisa and I were out and about.
Highlights include:
-Friday evening eating and drinking at Hans & Lisa's house, including a wide awake Gus, waking up at 10:15 pm and laying on the charm until 12:15 am.
-Saturday morning spa treatments...first a massage for an hour, then a facial, both the most anti-social reunion gathering activities but so needed and appreciated! I think we should have that be a part of any weekend we have together! Highlight after the facial: walking around with my shirt on inside out.
-Watching Hans, Vince, Ivan, John and Gus walking down the street together to meet us for lunch. Lisa and I needed to feed the little ones, so the boys were allowed to infiltrate for a couple of hours.
-Driving out to Ely to visit Clary Illian's pottery studio. A few of us used to ditch class and go buy pottery. Some people drink, do drugs... we bought pottery. And we still are! She wasn't there, but an apprentice was. We made the visit worthwhile by leaving a whole bunch of money behind. I'll have to post a pic of what I bought... a beautiful cookie jar. We also got a tour of her studio and kiln. You'll see pics of that.
-Power napping between Ely and dinner!
-Dinner downtown in Iowa City. Yum yum yum. Had the best wine I've had in a while. I stole the cork so I could remember: Norman Vineyards, 'the Monster', Zinfandel. Buy it. Yum.
-Went to this piano bar called... the Piano Bar, where there was a guy playing... piano. It was hysterical and fun and a great place to sing and talk and be silly.
-Brunch this morning with everyone, including spouses and kids.
-Driving out to see my Grandma in the nursing home. My uncle Ken came up and spent some time with us...so fantastic. Big highlight of the day: Grandma saying she loved me in response to me saying it to her. I miss her always. I hate Alzheimer's. She's going to be 87 on Friday. I was telling her that she would be proud of the way I'm going to vote this November. I was wishing she were able to vote, too, as I know we'd be voting the same way. Let's just say I got my democratic tendencies from my Grandma! Some things skip a generation... tee hee.
-Stopping at the Illinois rest stop right over the boarder. It overlooks the Mississippi River. Then there are no more rest stops, I swear, until you get home.
-Stopping in DeKalb for dinner. I've never been to DeKalb before. Been there, done that.
-Home, home, home! I've physically been unable to do all the things I need to in order to prepare for a calm morning, such as bottles, laundry... but I got these pictures up!
Friends, it was great to see you all again. Hard to believe it's been so long since we've all been in the same room.
Off to bed...
ps. the pictures are arranged from the most recent back to Saturday morning. You'll notice on the first page there are several pictures of Gus with a clump of hair sticking out from his head. It was a momentus moment as Gustav has never had such blatant messy hair after napping. I almost felt the urge to lick my hand and pat it down, but refrained. See, the joke is always that Gus never has messy hair because there is some closet republican that smooths his hair down at night, making it look perfectly coiffed.
Posted by janna at September 19, 2004 10:40 PM