Our dear friends from college were here this afternoon for a visit. We had a nice lunch and a nice visit. His Dad lives in Columbia, so it was just a short jaunt out of their way to stop by our house.
I like having people from Minnesota come visit us and be in our house for a while. After they leave, a memory of them lingers in this place. It helps in the process of making this house our home. We've been here almost 2 years, but we still occasionally long for all the good times we had in our old home in Minneapolis with our old friends around us. When they come here, we can bask in their presence in this new place and add that to our memory banks.
Doug and Lis have three children. One is in college and engaged to be married. The second just graduated from High School and plans to go to Doug's college where he teaches. The third, Tracey, is just about Nate's age. It's remarkable how similar she and Nate are. They both are very comfortable in the presence of their parents and they have similar interests in video games and computer stuff. Even though they are teens, they actually had a good, playful time together. No teen-like brooding and ignoring of each other, like most older kids will do when they are with someone they don't know that well. In fact, that's the way this entire group of families has been since we all graduated 20+ years ago. We were all "close as brothers" in College, according to Doug. We were even called "The Brothers" by all our colleagues. After college we all settled down in different places, but have kept in touch and try to see each other a couple times a year.
And some of us have had kids. The kids all seem to just get together and hang out. They have to start all over every time we get together because it's not very often. But they do it and enjoy the time they have. Maybe they are easy with each other because all the adults are. We tend to gather around the kitchen table, coffee cups and Cokes in our hands, and pick up conversations where we left off x number of months ago.
When they first arrived, Lis said "Oh, there is the famous couch!" I reminded her that this is the not-famous one. The famous one, made by that terrible company Benchcraft, is long gone. And there will be no more Benchcraft furniture in my house!
5:44:48 PM 
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