The Last of the Champagne--Marcia

I am sitting here at the computer, a glass of delicious brut champagne at my elbow. The "girls" left a few hours ago. I'm going to let the dishes wait.

It's been so busy there's barely been time to breathe. But, it's all been for the good . . . birthdays, rehearsals, concerts, PTO, groundbreaking for our new school, caroling with the choir and so on ad infinitum. Tis the season.

I haven't had time to write a lovely blog about staying at Christy's mother's cabin in Klamath Falls. What a luxury. Thank you Carol. You have no idea the sheer decadence of falling asleep while reading, wading around in jammies while thinking up plot lines, and writing uninterrupted for twelve hours! I am not as discombobulated and disorganized as I thought I was. Turns out, I'm just a busy mom with a couple of jobs.

We have just swept away the crumbs from Kerrie's going away party. A passle of writer's children ran around the yard, jumped on the trampoline, gobbled down wafer cookies, lemonade, and whatever chocolate they could find.

We sat around the living room with Christy's array of salads, Jennie's coffee cake squares, my chipotle fondue and all kinds of treats. Everybody is on there way to somewhere else, but we stop for a moment to acknowledge each other this Christmas season and to wish our fellow writer good luck and a powerful muse as she makes her way north.

Kerrie, although sad now, seems to be growing more gorgeous by the day as she gets closer to "home". We know she'll flourish.

I have just started sending my youngest child to a little art program downtown, and my favorite girl-child accompanies him. Today, Maia's mother offers to drop them off. When Leigh arrives to get James, she can see that I'm frazzled, a thick layer of dust coats the living room, and the family room is in no kind of shape for company. She comes back.

We pass the afternoon "getting ready". For women, this can be fun. We gossip and analyse each other, laughing and sharing. I invited her to stay with us knowing she would enjoy the reading, the women, and a glass of champagne. And she did.

When she left she said "That was amazing." She left inspired. I can have no greater compliment. I'm so glad she stayed.

To make the evening even better, my eldest and my husband came home after a basketball awards dinner with a surprise for me. I was told to close my eyes. A pillow was put to my face . . . the way things have been going lately, I fully expected to be choked.

My husband walked in with a shovel. Yes, a shovel. The principal of Roosevelt handed it to my husband tonight. It is one of the eight that was used at the groundbreaking for the new school yesterday. It is for me. This is one of the greatest honors I have ever received, a lot of people wanted those shovels . . . true. I hadn't even thought about it.

There is one for me and one for Molly--a mother friend who has moved to greener pastures in Corvalis but, and Ms. Mitchell acknowledged this, without the two of us there would be no new school. And so, my golden shovel--one of the eight used yesterday. Finally, I can lay all of that work and sorrow and struggle to rest. Now there is only triumph and the promise of the future.

Now that I've done my digging, I can sit back and watch my garden grow. At least for a little while.