Yesterday was Griffin's birthday and a celebration was planned that fit him well. For our awesome friend -so full of life, joy, kindness, and enthusiasm- we hoped to celebrate outside at an awesome place right on the beach. I made a pie, there was ice cream and other delicious desserts, good burgers and pizza, bocce ball, a sand box (!), and the hopes of general summer-night-type merriment.
Griffin's a good sport, my friends are all good sports and really awesome enough and fun enough in their own right that we still had a good time. But it was COLD. It was weird, sitting in early August, by the beach, in a literal cloud of fog, especially when you are expecting, well, a summer night. I had on a flannel shirt, a fleece that Adam thankfully has in his car, and we were sharing blankets that people who live in Santa Barbara keep in their trunks for reasons such as this - our weather, while pleasant more often than most places, is seriously unpredictable. We have more than our fair share of beautiful summer nights here. While they aren't hot like the summer nights of the midwest, or the south, or all of the places I went last week; our evenings are usually quite beautiful. I did note however, on many occasions last week, just how much I missed sitting out on the porch with a cool drink on a warm evening. That will always be one of my favorite things to do - however unpleasant it is at that moment when you are trying to fall asleep in the heat, I looove me a good warm summer night and what it entails before that awful moment. I digress.
So last night we huddled around the table and talked and laughed. There was no bocce. I'm not even sure anyone got up for anything other than food or napkins. But we still had a good time, gathered to celebrate a friend that we dearly love, and enjoying the community that we're lucky to have here. I stood up to take a picture (I'm attempting to take more pictures these days, I took about ten total while on my eleven day vacation, a new record-for real-I didn't even remember to bring a camera with me last time I went to Europe...) and this is what I got.
It's not really a good picture at all. No one is looking. Paul was the only one who saw me taking it, in fact, and flailed his arms and made a weird face, but I snapped the picture at a truly awkward moment so really it looks like he might actually be sleeping...but I like the picture anyway. I like how strange and blurry only Adam looks, and that his hand holding the plate is all kinds of crazy. It actually kind of looks like he's fanning Paul off, or maybe that he's about to hit him with the plate, but I assure you, he was not. You can't really see Meghan, or Hilary, or Jess, Josiah, Robin, or Cec, but I know they're in there. Griffin is dancing along with his gangsta-birthday-Barney (or purple "frog" that looks suspiciously like Barney). TJ, whom we dearly miss, is back on the scene for a couple of weeks before heading back to Philly. And I feel like you can actually see how cold it was last night in this picture.
So I'm posting this awful shot, because I like it, and this is my blog. When I stood up to take it, I paused for a minute and thought about how lucky I am to get to do life with these people. How thankful I am for each one of them. They're all quite different. I've known them for varying amounts of time and they each play a unique role in my life and in this group. They're genuine and thoughtful, and they are really funny people. So that's all. It was a good night, with good friends getting together for a great reason. And this post will also serve to remind me to a) take more pictures and b) well, to get better at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment