Serendipity

Serendipity is defined as "good fortune, or luck." In my personal dictionary, it just says, "See: October 21, 2009. Cara's birthday party."

Cara is my good friend Jamie's younger daughter. Cara is a beautiful, caring, little girl. Her mother calls her a "pisser," which is accurate in the sense that Cara will be a fantastic District Attorney or Investigative Reporter someday. She will be the girl that runs a marathon, then puts on her high heels to go dancing. I kinda wish I was Cara right now, even though the girl's only two.

The party was originally scheduled for Saturday, but the forecast called for "overcast, with a high percentage of shitty." Rightly thinking that pumpkin patch+thunderstorms+toddlers=nightmare, Jamie did a hasty reschedule, and so, today was the day.

To be honest, I wasn't sure this was going to be a win-win, because the timing was close to Joel's nap, and it was almost forty-five minutes from home. But, because the sun was shining, the trees were gold and red, and because Jamie is awesome, we went.

It was just joy. After corn mazin' and wagon pullin' and pumpkin arrangin', we took a hayride to a woodland glen. There, minutes from the road, yet a lifetime away, we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs over a bonfire, surrounded by the red canopy of trees. Owen and his friends ran around, climbing onto stumps and crunching in the leaves. Joel ate graham crackers, and ran like a wild horse, just because he could.

And dear little Cara got a fairy costume, which she promptly put on. She walked in the woods, right to the edge of the small hill. Her green gossamer wings glinted, and with her tousled brown locks and big blue eyes, she looked just like a woodland sprite.

We drove home, and the boys played with their small pumpkins and babbled contentedly. I drove in the sunshine, grinning stupidly, so grateful for my friends, my life, my dear, dear boys.

Serendipity. Dross to gold.

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FYI, the blog will "go dark" starting Thursday through Sunday night. I will be traveling to Arizona to see friends from college. So, really, I'm traveling in a time machine back to 1996. Except that we're all much hotter now. Many details to follow, so stay tuned. XOXO