Catching Up and... Dishes

We got a call from our friend Greg in Dee-troit early yesterday afternoon, inquiring about our capability for receiving photos on our cell phone.  As in: could we?  Well, no doubt we could, as that's entirely possible given that our cell phone is of recent vintage and does, in fact, have a vestigial camera as a piece-part of its innards.  But our cell phone's capabilities and our own are entirely different matters.  Best send any and all photos to my e-mail addy, I replied.  And so he did.

Several minutes later... and a LOT longer than I think is reasonable, but that's beside the point... said picture arrived in my in-box.  Greg gave no indication what the photo was about, only that I would find it "interesting."  And I most certainly did.  It was a portrait of a mutual friend... a woman who Greg became friends with back in his undergraduate days at Michigan State (that's a long time ago, given the fact Greg is in his mid-fifties), and a woman who was once a close friend of mine... let's call her "A."  A was a childhood friend and neighbor of The Second Mrs. Pennington; she's a chemical engineer who has been employed with a large consumer products firm in the Mid-West for her entire working life.  I first met her back before TSMP and I were married and she was a maid of honor at our wedding.  We go back a long, long ways, to say the very least.  I haven't seen A, nor have I talked to her since TSMP and I split the blanket 11 years ago.  A was TSMP's friend first and foremost, and I lost her in the divorce.  Because people take sides.

So... I called Greg back upon receiving the photo and said "So, you were in Big Mid-Western City, eh?  What the Hell were you doing there, and how is A these days?"  He caught me up... or as much as one can get caught up in the space of a phone conversation... and I was pleased to hear A is well.  She's happy.  Content.  Successful.  Greg and she had lunch together today and caught up with each other as much as one can in that short space of time.  And so Greg caught me up, and that was that.

I hung up the phone and stared at that picture for a while.  Divorce is a terrible thing.  Not only are hearts broken and families ripped asunder but one loses an entire circle of friends, as well.  Still and even, it was good to hear that A's doing well; I expected nothing less.  I just wish I could have known this first-hand as the years have passed by.  I miss the girl.

―:☺:―

Today's Pic:  The bolded sub-head is a throw-back, don'tcha know.  Time was when we posted a picture every day here at EIP, no matter how mundane or pedestrian they might have been.  Most were current, some were from the archives, and nearly all were breathtakingly bland.  And we shall not deviate from our blandness today...

That would be three days' worth of dishes, taken about an hour or so before this post hit the streets.  Rod Stewart told us "every picture tells a story (don't it)" in the way-back, and conventional wisdom holds that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, this picture speaks of too many meals eaten out and perhaps of too much drink taken in, what with three beer glasses, one G&T glass (which was rinsed and reused a couple o' times), and one whiskey tumbler (similarly rinsed and reused) vs. three coffee cups, one small plate, one bowl, and a handful of silver... mostly teaspoons.  How we manage to survive... and thrive... is beyond us.  Mayhap we DO require a certain amount of nagging in our life.  Or a cook.