Fire

A couple weekends back, my girlfriend Pamela came to town. She's on my right (your left).



Hey there Ms Pamela! She reads my blog regularly. She's a great friend, one of the truly best people in the world. She's been one of my biggest supporters through this season.



To the left of me (on your right, my left) is Debbie. Deb we often call her. But professionally she's Debra. She was the Maitron-of-Honor at my wedding.



I love her dry, wicked sense of humor. It's dark. Very dark sometimes and hard to tell when she's joking. She super kind but she's not a push-over. This girl will kick your arse with her kind, loving, don't-you-get-in-my-face-or-my-friend's-face temperament.

Then there's Ann... not pictured here. Ann lives in LA. The 4 of us have been friends for quite some time and have all been in each other's weddings (sort of). We are growing old gracefully together. I'm in good, very good company. The best part about living life is taking your buddies along the journey with you. And when I gripe about being ____, I just have to remember that Debbie and Ann turned my age this year too (earlier) and that Pamela (the baby) will turn our age in November. (Yes, I have a birthday coming up next week!!!)

Pamela now lives in Ohio, and we get to visit 2 times a year, usually. This affords her and I, and often Deb, to drink a couple bottles of wine.... (since you know, we only get to do this one-time-a-year....or so), try on clothes and shoes (I like to dump my 5-yr old clothing onto my dear dear willing friends) and laugh merrily into the wee hours of the morning.

This past visit we polished off at least a bottle of wine each — if not more — but before you call me a lush, know that it took us almost 9 hours to do so. Yes friends, we gathered at 6 pm and they left at 3 am. I kid you not. And yes, I had to work the next day!

So meet the latest addition to my backyard:



The portable fire pit. It actually folds up when not in use. I love it. It's created quite the ambiance for backyard late night carousing, along with the solar lighting.



Meet my friend Sarah:



I'd tell you more about her but that's a whole 'nother blog post.

So the backyard is the scene where it all takes place, the late night chatter, by the fireside, with the water falling in the background. Dimly lit thanks to solar lighting. With iPad acoustics setting the mood. Mood for what? I can tell you there has been no romancing going on in my life, but who needs romance when you have a ton of friends? :) I might not be serenaded, but I'm certainly not lonely. Life is good. Really. Truly.



And then I have this little guy who has a groovy light show of his own going on.



It's almost too spooky for me. So I turned off his red lights.

It didn't get any better.



Life is good. Summer's been fun. It's a major heat wave going on over here. But nothing that a garden hose, light sticks and a glass of wine can't ease.