A beautiful quilted patchwork of friendships

I am blessed with a beautiful quilt of friendships. This weekend I'll be wrapped in it! Friday night, college friends gathered at our new home in West Des Moines. Kay Wilt was driving through with daughter Alyssa on her way from Chicago to her Mom's in Audubon. She contacted Paul to say we should go out to eat. We decided to make it a mini-reunion!

Catching up

Way back when, Paul met Kay even before I did - during our early years at Iowa State. I didn't get to know her well until her "Moose" years. Kay is married to Steve "Moose" Wilt, who coached our dorm floor flag football team my sophomore year. I've been friends with him ever since then. Oh it's really a patchwork thing - Paul's friends and mine all stitched together.

We were a little fuzzy at this point - must be the photographer (Paul)

 Kay lived with Mary Mormon in Willow Residence Hall at ISU. She dated one of Paul's friends. And I lived in Maple Hall on 6th floor with Jane Flack. Eventually, after college, Jane, Mary and Kay lived together in a house Mary's brother owned in Des Moines. I stayed with them one night when I visited the Capitol City for my job with Gamble Robinson. They were visited by a bat that night, and farm girl Kay took care of the thing efficiently. It was quite exciting!

It was fun having the gals over. Poor Alyssa, who will be entering her sophomore year at Minnesota, just got to mostly listen to our tales of yesteryear. We walked down memory lane, discussing people from college, events and the time period that Mary, Jane and Kay lived together in the mid 80's. It seems so long ago - but sometimes, really not so much. We can't really be this old, can we?

Our discussion briefly turned to Long Term Care insurance. Paul and I have been pricing it. Jeez! We just can't make ourselves pull the trigger on something so expensive and distasteful. It's a very volatile market. WTF. I think we'll wait for a conference with our pals when we head to the Lake of the Ozarks in August. That sounds like a good topic after several drinks...Donnie - we need your deep thoughts.

One of the nice things about our new home is the proximity to I-80. People are more easily able to visit. So we need to get better at entertaining! I didn't get that gene like the rest of the sisters did. We muddled through though. It helped that Mary brought a lovely fruit salad with flowers and Jane brought cake. Too soon, Kay and Alyssa had to head out. It was fun having everyone at our home. I hope it happens often!

I love the window art at the Wave!

I couldn't get Paul the Cheesehead Packer fan to stand under this sign...

Jane took this shot

This morning, we had breakfast with an old friend, Jane Buck - who I know from Atlantic. Bucks were neighbors, living near our home at 202 Crombie. Her daughter Linda was a good friend of my sister Susan, so I became pals with her son Tom. I liked Tom's boy stuff - he had a huge array of army men. We took Jane to the Waveland - or she took us, as it was her treat! She's active in historical issues around town - she's an Altoona gal. At age 82, Jane is sharp as a tack. We talked about all things - from current events to historical buildings. The food was good too. We may just have to make breakfast with Jane a periodic event! It was nice to see her in person, she's such a great supporter on Facebook.

Tonight we will host our Crestonian pal Mary Faber. She transplanted to Emmetsburg years ago, but once a Crestonian...in fact she often tells us local C-town news. The girl is "in the know". Mary can try out our new bed. We got new mattresses and box springs delivered yesterday. I blogged about Mary recently - how she is one of those people who makes everyone feel like you've known her forever. Paul and I are looking forward to seeing her tonight.

Sometimes - like this weekend, when different friends are visiting, I struggle to determine if the various friends we're seeing know each other. It seems like they should! But we are really the only link. Except with Facebook today - some of them know about each other! I told my friends last night that we were taking Jane Buck to breakfast and some of them knew of she was because she posts on many of my blogs and updates.

The friendship quilt stitches tighter and I enjoy it.

Amy update: Amy has been ill with a sinus infection and sounds ready to come home. She flies out of Nicaragua tomorrow for New Jersey and will arrive in Iowa on Monday morning. I can't wait to give her a hug!