Eyes in the back of her heart*

Goodness, I'm not sure what I have to say this morning. I had a thought as I was falling asleep last night, and I almost turned on the light to write it down. But I didn't. And now here I am.

I was hoping to take some fun pictures at Bee's party last night, but we were out on the dazzlingly clean patio and there wasn't enough light by the time I got there. I hate to kill people with the flash. I got some fuzzy ones of Q that maybe I'll turn all artsy on you.

I love parties where a huge variety of people gets together, and somehow it works. Grade school friends, high school friends, friends of friends, new friends, children, and tons of food and chocolate cake. Where you can drink some wine, get a half gallon of raw milk as a birthday gift (and leave it in the host's fridge - oops), discuss foreign films, the demolition of local tacky taverns, being constantly in the company of others, olives, landscaping, the county fair (with a two year old), move to another table to get away from a fishing conversation, and make faces at a baby.

For all that I'm a mean introvert, I love getting to know people. Quirks and tastes, observing them. It's an odd experience getting to know a child as her personality emerges more and more. I was just looking over an old notebook from May, when someone asked me if I "got" Q. If I understood her. And I said, unhesitently, yes. Yes, I do. What I know of her, I get. She's a tiny kindred creature. As I said to her mama last night, "I always knew Q and I had a lot in common, but now that I see she loves olives, I know it was meant to be."



(The photo is actually of her eating blueberries, but she did the same thing when she found the olive bowl. I tried to feed her bits so she wouldn't have to deal with the pit, but creature that she is, she demanded big ones.)

*Thanks to Richard Peck