Hi. I’m Laurie and I have a little website where I talk about cats and poop and traffic and divorce and sometimes, occassionally, knitting. I am hijacking Annie’s blog because she’s halfway to Minnesnowta right now, and she’s busy with things such as “keeping sane.”
Here is a picture of me and Annie on the one-year anniversary of my divorce:
She had no idea when we met up that night at a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles that we were marking a rather infamous occassion. It was right before Christmas, and cold outside, and things had been threatening to go cold inside me, too. You can be over a thing, for all intents and purposes, and still the anniversary of it stings a little.
We sat at that restaurant with Drew, the Crochet Dude, and we talked and laughed and ate amazing good food and then later, when we practically closed down the joint, we moved on to a local coffee shop and chatted some more. It was Annie’s idea to go get coffee, and I was so glad she suggested it! I hadn’t had so much fun in weeks and weeks, just gabbing with old friends and relaxing, the three of us sharing ideas and even getting to see a peek at Annie’s flip-books, still in concept stage at that point.
There are a lot of things you don’t know about Annie Modesitt, like how funny she is, and kind, and how she fills up a whole room with her exuberance and energy. She likes going barefoot, and has two of the most beautiful kids on the planet, and I tell you all these details because on this day, Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share with you the one gift Annie gave me that cold night in December. She gave me warmth. I saw the way she talked about her husband, her kids, and the joy on her face just gave me hope and made me think that perhaps somewhere out there, even in a crazy mixed-nuts place like Los Angeles, maybe there is a fit for me, too. And when I speak about him, whenever and whoever it might be, I hope my face lights up the same way hers does about Gerry.
That is a lovely, beloved gift.