THE LAWTON ROAD LADIES invite me back again this year to their Cookie Exchange
and despite
it being cold and dark outside
and my hair being askew
and me having a knitting project I’m eager to start
and concerns to dwell on
and feeling tired (the perennial fallback excuse)
I go!
And I am better for it,
which you knew before I even told you, didn’t you?
* * *
I CATCH UP with people.
One has taken up piano,
had her first lesson today.
“Can you believe it, at my age?” she says.
But I tell her
how old I was
when I took up Spanish.
And June tells her how old she was
when she took up oil painting.
And aren’t we like the 3 Musketeers,
sitting there,
all empowered?
* * *
I meet the woman from Italy
who lives in the house
surrounded by
a long, long hedge of burning bushes,
trimmed to perfection,
the one I pass by on my bike.
I meet the woman
who lives in the house
a black cat
is always crossing the street to get to.
I talk with the woman
who brought the Krumkake
and she tells me all about the process.
* * *
And those SPECIAL CLASSES
at the college
I’ve been thinking about,
but every semester I let them pass by?
Turns out
the black cat lady
and the piano lady
know all about the program,
speak highly of it.
* * *
I WEAR a pink scarf
that gets so many compliments
I will never take it off now
until it falls to tatters.
This is how I am.
* * *
I COME HOME
with an assortment of cookies
and new thoughts.
I don’t have time to dwell on my own stuff the whole evening,
yet the world manages to keep spinning. Make a note.
My hair is still askew,
but I have enough steam left
to look up the course offerings
at the college
for the winter term.
And to write this post.
Once again, it is good to get out and be around people.
Oh, I said that already this week. 
My Toasted Coconut Shortbreads
A closer look at Ingrid’s Krumkake
The table of cookies.
