A Day With Good Friends

Hello everyone. Yesterday was, without a doubt, the best day I've had this Summer. Mark and Wendy arrived earlier than expected just as I had gotten my gear together and we headed out. The trip to Symposium went without a hitch. Frank, a friendly man I met on a prior walk there pointed out a way to make the route slightly safer. It's certainly an easy enough change to make. The digital recorder performed quite well although the wind made chunks of what people were saying impossible to make out. There'll definitely need to be some editing done but I believe I have the centrepiece I need for the documentary. Perhaps, in future, I should decrease the sensitivity setting of the microphone when recording indoors. Oh well. Live and learn as they say. What I have is certainly useable. Everyone enjoyed the food. We all had omelets. I was sorely tempted to have the bacon and egg breakfast but that deluxe omelet with its myriad ingredients including bacon ultimately won me over yet again. We all had Fresh Fruit Freezies which were absolutely splendid as I've always found them to be. Each of us also tried a mocha coffee completing a meal and experience which truly made all the effort I've put in over the Summer seem utterly vindicated. In a very quick move which was absolutely vintage Mark, he ended up paying for that delicious meal despite my plans to the contrary. It was all good though. I later treeted them to dinner at Turtle Jack's which they thoroughly enjoyed.

After I managed to successfully get us back home without difficulty, we headed off to their house. There, at last, I was able to get them to watch one of my favorite movies, Stranger Than Fiction. I had lent it to them some weeks ago but Mark and Wendy aren't the type to watch all that many movies on their own. This one, I had long thought, they would both enjoy if they gave it a look. I was absolutely right about that. Each of them noticed details which I hadn't previously been aware of. Mark noted that in one washroom scene, Harold was analysing the soap dispensers and how full they were. None of the people I've seen the film with have ever pointed that little detail out to me. Both of them got a lot of laughs out of it. As for the message at the heart of the film, these two actually live it anyway. Sharing a treasured experience like Stranger Than Fiction in person with a couple of very thoughtful friends was profoundly fulfilling in a way that my solitary lifestyle doesn't let me enjoy nearly often enough. There's so much that I find in my solitary pursuits which simply has nowhere to go but into my writing and this blog.

After some post-film discussion, we headed off to Turtle Jack's. I hadn't realised that they never went to that place before. That very much surprised me as it's precisely the kind of place which you'd have thought they would have long ago gotten around to eating at. The burgers and fries there are exceedingly good. So was the Score Brownie dessert we shared. Even after spending a whole day together, we still managed to find lots to talk about as we enjoyed our second feast. Everything from comparing internet services to how very cold it can get in Vermont during nights there in the mountains. We ended the evening with a stroll through downtown Burlington before they drove me back home. I don't often walk that much during a day but my legs felt good rather than overly strained.

It's just approaching eight o'clock as I finish writing this entry. I've been pecking at it since around six AM. Breakfast just doesn't seem very essential today. I believe I'll skip it entirely. I suppose I should get around to completing the process of rendering myself presentable now. It just seemed like the right thing to do to get this posting done first. Splendid days like yesterday haven't exactly been plentiful these past five months. I know I'll enjoy looking back on it when solitude, insomnia, writer's block, or all three of the above decide to have their way with me once again. From time to time, even an optimist like me needs to be reminded that things eventually do get better.