The good news is that this has been a event-full day.
Event 1.
It started with an invitation to a book group which meets over lunch. A lady I met last night invited me and she insisted that we meet up in a car park half way there. She had been attending a class on living with chronic illness and I lurked in the car park until she came out - then we went in her car to the Briarcrest Country Club where the group meets in a private room.
As an aside, the class on chronic illness is something she really enjoys. She has fybromyalgia, which is pain in the muscles and joints, and other people in the group have different conditions. It's a self-help group. They discuss their problems and how they cope with them. It sounds like a barrel of laughs to me and I only mention this to illustrate how unimaginative, callous and uncaring I am!
As another aside, my friend drove me back to the car park after the lunch which illustrates that a) there are no restrictions to leaving your car in any old parking lot and b) it was not in the direction in which she lives but people are very generous with their time and don't mind driving back and forth.
Anyway, we arrive at the country club and find the other 6 members of the group and order lunch ( a salad for me which is a bowl of lettuce, 2 slices of cucumber, three cherry tomatoes, a teaspoon full of a boursin look-alike and half an inch of bacon, crumbled....she says piously!) Other members of the group order more and also less and the two who order more also get a box to take half home in (another American phenomenon).
Anyway, again...it turns out to be a wonderful experience! They are all very well read, very interesting, very intelligent and warm and friendly, left leaning women. In addition to talking about books they have been reading they also stop now and again to throw out ideas for me - things to do around here - and I fill a page in my note book. What a find! I can't wait for next month and am so grateful to my new friend for inviting me! We are going to be reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
Event 2.
At 3.30 the mother of the woman we are renting the house from arrived to take me to a group called 'Brazos Valley Wearable Arts', Brazos being the name of the county College Station is in and Wearable Arts being any craft,knitting,sewing item that you can wear or carry about your person! There were about 15 women seated around a table in the Brazos Valley Arts Centre. Some smiled, some scowled into their crochet work. The chair person went through the routine..minutes of the last meeting, agenda, welcome. I was introduced and had to explain my craft credentials. Then it was show and tell time. Not many people had brought items they were working on. When it was my turn I held up the latest sweater I am knitting for Abe and that seemed to pass muster, just. I was asked about Downton Abbey and had to admit I hadn't been to the actual house. Murmurs of disappointment! Then a woman got up and gave a talk about her visit to Bali to look at how batik and ikat fabric is made. She had good photographs and many samples of cloth to show. She was very enthusiastic and it was an interesting talk. Afterwards a woman came over to tell me about her cousin who lives near Oxford and she gave me her contact details and said we should lunch sometime. Another woman gave me her details and offered to go with me to the good yarn store in College Station. You'll notice that I am starting to adopt Americanisms....Yarn store! Whatever next.!
A wearable arts challenge was issued for the May meeting. We have to make something to wear that has to do with where we are from. A union jack bag? I think not! Any ideas???
Event 3
When I got home, Peter, Bob and Mary were practically asleep in the sitting room. They roused themselves for a drink and then we went to dinner at Christopher's World Grille just outside College Station.
The restaurant is in an interesting old house, the setting is very elegant and the service attentive. We had delicious food and excellent wine. Bob lets slip it is my birthday and so my dessert plate comes with an iced birthday message on the plate and one candle. Little do they know how many candles short they were! When we were leaving at 9.15 the place had already emptied and the waiting staff were loitering and setting up for the next day. As we passed they told us we had been voted the table with the most interesting conversation! Bob's take on this was that just because we had English accents they were fooled into thinking we were intelligent! It's an easy mistake to make!
Home, exhausted! Bob and Mary decide they are not up to driving back to Bastrop and so they stay the night.
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