a wonderful friend

So I had to make just a brief mention of this. One of my particularly wonderful friends from college is having a surprise birthday party this weekend that I'm driving up for. She's actually expecting her second, and she's a year younger than I am, so a young mom. She was married in 2006 - and I remember a conversation I had with her before her wedding in which she said she was afraid that she would end up having kids right away, and she wasn't sure she was ready. She was among the first of her family and high school friends to marry and certainly none has children. All I said was that getting pregnant is not always automatic. I wasn't sure what else to say.

It did seem likely she'd have kids soon in, and she did, and she's a wonderful mother, and her little boy is beautiful and so happy. But she still has no friends her age with kids, which makes things a bit lonely sometimes. The opposite situation from mine, and the same effect. It reminds me that there are crosses in this world different from mine.

Anyway, I am writing because I just have to share the birthday present I got. It was something of a challenge, because I wanted to avoid something that said "mommy" - it's her birthday, and I think she should be able to be pampered as a girl, not exclusively a mother - but she's very gracious and refined. So it had to be just the right thing. Maybe I'll find I've struck out, but right now I'm very contented with my choices: a copy of A Platter of Figs, which was so favorably reviewed by a food blogger whose writing I love, and an adorable mini Le Creuset casserole (OK, so it's stoneware, not their iconic enamel-clad cast iron, but a whole casserole would be kind of an excessive present).

Anyway, I hope everyone is planning to get as much joy from their weekends as I am. I just started my period, which is never the best time, but by golly, I am curling my hair.