Yard Party

After a very fast road trip to Kentucky and back to deliver the van for it's conversion, my childhood best friend came in to town.  Christine and I grew up 2 blocks apart and had the same bus stop.  We didn't see each other for a good eight years after high school, but even so, I still felt at home the moment we reconnected.  Sadly, we moved to Champaign a week after she left CU for grad school.  Now she lives clear across the country, but just a stones throw from Walker's folks.  Small world.

The last time I saw Christine was the week my mom died.  I have never been so happy to see someone.  She got special permission to leave her Army training program in Missouri, drove like a mad woman to my moms, and woke insanely early to do the same back to Missouri. 

We'd planned to go to the Hoopeston Corn Fest, but woke up to a dreary overcast day.  I proposed we buy a bunch of corn and have our own corn fest, but then lost my steam and plummeted into my grief.

I'm a lucky lady with good friends.  I told my friend my situation and she helped me make it happen.  We drove around town getting farm stand produce (paid for with the twenty bucks I found on the ground the night before!) and bottles of fancy cider from Michigan.  The preparation was a party in itself.

Sweet potatoes, corn, blackeyed peas, watermelon and corn were consumed.  Childhood corn dishes used.  Dogs galloped around the yard, a fire was lit, a late night beer run made, and a very late night cake baked.  This was one fine (day before) Labor Day.