1. As week, Jerry was recovering from an appendectomy and missed out weekly breakfast at Sam's. I heard whispers here and there that he was doing all right and, sure enough, when I strolled into the cafe this morning, Jerry was at the table and was telling stories, cracking jokes, and being his old self.
2. After breakfast, I picked up Ed and we hit the road for the Wildhorse Casino just outside Pendleton. Upon arrival, we met up immediately with Terry and Mike, got checked in, and immediately went to the lobby bar for a quick drink before getting our activities underway. I gamed for a little while, but I was more interested in coming upstairs to the room and blogging. I enjoyed writing and gazing out the window of our sixth story room and admiring the Pendleton area landscape.
3. Around 4:30, I cruised into Pendleton, parked the Sube close to the Prodigal Son, and walked about 8-10 blocks to the liquor store and purchased a fifth of Bushmill's Irish Whisky to have on hand in our room.
Colette Marie and I appointed 5:30 as the time to meet at Prodigal Son. I arrived about twenty minutes early, secured a table, and before long Colette arrived.
Just like last year when we met for dinner at this same place, we fell into easy conversation and gabbed away until just past 9:30 about a wide variety of things: Colette told me about her experience getting started in the MFA program at Eastern Oregon Univ.; she told me about how well her fiction is being received, how much she admires the professors she is working with, and helped me understand her approaches to writing fiction (she loves to write stories from more than one point of view), and how she has worked to help others understand what she'd doing; Colette talked about her and her son's grief in the aftermath of her first husband's motorcycle accident which cost him his life this summer; she told me about how much her family enjoys living in Walla Walla and what a good place Walla Walla is for her daughter -- Gabriela has made good friends, is performing well in her classes, and participates in a variety of good activities.
And there's more that we talked about. I enjoyed getting caught up. We had fun talking about mutual friends and about some of the good old days at Whitworth College. I also enjoyed our conversations about writing and literature and other arts.
Back in my room, I got settled in and went to bed and my mind raced for much of the night as I thought about the ideas Colette and I discussed, the people we both enjoy (and enjoyed) so much, my happiness that after about thirty-five years of wanting to do it, Colette is not only working on her MFA, but is writing a lot, and my gratitude that Colette and I have maintained a very good friendship over the last 36 or so years.
It was a superb evening.
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