Three Beautiful Things 12-08-2024: Brunch at Lynn's, Yakkin' with Lynn, Irish Jam and Drunken Noodles

 1. Until Debbie and I moved to Maryland in 2014, we met for dinner with a group of friends on Thursday nights at Billy Mac's in Eugene. Billy Mac's is now closed. (In fact, in organizing Russell's retirement party, Anne held it on Thursday as a way to pay homage to those great Thursday Billy Mac's get togethers.) 

Today, some of the Billy Mac's dinner mates joined together at Lynn T's house for a superb brunch of egg casserole, bagels for Lox, Stock, and Bagel with lox, cream cheese, butter, and red onion slices out, link sausages, lattes, Bloody Marys, and Mimosas all available.  

It was awesome to see Anne, Russell, Mary, Jennifer, Carrie, Pam, Michael, and Lynn and enjoy the great food and energetic conversations and to have memories of nights at Billy Mac's flicker in and out of my mind. 

2. As our gathering thinned out, Lynn asked me if I'd like to stick around and yak for a while and I did. It had been a while since we talked about things that happened in the English Department over the years and we discussed times we enjoyed and things that were disappointing.  We talked about broader topics, too, and had a great time discussing life in the USA, the books Leah Sottile has led me to read, the pleasure of reading Anthony Trollope, women as superheroes in movies and elsewhere, and more. 

It was a superb afternoon -- uplifting, an afternoon that took me back many years to other great conversations I've enjoyed with Lynn over the years. 

3. From Lynn's house, I blasted to Sam Bond's Garage to listen to a circle of musicians join together for the weekly Irish jam. When I arrived, Sam Bond's was packed with people eating an afternoon meal while taking in the music and others, like me, there just to listen. I found an empty table, poured myself a glass of water, and just floated, enjoying the array of tunes and indulging in nostalgic memories of attending these jams from time to time with Debbie when we lived in Eugene. 

When the jam ended, I decided to go to Tasty Thai and I thoroughly enjoyed my plate of Drunken Noodles with tofu and a scoop of homemade coconut ice cream for dessert.