1. Drinking coffee, enjoying a pastry, and talking with Deborah and Scott at Atticus Coffee and Gifts for about two and half hours more than satisfied the eagerness I felt yesterday for our get together to happen.
Second things first: I loved being back in what used to be 4 Seasons Coffee, a longstanding downtown Spokane coffeehouse that opened back in the early eighties when I worked as an instructor at Whitworth College. I didn't go there often, but the few times I visited made an indelibly positive impression on me, as did stopping in at 4 Seasons with Debbie in the early years of our marriage, coupling, as I remember, coffee at 4 Seasons with a visit to Auntie's Bookstore.
But, above all, and first of all, conversation with Deborah and Scott was so fulfilling it's almost beyond description.
But I'll try.
Deborah and I became acquainted as students at Whitworth back in 1974. During the 1975-76 academic year, Deborah worked as a chaplain's assistant at Whitworth for one year and I joined the chaplain's staff in the same position the following academic year (1976-77). I met Scott around 1980 when Deborah and Scott visited me and my first wife in Eugene. In the spring of 1982, I attended an academic conference in San Francisco and Deborah and Scott let me stay at their house in Danville.
Deborah and I have maintained correspondence since then and Scott, Deborah, and I have had other meet ups in Spokane.
From the moment we greeted each other until we said farewell, our conversation was easy, warm, stimulating, jolly, thoughtful, mirthful, analytical, forthright, newsy, and more -- everything I'd hoped for and it made me joyous. We talked about family, Whitworthians we know in common, current events, movies, our pets, books, plans for the future, memories, and more.
2. I don't know. We might have, in a good way, worn ourselves out!
I do know that our conversation reached its end and we said farewell, hoping we can see each other again much sooner than later.
I decided to leave Spokane by traveling all the way to Pines Rd. on East Sprague Ave -- which meant also traveling on Appleway.
Ed and I are going to have breakfast in Spokane Valley on our way to Pendleton on Sept. 30th. I think I know where we are going and I wanted to check it out so that I recognize it when we go there and I wanted to know ahead of time the parking situation.
Having nailed this down, I drove to CdA, hungry for a hamburger and fries.
I almost went to Capone's in Midtown, but I could tell it was crowded, figured it was a crowd of football fans, and so I made my way up to Nosworthy's and things were quiet there.
I've eaten several breakfasts at Nosworthy's, but never anything else.
I ordered a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger with everything on it and that burger was about fifteen stories tall. I munched on a few French fries and devised a strategy for eating my burger.
My strategy worked and the burger was delicious, if a little much! Next time I'll be sure to order a quarter pound, not a half, of hamburger at Nosworthy's!
3. Back home, I settled in, I took care of Copper and Gibbs, worked all the puzzles I'd not worked in the morning, and realized I needed groceries.
My original plan had been to shop at Trader Joe's and Pilgrim's, but that huge burger and the slow release of adrenaline after seeing Scott and Deborah left me feeling spent and so I rocketed straight back to Kellogg after I ate.
I made a grocery order to pick up in the morning at Walmart.
And I also got another shot of adrenaline.
I began receiving text messages from the Troxstar in Eugene.
Emily, our pal and superb beer server at Sixteen Tons, was in town. Sixteen Tons is now New Tons and New Tons hosted a two hour session for Emily to see old friends and customers and to sell her books and merchandise related to her work as the beer cartoonist determined to help the world better understand the ins and outs of craft beer. You can visit her website by clicking on this link: Pints and Panels
The Troxstar helped out Emily by selling merchandise and drinking beer and he sent me a picture of the two of them, firing me up with an image of two of my favorite people in the whole world!
Not bad, I'd say.
I had two experiences today with favorite people in the whole world -- I wish I could have been in both Spokane and Eugene today and followed up my superb visit with Deborah and Scott with a fun time with the Troxstar and Emily.
The picture helped.
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