I realized, midway through January, that I rarely see anyone here in Northfield who isn't a member of my immediate family or a coworker - a situation that's usually pretty much okay. Still, Sunday and Monday were a wonderful change.
On the former day, we headed up to the Cities for an early joint birthday party for Shannon and our friend Chad; he and his wife hosted the bash at their beautiful place in south Minneapolis. It was a great time, with lots of good food, many of my favorite people in the whole world, non-stop Wii action, and several cute babies. We sacrificed Julia's nap to our fun, but she had a great time, expertly modulating her activity from playing to reading books as she got tired. And she only said, "Want to go home now" about a thousand times in the car on the way back to Northfield. Genevieve played in an exersaucer for nearly an hour, which was remarkable, and let everyone admire her admirable cheeks.
Monday, it was back to work. But lo and behold, a meeting was canceled, and as I sat in my office during the hour when I would have been a-meeting, two more of my favorite people in the world dropped by, having taken an impromptu road trip to Northfield to see me. One is a friend from the Cities, the other a friend who recently moved to Chicago from the West Coast; both are great guys I hadn't seen in a long while. Thanks to the fortunate hole in my schedule, we were able to have lunch and coffee, talking about manly stuff like Virginia Woolf, index cards, the Bears' implosion, and why it was so freaking cold. We even quaffed a few beers, of the root sort. Not a bad way to start the week.