A Month of Letters recap, Spiced Pavlova and FRIENDS!

Warning: This is a very random post.

I am still reading It.

The Handyman is making his world famous burritos for supper.

We have another basketball game to go to.

This is my friend Theda.
(  She's going to kill me, I know.

But look at this great picture, circa 1975.  That's my bedroom by the way. Very blue, with Holly Hobby Posters on my wall.  I don't  know what phase I was going thru, the year before it was plastered with pictures of David  Cassidy and Bobby Sherman. The year before that,  flower power baby!!)

Theda.
We've been friends since we were 15 or 16, but we've known each other since we were in Jr. High--about  12 years old.
I  have always liked to say  that we've been friends since we were in Jr. High, but she corrects me and says  we "knew" each other, but we weren't friends in Jr. High.

It's true.

We weren't friends until the end of our freshman year of high school, when she walked across the library and said sat at my table and said,  'lets be friends."
I SWEAR she said that.  In my mind I think it goes like this:  "you're a nerd, you need a friend, I'm here for you."
I know she didn't say those words, but I SWEAR she said 'lets be friends.' 
And here we are today,  39 years later.
Still friends.

Here is a picture of Theda at her daugther's wedding a few years ago:

and here is a picture of Theda and I at a cooking class we took in Reno about a year before that.  We met there  and did things we love to do.
Had lunch at a tea parlor
Gambled  (she likes to play the penny machines.  I just would sit and talk to her)
went to a lecture by the author of the Kite Flyer
took a cooking class
had chocolate souffle` at the El Dorado

She sends me stuff sometimes... Lots of letters over the years...she is a letter writer, one of the best.    Once in a while tho, she'll just send me something random.
Like this:

Star anise
a cinnamon stick
a vanilla bean
and a recipe for Pavlova.

So I made the Pavlova. 
I need to try it again.   I think I will love it.  Theda loved it with the spiced blackberries and pears and apples, poached in Marsala wine.  And those lovely spices she sent me.
I need to work on the Pavlova.  I think it was dry on the edges  (as you can tell) but chewy on the inside.  I'm not sure how it's supposed to turn out. The meringue  part I mean.  (so  you only get one picture)

The Pavlova was from the Cooking Channel, recipe here. The Simply Baking Show with Lorraine Pascale.  I should probably watch it and see exactly how to make it.

Anyway....
I love her for things like that. I wish I could be as spontaneous and thoughtful. I aways think of things like that 'after' the fact.   I'm always saying I 'should' have gotten that  for so and so.
I love her for thinking of me so often.  (one time it was a jar of salsa that she likes...and the chips to go with.  A big old box with a bag of chips and a jar of salsa arrived at my door.  I promptly sat down and at them)

You know who else will do stuff like that?  My friend Karen.   She'll just think of something that reminds her of me.  Or I'll mention something she's made that I would love to try, and the next thing you know,  I find it in my mail box!
And the funny/great/ awesome part is?  We've never met in person! 
It's a blog thing.

We've been friends for a few years.   I have no pictures to share---YET.  I say yet,  because someday I'm sure we'll meet in person.
One day,  she'll be driving thru town and she'll come to the Visitors Center where I work and that day I'll be cranky and have no make up on (I try very hard not to do this.. ~ Grins~)  but that will be the day... she might take one look at me being cranky and sneak out! 
HA---the very thought of that makes me  be nice to EVERYONE who comes thru the door of  my office.... Just for Karen's sake.

And since I'm speaking of friends---old and new--let me tell    you about Suey at  It's All About Books.   We met because of  of  the Month of Letters  (her post here is how I heard about it. )  I am a letter writer, so it just seemed like a cool thing to take part in.
I am a letter writer.  I do it all the time, so I thought this would be easy for me.  i mean, I have been known to mail  10 letters in one day.
Let me just say that I made my goal of  24 letters sent, BUT I didn't do a letter a day.  So I don't know if that counts or not.      I feel badly that I didn't interact with the Month of Letters People like I should have.  It was just a real hectic and quick month  (didn't you notice how it sped by?).


A couple of weeks ago, I got a postcard in the mail.  One of my favorite things---I collect them  (recall the line from above when my friend Theda calls me a nerd ), so I was very excited to see the postcard.  Only I couldn't figure out who it was from.  At first glance it looked like "shelly', but Shelly hadn't gone anywhere....and the only people I know from that neck of the woods (where the postcard came from)  are named Tomi and Megan...but the signature   started with an S.
Then it dawned on me!  Suey!  From  It's all about Books!  (it wasn't her handwriting, believe me--it was my fast glance )
She  had promised to send people, who commented on her post about a Month of Letters, a  note....and she kept her promise. 

Thanks Suey!   Thanks Karen!  Thanks Theda!