When the Moooooon is in the 7th House....

OK, first: I'm very fond of using parentheses (had you noticed?) and I'm also a big fan of the ellipses....know what I mean? And while we're at it--I've been known to enjoy a dash now and then.

Having said that, a great deal has happened since I last wrote. Earlier in the week I had one of those "....and Jupiterrrrr aligns with Mars" moments. When we got home from the Museum I found, in the mail, an invitation to my first grandchild's high school graduation. A teensy bit of background: he was born when my son was 16, and was in our life quite a lot for the first three years. But my son and his mother broke up (amicably, I'm glad to say). In time she married, and my son permitted her husband to adopt the boy. I didn't feel I should inject myself into the new family and therefore didn't, although I certainly never gave off thinking about him.

Fast forward 14 years to one year ago, May of '06. We got home from the Museum (I should make some kind of code for that, I say it a lot) to find a phone message from his mother. Seems he was going to his junior prom that night - and had decided he wanted to come visit his grandma. (!) I'll give you a moment to absorb that (pay special attention to the fact that it had been fourteen years).

OK - they came over. And the dandelion-haired rosy-cheeked blond infant boy had become a very TALL thin dark-haired young man who no longer was the image of my son's infant self. No, he clearly bears the family stamp of my side of the family now! He generously let me take his picture, and when I looked at it later I realized, he looks a LOT like my first cousin! He's a Kohn, after all that. He's also fascinating, reads anime (his aunt will be so excited), he's studied French, he was intrigued by our historical reenactment pasttime.

Fast forward to Tuesday, and I receive his invitation, containing four beautiful formal photos. (Thank you, Grandson, you may not know how much this means to me, but in my typical jewishmother way you can bet I'll gush all over and let you know).

OK, here's the twilight zone part. Later that very same evening, the phone rang. It was the ex-wife of my OTHER son, whom I had not heard from at ALL for six years. We had gone to his 11th birthday (he's 17 now); before that we hadn't seen him for nine years. NOTE: in this case his mother had separated herself from us for many complex reasons, and I had no way to find her. She'd married too, and I didn't know her last name.

So when I heard her voice on the telephone it was all I could do to be casual. I would have been astonished at any time -- but on the very day I had gotten the other grandson's invitation, well! This grandson, hereafter referred to as "C" (the other one is "N"), had decided he wanted to tell me about his future plans. When his mother put him on the phone, it was A Moment. His voice has much of the timbre of his father's, and I can hear the remembered sound of his grandfather's voice, my first husband. (Of blessed memory.) Of course he has no way of knowing that (in my typical jewishmother way, he WILL). He had determined to invite us to come over the Saturday before Memorial Day for a picnic; seems they now own a home on a beautiful lake nearby. I promised to take my album of his baby pictures - his mother said she really doesn't have any. (Didn't ask, don't want to know.)

The Husband says that's all nice but it has nothing to do with coincidence. Silly person! I know when the Creator is plying gifts and I thank Her for it. So, within a short span of time, both of my first two grandchildren have returned to me, and I'll see them both within two weeks of one another. I have to admit, it had been as secret hope of mine that both would come looking for their paternal grandmaw "when they got old enough".

Also this week, Wednesday to be exact, we had our young colleague from the Museum and her fiance over for supper. It was about as enjoyable an evening as we've had for a while. These children are ALMOST young enough to be our grandchildren - chronologically - and yet are very much peers, in fact. Both fiance and Husband have the same name, and we laughed about being between two bookends; as it turns out, they're similar in many other ways as well. They really are very much the younger, 21st-century versions of us. The compatibility and camaraderie were fabulous. I had made a West African Peanut Stew (she's vegetarian) and it turned out wonderfully! In spite of the fact that I forgot to put in the okra (there are those would say that's a good thing) and we forgot to make the brown rice to serve with it. Turned out just fine, as Young Friend and Fiance brought some exceptional yummy bread.

Long talkings, and we sat long enough to opt for dessert. Husband had bought three flavors of sherbet (watermelon, pineapple, lemon) which we discovered was very nice in varous combinations; we also had anise pizelles, another happy surprise.

A wonderful evening with good food spent in the company of like-minded friends - that's the sort of thing that leads me to declare "we are incredibly unbelievably rich; we just don't have a lot of money." C'est vraie, c'est vraie. Oh - and I'm virtually done with my gold Virginia Tech square. Want very much to finish at least one more in order to mail them by the 22nd of this month or so. They're due "before the end of the month".