More Visitors From Seattle

The girls, by nickname, from left: Birdie, Jules, and Care.

Seattle is where, apparently, plenty of the cool kids live.  Didn't you know, Fans?  Yesterday, Julie's friend Carrie, whom Julie met in law school, was in town with her husband, Paul, and their sons, Wyatt (who is four) and Gavin (who is two).  Carrie looked, impossibly, fresh as a daisy, despite the flight from Seattle to Minni-apples--with two toddlers in tow, no less--and Wyatt and Gavin were sporting super, super cool Star Wars shirts, apparently from Nordstrom.  (They do live in Seattle.)  Paul still has hair that rivals Dr. McDreamy's though does anyone watch Gray's Anatomy anymore--even in Seattle?  (Probably especially not in Seattle.)

They came to dinner.  We had "fancy" mac 'n' cheese, salad, and grapes.  We learned that Joe still does not like fancy mac 'n' cheese (Seriously?  Seriously.) and that Wyatt is not fond of an onion.  And so we here use "we" loosely above when we write that "we" had fancy mac 'n' cheese.  We learned everyone in this crowd likes a grape, though!

Not long after dinner, the kids were playing companionably in the living room which made Julie's heart smile, remembering Joe's reticence getting out of the car and heading into the house earlier in the evening.  Ted took the bus home last night so he could preheat the oven and slide the fancy mac in it, and Julie arrived home with the kids later, not long after Carrie and her gang had already arrived.  Joe was a little apprehensive about going into the house to see friends he didn't remember ever meeting after all.

It was in that moment that scenes from the filmstrip of Julie and Carrie's friendship ran and flickered through Julie's heart, that she thought--however briefly--of the people Joe and Clara would meet that would fill them up with laughter and light.  That's how she knew to reach down, grab Joe's hand and introduce him to some of the truest wisdom the Muppets ever gave us all: "There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met."

Joe and Wyatt.  (Wyatt had Legos.)