So Long, Farewell.... Beth

Tonight was Beth's farewell dinner. Or, as she aptly named it, Beth's Moving to George Bush Land Dinner. It was a great group of people that I mostly knew. Pappassitos was a wonderful dining experience (wait, that food is still sitting in my car....) and there will be corny pictures of the evening to post later.

Good times afterwards at Ashley and Ross's house. More pictures. More silliness.

I'm in one of those moods now at almost 2:30 in the morning where I honestly don't want to go to sleep. I'm tired but not overly so.

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Sleep ensues
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I stayed awake for almost another hour or two last night, watching the last hour of The Wedding Date and then reading in bed. It wasn't that I wasn't physically tired; it was that my mind had become remarkably, acutely awake. I was invested in The Wedding Date, noticing details and understanding moments that I'd never seen before. Whole new layers of emotion and story were unearthed for me just by paying attention at a late (or, depending on how you look at it, early) hour.

I've been re-reading parts of "Eat, Pray, Love" in bed before I go to sleep lately and I couldn't stop myself last night, wanting to relive Elizabeth Gilbert's experiences in Indonesia in the third section of the book. Such a storyteller, that one. Lyndsey told me that she is going to be giving a talk/lecture/whatever in DC in March and I am ravenous to hear her speak outside this simple book that I love. I want more....

Dare I make the trip? I already need to visit my sister in Boston. I want to go to KY in February to hear Brandi Carlile with the Louisville Symphony. Lyndsey is teasing (in the most delectable way) me with a possible trip to Europe this summer. Other friends are already planning a return trip to visit Philip in Alaska in August. There's always Christy and Alden in Houston. Beth will be in Denton/Dallas/Ft. Worth. I want to visit Toby again in Ann Arbor. Phil is in Durham, perhaps the easiest of all these trips. What a lovely problem it is, really, to have places to go and people to see. Every time I start to think I'm lonely or alone or been left behind by everyone's goings and rare comings, I'm surrounded in good company. God and the Universe refuse to leave me alone. The cost of these journeys, however, arrives at issue.

In a way, I'm glad I don't have endless amounts of money making all travel possible. At this point in my life, I need the grounding of having to make choices; otherwise I might not be so grateful. Otherwise the trips might not be wasted on me. I'm not a person who takes things for granted naturally but I savor these trips more knowing the opportunity cost of taking them. And oh, baby, is it worth the cost of the opportunity....