Fun in the sun with Susan

Susan came down for her first visit to our new digs. Austin was pretty excited about it:

Susan is one of those rare houseguests that doesn’t disrupt your routine all that much. She actually doesn’t want to be entertained. She wants to hang out and play with the dogs, but still appreciates the occasional outing. Like wine tasting on a Thursday.

We took her to one of our favorite wineries (and picked up our club shipment.) They recommended another little winery nearby, so we decided to check it out. They not only let us taste outside…

But it was freakin’ poolside! (Apparently, they have a house on the property that they rent out, which includes use of the pool area in the evening when the winery is closed.) I sense a future group outing…

But the rest of the view wasn’t too shabby either…

Mixed in with awesome outings, Susan did a ton of yard work:

Spring has definitely sprung in our little yard! I took the opportunity to take a photo of our gorgeous roses, before they got pruned:

We took Susan out for her 66th birthday to Greens restaurant:

And there was plenty of dog time. Here’s Blue getting groomed:

After:

Austin did not like when Susan would take Wally for a walk. (Even though he would always go for a walk right after… )

We took a trip into San Francisco for some tourist fun. We visited the Nespresso store, then walked through Chinatown to check out Coit Tower

Despite the various years we’ve lived here, I’ve never actually gone inside. It was really cool. There are a bunch of murals from the 30’s in the lobby:

And the top of the tower is pretty cool in it’s own right.

But the views of the city are the star of the show. Here’s Alcatraz:

The Transamerica tower and downtown SF:

And home sweet home, Oakland:

And that was basically our visit. It was so much fun to hang out with Susan but I’m pretty sure it’s going to take Wally a few days to recover…

One year later…

A year ago, I wrote a lengthy blog post and detonated the remains of a really important relationship in my life. I’ve thought often about what might have been different if I’d known we’d be moving in six months. Could I have been patient? Would she have actually talked to me? Or was the feeling that she was ghosting out of our friendship correct? Who knows…

Healing is a funny thing. It has helped tremendously to be in a totally new environment. (Especially one in which I didn’t know her when I lived here before.) And for the most part, I’ve made my peace with the situation, but I find myself wishing I could text her about super random things. Like when the guy in front of me is buying a bag full of lemons. Or my mother-in-law goes to an impromptu Jazzercize class down the street. And those are the times that I miss her the most.

And while I am tremendously sorry that my blog post hurt her, and there are definitely things I would have phrased differently if I hadn’t been in such a messed up place myself, I can’t say that I’m sorry that I wrote it. I learned exactly how universal and strange losing a close female friend is and had some amazing conversations with people about it that I never would have otherwise. It definitely helped the healing process.

I still wish that she’d reach out, but I’m not counting on it. Whatever happens, I hope that life is treating her well and that she’s happy. I’m grateful for the parts of our friendship that were awesome and for the lessons learned from the less-awesome parts. I guess that’s all we can really hope for, isn’t it?