Much Ado About Nothing

Jowo Sez:  It isn't often 16 women can maintain lasting friendships over the course of 20+ years and still find something new to talk about. But that's us and we're having a blast. We love life, we love each other, we love our families, and we love our Faith.  We just spent Sept 15-19 back in Wheaton doing a whole lot of nothing and it was great. Joyce S. opened up her beautiful home to us. Those of us who no longer lived in the area flew in from Texas, Idaho, Virginia, and California. A few of our friends couldn't make it. We read Gone With The Wind in celebration of 150 years since the Civil War. We compared it to The Help. We watched and slept through the movie. We visited the French Market and ate at a great chinese restaurant Saturday afternoon along with bookending the trip with two trips to Portillo's for the world's greatest hotdogs. Sorry New York. I stand by their Chicago dogs! We listened to nationally acclaimed philosophy professor David Paulson read his 2005 paper he'd presented to the Library of Congress on Joseph Smith and watched part of a football game where BYU got slaughtered before we turned it off. We ate some more and stayed up lated. Joyce S.'s husband spent the 5 days with his grandchildren. What a Pal, Paul! We laughed and cried and attempted to scrapbook items from old trips. And we ended the trip with a shopping trip to Ann Taylor where most of us bought skinny jeans at 40% off. Now to try to fit into them. Our eldest member, Elva, at 85, led the brigade. Our youngest member, Celeste at 50(?) kept us organized. And I personally enjoyed meeting and speaking at some length with a defense attorney who switched sides to protect the interests of the mother of a victim of John Wayne Gacy, and later on my flight home sat next to "The Worlds' Greatest expert on Ragtime," Terry Waldo. I learned so much and I'm enjoying his book , This Is Ragtime and  one of his  CDs.