11:17

I bet anything you have some of these in your family, and I'm not going to spill any family secrets, but 11:17 is a family code word. Our family owns a house at 1117 C-- St. and so whenever it is 11:17, we say oh look, it's 11:17!! Or the fact that when I was five, I thought "Happy Valentine's Day" was the same as "Have a nice day" and so for months, I would say "Happy Valentine's Day" to my dad when he left the house. Even now, at a quiet moment, I'll say "Happy Valentine's Day" and he'll break into a grin. Writer Cynthia Voigt (one of my favorite writers) had some code word that had to do with The Runaway Bunny. It had to do with carrots...can't remember it at the moment, I'll try to dredge it out.

This morning I did some impromptu gardening...I went down to the Union Project for my walk, basically because I didn't walk to church yesterday and I wanted to see how long it would take me...about 10 minutes, but I walk fast. I imagine it's about a mile. I sat at the bus stop for a while, just to catch my breath and relieve the stitch in my side and I was listening to Jack Hayford talking about binding and loosing on my Disc-man. A guy waiting for the bus picked some trash up and I thought that was cool. Something (or Someone?) told me to go over to my brown eyed Susans. Not mine, really, but I am a brown eyed Susan, so I have a soft spot for them. So I unchoked them from some ivy and pulled out some dandelions and wild strawberries and clover and other weeds--I'm not a gardener, my mom has always done that. I guess it was me saying, the church is not a building, but I am the church at this building so I'll pull some weeds. Someday I'll get to the point where I understand the software that is Blogger and I'll start posting photos.

Since I'm still chewing on the friendship theme, I'll close with this quote. It has been true so many times in my life.

"A friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
--Walter Winchell