One July weekend my friend Jimmy came to visit. He arrived by airplane on the afternoon of Friday, July 8, 2005 and I left work an hour or two early to get him at the Cincinnati airport. Ostensibly, we had planned to work a bit on our forthcoming publication The Wax Apple, but as usual when we get together, we just concentrate on having fun, watching TV, and trying to amuse one another with our ascerbic wit. We did no work. We accomplished not one thing. But that’s okay. Had we sat around that weekend immersed in academia, I probably wouldn’t even be mentioning it.
We made the long drive back to my flat, yukking it up about various people, places, and things. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Carolyn, Ashleigh, and Baby and a box of DVD’s that had just arrived that day, having been shipped from…Jimmy. We all frequented our standard eatery that evening, The Olive Garden.
Me, my fresh haircut, and pair of chins driving Jimmy back to my house from the airport
Jimmy’s package arrived before he did. If only he had thought to mail himself.
Baby the cat
Something always brings us back to Olive Garden. Maybe it’s the food.
On Saturday we watched some episodes of Wings. As Lowell said, “That’s outstanding.” Jimmy and I picked up Ashleigh from Beaverettes practice and stopped off at CD Connection to browse. We had dinner that night at Friendly’s and then went back to my place to watch National Treasure, one of my newly acquired DVD’s. We topped off the evening by marveling at Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live.
Carolyn and I went to church on Sunday morning, but Jimmy opted to stay behind and keep Baby company. That afternoon, there was a party at Jeanette’s house where Carolyn’s family gathered to wish happy birthday to Alex, who was celebrating her actual twelfth birthday the day after. Afterward we came back to my house for pizza.
Pointing at our new purple furniture. I’m sure you’re wondering why all of the pictures from Jimmy’s visit are of me. It’s because only he took photos to commemorate the event.
Me and Yaht the misbehaver and our Sunday night pizza
Ashleigh leaves Jimmy a surprise on his digital camera
So as you can see, there was nothing unique or exciting about this weekend at all. It was a typical weekend in the life of our family at the time - enhanced by the presence of my friend Mr. Wiley. We left a bit early on Monday morning, July 11, and I returned him to the airport. He was going onto Wisconsin to visit another friend. It was great to have him visit and it wouldn’t be long before I would be reciprocating and heading to California for the first time in over eight years.
2005 will continue with the last vacation for Carolyn and me…
I still think we should have watched Kingpin instead of National Treasure. That’s outstanding!
Jimmy
February 25th, 2008