the book club
It was my turn to host book club last night. We read
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. The author talks about being caught in that "middle place" -- being both someone's mother and yet still being someone's child. We fell in love with the characters. We fell in love with Greenie.
For once I was ready before everyone arrived. I lit the candles on the mantel and in the fireplace, picked up the book I am currently reading and settled in on the couch. (I think it's time to give the mantel a seasonal makeover!)
For once I was ready before everyone arrived. I lit the candles on the mantel and in the fireplace, picked up the book I am currently reading and settled in on the couch. (I think it's time to give the mantel a seasonal makeover!)
We were a small group last night. Just four. Everyone arrived within minutes and we poured ourselves some wine -- red, Merlot -- and settled down in the living room snacking and talking, snacking and talking. We picked at marinated olives, cashews, and sea salt crisps with a cilantro and green onion yogurt dip. We ate and talked and ate and talked some more. And drank our wine.
Our group started over 6 years ago. We all brought forth one member, so that everyone knew someone, but yet no one knew everyone. Over the years our group swelled and dwindled, swelled and dwindled. We attempted to bring in new members and some lasted and some didn't make it to the next meeting. We fell apart a couple of years ago due to arriving babies and new careers and life. A few of us tried other groups but it wasn't the same. The energy and camaraderie were just not there. A few months ago the core 4 of us decided we should try to reestablish our group. We met up at my house last summer with two new members whose personalities meshed perfectly with ours. We knew it would work this time. And it has. And I really look forward to my evenings with these ladies. We have not known each other all that long and yet it seems, when we are together, that our friendship is decades-old. We click. We work and I love my girls!
We range in age from 37 to 49. We grew up in different parts of the country -- New York, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts. We belong to different social circles. Our children go to different schools. A few of our children go to the same pediatric group. While outside our group we do not have much in common, we never run out of things to say. And we can go on and on for hours and hours and hours barely coming up for air -- just enough to have a sip of wine or a bite to eat. Such was the case last night.
We talked about pediatricians -- the ones we like and the ones we don't, and why we liked or didn't like them. We talked about childhood illnesses and the rotten, rough winter it has been. We talked about blood types and diets and cancer and we talked about menopause and pregnancy and loss of pregnancy and our children and our parents and our mothers and our relationships with them and our relationships with our children. We talked about doctors, physicians and gynecologists and mammograms. We talked about aging and all that accompanies it and weight gain and illness. We talked about college and life in our twenties. We talked about Alzheimer's and ADD and OCD. We talked about our spouses. We talked about marriage. We talked about our children growing up. We talked about our homes and real estate.
At some point we got up and went in to the dining room where we dined on arugula salad with Parmesan, grape tomatoes and a lemon vinaigrette and a baked macaroni and cheese that I made using Gruyere, cheddar and goat cheeses. (Unfortunately I didn't leave it in the oven quite long enough... it should have been gooey-er and crispier. I am slightly embarrassed that it was not perfect.)
And then we had dessert. We had a chocolate chip cookie exchange. The only rule was that the baked goods had to contain chocolate chips. The desserts were fabulous and as soon as I have all of the recipes I will post them on the food blog. The Dinner menu is on the food blog.
Once the Pellegrino and wine were gone and our watches told us that it was much too late we said goodnight and I sent the girls and their cookies on their way. We chose our next book, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, a story of a Harvard professor with early onset Alzheimer's. The book was highly recommended and so far, I am enjoying it tremendously. I decided to read it because I was promised that the book ended on a positive, upbeat note. In all of our chatter, most completely relevant to The Middle Place, we forgot completely to even talk about the book!