I had lunch with my friend Katherine today. It’s funny…I have a place I go with just about every friend I go out to lunch with. And it isn’t the same place with any of them. With Katherine, “our place” is 126 in downtown Iowa City. Actually, “our place” used to be “the noodle place” (I don’t even know the name of it…we just always called it “the noodle place”), but then Katherine informed me that 126 had the best chocolate cake in town, so we switched “our place.” In case you’re wondering, 126 really DOES have the best chocolate cake in Iowa City. At least, the best I’ve ever tasted. If there’s better chocolate cake somewhere else, I’d sure like to know about it.
Anyway…we had a great lunch. I was late because even though I know how long it takes me to drive downtown, I sometimes underestimate the amount of time it’s going to take me to find a place to park in a ramp and walk back to 126! But when I arrived at 126, there was a tall glass of iced tea waiting for me. It’s so nice to have a friend who just KNOWS you’ll want iced tea, so she goes ahead and orders it for you before you get there.
Katherine’s a writer, too, so we always have a lot to talk about. She’s a nonfiction writer (which I’m really not) and a history buff (which I never was until I met her)…so whenever I spend time with her, I start thinking about nonfiction and/or history projects I want to write. She’s a bad influence on me.
She’s got a fabulous book on lighthouses coming out in the next year…and she was showing me some of her photos today. She thinks I wasn’t very interested…but I WAS. Growing up in the Midwest, I’m fascinated by lighthouses (I never saw one until I was an adult). But while Katherine was trying to show me these lighthouses photos, I was a little distracted playing pat-a-cake with this beautiful baby girl in my lap who was all smiles! What can I say? Katherine presented me with two very interesting things AT THE SAME TIME…the baby won!