The Parish home Love-In

Saturday night was an impromptu gathering of kindred spirits, none of which knew all of the others – eleven of us in total. It started as a small get-together – Tom and Lily Parish, Jenny Meadows and me.  The initial purpose of which was to attempt to bring me into the 21st century world of the internet. No mean feat!

Here’s Lily Parish …. See what I’m learning about inserting pictures and links?   and what a good teacher Tom is?
You can read about her adventures in Germany by going to www.parishfamily.com/sharon_parish/

In the meantime, Jensen and Jean Walker (best friends with Justin and Juliet) and their 15-week-old daughter, Genevieve, became a part of the mix, as Tom, dubbed the Social Network Ninja, was showing Jensen Really Complicated computer stuff. Jensen is a professional photographer.

Here’s Jensen and Tom         

Here’s Jean holding Genevieve  (Dang, I’m good! … slow, but good!)
Jean’s a nurse and a dancer. Genevieve is an artist in expressing herself without words.

Another of Tom’s internet protege’s is his next door neighbor, Karen Rayne (who recently received her PhD in Adolescent Sexuality). And being interested in the evening’s topic, she was also part of the Parishes’ Eleven.

OH, but that’s not all. Jenny Meadows, editor and Yahoo Goddess Extraordinnaire, sent one of her friends a link to my blog. He emailed me, I emailed back, several times. This was on Friday. It turns out he and his wife live in Austin, which is where Tom and Lily live, and where I was going the next day. Bottom line, Russell Forsyth (Angel Therapist and Medium) and Beckie Forsyth (herbalist and environmental healer) also came to dinner the next night.   (Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pics of Jenny, Russell, Beckie, or our next surprise dinner guest – I keep forgetting my iPhone has a camera.) While I’m emailing back and forth with Russell, Tom is emailing back and forth with Sherry Lowry (professional coach) – all 11 people at one table, making new connections – even with old friends. It was an enlivening evening.

I forgot … we also had two rat terriers providing additional entertainment … Tinkerbell, aka, Tink, beloved of Sharon, and Wendy, aka, The Serial Turkey Killer (yes, she kills wild turkeys by herself – 2 notches on her belt so far).

It was a totally eclectic group. Only five of us had participated in the More to Life Program; the others expressed interest in what the program is about. So that was one of our topics of conversation. Tom P was asked loads of questions about social networking and how the internet is changing the world and how the world is changing the internet. Sherry had lots of experiences working with companies and  multi-generational issues. Lots of personal sharing and shifts of conversation.

And the food, ah, the food – bring and share – scrumptious and delicious. My mouth is watering all over again, just remembering the tastes and textures. To crown the evening, Lily had made a cherry pie, from scratch, pitting the cherries herself – YUMMMMM! I asked if it was considered gauche to lick your plate. I was assured it wasn’t, but I lacked the nerve.  However, I did take a few finger swipes through the juice left on the pie platter at the end. (OK, MANY finger swipes, till it was all gone – lip-smacking good!)  And that’s Life as it should be!