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SJ Tucker and her sweetie K came over to the house last night for dinner. We did not make her sing for her supper, though she did bring her guitar which I’ve discovered goes with her everywhere like my writer’s notebook accompanies me. Carri and her wife, Pili, came over, too. Jon and I made six for dinner and conversation. Appetizers were some of the sweetest cherries, blueberries, and raspberries that I’d had in years from a grocery store. Pili had shopped for them and she just has this uncanny knack of picking the best fresh ingredients. She bats those big eyes and grocery store employees will cheerfully go into the back of the store to find her just that freshest pick. She manages to make them happy to help her, and to feel good about doing it. It’s like a magic power. One, I do not possess. She says, it’s because I won’t stoop to the levels she will, but I’m not sure I could do it even if I tried.

Dinner was sushi take-out from one of our favorite restaurants. Last time SJ and K were over for dinner Jon and K drove out to get food so this time I went to pick up and Carri came to help carry stuff. We always tend to over order at this place, because there’s always something we’ve never tried before. When we got back with food Pili was drawing on SJ’s back with markers, while K over saw the design, and Jon watched. Why were they doing that? SJ told me she wanted to get a new tattoo, but she wasn’t sure about it. I suggested that maybe Pili could do for SJ what she’s done for Jon and I, use her artist skills to draw the designs we think we want so we can wear the art for awhile and see if we really like it. Jon and I have found one small tattoo that she’s drawn on us two, or three times, and we miss it when it’s gone. We may actually get that one at some point. Not sure when, though. I mean a tattoo is forever, and what seems like a good idea now, well, will it still seem like a good idea when you’re eighty?

They’d come up with a completely new design while Carri and I were gone. I mean the group they. Leave a bunch of writers, musicians, and artists alone for awhile and you get some pretty interesting stuff happening. The design looked very cool on SJ. K got a copy in his computer so they wouldn’t lose it. But the tattoo that SJ had actually wanted first wasn’t quite right. So it needs to stew on the proverbial drawing board awhile longer, but they were closer to what she might want. I know how that feels, because I’ve come up with two larger tattoos that I really like and missed when they faded, but the design isn’t quite right yet. If you’re going to wear something forever it better be right before it goes on you. I’ve been scouring the internet for pictures to show Pili because I cannot draw the way K can to explain what I want. There’s nothing like what I want on the internet, but things that can give the artist the idea. Once we get the design right then it’s time to bite the bullet and find an artist to draw them on me in something more permanent than marker. But first something smaller, just in case.

Conversation at dinner ranged from stories from Arkansas, incidentally where SJ, Pili, and I, are all originally from. But SJ and Pili had stories from this one town, Blytheville, AR. Pili had a friend who was a EMT there, and SJ’s friend was a policeman. No one tells better stories than emergency personnel and cops. Okay, you gotta get the humor, if you don’t like your humor dark or weird you would have been at the wrong dinner. But then if you aren’t into dark, weird and funny, you’re most likely not a close friend of ours. Let’s just say stories involved very large rodents, road kill that wasn’t, abuse of a potato, and things not to do with Vaseline and electricity, plus two killer squirrel stories. The squirrel stories were actually Carri’s and Jon’s stories respectively and were not set in Arkansas. I helped Jon tell part of his because I was there for that one. We told stories of failed dates, or puzzling opportunities. Jon had more of those. He was always so bad at dating. I was one of the friends that would give him advice after the dates had gone wrong. Never expected that all that friend time would eventually prepare us for dating each other. Someone asked, “How did you date him?” K replied, “She knew what to expect.” So, very correct. K and SJ still have the most romantic first meeting story that I’ve ever heard in real life. Then there was the tasting of the two new sushi dishes one of which we all loved and one that I hated. As in, grab a napkin and who wants the uneaten part, because I am soooo done. Everyone else loved it. Ick.

SJ and K had to leave to finish packing because her next concert is in Chicago and they were headed out the next day. We all wished them safe journey, and then Pili and Carri had to run home to rescue their own puppies, and it was time for Jon and I to call it a night. A very good, very fun, always interesting, night.