I have rethought reestablishing contact with my estranged friend. I realized that as the person who initiated the severance, that I have forfeited some "rights," and when all is said and done, I would not want my "acknowledgment" of the fact that something major has occurred for her to be misinterpreted as an open invitation to contact me. I don't want to be in her life again. It was very stressful and I often felt encroached upon during the course of our friendship. I also believe that it was for her benefit that we are no longer in communication. Who am I to assume she wants an acknowledgment from me,anyway? I mulled all of this over, prayed about it,and realized that the best and most considerate thing to do is leave well enough alone.

The scripture that kept coming to mind as I prayed for God to give me His insight into this matter is : "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly." In essence. Don't open closed doors.

I need to pick up a few more things in order to be prepared for Thanksgiving, but I think I will do it later this week, or on Monday. I want everything to be as fresh as possible. I have settled on recipes for Pork Loin with Mushroom Fricassee (sp?), sweet potato cheesecake for dessert, and a sausage stuffing with walnuts, and some type of dried fruit (maybe apricots?). It's a bit ambitious, but at least it will just be my sister and me if it's a horrible disaster. My secret for making truly excellent food is to be at least partially buzzed during the preparation. It removes the inhibitions and makes me fearless in experimentation.

In other news, almost everyone from my Poetry Workshop class is interested in continuing to meet over the spring, informally, to keep up the writing community. One of the members sent out an e-mail on Friday to the entire class (only 6 of us), and save one person, we've each replied in the positive. The one person who has not yet replied does not really fit in with the rest of the group--she's always just someplace else in her reading of a given piece, or focusing on minutiae. Frankly, I hope that she does not want to join us, because her comments in class usually stress me out. But, if she should, it's worth it to me. I have come a long way in trusting the sensibilities of the other writers in the group, and I don't want to lose that.
Ironic, considering how much I have kvetched about that class on this blog, and in my offline communications with friends.

It's nearly time for the office holiday party again. I may actually be able to go this year!