This weekend began with a headache and a strong desire to go home and climb into bed. (To be fair, if they hadn’t been paving outside my window, I probably would have stayed in bed in the dark all day.)

However, it was really good that I acquiesced when Rudi told me that (since our normal Friday concert had been rained out) our friends Michael and Julia had offered up their back deck to the group of us, because Rudi had, unbeknownst to me, decided I needed a do-over birthday party from when he was in the hospital and everyone else was out of town. There were cupcakes and fancy drinks and presents (including purple alpaca yarn from Australia and homemade chocolate-covered strawberries) and accordion music courtesy of Michael. We talked literature and politics and race and gender relations and it was the closest evening I’ve had to college life in a while.

Saturday, we slept in (just like we would have in college), then went out for an evening road trip with John and Nicole. We played a round of mini golf (I got a hole-in-one (luck, not skill) and we all had some hysterically funny, horrible shots) and it was just generally 19 (yes, 19) holes of fun. Then we headed a bit further up the highway for a concert by Kacey Musgraves, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and Willie Nelson.

On Sunday, we hit the farmers market, where we came away with the first sweet cherries of the season (among other things). Sarah and I kept the berry theme going by heading out to Poolesville for an afternoon of strawberry and sour cherry picking. The recent rains have made for some gigantic berries, but I felt awful for the farmers because it has also caused many of them to rot on the vine. This was the first week for cherries and the berries were prolific. Sarah and I were appreciative of the shade the trees provided as the sun beat down hotter than either of us had expected.

Last night, I talked with my family, getting to wish my dad a happy Father’s Day (as my friends and I get older, I am more and more grateful to be able to have those conversations with him, rather than about him). Then Rudi and I hit the tail end of the local bookstore member sale before finishing up the weekend with a pizza dinner.

It was a full, but wonderful, weekend.

Weekending along with Karen.