My favorite person

Moira

She's smart, sensitive, and caring with a quick wit. She's my favorite person.

Today we had breakfast with one of her coworkers, Dominique (Dom). Dom wanted to meet me because she's been reading my blog daily and she's a fan of following my China adventure. She described me as a sort of celebrity. I'm glad she enjoys my writing, but that was never the purpose of this blog. I only wanted to stay connected to family and friends. It was interest to hear her story. Her mom is from Cuba. I'll bet she has a different perspective of living in a communist country than I do. Of course I forgot to get a picture at breakfast down at The Little Cheerful. Dom is a hockey player. She invited us to one her games next weekend and I hope we can make it. I've got a golf match to play in with Steve on Saturday, but I'm wide open Sunday as of now.

Moira's brave. She hasn't chosen the easy path, but instead she's chosen her own. Her mother and I had designs to ship her off to college after high school. We wanted her to leave Bellingham and go have an experience similar to what we both had, but Moira opted to go her own way. I used to tell her often that she didn't have to do what we asked her to do. She was free to go be an adult at any time. Adults pay their own bills. Adults have jobs and don't ask their parents for money. I'll never forget the day Moira was waiting for us to arrive at home. She was sitting on the front steps of the house. She gave us her phone and car keys. She was going to go be an adult.

Looking back it's embarrassing. I was cold. I wasn't supportive. Neither of us asked Moira what she "really" wanted. We framed her options only with the idea in mind that she was leaving to go to college. We ended up pushing her away. She was married to Kaleb less than a month after high school graduation and she wasn't able to tell us. We've talked about it several times now and we both have regrets about how that period of time played out. Now? I do my best to not be a judger. That's a challenge for me. I tend to be a neat freak and they both have a much higher tolerance for living in what I would call a mess. Being at home now I've told them several times that me cleaning the house isn't a judgement being passed on either of them. I choose to clean because it's what I want.

I think the worst thing I could do is to make Moira feel judged. I know I don't like that feeling and the two of us are quite similar in some ways. Also very different in other ways. We're both socially awkward at times, but Moira has it in her to be a performer. She was great on stage in her play performances. That's something I could never do.

Tomorrow we're all heading to Tacoma to see mom's family. I promised to bring apple pies so Moira and I are baking today. These two pies were the result of our efforts today. I like what Moira did with the patterns on the crust edges. Think I might incorporate that into future pies.

Cooking together with Moira is high on my list of favorite things to do. A few years ago we made a pinwheel steak with lobster wrapped inside it. This is one my all time favorite pictures of her.

Love you Pnut. So happy to spend time with you today. I'll miss you most when I head back to school in three weeks.