Married friends can be a curious lot. The wife of a couple can be a good friend of mine, but the husband of that couple may not necessarily be a good friend of Cliff’s and vice versa. The dynamics, when friends are only on one end can be somewhat strained for the spouse on the other end. We are fortunate to have quite a few married friends who are good friends on both ends. Last week we hosted George and Theri, two of our very good friends on both ends.

When good friends on both ends come for a visit, it’s always fun and always busy. When fun and busy join forces, people can get tired and when people can get tired they sometimes can forget things. Things that should not be forgotten, as you will soon see, but I digress.

Our time together began on Wednesday night, well, not really. George and Theri arrived on Wednesday night. We were already asleep. We gave them the door code and left the light on in their room. Very good friends can do that, which is part of what makes them very good friends. We were asleep because Thursday was going to be busy. A full day, open to close, at Epcot. Can I tell you that I can’t tell you the last time I was at a Disney park at night in the dark? In fact, I can’t really tell you the last time I was awake at night when it was dark. We were once at a park so early in the morning that it was dark, but I don’t think that counts.

The full day at Epcot was perfect. The weather was beautiful. Epcot was, and still is, hosting their Food & Wine Festival, so we ate and talked our way around the world a couple of times making the day almost fly by. We were waiting for the closing fireworks show that was to start at 9:00. We found our “watching spot” at 8:00. We were ready, we were willing, we were all still vertical and then they announced that the show would begin at 9:45. Since we are all fairly well into our 60’s, we were not really that ready or willing and some of us, okay me, would no longer be vertical at that time; so the men went on one more ride and the ladies went to shop a little and use the restroom one more time. We also stopped for a hard cider flight, hence the need for one more restroom trip, then we all went home.

Friday and Saturday were easier days full of hiking and family and food.

Sunday we fought the Halloween crowds at St. Augustine. The most crowded we’ve ever seen it with little kids and adults in all kinds of costumes, some of them deep inside a costume that was blown up around them so they looked like the air-filled ornamentation people put on their lawns. It was kind of weird.

Monday George and Theri were going home. I was beginning to think that I might make it through an entire visit without doing something funky to myself or anyone else. The key word there would be “might”.

They didn’t have to leave until 1:30 or so in the afternoon, leaving plenty of time for a game of Scrabble, a nice lunch, and a visit with our youngest daughter and the youngest of her sons. A nice day, a relaxing day; but, I was tired and sensed a cold Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino bottle in the fridge calling my name. It was a call I should never have answered.

I took the bottle from the fridge and decided that I would only drink a little bit of it, enough for a quick pick-me-up. I shook the bottle, loosened the cap, and put it down, temporarily distracted by I don’t know what. I came back to the bottle, post distraction, and that’s when I forgot. I forgot a thing I should not have forgotten and I shook the bottle, again. This time with a loosened cap.

You know how people look when they walk into a room and a bucket of water falls down on them from the door frame drenching them from head-to-toe? Picture that with a cold Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino. It was in my hair, on my face, covering my glasses so I couldn’t see, on my shirt, dripping down my chest, and on both of my arms. It was on the floor, on the wall, and on the pantry door. It was everywhere. I stood in a state of shock trying my best to fathom how and what I had just done. Theri was in hysterics laughing, almost to the point of tears. I joined her and then changed my clothes. We mopped up the mess together. And there it was. The joyful, hysterical, culmination of a very good friends on both ends visit! There was even a little bit of Starbucks left in the bottle for my quick pick-me-up.

Very good friends on both ends, they’re a Very Big Deal!