Hello Sam!

How long has it been? We HAVE to get together. I miss you so much. I am clearly just the Uber driver for my kids now. Between Jordan’s water polo and Mikayla’s band stuff, I’ve got like 400,000 miles to drive over the next few years. But we HAVE to get together. How’s late 2023, early 2024 looking for you?

As I say that, I’m just looking at 2023. Jordan’s graduation will be that June, then Mikayla’s the very next year. I’m just worried that if we say 2023-24 I’ll end up having to cancel, so maybe we should shoot for 2025-2026. I know, I’m so lame! Remember how we used to do NOTHING all day?

For sure the early 2030s are looking good, so maybe that’s a safer bet. Although you know my family history — fifty is when my mom had her cancer scare, so even with remission, I could be looking at a busy 4-6 years. And of course Ken will have an affair (while I’m in chemo of course!), so divorce is pretty likely. And then I’ll probably do a heavy-duty Buddhist thing to try to find some meaning. So realistically we should prob start looking at Fall 2049 or maybe Spring 2050.

For sure, 2050-2055 is WIDE open. The only caveat could be that Jordan is likely to come back to the house after college. He’s a sweetheart but he has “Failure to Launch” written all over him. So maybe, just to play it safe, let’s not mess with the 2050s.

May 9th, 2062. I am typing it in my phone RIGHT NOW. It’s a Friday and it says “Sam, Drinks, 7 pm!”

Except that in 2062, I’ll be what — 83? and you’ll be 84 right? Rats! I say we stick with May 9th, 2062 and if anything comes up like illness or death we’ll just reschedule, right? You know what they say — Carpe Diem!

See you on the 9th!

— Hope