How I fell in love with farmland {pt.6} The Last Day

Monday we went shopping. First, Grace and Laura took us to brunch at Wheatfields. First time for everything. And Wheatfields is lovely.

It's a sad/happy feeling when you know you've got all day long with friends, but you're leaving that night, and there's all these long, luscious hours in between you've got time to fill. But why do they fly by all too soon? I was thinking today that time is the one order of the universe that never makes a mistake. Time is pure, repeating itself day in and day out, always changing things, but ever always the same. 

But how can there always never be enough time, and sometimes much too much? 

I felt quite grown up driving 1,100 miles with this little sis of mine, and we all know sometimes we're not so good at this grown up thing. There's just something about driving 550 miles to see someone you love. Especially the Browns. There's just something special about how I feel like the boys there are my brothers.They are so similar, like you've known them all your life. I love when you Browns just stand in hallways and bedroom doors and talk to each other. And you talk as if there's nothing better to do, nowhere better to go and no hurry to be in, and staying up late just sharing opinions and stories is the best thing in the world. Being grown up means a lot of things, but mostly it just means you've lived a long while and you've made mistakes. And it means being willing to be wide open, to learn things, and to love, to make more mistakes and to keep on loving. 'Cause there's no mistakes in loving.  

When you've gone to new places, there's this whole world of restaurants and stores, all new and exciting. All of us wondering if you have Five Guys, and there's this feeling of restaurants I've never been to and stores I've only heard of. It's all real here.

Grace's Art

Driving down the farm roads to the city, one of the last times.

We're a bit blurry, Lauri, but I don't think either of us mind. Look! It's the both of us together!

Grace's Art

So Grace, I love your art. Thanks for teaching me to never undervalue the love of an art. Seeing you with a camera and the joy you had in it; it's enough for one girl to take a step back and blink away all she knows, and just look straight again at the heart of it all, to come back to what she knew first.

Grace's Art

Me and Laura dreaming, wedding dresses and all.

Waiting for breakfast! It's going to be delicious!

Grace's Art

And what's breakfast with apple juice?

And pretty wedding cake pictures on the walls!

Hannah's nummy kische(?)

Laura and me had crepes and sausages with yummy cream! Wheatfields is lovely. Such a delicious treat to go out with our precious girls!

Then off shopping we went! Our first Whole Foods! It was a trip of experiences, let me tell you! They also took us to Charming Charlie's where Hannah found sunglasses and we bought scarves.

To the Old Market! Such a beautiful place. Old and wonderful, and the streets rumbled under tires.

There's a history here. Tall brick buildings with windows and big rooms. Something new about all the old-ness.

Wandering down the streets. It was imperative that we find a restroom, and soon. But we got caught up in an old antique store.

. . . and funny signs!

I bought some used books, and I couldn't decide. But if you bought three, you got one free! So I rushed back and grabbed "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", because I'd never read it before.

The brick streets. The tires made a rumbling, humming sound as they whirred over them. How loud they must have sounded beneath the hooves of horses and wagon wheels.

This was full of Russian china and chandeliers!

And at any market, there must be pigeons.

We wandered down into art stores and jewelry rooms, and down into this passageway.

Oh, and Hannah bought some tea at a tea shop/coffee shop. And I found a mug with a sweater design on it!

Dear Old Market Candy Shop, your homemade caramels with sea salt are the most delicious things I've ever eaten! Except for maybe white hot chocolate.

A British telephone box! In the Midwest! It was at a restaurant across the street, but Laura and Grace said, "Why not?"

So we headed over.

Grace braved it first!

Definitely a spot for cute pictures!

Then a nice old man came along and offered to take our picture. Thank you!

G&H Inc. Friend pictures by the windows. I hope the restaurant people didn't mind. No came out to ask us to leave, so . . . 

K&L Inc. 

Then B&U Inc. Look at all our pretty white smiles!

The classier side of B&U Inc. See our sunglasses coordinate with the friendships? Grace and Hannah's? Mine and Laura's?

Big buildings with fire escapes. A weakness of mine. Must live an apartment with a fire escape someday.

Then we went to grab a bite to eat before Grace had to leave. We ate some McDonalds and watched the trailer to a WWII movie, talked about life. Things. Us. People. And tried not to think about the dwindling hours and bits of sand dropping through the hour glass.

But we listened to Laura Story on the way home to Laura's house, and Jewel, because music is such a part of our friendship. Music and words sung.

Laura loaded up some eggs for us to bring home, cause that's just what country folk do. Give and give, and don't expect anything in return.

Here's Laura's Penny the Panda she bought for me. She keeps me warm and safe at night, Laura. Thank you. Soon I'll be getting out a scarf for her cause summer's ending and autumn is around the corner.

Then we let our hair out and Hannah braided it together, cause this how we are inside. All braided up with each other. Yeah, twenty-something friends do this, too.

When it's time to leave, it seems like there's a never ending list of stuff to do before you leave, and you're caught in the middle of hoping it'll never end, and you can stay forever, and just wishing to get the hard part over with it.

It always feels like there should be something else in between good-byes. Is it really just the longest hug you've ever given and then you get in the car and leave? Is there nothing in between? Just this silent transition where all you want to say gets bottled up inside you, with no room to get up and out your throat and into each other's hearts?

Peter Pan was right. Good-bye does mean going away and good-bye does mean forgetting. One of Peter's worst fears was forgetting something important. Mine, too, Peter. Something important I could have said, something important I could have done. Something important someone tried to tell me, something important to them, something important that I forgot about. But Peter, when you love someone you might lose them out of your head, but never out of out of your heart.