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| Data drawn from Arcgis which for a time was accurate |
It's so strange not to hug people. Rachel came (to our house! live and in the flesh!) and we couldn't hug her. It felt like eating a hotdog without the hotdog, like just eating the bun. Same with my mom when she came through, and Max's Virginia family.
We stood in the library annex visiting with Max and his half-sister Caroline, her husband Bill and their daughter Anna. Max's mother came later and joined us. We were there to celebrate Max's photo exhibit opening, exquisite images of WNC waterfalls taken with a pinhole camera and printed in liquid-smooth shades of black and white. The official reception was cancelled the day before the event, to protect everyone from each other's germs but it was a real shame. Max worked so hard on this; I know Bronwen must have, too. Some folks had planned to come (like his Virginia family) anyway I think, which meant a lot to us.
We were keeping some distance between each other as we talked but my eyes were hungry for people's faces-- Max's sister's animated face, her hair and eyes and how she sets the room spinning when she talks; his cousin Anna's face, just as lively and with so many thought-balloons around her head that I can never quite read.
Max's mother joined us, to my delight, wary at first of A's recent cold but so glad to see people she was soon running with A. around the mostly-empty room, making laps and challenging him to a race. It was such a quick burst of people and emotion I wanted to collect them all like eggs and put them in a basket for later.
