The Last Dinner

We had a bittersweet dinner last night with friends K & B, and C & R. We all met at a downtown Italian restaurant near Rice University. Can't think of the name just now, but it's a cute restaurant that was originally a private home with lots of little rooms. Before being turned into an Italian restaurant, it was a bookstore. Its name is an odd one, not easily remembered, and the only way K & B got to know the name was to just drive there and copy it out with pen and paper. They've been eating there ever since, and last night was our first (but not last) dinner at that cute little place. The restaurant has lots of little rooms filled with small and large tables, and we were lucky enough to have a table for six in a room by ourselves. We were there for over three hours, just talking and laughing and catching up with what everyone has been up to.

The celebration last night was a send-off to C & R, who will be moving to upstate New York in a few weeks. Actually, R will be starting a new job there in mid-August, but C will be staying on here till the end of December. Their house near the downtown area sold in just six days, and they have already bought a house near Rochester. The moving truck will pick up the contents of their Houston home at the end of July, and C will be renting a tiny apartment for the rest of the year, then he will be off to the frozen north before the year's end.

We had going-away gifts for C & R, and R walked into the restaurant with a red and green shopping bag filled with wrapped Christmas gifts for all of us-- she had shopped after last Christmas, and she said she had enough to pack without packing our holiday gifts as well. So we had a combination moving north party/Christmas celebration last night. Bittersweet, as I said. We're happy for C & R, but sad that they won't be here with us for holiday dinners and Charades parties.