Widow's Voice

Old Connections

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I’ve spent the week hanging out with an old friend who I haven’t actually hung out with in person for over 30 years. I think that probably happens to a lot of us though with good friends we knew early on in life. Life happens, but you keep in touch over the years. We’d been planning to meet up again for awhile, but finally made it happen.

The first two and a half days were spent in Portland. The hotel we were staying at happened to give us a card when we checked in that included a discount for a health spa nearby. I had a crazy week leading up to taking a week off so I was completely down for something like that, so we ended up going. The place had various headed pools you could lounge in and then get whatever bodywork you chose, such as deep tissue massage (which is what I went for because my shoulders are basically a rock garden of muscle tension).

Then that evening we went to go see the band Ghost. That ended up being one of the better live shows I’ve ever seen. No opening act, and they played for almost two and half hours. Great energy. An interesting aspect of the show was no phones. When you went in through the gates, everyone had to put their phones in these locking pouches that you could carry around with you, but kept you from actually using the phone. I’m happily not addicted to my phone, so I had no problem with it. And it was kind of nice being in a huge crowd of people that were just focused on seeing the band, not texting their friends or trying to take photos or film videos and immediately post to instagram or something.

Wednesday afternoon, after some lunch we got on the road to drive back to my place a few hours away. That was mostly uneventful except for a delay about an hour away from an accident that had happened earlier. We got back to my house at around 7pm and just relaxed and both ended up capitalizing on being tired and turning in early.

Thursday we grabbed lunch at one of my favorite restaurants (a vegetarian bakery/cafe kind of in the middle of nowhere) and then mostly spent the afternoon in nature on my 2 acre property, kind of “recharging”. I’ve always known that this land has a special, magical energy to it, but she also felt it. I’m currently writing this while she had to do a quick work-related Zoom.

We’ll have dinner and hang out with another friend of mine this evening and then probably just relax, play some music or watch a movie.

While we were driving back, I mentioned she’s one of the few people that has ever come to visit me (literally can count on one hand how many I know from back in California that have visited me). I truly am a bit of a hermit, so it doesn’t bother me, but I don’t mind visits either.

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll make the drive back up to Portland so she can catch her 10pm flight back. All in all, a great week of fun, relaxing and catching up!

About Sherry Holub

I met my spouse, Mario, at UCLA School of Art in 1993. After graduating in 1995, I founded a small agency specializing in web and graphic design. Mario became my partner in the company in 1999. In 2002, we were married at the Costa Mesa, CA court house because neither of us wanted a big wedding ceremony (after already being together since 1995).

Mario was a highly talented artist, musician, illustrator and 3D Designer, but a tortured one. He was one of those gentle, creative souls who ended up burning twice as bright for half as long. Mario lost the battle with liver disease induced by alcoholism (almost exactly 6 months after he became sober) on 2/10/21.

I’m a long-time artist and writer with a background in photography who enjoys cooking, getting outdoors, staying young at heart, and sharing experiences to potentially help others. When it comes to writing, I’ve written both for fun and professionally over the years. Writing is also sometimes therapy for me and I don’t mind sharing my personal experiences with a wider audience.