Slowing down a little. June is here. Hot weather. Well, 80's. That's hot in Seattle. And lots of summer stuff to do. Like go to the annual Salmon la Sac party. I had not been going in recent years, since it seemed to have begun deteriorating into a gathering of drunks I neither knew nor liked. I went up a few years ago to see Charlie a couple of months before he died. I think I went up for a day last year (because that's when Morey gave me the Dean for President sign), but that was primarily to see Pat and Kerin, whom I don't see that often anymore. This year, Kerin reintroduced her old Saturday afternoon cocktail party in honor of Pat's recent graduation from The Evergreen State College. David was coming up from Wishram. I decided to go for the whole weekend. Lots of folks there, including a very good contingent of the old crowd. I drank absolutely no alcohol the entire weekend, imbibing only a couple of long swallows of mushroom tea on Saturday night, still going to bed by 2 a.m. Three ex boyfriends, and one of 'em (the youngest and cutest, if not the most annoying) was hitting on me, which was pleasant to a point. All the same, I went to bed alone each night with a good book, and that was fine with me. I pitched my tent beside the river, and did yoga there in the morning, looking up at the ridge over which I have seen so many sun and moonsets. Richard there with his new (well, only for the last three or four years or so) girlfriend. She's lovely, and obviously adores him, so I'm very happy for him. All the same, remembered the old days, with me and Richard and Charlie, Jacques and Doc, up all night on LSD, through moonset and sunrise along the banks of the Cle Elum River high (in more ways than one) on the slopes of the eastern Cascades. All dead now, save for Richard and I. I stood at the main campfire and named them all, saw their faces, smiled hello. Told them I would never forget.

The box item today is a little card from my fiancee's parents. Very sweet. Any regrets I feel occasionally over that past opportunity is drowned out today by the memories of other times, other friends. Times and friends I would never have known if I had stayed.