The weather continues to be perfectly lovely. I can’t think of a better descriptor for a sunny day of 73°, but when I use the word lovely, I always feel as if I’m a character in a British novel of manners.

Last night, had the Red Sox won, the evening would have been a perfect. It was baseball weather, the stands were filled, I had my sausage sandwich with onions and peppers and I got to walk on the Fenway field carrying the Ghanaian flag. We, returned Peace Corps volunteers, were part of the  pre-game ceremony honoring fifty years of Peace Corps. We walked onto the field in single file carrying flags from Peace Corps countries and stood ringed around the field from the scoreboard to the bullpen while a clip about President Kennedy played on the jumbotron, the anthem was sung, the first ball was tossed and play ball was shouted. We walked off the field in single file still waving our flags. All of us who attended the game sat in a block in the bleachers wearing red t-shirts with the Peace Corps logo on the back and, “Life is calling. How far will will you go?” written on the front. We were easy to spot.

Today I am attending a birthday luncheon for a woman turning 90. If you met her, you couldn’t correctly guess her age. She is one of those eternally young people. Her sense of humor is wry, she misses nothing and her exuberance for life makes me smile. Louise loves jokingly harassing people. I am often her target, and I return her harassment with a good comeback, and off we go, back and forth. Louise is a big Red Sox fan, and we often talk about the last game we watched, and we bemoan every loss and shake our heads when discussing the likes of John Lackey. I hope to be as bright and funny as Louise if I turn 90. Come to think of it, even next year I’d hope to be as bright and funny as Louise. I guess I’m going to have to start remembering why I’m in the kitchen.