Books and Brisket

Last night was our last "official" bookclub of the year, at Traci's house. And because it has been such a wild week, we all limped in, flopped down at her kitchen bar, and commenced eating. It was very quiet, right at first, because until we had a little protein, no one had the energy to talk. Can you believe that? Women who were too tired to talk? I'm serious!

Here's the funny part about having bookclub with a bunch of country girls:

1. There will be meat.

2. You may have entertainment, featuring a cow.


We were about halfway through our first glass of wine or cucumber water, when Traci looks out the kitchen window and exclaims, "Hey! I think that blind cow is calving!"
Several of us rush to the window to assess the situation, and Karen G. asks for field glasses. The cow is turned the wrong way for us to see anything, and the binoculars were unavailable, so we went back to our wine and clam dip, but occasionally, one of us would look out to see if anything was progressing. No calf, so I think she was messing with us.

Then, we lined up, plates in hand, to partake of the spread. Here's what we had, besides the appetizers:
Beef brisket, beef ribs, 3 different kinds of BBQ sauce, potato salad, beer bread, beans with bacon, chocolate cake and cookies n cream ice cream. No vegetable or fruit to be found! Well, there was cucumber slices floating in the water, pickles in the potato salad, and green onions in the crab dip, but that was it. And we ate until it hurt, and laughed a lot. Then we rolled to the living room to discuss the book.

Oh, yes, there was a book, and eventually we got around to talking about it. In April we read Riding on the Bus With My Sister and it was really interesting, and provoked conversation about living with divorce, family members with special needs, government, societal views, faith and public transportation. It was heavy food for thought.

Our summer book, chosen by Karen G. , is Sophie's Choice; many have seen the movie (not me, sadly) but none have read the book. So it should be great! Summer is a long, lonely time for our bookclubbers, so we are planning a field trip to Big Fork in July, because it's cooler there, and Celestia has the room for us to flop around on the deck, drink tea, discuss the mysteries of life (men) and paint our toenails, and watch the kids shivering in the wading pool. I love these women!