Red Letter

After the sort of blue funk Thursday, yesterday turned red--a red letter day, that is, because I think I found a friend.
At noon, I picked up Marion D., (the person I had lunched with at Cypress Place last week). Took her to the Macaroni Grille where we both got pasta; she accompanied hers with Chardonnay (a girl after my own heart), I with some kind of Italian beer I wasn't nuts about, but drank anyway.
We talked and talked and talked. Marion is older than I--maybe even by as much as ten years, as my dear friend, Marge is--but is physically active and in good shape. She does have some kind of vision problem--can't recall what, as we didn't get into that yesterday, but she no longer drives. Born a Quaker, brought up in Havertown, PA, she and her husband lived in Arizona until he developed a brain tumor and died within a month of diagnoses, ten years ago. They had three sons, all of whom live in California, and a daughter in Alabama; ten grandchildren and four great-grands.
With our family resumes out of the way, we started talking for real. At one point, I somewhat diffidently mentioned that I'm not religious. She actually gasped, then looked at me, and said, "Neither am I!" I already knew she was a pacifist--and a committed one, not the kind who differentiates between "good wars" and bad--but what about the Quaker background? That was my parents, she told me, and she stopped with the supernatural as a adult.
What's more, she reads! And I'm talking Plato's Republic! And wonder of wonders, she not only knows of William Butler Yeats, my favorite, but matched me in quoting some of his poetry!
Icing on the cake? Marion was an English and drama teacher and put on very ambitious productions for years. At Cypress Place, she recently wrote, directed, produced, and choreographed (some of the cast in walkers) "Follies," which I saw in the local paper. She's also an opera devotee, as my friend, Aline, is.
Un-friggin'-believable, sez I and we had a great time together. I'm going to e-mail her and suggest we get together once a week or so. I also have skipping around in my mind (my ideas don't float, they skip) the notion that she might be interested in arranging a readers' theatre show of some of my plays at Cypress Place, actors being residents. We'll see.
Incidentally, I've also joined a "Golden Girls of Ventura County" (women over 50) and will meet others at the ARC Thrift Store in town, then go to Durgan's Irish Pub for lunch. This looks like a fun group, too. So far, the BCNN (Beach Cities Neighbors and Newcomers) has proved to be somewhat of a dud, but I'll hang in, as I've already paid my dues.
I was pleased to get a call from Ellen, asking if I'd stop over tomorrow and help her with a school project. Sounds good and I'm looking forward to it. Called my friend, who said she and her husband are going camping in Arizona next week and good for them. With Mike in Australia with the his three girls and his brother enjoying the Tokyo Tot, this family's having a ball.