Coffee #2: Joan Callaway

Friends on FB since 2007, 58 mutual friends

Today I had a delightful lunch with Joan Callaway, who is a Facebook Friend, and Peggy Kerr, who is not on FB, but whom I've known for several years now.  We had lunch at the deli at the University Retirement Community in Davis (I seem to spend a lot of time in retirement communities).

Joan (in the center of the photo) is a fascinating person.  Though she's only been on FB for seven years, she seems to have been in my world for most of my time in Davis, though we didn't really become friends until I joined a writing group she was running.

We share many life experiences, good ones and bad ones.  I remember when she ran Tarika, a clothing and accessories store that most people shopped in.  But I mostly know her through her writing and her encouraging me to write.

Peg has been of great help both directly by being my mother's friend and also as a sounding board for my frustrations about both Atria and its directorship, and dealing with my mother's dementia.

Today we talked a lot about poetry, since Joan is teaching a poetry class, and I found myself intrigued at the thought of taking something long, like I usually write, and condensing it into its most important points and framing it as a poem.  I may try that sometime in the future.

We also talked about writing, since Peggy is getting back into working on her memoirs again.  Joan had wonderful insights about what she has been doing and how she could expand on what she has been doing.

We also got caught up on everybody's life, of course. 

A lovely time spent on a beautiful patio.  Thanks, Joan, for treating us!