The Group

Last night, Sue and Kate (Plus 8--or 10) gathered to celebrate their birthdays at El Tapatia in the Fruitvale district of Oakland. We met at this nearly empty restaurant and for all intents and purposes we took over the place. The evening was filled with lots of laughs as we spent the evening regaling in stories of trauma (two medical professional in attendance) and murder (the great mystery of Bozie & Smuffin).

As John and I were driving home, he said, "what a great group." And then it dawned on me, we had a group, and in a very Seinfeldian way, I said, "Hey. We have a group. As in, let's get the group together. Do you think the group would like to do this? When is the group getting together again?"

The group consists of Sue and her boyfriend Pete, Jerry and his wife Anna, Kaya, Kate, and then join and I joined in later to the original group I like to refer to as Branch Levinians (Sue's last name is Levin). We added a couple of other members to the group including Sue's brother Bob, his partner Keith (pronounced Keef), Ingrid and Mary. There are others who occasionally join "the group" but that's pretty much the core.

Each of us in the group would make a great character, were we written into a T.V. series, for example, Kate is a nurse, somewhat obsessed about her weight. When she generously volunteered her time in Haiti after the earthquake, we bet (it's a running theme) on how much "weighty Katie would lose in Haiti". The answer: 2 lbs. Pete likes to put a dollar bet on pretty much anything; got a kitchen remodel? there's a kitchen pool; Think in might rain in the next two weeks? there's a dollar riding on it. It's all good natured fun. I might as well fess up here as it's only fair...My character? I'm the shopper (sigh - yes, I know, no big surprise). My group is about as low key as they come. Kate announced that she never (underscore bold, big font, italic, exclamation point), never buys clothes. I nearly fainted. Anna was excited to share with me that she bought a pair of new shoes recently, and Sue texted me once, very proud that she bought 7 pair of shoes. Of course I had to make sure that they weren't all sneakers, slippers or flip flops (they weren't).

So... there you have it - my group - in a nutshell, and more.