Birthday Celebration at Claim Jumper

Today was my friend, Kathy's birthday and we celebrated with a wonderful lunch at Claim Jumper in Scottsdale. We had fish and chips and thai slaw, that was wonderful! Also Kathy was gifted with a Mud Pie dessert, which we both shared, and it was ultra delicious! We had a nice long visit, which is never long enough. Then she went with me to see Joe and we had a nice visit with him too. It was Kathy's birthday, but I think she gave me the best gift! She won in a lottery for tickets to see/hear SENATOR BARACK OBAMA next Monday evening at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix! And...she invited me to go with her. Yea! I am thrilled! As the paper says today, he is "the golden child of the Democractic Party". He has a new book out The Audacity of Hope, and we also get vouchers for the book! I am excited and grateful! Thank you, Kathy!

I also took Joe to the doctor this afternoon for an evaluation and then we had hamburgers around 5:00 at In and Out-our old standby. Joe loves those hamburgers. When I took him back to the group home after being with him for three hours, he said" You are leaving me?". It always makes me feel bad, but I guess I should just be glad he doesn't want me to leave.
He had not forgotten about his friend Van dying and brought it up today. I was surprised and he usually remembers nothing from previous day. But this was very significant to him, of course. He talked a lot about when he last saw Van in April (in California) and spent the entire day with him. But almost everything else he talked about today, I had no clue what he was talking about.

My days are always a mixture of the happy and the sad. That is just the way it is.
Susan and Johnny visited Joe this morning and he even remembered when I asked. Thanks Susan and Johnny for visiting him! I am thankful for good friends. I saw this in a magazine today and it is cute: Friends are God's way of apologizing for your relatives.
I am thankful for my family too.