She's There.

Sometimes you host an art party for one of your oldest, dearest friends.

And sometimes during that art party your husband yells, "Ellie!" in such a way that you stop doing what you're doing, and stop speaking to whom you are speaking, and pay attention to your husband because nobody uses that tone of voice unless they mean business.

And then your husband says, "Close your eyes and come with me" but there are stairs and he says "okay open them halfway for the stairs" and then when you get to the grass he says, "Ready? Open them."

And Colleen is there.

Colleen. Is there.

In the flesh. Colleen. She's there.

(You're pretty sure that's a "I'm so happy to see my Auntie Ellie" face and not a "You're strangling me, Auntie Ellie" face.)

Sometimes Colleenie rents a red Beetle and drives from Providence back to New York to jet her adorable self back to Los Angeles and comes to your art party for five minutes to say hi. And when she does that, she makes your day. And your weekend. And, basically, your life.

And even though she only has five minutes, and leaves what seems like the second she arrives, she leaves an indelible impact on the evening because you stare in eachothers' eyeballs the entire time she's there and that makes the world a good, good world.

"Good-bye my darlin' girl!" you say, "have fun watching the Full Lunar Eclipse from the airplane!"

 "Oh, and hey," you say, "See you next weekend!"