Bonfire

Dearest Rachel –

I didn’t know what I was going to write about this (and to be honest, I still don’t, as I’m about as unmotivated to do anything this morning – writing, working out, you name it – as I’ve been in a long time), but from the moment we arrived, and made our way to the back yard, I had to tell you about this. After all, this was literally your element – fire.

I’m not sure how long it has been since the gang all got together, but it feels like it’s been at least a month (despite the fact that I haven’t been home for even three of them yet). There was almost always a scheduling conflict among us, where one day would work for one of the girls, but not for another, and when they would propose an alternative, it would be impossible for the first one to make it. It would have saddened you to see us drifting apart like this, but then, you were the lynchpin holding us all together; with you gone, we don’t have the same level of connection, and getting together like we used to do often becomes “too much like work,” as Ellen puts it.

Ironic, then, that it was through Ellen that we finally managed to all get together for the first time in so long; even more so that it wasn’t her, exactly, but her sister and brother-in-law that decided to open their house up. Granted, it was more a case of having Ellen over, and whoever wanted to show up as well, but somehow, we managed to stone soup our way into all of us being in the same place at the same time, so kudos to Jeanette and Ramón.

Granted, most of our time was spent out in the backyard rather than in the house (I couldn’t honestly stay in there very long, as my feline allergies preclude it; it’s the same reason why we rarely ever got together at Ellen’s as well). In fairness, though, the backyard was where Ramón had assembled the pièce de résistance of the evening’s festivities; a colossal firepit piled high with the remnants of a tree that had collapsed a year or so ago, and which they were still working on disposing of.

To be sure, while the bricks looked clean enough to suggest that this firepit hadn’t been used yet, Ramón assured me that this was their third such bonfire since assembling it less that a year ago. I know it’s newer than that, since they had had us over for Ellen’s birthday last year, and where the pit is now was where the tree was resting at the time, barely having been pruned of its smaller, leavy limbs, and waiting to be cut up into manageable chunks for disposal.

You’ve probably noticed the industrial fan Ramón is using here; a fire this big isn’t going to catch on with a manual fanning effort. Not that you wouldn’t have given it the old college try if you were here to help out; had you been here and known about this, you would most likely have tried to scrounge up old pizza boxes that you used to save for just such an occasion in order to get this thing going.

It was at this point that the fire was ready to use for cooking, including ears of corn and a pan of potatoes, all wrapped in foil, along with the traditional s’mores for dessert. I had eaten before coming, since I didn’t want to be digesting food so late – which didn’t help as much as I’d hoped, mostly because I’d broken into a bag of cheese curls after finishing the soup I’d intended to have serve as my meal. I know now why you liked the crunchier curls to the lighter puffs I used to favor, but I kind of wish I hadn’t discovered that, for my own sake. Still, it was good to see everyone together again for a change. I only wish it could be at an earlier time, as I found myself nodding off, both from the lateness of the hour and the simple fact it was so dark out (apart from the fire itself). So that means that I really don’t have that much to tell you about what actually happened, as I wasn’t exactly all there to remember it.

Still, I know you would have loved to have been there, and so I figured I ought to tell you about it (and take pictures for you to see it). Maybe it makes you a little homesick for Earth?

In any event, keep an eye on us all, and wish us luck; we’re going to need it.