Missing it this year

This is not a tulip either.

Dearest Cousins,

I am so sad to miss our reunion this year, but Lee has needed my help and I felt it was best I stay close to home these few days.  I’ve been thinking about the past weekends we’ve shared.  My first was the weekend where there was much discussion of the Renuzit can design, you remember, the one with a questionable picture of a tulip.  With all my experience with flowers I must say I’ve never seen a tulip that looked quite like that.

We’ve also shared the years of lounging in Jo-Jo’s pool on Davis Bayou, swimming in the Gulf on the shores of Alabama, a synchronized swimming show for the security guard, sinking floors at the fish camp, enjoying Nicci’s new home on the river and the Mordica fish camp, both old and new, on a different river, and back porch sitting at Jo-Jo’s ghostly home in Pascagoula.  

There was the year Sarita first joined us and she got sick and we sent her back to the camp home while we continued to gamble.  Then we gave her reason to question our sanity as she lay nauseous on the couch while we talked about ghosts and our alien encounters, chip implants included.  And despite all that she came back another year, then another until now she’s a regular.  I’m sorry she’s missing this year, too, especially because of the reasons.

I’m joining you all in spirit today by making chicken salad for lunch and there’s pimento cheese in the refrigerator.  Is Jo-Jo’s kitchen counter covered with snacks as usual?  Are both refrigerators and freezers packed to capacity?  Are there enough chocolate chip cookies to feed an army?  Do you have enough pistachios?  Oh, and make sure Rob takes the right food from the refrigerator this time if he’s taking leftovers for supper.

Here’s where I’m really missing ya’ll this weekend.  I had a dream that needs interpreting.  I dreamed there were three diamonds that were the best and most expensive in the world.  Someone I knew had one, maybe it was Mama, and a little baby girl I was adopting had ownership to another.  The catch was though, that whoever adopted her relinquished their rights to the diamond.  I guess that was so no one would adopt her for the wrong reason.  I gave up the rights to the diamond because I thought it was more important that she grow up in a family, not with a diamond.  However, I somehow had possession of the certificate of authenticity of the diamond.  The scene changed and I was walking across a boulevard after a parade and in the median I found an ugly rubber/plastic ring.  It was the kind that covers your whole finger and it was off-white with gold stripes.  In the center there was a diamond-like stone encased in a glass pocket that was set in the ring.  I picked it up and put it on. It dawned on me that this was the diamond that rightfully belonged to the little girl I adopted.  Lee told me to go to a jewelry store and see if the jeweler noticed it.  So, I went into the store and asked to see something in the display case and flashed the ring under the lights so that he would notice it.  He did and made a fuss over it so I knew I had the real deal, and I also had the paperwork.  I came out with the little girl and the diamond too.  I know what I think it means, but what do you all think it means?

Good luck tonight and I hope all of you win big.  Eat some shrimps for me and Granny.  And most important, watch out for the little people and men with paper bags, if you know what I mean.