dani

ann and dabney's host in philadelphia was this lovely woman. dani was ann's french, algebra and trigonometry teacher in high school, and maybe more importantly, her neighbor. (ann attended boarding school, and students at her VERY small school lived in VERY close proximity to their teachers). dani - or "ms. a" as ann used to call her back then - was an integral part of ann's adolesence; for a time, ann's favorite activity was hanging out in dani's living quarters chatting, pestering her while she graded papers, and generally being an adolescent nuisance. high school was a tough time for ann. whether she knew it or not at the time, it was important for her to be there, in that room, soaking up dani's own self-confidence and care. teachers were expected to live and breathe the school, so it was no small sacrifice for dani to let a student occupy her private space for hours on end.

not surprisingly, ann and dabney were very well looked after this past weekend. dani stayed up late on friday night awaiting her guests' rainy arrival, woke up at 7 am the next morning just to make sure that they knew where they were going, and cooked a yummy meal for them on sunday evening after their craft fair was all said and done. she also let ann and dabney pick her brain for hours on end about being a landlord.

for dabney, meeting dani gave a glimpse of ann when she was fifteen and awkward, before she was the adult she is now. it was great to hear how school staff watched over ann back then, delivering ann to her all those years later.

ann and dabney now have a little (okay, big) lifestyle crush on dani. she lives well. she knows her city, hangs out with the neighborhood kids, grows her own veggies in the community garden, and restores houses in addition to her full-time job. she is a thoughtful person, acutely aware of how she wants to live her life, and takes responsibility for her place in this world. she is smart about things and people. ann and dabney can only hope that she'll rub off on them.