The week

When you tell stories do you start at the beginning and work forward or at the end and work backward? I started to write from today backward but that seems illogical, so instead I’ll go back to Saturday: the engagement. I still don’t have pictures (I guess I’m going to have to email Kyle and ask for them) but here goes anyhow. I generally never make plans on weekends that Christen and I have off together. However, this time my sister called earlier in the week and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her and Mom and I agreed. Then, Thursday I decided I wanted to get my hair cut and made an appointment for Saturday morning. Christen said, “Are you doing everything on Saturday?” but I didn’t think anything of it. I told him we’d have Saturday evening and all of Sunday together. So I got up early on Saturday and got my haircut (it looks way cute, I’ll have to post pictures of that too) and then went shopping with my mom and sister as planned. I bought 4 books and a straw hat – isn’t that the way? So I get home and Christen said that his mom wanted us to go to dinner with them, and I said that was fine, and he said that Kyle wanted pictures of me for the web site … this is a long story, but it did seem plausible, so I got dressed up and we went out for pictures and ended up at the park where we had our first date. We had also been back a few times, so it still made sense that we were there. I sorta had the feeling that was something was going on, but I wasn’t sure – girls just know these things. But Kyle and Shea snuck up behind us and Kyle handed Christen the ring and Shea had the videocamera. It was all very sweet and amazing –Shea’s video was hilarious! So then they tried to trick me and say that we were going back to our house for a drink before going out to dinner and I knew at that point that everyone was going to be at the house, but I played along for that and when we got home everyone was there – all of his family and my mom and sister. It was such a wonderful night! I drank a lot of red wine and ate cheese and hung out with the family. Sunday: we drove all day doing nothing, and went to a craft show in Dunedin that was alright but horridly sweltering. I freaked out a little bit because I was trying to come up with a date and Christen kept playing his computer game, but finally he came out with me and we decided where we wanted to go for a honeymoon and set a date for the wedding. Monday I told everybody at work, and then went home and freaked out about money, because we don’t have any and either does my family. Which, of course, I knew – but who thinks about these things when they’re getting engaged? My mom helps, though, being the rational one who can help me decide about caterers and alcohol and venues … Mom is very good at being rational when others aren’t (namely, when I’m not) just as I’m the rational one when she freaks out. It’s a good balance. Monday and Tuesday night I went to bed early – I think the excitement of all this is getting to me – I get really tired really early. Wednesday Shell came over and we tried a new sushi place (the atmosphere was awesome, the sushi was only so-so) and looked at a couple chapels and talked a lot about weddings. This is my problem: I don’t like being the center of attention. I don’t like making decisions. I get selfconscious and worry about pleasing everyone else. I have a feeling that I am not going to get through this whole wedding thing. My friends are going to have to prop me up here.

So things I have decided: the date, the honeymoon, the colors, the dress (sorta), the bridesmaid dresses. Things I have yet to decide: everything else!

Anyhow, this morning I got to work and the power was off for an hour, so now I have lots to do and less time to do it. Woohoo for work!

The ring :)

Thanks to those who wished us Good Luck! I'm going to need it (all you who know me know how much I hate making decisions; do you know how many decisions I'm going to have to make?)

engaged!

So I was going to hold off and tell everyone on Monday, but y'all know I'm terrible at that.

So. ...



I'm engaged! Christen asked me to marry him tonight, and of course I said yes! Pictures of the ring to follow as soon as I'm sober enough to find the camera, and pictures of the engagement to follow as soon as Kyle's sober enough to email them to me!

I love you all!

Yay!!!! I'm engaged!

Huzzah for new books, coming soon!

So I was killing time at work before I got out, and I was perusing the internet (fancy that, eh?), mostly looking for luau-related recipes and items ... and I ended up on Amazon searching my favorite authors to see if any new books have come out ... and look was I found! I'm so excited! Yay, September! (that's when they both come out)

Thugs

Current mood: scared

So I was almost asleep awhile ago after finishing off Broken for You when Lola started barking. Not a big "there's an apossum afoot" bark but a "there's something amiss" low woof ... followed by a few whisper woofs. She kept pacing and whisper-woofing, so I got up and laid on the spare bed with her to calm her down. I looked outside; nothing seemed off. I wasn't convinced, though, and neither was Lola because she wasn't calming down. So I laid on the bed for a few minutes and I'm drifting off again when she gives a start back at the window and starts her low barking again. I looked out the window just in time to see a guy running across the street in bulky gray sweats and jump in a gray SUV -- maybe a late-'90s Jeep or Pathfinder and tool off around the corner. I waited a few minutes and went outside, mostly to make sure Christen's truck was okay, and the lady from next door was outside too. Her husband had followed the guys, and they had assault rifles. He got a cop to go look into it, but the guys were gone.

So now I'm completely freaked out. Anyone for reading me a nice calm bedtime story? No Hans Christian Anderson, please. I need no nightmares.

Oww, my ear!

So last night was a blast -- Shell, Rich, Shea and Kyle all came over and we drank a lot and played Trivial Pursuit and watched Family Business and Big Love ... I drank the better part of 3 bottles of wine (Yellowtail Shiraz Reserve, which I think is worth the extra couple dollars from regular Yellowtail, Kelly's Revenge Chardonney and Goiya South African Shiraz). I woke up this morning and I don't have a hangover, but my ear hurts really bad. I took a shower and went to dry my ears with a q-tip and it hurts to even touch it! I have no idea what happened to my ear last night, but the sucker hurts more than my ear has ever hurt before -- except maybe from the passing ear infection when I was young.


Anyhow, I was going to hang out with Matt but I never heard from him, so I'm going for lunch and antiquing with Shea ... or maybe down to the Ellenton outlet. If my ear doesn't completely put me off. ... I swear, it hurts so bad, there's no way I can even listen to my iPod this weekend, and you know how much I'm addicted to that thing -- I even have dreams about stealing them from dead girls!

Accordion Alive

June is International Accordion Awareness Month!

Spread the word!

(I posted this on my MS blog but never got around to posting it here ... and you know how much I love accordions; I couldn't just let the month pass without saying something!)

Knitting loopholes, and Nostalgia Central

Thank Jesus this week is over.

I don't know exactly what the issue was, but I could not get it together this week. I've late to work everyday. Work was crazy busy with crazy accidents and crazy lawyers to talk to. Wednesday night I went out for sushi with Shelley (this time edemame, a dragon roll, a fresh salmon bagel roll, a spider roll and a rainbow roll, all to share), I got a new pair of shoes at DSW and we worked on the thank you notes some more (we've finished writing them and now we just have to address them). Yesterday I bought some yarn and knitting needles and attempted to begin learning how to knit. The casting row was really easy, but I kept messing up when I went to knit my first line. They kept falling off the needles, no matter how tight or loose the stitches were. Anyone know how to knit that can give me a few pointers?

Tonight Shell, Richard and Shea are coming over for drinks and dessert, which I'm psyched about. I washed the sheets on the spare bed in case anyone gets too tired to drive (that's usually me) and I'm making brownie ala mode :) Kyle can't come because he has to go see Jade at some club called Hot Wax? I don't know; it sounds sketchy ... hehe.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get together with Matt. I never realize how much I miss that boy until I hear from him. Somehow we have the type of friendship where whenever we hang out it's just like no time has passed. I knew this, but it still came as a surprise to me when we were hanging out at the reunion, because I had such a blast with him. I'll miss him being in Miami for 6 years, and then who knows where he'll end up. I'll have to spend as much time as I can with him while he's back for the summer.

There's also Charlie and Katie; I'm looking forward to seeing them when they move back down here. I keep meaning to email them, but I don't know what to say -- hey, had a great time at the reunion with you guys, hope you didn't get too sick! :) Hey, maybe I'll email them today! hehe. And Justin, dear Justin, who needs to come hang out with me when he comes down on leave. And Kristin, who I was going to start biking with on the weekends but I haven't actually gotten around to calling ... Hey Kristin, you want to go for a bike ride or something this weekend?

Well, it looks that I'm getting all nostalgic, so I'm promptly changing the subject.
I finished Church of Dead Girls which was very good, but not very scary until the very end when it turned out just like every other "scary book". So I have to say that the majority of the book was fantastic, and it let me down a little at the end -- but not enough that I wouldn't recommend it to someone. After all, most people aren't as picky as me. It has a very conversational tone, from the voice of a man from the town, but he's a very sympathetic and reliable narrator, although there are a couple times where he's imparting information that he shouldn't know, and that bothers me. I'm onto Broken for You, which I had high hopes for when I bought it last weekend but after reading a couple pages I think that Christen's mom will like it better than I. It just might not be my type of book. I'll give it a shot though -- the one time I sat down with it I wasn't feeling so good and read at the table while eating cereal for dinner. You never know.

Father's Day is Sunday. I need to pick up a card. Dad and I usually go for lunch at Sonny's or something and then perhaps we'll go to the driving range (maybe I can pursuade him to get me some right-handed clubs ... after all, it is Father's Day? :) )

All in all, it promises to be a productive and amusing weekend ... I hope it doesn't let me down! All else fails, I'll just curl up with a book and waste the weekend away. Toodles!

Friendship (a reprint from a MS Bulletin)

Are you tired of all those namby, pamby, girly, sissy "friendship" poems that never come close to reality?

Well, here is a series of promises that really speaks of true friendship:

1. When you are sad - I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you that way.

2. When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile - I will know you've had sex.

4. When you are scared - I will tease the crap out of you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried - I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be to stop your whining.

6. When you are confused - I will use little words.

7. When you are sick - Stay the hell away from me until you are well again, I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.


Remember: A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body!!!

Books galore!

This is why I love my boyfriend: On our day off together he suggests we peruse the used bookstores in the area, even though he doesn't read. I love him.

And etc: I went looking for a cheap copy of The Devil Wore (Wears?) Prada, because I'm curious even though it's not really my type of book. It must be said that a movie sure makes the used copies of a book disappear off the shelves, though. I couldn't find it anywhere, and all the copies in all the libraries in the county are checked out. Game over, I lose.

I did, however, pick up three books that look promising: Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach, Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos, and The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns (yes, Autumn, when you come down we can switch Dobyns books). I've already started WR, and it is charming and sincere and makes me yearn for Paris. Forget that I've never been there, I've read so many books about writers in Paris it makes me long for the cafes and streets and bridges.

I found that there's a Tampa Writer's Group that meets twice monthly and I'm thinking of joining. It means I'd have to start writing again, and that I'd have to allow people other than friends read, but I'm really pondering it. I need to get back into the game.

Last night was a lovely night for friends. I spent the early part of the evening enjoying sushi and wine in SoHo with Suz, April and Stacy -- a wonderful time of catching up with good friends. After I navigated backward through the narrow lot of Mercedes and Lexus (an '85 Cabrio decided to park itself directly behind me so I couldn't pull out properly), I picked up Shell and we headed out to Odessa for more wine and dessert at Casa de Shaw ... lots of laughter and girltalk to be had. Christen was the proper gentleman who drove Shell and I home once I started to fall asleep from the indecent amount of imbibing in which I partook. Ahh, good times.

Tonight I shall attempt that earlier recipe for shrimp and crab au gratin -- I'll let you know how it goes!

Hot Summer Night

BOY: On a hot summer night would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red
roses?
GIRL: Will he offer me his mouth?
B: Yes.
G: Will he offer me his teeth?
B: Yes.
G: Will he offer me his jaws?
B: Yes.
G: Will he offer me his hunger?
B: Yes.
G: Again, will he offer me his hunger?
B: YES.
G: And will he starve without me?
B: YES.
G: And does he love me?
B: Yes.
G: Yes.
B: On a hot summer night would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
G: Yes.
B: I bet you to say that to all the boys.

Hungry and lusting for knowledge

So I've been looking for a recipe for Shrimp & Crab au Gratin that's worth a damn, and I think this may be the one:

Crab and Shrimp au Gratin

1/2 pound crab meat
2 pounds shrimp, steamed, shelled, and deveined
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon onion flakes
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup medium sharp cheese, grated

Melt butter over low flame. Add flour to form a paste. Slowly
stir in milk to make white sauce. Combine remaining
ingredients, except cheese, shrimp, and crab meat, and add to
white sauce. Fold in shrimp and crab meat. Pour into a
casserole dish, top with cheeseand bake at 350 degrees
for 25 minutes.

It looks the most promising. Keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, I'm in the middle of 100 Years of Solitude, and all I can say is, I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Love him love him love him. Too old to marry and bear his children though. Well ... yes, too old. Ick.

Shoes shoes shoes

So I love shoes -- love them. I was cleaning up my closet and reorganizing and decided to take pictures of my shoes. Not pictured: 1 pair Steve Madden white shoes (pictured here though), 4 pairs of tennis shoes (3 Addidas, 1 Reebox), 1 pair spa slippers and about half a dozen flipflops.

Just because you wanted to know my obsessions. Next up: my library.

Shell was a beautiful bride

Shell got married last Sunday (5/21) and it was so beautiful -- she was so beautiful! Here are a couple pics ...



They look so wonderful! That's my boob to the left -- can't keep those things out of the picture, evidently!



This is such a pretty picture of Shell -- I wish it were lighter, but that's what the professionals were for!



I got under Shell's dress before Richard! Of course, he was left holding the bouquet ...



The happy wedding party ... before we got down and partied!

Sapphire bullets of Pure Love (aka The Vacation)

Sapphire bullets of Pure Love (aka The Vacation)

The vacation was awesome, and I'd let myself go on and on but I don't want to bore you with the details, so I'm bulleting again. If you wish for me on expound on anything, let me know! :)

-Sunday
**we left immediately after the wedding to get to Albany, GA, thinking it would take until 1-2am to get there but ended up checking into the Motel 6 there around 9:30pm. The room was clean but in a sketchy part of town, so while I slept rather well, Christen was up once an hour to check on the car. It was good to get a headstart on our trip though!

-Monday
**Montgomery, AL: First White House of the Confederacy
**Burmingham, AL: Downtown
the mini-Statue of Liberty
Boy Scout HQ (don't ask me why)
**Huntsville, AL: Monte Sano State Park -- very pretty for camping

-Tuesday
**Columbia, TN: Home of James K. Polk
**Nashville, TN: Belmont Mansion
Grand Ole Opry (drive-by)
Bledsoe Creek State Park -- the best camping place we stayed at the whole time

-Wednesday
**Nashville, TN: the Capitol -- grave of James K. Polk
the Hermatage and grave of Andrew Jackson
**Memphis, TN: T.O. Fuller State Park (the worst of the parks, but we weren't there often so it didn't matter)
Pat O'Brien's -- fantastic food - their fried zucchini was amazing!
The Tap Room -- awesome bar on Beale Street

-Thursday
**Memphis, TN: Graceland -- we did the whole tour - the mansion, the planes, the museums ... very cool.
Tower Records
Sekisui sushi
Pink Palace Museum
Rock n Soul Museum
Club 152 - Elvis impersonator
accidentally took a trip across the Mississippi River to Arkansas
sat outside Celebrities Cafe on Beale drinking Newcastle watching a guy named Big Jerry play the blues with his band on the street
saw a great Rockabilly band in one of the bars on Beale

-Friday
**Jackson, MS: Oaks House Museum
soda shop emporium
**Mobile, AL: Best Western (yeah, no campsite here)

-Saturday
Mobile, AL: Fort Conde - why did the guide books not say this was a repro?
Conde-Charlotte Museum- not open but we peeked in the windows
Brag-Mitchell Museum- not open either! what is it with this place?
USS Alabama - very neat, and huge!
Felix Fish House - amazing food - crab soup and shrimp and crab au gratin
Greenville, FL: Super 8 for the night

-Sunday
**home! It was fun but it's nice to be home. If only I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!

Pure poetry for you

for autumn.

autumn is death

for the play in numbers

finding joy in places

of brilliant creation.

autumn is death

with a straight razor

at the throat of a plump gazelle

or boar, stealing life

from worthlessness.

autumn is life

within death

a voice of succulent

maliciousness

in her marrow

of midnight danger.

autumn brings me

dandelions and calla lilies

in fanciness

in happiness

and in death.

***********************************

unnamed.

humbles bodies bound to the sheets

and tablets

of my youth

I am setting them to

their freedom

drenched in the

dreary dances of martyrs,

tiptoeing promises by

way of thy

turquoise inkwells

and cranberry dreams.

Sangria in the sands.

************************************

Commune

Quiet rains on the little children

feigning stillness, their minds

running the quarter-mile track as

antsy fingers drum on pews.

They will know darkness once again.

Intangible knowledge of the

original love and death

roses and apples

red wine in little cups

for the little children bathed in white

before midnight comes

the midnight will come

the midnight has come

the white will turn to black

will turn to red

ruby blood in little cups

raining on the little children.

**************************************

Thunder Oath

Gin

rivers flowing upstream in the briskness

Gimme a light, he will scream into the wind.

I will hold him close, the small fire of ash burning

Deepness

Into me.

Forgive the moment

I wanted tonic

In my life

You were worth knowing too.

Creature hangs in midair

To choke retorts

In Greek to the masses

Gimme a light, he will whisper to the whore

But there is no light to be held

in her breasts.

Only death.

Christen the fortune

Of men who knew life in her arms

For they are spared in the ecstasy

Of dreams.

One who knows death

Can never know pain.

They will down in the rivers of

Gin

barreling upstream.

Culinary Pornography and Other Books read:

Love in the Time of Cholera: I finally finished this one, and it was fantastic. Utterly fantastic.

The Hours: I wasn't impressed by the book itself; I found it a bit dull. I was, however, very intrigued by the structure: Three Lives - the dreamer/reader, the writer and the living story. The end was an easy one to guess, not the actions but how everyone is tied together.

The Kite Runner: I only got 4 pages into this and had to give it back to Christen's mom, from whom I borrowed it on the Pensacola trip. But I will start it again next month, because the four pages I read were quite good :)

Garlic and Sapphires: I must say that I love Ruth Reichl. It's like food porn, her culinary memoirs. I've read two others of hers, Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples, as well as a short story/excerpt book that she was featured in. This book is just as delicious as the others, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes (she always sprinkles her books with recipes instead of pictures).

Shower you with bullets

Long time no see,

So it has come to my attention that I have been neglecting my blog. I know I have; I just haven't the time for it lately. However, I was told that I need to think of my dear readers and put a couple lines up here so you know I'm not dead (yet) so I thought I would brief you in bullets (but not debrief you in bullets; that would be bad). Since last we spoke:

**Went to Pensacola for Christen's cousin Matt's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, the bar open, and the seafood delicious but mostly overpriced. The best place we ate was Peg-Legged Pete's on the beach, which had a fantastic fish chowder. There was a place named Crabs (we got 'em) which we didn't eat at but it lent itself to a barrage of jokes for the weekend.

**Went to the band reunion this weekend. It was so fun; I had an amazing time and caught up with so many old friends. Friday night was the concert, Saturday afternoon the picnic, Saturday night the banquet and afterward we overran Chili's and then went back to one guy's house for a party and I didn't get home until 6am! I don't generally party that hard, but it was so nice to hang out with some of the old crowd -- it was like no time had passed. I can't wait to start hanging out with those that I can soon :)

**Sunday was Mother's Day but my mom had to work all day so I took the kids shopping for her and to the mall, etc. We had an all around good time and Mom came over that night for dinner and to hang out for a bit -- I made shrimp kabobs and rice for us and chicken for the kids (they don't do shrimp) and Jamie made brownies for dessert. We ate outside on the deck and visited -- an all-around great relaxing night.

**Shell's wedding: coming up this weekend. I've made beach bags and painted wine goblets for the bachelorette party, and everything looks great. We are making our own flower arrangements on Friday morning for the wedding, and the bachelorette party is Friday night (we're doing a spa night with massages, manicures and pedicures, and wine and a beachfront hotel. Saturday is the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner and Shell and I are staying in the honeymoon suite at the wedding location that night. Sunday she gets hitched!

**After the wedding Christen and I are going on vacation -- yay! It's well-deserved and well-needed, I think. We haven't decided where to go; we're supposed to do some deciding tonight. Usually I like going up to the Carolinas, but he wants to head more west, like Missouri, Mississippi and stuff. Please tell me what there is to do in those areas, and what the camping is like? I'm a little wary.

Well, that's all for now. If I'm not back again before June, you know it's because I've been busy not because I don't love you!

Clarification on a tired topic:

I'm posting this in response to the comments I've gotten from my dear readers about my wedding plight. I'm only posting this here, not on MySpace, because I really don't want him to read it and I'm not sure if he does read the MS blog but I know he doesn't read this one: I forbade it about 2 1/2 years ago and I don't think he's looked back since. So here goes:


Christen and I have been together for about 3 1/2 years now. We started dating in December 2002 and have since been joined at the hip. We love each other with a love that I have never known before, either in giving or receiving. I know, without a doubt, that he is the one for me. He as well often mentions that I am the only one for him.

About the wedding, though, he and I have been talking seriously about getting married for more than a year. We talk in passing about our colors, our flowers, what kind of car we want to take us from the wedding to the reception ... this talk isn't at all one-sided. We both have brought things up about it when we think about it. He's taken me ring shopping once. Sunday we were at the beach and he brings up how before the wedding he wants to work out a lot to get back to the shape he was in before we started dating and I fattened him up (that last part is my embellishment, but we all know it's true). I said, "What wedding?" because we're going to two in the next five weeks and I can't imagine him dropping too much weight between now and then. "Ours, of course" was his response. Of course.

So I've been getting a little frustrated at the fact that a very large chunk of my friends have been getting married and/or engaged in the last year. And by a large chunk I mean more than 20. So my thoughts are consumed by weddings. Planning other people's, deciding what to get for this or that bridal shower, and in the meantime I've started planning ours. It just happened: I was helping his cousin shop for a dress for her wedding and I picked out mine. I was with my best friend shopping for bridesmaids dresses and I picked out the ones I wanted too. And it doesn't help that he eggs it on -- he asked me over lunch a few weeks ago what colors I had decided on for the wedding.

In the immortal words of Billy Crystal, "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." So this is where I am on the subject.

He, on the other hand, seems to think the talking comes easier than the doing. I've tried figuring out what the problem is. He's very traditional, so I know he doesn't want me to propose to him. And I've explained to him that if money is the issue, I don't need much of a ring to start. A pretty promise ring or something is quite fine with me -- upgrades can always come later. But I think (I think, because he's not quite so forthcoming with information) is that he just wants everything to be perfect first. He's not at the job that he wants right now, we don't have all the money we'd like to have right now, etc etc. But life isn't perfect, and I guess he doesn't realize that right now.

The reason I've stopped talking to him about wedding stuff is twofold. a) because it bothers me to talk about something that isn't happening right now, and b) because I don't want to pressure him into doing something he's now ready for. I know we're meant to be together. I just wish the rest of my life would start sooner rather than later.

How I know she's mine.

So I was heating up my "Legumes of the Gods" (see prior entry) and Lola had gotten into something, as she always does. It sounded like she was eating a bead, and I knew I didn't have any beads out and about that she could get to, so I was concerned. Actually I'd be concerned if she was eating a bead too, as they're small and can get lodged in her throat ... but that's a digression. Anywho, so I tried to get her to spit it out, but of course she won't, so I go back into the kitchen while looking back at her to see if it falls out of her mouth. Even though it's small, I can see that she's having trouble with whatever t is, so I watch and then it falls. I grab the nape of her neck so she doesn't go back in for the kill and pick up the little piece of something to inspect it further. It's glass. A little piece of reddened glass. You know why she's chewing on it? Because it's there.

Speaking of which, I need to go out today and get some underwear. I'm pitifully low on stock, and it's her fault. They always end up in the back yard. But I guess it's cheaper than the shoes I was replacing before.