5.24.09

12:01 am – 2:00 a.m.

I continue my country girl experience with some pretty funny people. One of which is one of my best friends, another is a guy who sometimes makes butterflies appear in my stomach. We drink beer. We have a couple of glugs of whiskey. Things are alright with me.

2:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m.

Everyone begins to shut it down. Well, everyone except for me and the fellow who sometimes gives me butterflies. We sit. We talk. We enjoy the constellations that are impossible to see from the bright lights of the city.

5:00 a.m. - 5:30 a.m.

The boy and I have to part ways, as his job requires him to work on some weekends. We have a spectacular good night kiss beneath the Little Dipper. He leaves and I float off to bed.

5:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

I sleep.

8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

I gather my belongings and head back to the city. I look terrible, I’m horribly tired and I need a shower to wash all the country funk off of me.

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

I arrive at Bitty’s house, where I’ll be staying the night. She had previously warned me that she had a quick errand to run and wouldn’t be there right when I arrived. She instructed me to let myself in. I walk into her house and Sadie the Pug is there waiting for me with a huge grin on her mug. I continue to walk to Bitty’s spare bedroom, then notice that she left her stereo on and there was music on. What song is playing? Forever by Ben Harper which is my absolute favorite track that he’s ever done. In addition, I hadn’t heard it in years and years. I collapse into her couch. I think to myself, “This is where I am meant to be today.”

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Once I’m showered and Bitty returns from her errand, we begin to discuss food possibilities. She and I are quite similar in that we try to eat healthily and neither one of us eat meat. Things are different today, though. She’s hungover. I’m hungover. We decide to stop at a local restaurant and sit out on their patio and eat. We order three appetizers, all of which were fried. She ordered Dr. Pepper, I ordered Diet Coke. We ate, took a brief intermission, and ate more. Then, the rain started. It rained and rained and rained. She and I just sat there. Listened to it. Felt the breeze on our faces. Then, the rain stopped.

12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Bitty and I retreat back to her house, when another great friend of ours decides to drop on by. AMV shows up and we all sit around and visit and begin to toss around ideas about our evening plans. We decide to cook something, but nothing’s certain. Bitty hangs a few pictures on her wall, etc. We then move on to the discussion of Halloween. I instruct these two ladies that I’m having the Halloween party this year and for them to start thinking about what they’d like to dress up as. No sooner than the words came out of my mouth did Bitty exclaim, “I have a Halloween costume!!!” Followed nearly immediately by, “I’m going to put it on!” She runs back to her bedroom. It sounds to me like she’s putting on a grass skirt. My ears most definitely deceived me. I was in no way, shape or form prepared for what was about to happen.

2:00 p.m. – 2:08 p.m.

Coincidentally, it’s about this time when our other girlfriend, AS shows up. She’s knocking on the door (which has a pretty decent-sized window that sits atop the door knob) when Bitty emerges from her bedroom dressed as…a margarita. It was the most spectacular thing any of us had ever seen. We laughed and laughed and laughed. What made it even funnier was the fact that AS walked into some seriously random shit. Bitty was crowned royalty for her Mardi Gras Krewe one year. Their theme was Jimmy Buffet, therefore, they made her wear a margarita costume. AS walked in on it, AMV and I are trying to collect ourselves and not have to run to the store to purchase emergency Depends undergarments.

2:08 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Once we’ve calmed down a bit from the whooping and hollering of the costume, we just sat and visited. Of course Bitty moved about her house doing little projects here and there. The three of us followed her into her bedroom, as she was preparing to hang curtains. The three of us sprawled out across her bed while she messed with the power tools. Par for the course, my friends. I think I even told the girls that we had inadvertently walked into the beginning of some raunchy porn with a bad plot. We laughed more. We shared stories. It was effortless, much like everything else that day had been.

We decided it was time to start making a grocery list. So, we did. And we headed to the store to gather ingredients that would make enough vegetarian lasagna to feed an army.

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

We get our items from the grocery store and decide on the large bottle of Jameson. It’s gonna be one of those nights.

6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

We cook the dinner, we squish avocados with our bare hands, and we welcome the guests that arrive. We sit around with our friends, we visit and eventually, we eat. The food was magnificent, as was the company. We discuss television shows that we used to love (what ever happened to Pop Up Video? Seriously?), talked music and even managed to drunk dial a few friends who couldn’t make it. All in all, a great evening.

9:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.

In the midst of all of this, one of the guests decided that he would like to see Bitty don her margarita ensemble. Needless to say, we convinced her. It was priceless! We all laughed and laughed and laughed. Laughter was the undoubted theme of the day. Shortly after the margarita costume was put away, everyone started to make their way back home.

11:30 p.m. – 11:59 p.m.

This day was coming to a close. I had already publicly proclaimed that this was the best day of my life, but I couldn’t fathom what it would be like once it was over. I had lived 30 years without ever having a definitive answer to the question, “what was the best day of your life?” And now I had one. I spent nearly 24 waking hours with some of the people that mean the most to me, understand me, make me laugh and love me for who and what I am. While this day may not sound like much to you, it is now such a part of who I am. I learned so much that day. Love your people and tell them so. Appreciate what they’re willing to do for you. Reciprocate their kindness at every given opportunity. Live in the moment. ‘No Where’ very easily becomes ‘Now Here.’

I fell asleep two minutes after the best day of my life was over.

Goldfish, Beers, Baskets and Weddings

Hey there. Yeah, I've been (un)noticeably absent. Wanna make something of it? I didn't think so...

I have had lots to say, just haven't been able to force it out. I guess I'll hit the high points for you. Where to begin? The beginning, I suppose. Makes sense to me!

First, the bad news: the man of my house is no longer with us. Yes friends, Lamont Goldfish has gone on to the big ocean in the sky. It was startlingly sad. We all think, "It's just a goldfish." The reality is, that little dude was the best goldfish in all the land (Or water, in this case.). Anyway, I gave him a proper burial. Not at sea, but under the crepe myrtle tree in my parents' backyard. Anyway, another chapter in my life has closed. I don't plan on replacing him. Mostly because, he's irreplaceable.

Now, some good stuff, eh? My former guitar teacher and I have started to hang out again and I could not be more excited! I absolutely adore him and we have entirely too much fun together. He's been lighting the fire under me to play again and that makes me very, very happy. As evidenced by my lack of blog posts, I have been feeling creatively stifled for a bit now, but the cobwebs are beginning to clear. It's like I can breathe again. Ah.

I went back home to visit for Festival International de Louisiane and had an absolute blast. My dear friend, who I shall refer to as "Bitty" opened her home to myself and several friends during this celebration. Anyway, she's a magnificent gal who is helping me see things with more clarity. Also, she's about as funny they come and it was when she put several beers in the basket of her bicycle that I realized that she and I were really meant to be friends. I mean, the alliteration of that sentence alone make me giddy. Bitty puts beers in the basket on her bicycle? This is the stuff a writer's dreams are made of. Unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence of this, but I plan on remedying that real quick. I asked her if we can recreate the event for photo's sake and she has been more than happy to oblige. Pictures coming soon...

My younger sister got married about two weeks ago. Talk about an out-of-body experience. While it was a little weird, it was absolutely perfect and I could not be more thrilled for her. I had to make my mark, though! I wore a tiny, vintage Iron Maiden pin on my bridesmaid's dress. That, and the Chuck Taylors I wore to the reception made me feel a little more like me and little less out of place. It's the small things, I suppose.

I'm heading back down I-10 for the Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully, I'll return with good stories and even better photos. 'Til next time!