this was not AT ALL my idea. And what Fred fails to mention is that he harassed the everloving shit out of me until I yelled “GODDAMN! Stop and get her on your way home from work, then!!!”, and he did, and I had to call the shelter manager and be all “Fred is a great big baby who miss his little puddy tat, so we’re adopting her, mmkay?”, and then I had to call Fred and say “And this does NOT mean that I’m going to stop fostering, because it was YOUR idea, get it? Also, maybe you should start cleaning out the litterbox sometimes, too!”, and he was all “Fostering, okay. Litterboxes, no.”, and I was all “Well, okay then. As long as you realize that we’re going to end up with That Gay Chick on our front doorstep, yelling that she wants that damn kitten.”, and he was all “I’ve got guns. Gay chicks don’t skeer me.”, and I was all “You can’t kill her. What would my readers think?!”, and he was all “I’ll just wound her, gotta go, loveyoubye.” (We’re leaning toward the name Stinkerbelle, by the way.)
Debbie took this picture of me to
show how the doorways in the barn
were very low. That, or perhaps
she was trying to show how I always
wear t-shirts that are too
damn big for me. Or maybe how
I always stand around with my mouth hanging
open. One or the other.
Although I’d never seen one in
person before, I’ve heard of Hummingbird
Clearwing Moths, and when I saw this
one flitting around, I knew almost
immediately what it was. Very neat.
Spider in the barn.
One of the people at the party
made mini whoopie pies. They
were GOOD. I love me a good
whoopie pie, have I mentioned?
Debbie’s work people were cool to hang out and listen to, and we stayed for a few hours before leaving and heading into Augusta. Brian had a gift certificate to a store in Augusta, so we went so that he could try on sneakers, and then we checked out a few more stores, and then headed for home.
Debbie had checked out the movie listings before we left for the party, and found that Hairspray was only playing at 9:30 at night, no shows during the day. I called my mother (who’d gone out to eat with my father and friends of theirs) and told her we were going to the movie if she wanted to meet us at the theater. She did, and we pulled into the parking lot just a few minutes after her.
I have to say, I really liked that movie. I’m not sure that Amanda Bynes was perfect for the role of Penny Pingleton, and I like John Travolta, but I found him a little creepy in the role. I really, really liked Nikki Blonsky as Tracy, and I hope the girl goes on to have a long and lucrative career.
Again, the Hairspray music is so happy that you can’t (well, I couldn’t, at least) help but love it.
Saturday
I had taken Debbie’s car home the night before, so Saturday morning I picked her up a little after 9, and we headed to South Portland for breakfast and to meet up with Lanna Lee. We weren’t positive where we were going (Lanna and I had first made plans for breakfast at the Muddy Rudder, then I found that they don’t do breakfast, then I suggested Country Buffet, and she countered with IHOP, which ended up being a very good choice.) Debbie and I arrived and got out of the car, then as we were standing looking around like lost lambs, Lanna pulled in and I recognized her immediately.
We had a good breakfast (I highly recommend the garden vegetable crepes – I think that’s what they were called), and a very enjoyable conversation, and then Lanna topped off a cool experience by making me a BALLOON CHICKEN AND A BALLOON CAT. My inner five year old (and, honestly, my outer 39 year-old) were so thrilled that I wanted to skip through the restaurant and sing “Iiiiiii have a balloon chicken and youuuuuu don’t!”, but I refrained.
We sat and talked for so long that the waitress started coming by and asking if we needed anything else, and after the second or third time we got the “get the hell out of here” hint, so we went out to the parking lot and talked for a while longer before heading our separate ways.
I always get so nervous about meeting a reader beforehand, mostly because I’m afraid I’m going to make a blithering idiot out of myself, and it always turns out to be really fun. I suppose one of these days I’ll end up meeting a crazy, but so far so good!
Debbie and I headed over to the mall to do a little shopping and wait for Liz to meet up with us. Liz was a little late, so after we checked out Lane Bryant and a place that sells hair products, we walked through the mall and over to Vinny T’s. We lurrrrve Vinny T’s, and the food was really good as usual, but the service was so substandard that I did something I just never ever do – I left a 10% tip. I know that sometimes the kitchen staff is slow and you can’t really blame the server for what’s going on, but this time it was all the server, from the fact that he didn’t bring out the olive oil (for the dipping of the bread) ’til he’d been asked twice, he let our drinks go dry for a long, long time, and he forgot to put in the “to go” order Debbie had asked for (which actually turned out well, because I gave her my leftovers to take home instead).
We said goodbye to Liz, and headed back to Topsham. We stopped at Harry & David in Freeport so that we could buy a cheesecake, stopped in Topsham to pick up Brian, and then headed out to my brother’s house in Harpswell. We got there right after five, and Tracy had put guacamole and chips on the table, and oh my LORD. I have never been a guacamole fan, but I think I’m going to have to change my tune on that one. That stuff was REALLY good.
We – Tracy, Mireya, Debbie, Brian, my parents and I – sat outside and talked while Tracy grilled the steak for the carne asada he always talks about in his diary, and the discussion of which always makes me drool, but I have never had. It was FABULOUS. I had carne asada, more guacamole and chips, and a piece of cheesecake, but I kept eyeballing that guacamole. I wanted to take a BATH in the stuff, I wanted to stick it in my purse and take it home, I wanted to marry it.
I guess there’s a difference between freshly made guacamole and the crap you buy in the stores, huh?
I don’t know what Tracy was
saying to me here, but apparently
it was something that confused me.
The look on my face is cracking me UP.
Tracy did all this cooking even though his ribs still hurt, so Debbie cleaned up the kitchen most of the way, then left a few things for me, and headed home. I cleaned off the meat slicer, did the last few dishes, and then headed home with my parents.
Oh yeah – I also got to hang out with my brother’s cats, which I’d been looking forward to. They are SO damn sweet, those cats.
Dulcinea’s got something to say.
“‘Sup?”
Remember Gizmo from when she was a baby?
She’s all growed up! I understand she’s not the
brains of the operation, but she sure is cute.
