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prev home archive next Public Service Announcement I'm a couple of days late, but the new Storyteller topic is up! Momentary Thought Dang it. Someone made popcorn around here and they're not sharing. High/Low High: Wearing fun new clothes! Low: ANOTHER doctor's appointment this afternoon. Current Obsession Finding a black spaghetti strap top to wear with a new skirt I purchased this weekend, for Calvin's reunion. I don't know why that should be so hard, but it is proving to be so. Grin Source Dawn beat me on the recap of the weekend. Yes, we were as bad as all that. And Calvin and I needed the weekend as much as Dawn says she did. Singing "Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me!" Styx - Sail Away - amazing song at the concert last night Storyteller Bio Dramatis Personnae Who I Read Recipes |
Lordy, how to capture the last handful of days without this becoming an epic is beyond me. I can't even sprinkle it with interesting little photos, because like a total dork, I didn't take any. Yes, you read that right. But y'all (dammit, Dawn, I picked that up from you) will forgive me, because you're nice like that. And in the way of a disclaimer, yes, Dawn really *is* as nice as I'm about to gush over. It's not like one of those JournalCon entries where everybody says "And they were all so nice, and so cute, and so funny, and so classy/perky/sexy/neat-o-riffic..." to the point where you wonder "Yeah, what inside story aren't we hearing about?" Wonder not, dear readers, everything here is true. So, yeah. Thursday evening Calvin, Marie and I went to pick Dawn up at her hotel, the swank Hilton Suites in downtown Phoenix. I walked in and looked up... and up... and up... it has one of those inside courtyard thingies at the ground floor, with the rooms spiralling up around it about twenty stories - all open in the middle. The ground floor is ringed with bars and restaurants, with seating areas and fountain thingies and sculpture thingies. I'd never been inside, but it was quite posh. I went up to the front desk (steadfastly ignoring the basket of fresh baked cookies) and asked the (very nice) concierge to ring Dawn's room. "Hello, dear, you're ride is here!" "I'll be right down!" I then poked my nose in various corners and tried not to look totally out of place in my jeans, then settled on waiting over by the door. I saw Dawn coming along the second story balcony, and we waived at each other at the same time - instant recognition. Then we were finally meeting face-to-face, hugs were exchanged, and we went out to the Suburban. More intro's, exclamations, "nice to meet you"'s, and whatnot ensued. We hemmed and hawed about where to eat until Marie exclaimed "Ooh! Bahama Breeze!", so Calvin made an executive decision (which, he commented, was "necessary, in a truck full of women") and we entered with the anticipation of a significant wait. It was, somewhat - 45 minutes can be daunting when one is hungry. But we lucked out when some folks vacated some seats at the bar just as we arrived. Calvin ordered a beer for himself, a pair of margaritas for Dawn and I (it's called a Bahamarita, Dawn), and a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri for Marie. The margaritas were mango/lime or some such things (VERY tart), with accompanying shots that we later discovered were meant to be poured over the drink, to make it less wangy. Of course, I was too chicken shit to ask what the shots were *for*, but another lady at the bar was not so lame. It was by overhearing her query that we learned what to do with our drinks, thereby avoiding the opportunity to be uncouth all over the place. I must say, we all swung into conversation as if we'd been friends for years. Dawn is very open and friendly, and really easy to talk to. And fantastically easy to be ourselves around. She got Calvin full tilt and undiluted, I'm afraid. He flirted outrageously with her all weekend (but I'd warned her ahead of time so it was all good), and flirted with the waitress at the restaurant that night so blatantly that she said to Marie, Dawn, and myself - "You guys come back anytime. He's another story." It was all in good fun, of course. Dawn, Marie and I oohed and ahhed at the handsome cabana boy waiters, while Calvin sputtered in mock jealousy. I teased him about being shot down by the waitress while he insisted "Oh yeah, she wants me." Marie rolled her eyes throughout. I was afraid Dawn might be thinking we were all a bit much, but she was laughing and chatting away as if she was just fine. Eventually I stopped worrying what she must think of us (because she's just as kookey as we are, as it turned out). We stayed at Bahama Breeze for almost three hours, all told. But poor Dawn's eyes were blinking sleepily, so we took her back to her hotel. We planned for me to pick her up the next day, after her work duties were taken care of. Calvin, Marie and I drove home and talked enthusiastically about "how cool Dawn is!" That night we had a bit more housecleaning to take care of (including vacuuming the cat - that's what was meant by "sucking off the cat", for those of you who have read Dawn's recap of the weekend). The next day Dawn called me at about 2:00 to be picked up. Unfortunately, bossman wouldn't give me the rest of the day off, so after I dropped her off at our house I had to go back to work. Which worked out well, since Dawn had the opportunity to nap in anticipating of a partying night. So I woke her up when I got home (because she told me to!), and we were enjoying some beers when the doorbell rang. And here's one of three sad parts to the weekend (the other two being: Michael's ship out date got moved up a week, which I'll talk about in another entry; and the fact that Dawn wouldn't move in with us). We finally found another home for Minerva. The poor kitty just wasn't happy in our household, crazy as it is. So, believe it or not, I e-mailed X(m)'s sister (who also works at AcronymCo - I got her the job, actually, when we were all still speaking) and asked if she'd like to take Min. She said they'd ("they" being her and her hub) be delighted, and they have a very cat-friendly household. So the hub came and picked Min up on Friday afternoon. I gathered all of Min's stuff together and helped him carry it all out to his truck. We hung out there for a while, chatting and catching up. Ron (his name for the sake of this entry) and I have always gotten along well. I guess we had the kindred spirithood of both being married into the same family. Since X(m) and I broke up, we're no longer close, of course. Get this. In an e-mail exchange with Lin (X(m)'s sister, for the sake of this entry) I asked if she could give me a forwarding address for X(m), since I still get some of his mail. She replied and said to send the mail to her via interoffice mail, as they're "in contact" with him frequently, to "avoid mail forwarding confusion". Come to find out from Ron (who I knew would be more forthcoming with the info), X(m) is living with them, in a town about 15 miles away from me. "In contact" with him, my ass. Good grief. Anyway, Ron and I exchanged hugs, and I admonished him to take good care of my cat. Then I went back inside, to find Calvin and Dawn ensconced in the kitchen chatting away. We hung out for a couple of hours, giggling and teasing and catching each other up on the details that don't make it to either Dawn's journal or my own. But it *is* funny to know so many details about a person that you've never actually "met". There were so many times when she'd say "do you remember when I wrote about..." or I'd say "I remember you talking about that..." We'd talk about mutually-known journalers, stories, or forum discussions, and Calvin would just blink at us like we're speaking a different language. So we tried not to do that too much, so he'd feel included. ~grin~ After a while we managed to get ourselves to stop talking long enough to get ready to go out. We grabbed some quick Mexican food at The Blue Burrito Grille, then went to the Rockin' Rodeo. The Rockin' Rodeo is a warehouse-sized establishment with a central dance floor that boasts both country and rock dance music. Cowboys and boobies were in abundance, so we were all happy. We claimed ownership of a table and planted it there for the night. Every time the shots girl wandered by we'd sample a different gooey, sticky concoction. A couple of hours into things, we were all feelin' no pain. Dawn taught both Calvin and I how to two-step, and how to do the whip. That last one, I discovered, is a bad idea when one has indulged in three shots and God knows how many beers. Dawn is an excellent dancer, however, and made me feel in the end that I actually somewhat knew what I was doing. She bemoaned the lack of an actual dance partner, though. On the way back from one of my bathroom breaks, a group of cowboys called me over to them. So I viewed this as my opportunity to hook Dawn up with a dance partner. The guy they claimed they were wanting me to meet introduced himself, so I hooked my arm through his and lead him over to our table. Poor guy probably thought he was getting lucky, because his face fell a bit when I introduced Calvin as my fiance. He and Dawn chatted for a bit, but then the guy's cowboy hat bedecked brother came over to us, and come to find out that *he* was the dancer in the family. So he and Dawn went out for a few turns, several times throughout the night. You don't have to feel bad for the first guy, though. He managed to get himself hooked up about three microseconds after his brother introduced himself to Dawn. By just a look, which floored us. He and another girl made eye contact while he was sitting at our table, he did a total "hey baby, how *you* doin'?" gesture, Joey style, and there she was. In his lap. For the rest of the night. Amazing. The rest of the evening was spent drinking, dancing, and making fun of the other patrons. And believe me, some of them were only there to be made fun of. Like the totally white break-dancer wannabe bald guy, and the couple on the floor doing their own rendition of Dirty Dancing. And the old couple in Western getup doin' their thang to Puff Daddy. Actually, we thought the old couple were cute, so we didn't make fun of them so much as go all "Dude, check them out! That's too cool!" Are you catching that I'm talking a lot like Dawn in this entry? Just checkin'. We finally wrapped it up at 1:00, when the place closed. Headed back home, I felt like I could go on for the rest of the night. I kind of wanted to, to make the most of Dawn's visit. But man, was I buzzed. Drunk, really. We got back home and dressed for bed, and I set up a game of pool, of which I took maybe two shots. Then we got immediately bored, and so moved to the living room to watch TV and chat. I swear to God, I tried SO HARD to stay awake and be coherent, but my eyelids were like bricks. I could hear myself responding nonsense to their questions, so they finally made me go to bed. I remember Dawn tucking me in, trying to make me into "a little burrito". But I kept taking my arms back out from under the covers. She tried to get me to sit still, but I kept yelling "But I want to be a burrito with arms!" She laughed and shut the door on her way out, and that's the last thing I remember. According to Calvin, he came in two minutes later and I was Passed Out. I paid for it the next day, of course. Hangover City. Calvin went to pick Michael up from a Marine function while Dawn and I hung out on the couch. We watched Bugs Bunny. We watched Whose Line Is It Anyway? We watched Mystery Science Theater 3000. "You have the right to remain ultrasonic. Anything you squeak can be used against you." Sorry, I guess you had to be there. When Calvin got back, we decided that a big greasy breakfast was the only cure for our ills. So we went to The Village Inn, and I proceeded to not get a big greasy breakfast. I got a big greasy lunch instead - a rueben with onion rings. And pie! Coconut cream pie! Yeah! Kiss that hangover goodbye! We all hit it off so well, it was actually acutely depressing to have to take Dawn to the airport. But she had a 2:40 flight, so we headed out at about 1:30. It took us forever to find a parking space ("Guess that means you can't go, Dawn!"), and then we had to deal with a toad of an airline clerk ("Guess that means you have to stay, Dawn!"), but we finally got to her gate with time to spare. We sat around on the floor (no seats) and gabbed, Calvin and I trying like nuts to convince Dawn to stay an extra day. "You can go to the concert with us tomorrow night!" "You can start a satellite office of your company in Phoenix!" "You just simply can't go! Quick, Laura, hit her over the head while I grab her bags..." But it was all in vain. Her flight was called, and we forlornly waived goodbye. And hugged. And waived some more. And made faces at each other. Well, maybe not that last part. She will be coming out again (because we said she had to, so there), and hopefully it will be a longer trip this time. We made tentative plans to do a Grand Canyon Railroad trip (one of those kitchy tourist things where you take a train ride, and bandits "rob" the train, and it's all silly fun), and there are about three million other things we all want to do together. Calvin and I just had the most wonderful time with Dawn, and we were reminded of how few good friends we have. It was great to make another one in such short order. So Dawn? Get your butt back out here. Like, yesterday. Now, to rebut and/or comment on some of Dawn's entry:
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