Tom Waits is Even Better When You're Dancing with a Man Who Knows the Lyrics

The bats are in the belfry
the dew is on the moor
where are the arms that held me
and pledged her love before

Yep, it's all fluffy bunnies and happy flowers with The Gentleman and I. I'm still afraid of when the skeletons in his closet are going to jump out at me, though. He's such a decent man, but I'm terrified that I'm missing some gigantic red flag. Maybe I'm just shell-shocked and he really is as remarkable as I think he is.

I only got to see him Saturday, but we spent most of the day together. We went to Rome for lunch and just walked around Broad Street and the Pedestrian Bridge and along the river (looking for more turtles). It was really a lovely day. Well, except for the suspicious ribbon of some cloudy something in the river (grrrrr...).

After a while, we decided to give the new Starbucks in Rome a spin. Yes, Rome has a Starbucks now. And it went up in like...three hours. It hadn't been long at all since the last time I drove through there, but all of a sudden, there's a Starbucks. Are they inflatable or something? Anyway, the folks there were really nice (I wonder how long that will last), and my Chai Latte was pretty good. I still don't like their burnt coffee, but oddly enough, we heard two more Tom Waits songs at the Starbucks (yes, Krishna, Tom Waits at the Starbucks!!). When we got back to Calhoun, I made him supper. He really loved my chard, brown rice, chicken stuff. :^) In any case, kinda sounds dull, but as usual, it was wonderful.

Other points of note for my weekend: My mom really liked the Gift Certificate from Mother Nature's Eden that I got for her Mother's Day present. I'm glad she did, but man, she and my Daddy are making it rough for me to enjoy visiting them lately. A couple of big ole' grumps all the time!! But Mom has some reason to be a grump, I reckon. She's worn out from taking care of Grandmother and from her allergies and whatnot, and she lets stuff get to her way too much. Daddy....well, Daddy's just Daddy - a 61-year-old man who complains like an 80-year-old. *sigh* I wish they'd both just chill out a little.

I also got a new cell phone. I hadn't intended to get one. I went to Rome Friday as The Gentleman had made pre-Jennifer plans with some friends to see what he called a "noise show" in Atlanta - he said it was pretty interesting. Anyway, I just felt like shopping. I decided to stop off at the Verizon store to see if my "New Every Two" thing had come due, and the lady said it had. I looked down at my little phone with its obnoxious orange blob in the middle of the screen. The blob had been there since the phone was a month old (pressure damage isn't covered by warrenty, apparantly) and I just never got around to getting it replaced. The $50 I would have spent on the deductable always seemed to belong elsewhere. So my friends always received text messages that seemed to be written in pig Latin. In any case, I figured "why not" and went ahead and got a super spanky new-fangled phone. I got the LG Chocolate one - the one that's an MP3 player too. I reckon it was about time for me to join the 21st Century. I even got the cool red one.

Well, that was my weekend, such that it was. And today actually isn't as bad as Mondays go because The Gentleman is going to take me for supper tonight. :^) He's such a doll. *sigh* *giggle*


So Here's some more Tom Waits. One of my favorites of his in usual unusual Tom Waits video form. So sue me, we had a moment with this song.

My Real High School Reunion & NERA

As pretty as a song
A song could ever be
Like Christmas on a river
Without a boat or Christmas tree
This afternoon with you was something like a letter
The kind that someone writes but never sends
And when you look at me
You remind me that someday it's gonna end
And when you pass on
I bet you miss your friends

And people wonder why I love Ryan Adams so much when he writes lyrics like that.


Say what you will about that entity of ambiguity we like to call Myspace, but it sure as hell can be a marvelous way to get back in touch with old friends you wish you'd never lost touch with.

When I went to my ten year high school reunion, it didn't really feel like my reunion. It was great to see certain folks and I don't regret going, but my best friends from the old days were either younger or older than me. As I looked about that room last summer at the 25 classmates out of a hundred that actually showed up, I wondered if it would be in poor taste to crash next year's reunion (and the next year's for that matter). But thanks to the wondrous Myspace and Adam being the sweetheart he has always been, we got our real reunion (minus one or two) Saturday.

I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. It had been ten years since I'd seen most of them, and I was worried that it might be a bit awkward. Plus we were visiting a member of the old crew who has a three week old baby, and me being the socially aware Southern girl that I am worried that it would be a bit weird or tacky to have not seen this feller for ten years, then suddenly visit his little girl. I found out rather quickly that nothing was awkward, weird, or tacky.

We hung out at Jason's apartment, met his remarkably cool girlfriend and their adorable little girl, and it was just like the old days when we used to just sit around and talk about any and everything. We went to lunch, had some beers, remembered old dramas that now seem so silly. We went back to the apartment and talked about our lives now. A couple folks had to leave, but those of us who remained had supper (at a place where you can STILL SMOKE INSIDE - Yay!), went to Dave and Busters and played pool and geeked out on the video games. Simple stuff, really, but I couldn't tell you the last time I had such a good time.

As I get older, I realize more and more that most folks don't really change that much fundamentally. We're still basically the same people we were in high school, but evolved. The problems are more complex and the conversation more sophisticated, but we still like each other for the same reasons we liked each other then. And it really put some things into perspective for me. I spent years trying to improve and get away from who I was, but I liked who I was then, and it's helped me to understand that I like me now too. I just have to remember that and be the best me I can be. These folks always liked me for who I am, so why can't I?

And I hope they know that I've never forgotten them. I hope they know how proud I am of them. I'm amazed at the careers they've built, the children they've had and how good they are with them. Kind of gives me hope that I can do those things too. We're convening again in April when one of the key members of the group will be in town from Boston, and I absolutely cannot wait to see her and to see them again. Why does it take ten years to realize how good you had it in high school?


As usual, I couldn't find a video of the song I quoted, but here's one of Ryan Adams doing "Let it Ride" which also has nostalgic qualities to it.



Since I was so worn out by Saturday's Nostalgia-fest, I didn't do jack on Sunday, but Monday night was the NERA Annual Membership meeting.

For those of you who don't know what NERA is, it is the New Echota Rivers Alliance, a non-profit organization that I'm on the board for (I'm the mighty Secretary). We try to involve ourselves in all things concerning the Oostanaula Watershed and how it's managed and in the recreational possibilities that we can develop and so on. Now, this may not seem very exciting, but it was for me because I enjoy and am proud of the work we do, and there are certain people also involved that I am very fond of.

We had a keynote speaker, who happened to be the director of the Rome and Floyd County Recycling Center. It was really interesting and really informative and eye-opening. It's amazing the money we waste when we toss recyclables into the landfills. I won't go all preachy or anything, but it's something to think about.

Here are a Couple of Links to articles that may be of particular interest to any of y'all who live or used to live in the Calhoun area.

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=722&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=927522&om=1

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=722&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1177148&om=1