plant a legacy

summer means reunion time and i went to my first college reunion evah up in the mountains. 25 years for my class, so thats a pretty big one, not that many of us showed or planned to. mostly i went b/c cathy cox was inaugurated as the college's new president. i shook her hand and told her i'd be up to work for in a couple years.
the best part was just being in the mountains again. ahhhhhhhhh, how they center me and just make the world seem friendly and embracing. they call it the enchanted valley and they arent kidding. my college friend's mom went to homecoming lunch with me b/c she lives nearby on a fabulous mountain farm. she's in love with the mountains too. all in all i saw 10-12 classmates, two of whom i'd known since second grade. (rena, i can finally rival you in knowing someone today that i've known since grade school.) funny part was, sure i knew them in college, and i forgot i knew them in high school but a recent browsing of those annuals reminded me, but i totally forgot until i saw them today, that i'd also known them since well, forever. thank goodness you all have better memory banks than i. so this homecoming thing, nah, it wasnt so bad, lunch was good, people are doing well, i'll have a new job in a few years that'll take me back to the hills of young harris college where i belong and i got a plant to take home to boot. 'twas a great day in the mountains.

goslabi!

regroup and recover. i guess i'm good at that b/c saturday was a new day scarlet! yep met a friend downtown for an evening of supporting a great local cause - Darius Goes West - know about it! went to the film screening, the most awarded at film festivals in 2007, then hopped across 2 streets to the nappy roots hip hop show at farm255. had a very summah time cocktail. cucumber cosmo. it was basically a cosmopolitan with fresh pulverized cuke in it. very refreshing. the crowd was huge and a bit overwhelming after a few hours so we hid out at flicker for some quiet time and somehow i found myself biking home at 130am! gee willickers, i didnt even know i could still stay up that late. good practice though for my vacation to idaho that starts sunday. my aunt says the summer sun is up at 530am and down at 1030p. midnight actually sneaks up on ya.
btw, goslabi is so hilarious but only the dvd does it justice. so...know about it.

yesterday's horoscope

Today's Full Moon falls in your 4th House of Foundations, motivating you to get to the bottom of an issue that's been bothering you recently. It may be scary to share your concerns with anyone else, yet you may discover that it's not nearly as bad as you expected once you get it out into the open. Don't put off an important discussion; it can change things for you in a positive way faster than you think.

i put it off...and now i regret it. i get to think about how much work stinks for the whole weekend. instead, i wrote it all down and dealt with it. thank you moon goddess.

strike out

feelin kinda july '05 here. no dates, no prospects. kinda pathetic. lemme lay it out for ya. its friday night, nice summer evening. folks are sitting outside in the cafes, braves are playing, (i think) and its the slow pace that we know as 'summer' down here where its hot.
phone call #1, which is really an email: hey xxx, stop surfing dating sites, turn off the tv and bike downtown to meet me for dinner and drinks. nada.
phone call #2, which is really a text: hey xxx, is 2nite the night u r gonna meet me at our local neighborhood bar and watch the braves and drink $1 beer? nada.
phone call #3, which is also a text: if i come up for homecoming next weekend r u gonna be around for a dayhike with the dogs? nada.
drop in #4, which is really a bike by on the way home: knock knock, u home? my beer buddy, handsome, bachelor, single-dad, neighbor guy? nada. nice plants.
idea #5, hmmm, a really frank, direct appeal to a former lover...nah better not.
oh i almost forgot subtle phone call pre #1, yesterday, which was actually a fb post to a guy who always answers: hey you up for some music saturday? nada
so we're talking more than a strike out here, i mean 5 swings? okay i get it, finally. go home and walk your dog and find a movie on or read a book. good thing i went to the library this week.
*sigh*

friendly fourth frivolity

ever have one of those moments where all is right with the world and your spirit is overflowing from 'clean livin' (as dickie used to say)? a bunch of great friends came over for the 4th and i'm writing to try to capture that feeling of not so much throwing a great party but just being at one. i live 5 blocks from the park so everyone could walk to fireworks and i have a huge fenced in shady yard. of course what made it great was the people who came. i may not have even had that many people here at one time since i bought the house. ~20 folks i've known for 20+ years in this great town and a few i've just met all stopped by with a cooler full of tasty refreshments, a dish, and a blanket to carry to the park for firework viewing. some just grabbed the hood of a nearby truck, a la lanie. even the mosquitoes seemed to cooperate, mostly. i'm sure the buckets of citronella, incense coils, cutter wipes and spray helped keep the bocce ball tournament going longer. and the picnic table proved to be the perfect size to hold all the goodness folks cooked up, lots of it from their own gardens. yum yum. i'm still enjoying brent's cabbage au gratin and i imagine everyone is trying to re-concoct shannon's cumin-laced guacamole. we had 2 huge afternoon thunderstorms break around 2pm and 4pm that looked daunting and threw down a few limbs off my huge backyard trees, but all in all it just cooled things off and after a quick toweling of the deck, it was a fine spot to spend the evening. i'm still enjoying the gorgeous sunflowers cindy brought and wondering what i'm to do with a case of sorta cold leftover cans of beer. everyone drinks tasty microbrews (we even have 3-4 breweries in town copper creek, terrapin, trapeze) so the kind soul who donated a just-in-case of bud musta been thinking about sunday beer reserves or something. this is still the bible belt afterall, and you cant buy it on sunday. maybe i should invite landscapers over to tidy up my stormy trees and pay them in beer!