5.30.2006

Numb3R5

So what have I to catch up on? Well: (1) Visitors to GoodSoupAndAMovie (2) a lazy man on the way there (3) a concert (4) learning Romanian (5) learning Portuguese [but not really] (6) people from Mississippi, and (7) last night’s movie. But maybe not in that order. But probably.
Affable Olive, her sister Marry Me, and their mother all came to visit Friday evening. Affable told me that they were coming, and warned that they may come to the house early. I was out in service all day Friday, and was going to be home a little after five o’clock, as usual, but this week we were meeting earlier because my grandmother, famous for her date balls at Horse’n’Buggy’s housewarming party, was coming. We were watching Walk the Line and it was a movie H’n’B thought she would like. She did. But anyway, I was on my way home from service, and it’s HOT, I mean HOT (yes, that’s bold, italics, underlined, and all caps), so I’m less than presentable, and as part of my regular schedule, come home from service and take a shower immediately. I then have time to check my email, relax, catch up on things before I leave for GSAM. I was behind this car in the neighborhood, and I don’t know why I noticed it, but I didn’t notice the county plate that would have made it obvious that this was the Olive family. I followed them through the neighborhood toward my house up my driveway where I lay on the horn for a while. Summary: all three get out, Mamma Olive decides to go to Fancy Mexican with my parents, and Olive children come to GSAM. The parentals left early, and we weren’t far behind. We listened to good music of one kind or another on the way, and I think Guster was in. Anyway, I drive thru this neighborhood to get to the restaurant because going the normal way, there’s a left turn at a stop sign you have to make where I have sat for literally fifteen minutes. So I go through the neighborhood. It’s a fancy one with big houses that don’t match, and they don’t have a HOA and stuff, and some of the curbs are painted white, and there’s speed bumps, or “traffic calming devices,” as the signs say. So we’re driving thru and we see this guy pull up into his driveway and get out to check his mail. He parks the car at the bottom of the driveway and leaves the driver door open. He grabs his big fat trash can like he’s gonna bring it up to the house and then come get the car. With a twinkle in his eye and a (supposed) spark of ingenuity, he tries to fit the weird handle of the trash can over the trailer ball on his hitch, only, I imagine, to his disappointment, to find that he has to walk it up either way. People are so lazy. (That paragraph takes care of 1 and 2, and I have decided not to discuss 4 and 5 at this time).
This paragraph handles numbers 3 and 6. I got a text message Saturday evening from a friend of mine in Mississippi, who said she was in town and wanted to do something. She would only be here until Tuesday, and wanted to go see a movie or something. That was cool. I had plans Saturday night, a prior engagement, a dinner thing for some friends that are moving away, and I couldn’t not go. I told her that Sunday would work fine, and that I’d give her a call when I was home. She said she had dinner plans with her relatives, but they were going to be early, and then we could go do something afterwards. (Oh, she also had with her some of her friends from San Antonio). This girl NEVER answers her phone, even when I know she’s just texted me or something, and Podunk Mobile doesn’t offer voicemail, so there’s no leaving a message. Didn’t hear from her, didn’t hear from her, called, didn’t hear from her, called again, etc. Then, Cpl Mother (whose nickname will change, but suffices for the purpose of this post) pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to go to a concert that evening. She and her husband were going, and so was Kimmi Stewart. H’n’B was supposed to go, but couldn’t for reasons immaterial to this post. I agreed on the spot, thus dumping Miss MS for the evening. The weather was unbearably hot when I went home to do yardwork, and I showered and prepared to leave to meet at the Cpl’s house. Summary: we packed a delightful dinner (thanks to Kimmi), the weather cooled down greatly, the opening act (Toby Lightman) was AWESOME, and Jewel was spectacular. I don’t have any of her CDs, but she’s a great live performer. She talks between songs as if it’s over coffee, and does somewhat of a comedy routine, but not enough to be annoying. At one point, she stopped and went on this spiel: “This is the best song I’ve written; I don’t want to brag, but as far as song writing goes, this one’s way up there. It’s lyrical, poetic, socially relevant, moving, and emotional. And, like any other classic socially relevant song, it’s a polka!” (Oh, by the way, the rest of the band had moved off stage by now, and everything else she did was solo, so she just had her guitar.) She proceeds to play this jumpy cutesy singalong number that should have belonged on Sesame Street or Barney or something, and it was entitled “Does anyone want to catch a cold with me?” It was HYSTERICAL! Summary: Jewel has an incredible voice, can totally rock out or play the delicate singer/songwriter, displays phenomenal voice control, sings “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” a capella that would make Judy Garland extremely jealous, and can yodel to make even the staunchest yodel-hater jealous and/or highly emotional. She was amazing, but in the end, got the nix because the neighborhood ordinance doesn’t allow yodeling (or any other loud stuff) to go on after 11 pm, and therefore the timers clicked and she lost sound. It was over. She was incredible. I shall elaborate more later.
Continuing with number 6: since we didn’t go do anything on Sunday, we’d figure on doing something Monday night. I had made plans with the Cpl to be out Monday until at least 3 pm, and maybe 5. Miss MS texted me at 2 pm and said they were going downtown to see all the cool stuff that real cities have, and she wanted me to come. I declined unless they were leaving after 3, and she said they were already on their way. She told me she would be back around 4-ish, and that she had to go to the mall to return a few things. I would be home by then and would call her to catch up with them. That was the gameplan, and she had dinner plans at seven or eight, so we had time to bum around before then. I got home later than I thought I would’ve (around 4), and showered. I txted her and said I would be available the rest of the evening. She did not respond. The family and I had to go downstairs and watch a movie for the meeting tomorrow night, and it was only about a half an hour (Oh by the way, H’n’B had called me earlier to see if I wanted to see X-men: The Last Stand that evening, and I said yes. She suggested about a 7 oclocker, and that would be perfect because Miss MS would be having dinner by that time.) My family and I watched the movie, and I had developed one of these tension headaches (or something) that I seem to get, and nothing can cure it. I’ve tried to exercise, drink water, avoid reading, take Tylenol, etc. and the only thing that works is sleep. I lay in the recliner and turned on X-men 2 and slept for about an hour. Dad woke me up, and I had been dead to the world. Feeling somewhat better, I texted Miss MS and it said something to this effect: “Hey, good job with catching up at the mall.” I was tired of her by this time. I immediately called H’n’B to finalize movie plans, and we went to see it, along with IDunno (who I think at one time was called Hugginest Boy).
The movie was awesome. Lots of people die, though, but very, very significant things happen to a lot of characters. It was a little disorganized at first, because there were a lot of factions in the movie that you couldn’t identify with, or know who to focus your attention on, and it made for a busy plot at first. It became more well defined later on, but the one thing I was a little disappointed with was that it wasn’t really long enough to be the grand epic finale that a third (and last) movie in a series should have been (in my opinion), but I would definitely recommend it, especially because Famke Janssen is stunningly beautiful. I was expecting a three hour thing, but it was good. I’ll just have to see it again.
I’m finished for now, and I’m sure more details on all of this will come later, as will numbers 3 and 4.

5 comments:

Alan said...

It seems that all the italics, underlines, or bolds in this post have been lost for one reason or another. They were quite numerable. It is a sore loss.

Affable Olive said...

Guster was in on the way there, then Johnny Cash (I had "Ring of Fire" in my head til Monday), then mix on the way home. And you mean numbers 4 and 5 follow. I think you pretty much covered the concert...until you elaborate later. Sore loss...and I decided I'm going to buy horse n. buggy a VERY belated housewarming gift: a grippy mat to go under the rug at the fire place.

Horse N. Buggy said...

So sorry that you busted it at my house on Friday night. I can't use those grippy things. My builders specifically told me that they would trap moisture and cause my floors to turn green or yellow.

The only other thing I know to do is get a really large rug that can be anchored by the furniture. But those cost thousands of dollars. With Roomie moving out, I can't really afford one.

I have been worried about people falling. Up to this point, you are the only person who has done so. Of course, you are also the only one who tried to "surf" my rug - that may have something to do with it. Is your head fully recovered?

Anonymous said...

To lead this in a new direction (and not that I'm not concerned about rug-surfing in such close proximity to the brick fireplace but...) ROOMIE'S MOVING OUT??? that's news to me. Not that he's ever there anyway... wow...

Anonymous said...

Jewel is specatular???