If you were to ask me if I’d ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I’d have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.
— Luis Buñuel
What’s your favorite? Right now I’m drinking a Greyhound, which is just vodka and grapefruit juice, since that’s what I have in the house; when I’m at a wedding or somewhere else with an open bar, I usually opt for a screwdriver. But my two favorite mixed drinks are mojitos and Malibu Bay Breezes. Yum.
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
— Langston Hughes
1. Big, fat raindrops
2. Watching lightning flash in the distance
3. Cracks of thunder that rattle your bones, but don’t scare you because you’re safe and warm at home
(Can you tell it’s storming here?)
What’s making you happy today?
The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.
— from Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
I’m cheating a little again, because it’s 9:30, and I’m in the middle of making dinner, and I’m still exhausted from yesterday.
I’m making chicken and dumplings for the first time ever, which is taking longer than I expected, and I’m nervous David won’t like it. He’s a good sport and tries anything I make, but I can always tell when he doesn’t like something (and he always answers truthfully if I ask him). And although I know it’s not personal, it makes me feel bad when he doesn’t like it, because I only want to take care of him, and food is one way I do that. I’m working on this – I know he won’t starve if he doesn’t eat what I make, and we don’t always have to like the same things, and it’s not a reflection on my skills as a cook. I’m a work in progress.
Anyway, back to the cheating. Please enjoy the following pictures of me and some of my favorite people:
Me and Karen last summer – she’s thinner now and I’m heavier!
Me and Aimee somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 years ago at a Sister Hazel show. This is still one of my favorite pictures of us.
Me and Nate in Atlantic City, before our dad’s band played at House of Blues (he’s wearing orange because it’s my dad’s favorite color).
This was the Princess’s third birthday. Now that I look at it again, they both looking like they might be squirming to get away from me, but I promise, they are actually laughing!
Me and David in September at my friend’s wedding on Long Island (I was a bridesmaid).
I saved this in the middle while we ate dinner – success! David liked it quite a bit, and though I thought the seasoning needs some work, it’s definitely a keeper (but probably more for fall and winter)!
The only difference between baseball and softball is that when you get hit by a softball, it leaves a bigger mark.
— Unknown
I don’t even know if I have the energy to tell you today’s story the way I want to. It’s 9pm, and I just got home, and I walked a hundred miles today, and I’m so, so tired, and I haven’t eaten dinner yet (I’m waiting for David, who is still at work – this is the third night in a row he’s been this late).
Anyway, I think I told you I play on a rec league softball team. If I didn’t, well, I do. Mostly it’s people from work, but also some other people who are friends with the team captain (who works where I do). We are terrible. There’s no way around it. We’ve been playing since early May, every week (give or take several rainouts), and we still haven’t won a game. Today we lost 22-1, and even that was a mercy-rule shortened game.
The thing is, there’s no reason we should be so bad. On paper, our team looks good – we have several excellent players and even most of our girls are decent to good (including me). The problem seems to be, though, that the majority of the boys want to do EVerything even when there’s a perfectly capable girl “in the way.” This often results in miscommunication, miscues, missed cut-offs, etc. The boys also seem to get overly excited when the ball comes to them and their inner Major Leaguer comes out and they try to do stuff like field the ball on the run rather than make sure they have it in their glove before trying to throw it.
We look like the god damned Bad News Bears out there, and while it was funny for a while, now I’m just pissed. It’s not really fun anymore. I nearly walked off the field tonight (where I was playing – uselessly – in right field, which I hate, because it’s the “girl’s” spot and I’m better than that; usually I play second base) because people just do not pay attention or realize that we could be a lot better if people would just take their time and make smarter, more controlled plays.
Beyond the sucktasticness of the team, the other problem is, we always seem to play at fields that are miles from anywhere. Tonight I walked 45 minutes from my office to get to the field. Sure, I could have taken the Metro to a stop that would have put me a 30-minute walk away, but since that stop is on a different line from my work stop, I’d have had to change trains and probably waste the fifteen minutes waiting for the other line. Truthfully, I don’t mind the walk there usually, because I look at it as an opportunity to get exercise and warm up for the game, but after the game when I’m tired and it’s late and I’ve got to walk back to the Metro a hundred miles, it’s not so appealing.
I’m not a quitter, though, and I believe that, as an adult, if you make a committment to something, you see it through to the end. Besides, there are only about 5 games left. And I love softball, but that’s a really generous description of what our team plays each week, so I don’t know if that’s enough to tip the scales, because, on the other hand, I have sort of come to dread Tuesdays, and that’s not good for anyone. So, I need to really think about this and decide what I’m going to do.
For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
— Virginia Woolf
Where do you find your inspiration? As far as blogging goes, I read a number of people, particularly women, who write beautifully, humorously, truthfully, about their lives and the people in them, and I long to be among them. I don’t think I always succeed, but here and there perhaps you can catch glimpses of what I aspire to do.
Today, one of my favorites wrote about her mother who passed away unexpectedly several years ago. Reading her post, as with most of the things she shares about her family, brought tears to my eyes. Partly because I was sad for her, but also because her writing about grief is at once heartbreaking and hopeful, and that’s a combination that really speaks to me.
So for today’s post, I thought I’d link to a couple of my favorite posts by a few of my favorite women bloggers. I hope they move you as much as they moved me.
Dawn: In addition to the one I linked above, I also recommend:
Jane:
Elisabeth:
Mo:
Lyrically Me
Ladies, if you object to being linked here (or just to these particular entries being linked), please let me know, and I will be happy to remove them.
Hear Me in the Harmony 