Then and Now

Eight weeks ago, this was the view out my front door:

So snowy. So cold.

So bleak. So desolate.

A frozen wasteland, if you will.

But that was then...

and this is now!

The trees are blooming.

The grass is green.

And there's color everywhere!

Unexpected pleasures

Nala was curled up in my lap, trying to distract me from my goal of editing pictures for a new recipe. I had wrapped up in my green fuzzy blanket--the night before it had dropped into the thirties, and even though we'd kicked the heater on when we got up, it was still cold in the house. After some coaxing (or, more accurately, picking her up and setting her on the floor) Nala was finally out of my lap, and I reached for the mouse to resume my work.

The phone rang.

Wondering if the fates were planning on driving me crazy that day, I fished out my phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Hols, do you have plans this afternoon?" came the voice of Walking Hyperbole.

My eyes flitted from unfinished chore to unfinished chore which I had ignored in my eagerness to get up an 'interesting article' for my father. "No... not really. Why, what's up?" I asked.

"I need to run to the city to pick up [Adorable Nurse's] birthday present, and I really hate making that drive by myself. Would you like to come with?" Walking Hyperbole asked.

For about 0.02 seconds I thought about the recipe I was working on and all the chores awaiting my attention. Screw it. "Sure! What time do you want to go?" After all, I could probably get a few things done.

Walking Hyperbole said, "I'll be there in five minutes."

"Oh, okay," I said, blinking a little in surprise. "Well, I'll see you--" Click. "--soon then."

I stared at the phone for a count of five, and then oh-my-I'm-leaving-in-a-few-minutes-and-am-only-half-dressed panic kicked in.

Flying about the house like a chipmunk on speed, I quickly finished getting dressed, pulling my hair up, putting my jewelry on, making the bed, picking up clutter, throwing dishes into the sink, and saving all of my photos. As I hit enter on the last file, Walking Hyperbole was knocking on the door.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

I nonchalantly picked up my purse and double checked I had my keys.

"Ready when you are."

The afternoon was just like when we were kids at the local university. We talked the entire drive up, while shopping, through lunch, the entire drive back to town, and then well into the afternoon. Mostly it was about D&D, but also about classes and friends and local politics and things we'd seen and heard on TV/radio.

It truly made my day.

It has arrived

It's heeerrrreeee.....

Tiger is so ready for us to open those boxes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm off to continue preparations for my dinner date tonight with my husband. It may or may not involve pasta, salmon, and cheesecake. You'll find out tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, enjoy these fun Valentine's "Facts."

A little pick-me-up

It's cold and all of my joints are letting me know it (not to mention my three cats and the snow falling outside).

But I came across this this morning, and it immediately brightened my day. It's from Not the Messiah, which is the oratorio version of Life of Brian.

Enjoy!

Down the Yellow Brick Road

Last Christmas, Sam and I had originally planned to drive up to Kansas City on Christmas Day and visit his sister and family. However, due to the bad cold I'd caught, we decided to postpone our trip until some later point in time in January or February.

Well, this past weekend was that later point in time.

Our plan was to leave leave town Thursday after Sam got off work and go up to my parents. We'd stay the night Thursday, then get up Friday morning to go on up to KC, spending Friday night in KC. Saturday we'd spend the day with the family, and then that afternoon/evening go back to my parents, so Sunday we could go on home.

Of course, like all plans, things didn't happen quite like that.

Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, we got a bit of snow in our part of the country. While it wasn't bad in our town, the parts of the state we had to drive through to get up to Kansas had been harder hit. As the day progressed, everything started melting, but it wasn't melting fast enough for our tastes, and we knew that, with our luck, it'd all refreeze and we'd have icy roads to drive on if we left that night.

So we decided to leave town midday on Thursday, with Sam taking some extra time off work.

This allowed for more detox time when we got up to my parents, which was good because A) we weren't as tired the next day and B) my parents were needing some relaxation time as well what with everything going on with Grandma Nena.

The following morning we had breakfast with my parents and their friends, and then we made our way on north to KC.

(Side note: There was a time in my life when I could drive for hours on end and only stop whenever I needed gas for the car.

That time is now behind me.

After about an hour, hour and a half, my hips and back start vigorously demanding a chance to get out and stretch. Thankfully, my husband is of a similar inclination, so we travel well together.)

By late afternoon, we'd checked into our hotel room with the incredibly floppy bed, and then we went over to Sam's sister's house.

It's a cute little house, filled with books, movies, and music paraphernalia. And, since there is now a three year old and a three month old living under the roof, there's also tons and tons of toys everywhere.

I love kids.

There were belated Christmas presents for the Pretty Pink Niece and the Nom Nom Nephew. (Seriously, the cute little guy is three months old and has already outgrown six month old clothing. He likes him some noms, I'm telling ya.) We also had a couple of presents for my brother- and sister-in-law, which Pretty Pink Niece had to help unwrap.


It's one of the special benefits of being three, don't you know.

Pretty Pink Niece is crazy about her Uncle Sammy, and insisted that he play with her pretty much nonstop. This was cute and awesome, especially because it meant that I got in more baby snuggles with Nom Nom Nephew.

And that right there was the highlight of the whole trip for me. I got in numerous snuggles with my three-month-old nephew while we were visiting. In fact I got to hold him almost throughout dinner at the Steak'n'Shake, (except when Uncle Sammy had to hold him so that I could eat my chicken fingers).

That's not to say I never let him go--I was more than willing to give him back to Mama when necessary. But I did get a substantial amount of cuddling.

Of course, the flip side of all of this is that I now have a bad case of baby fever. Okay, a worse case of baby fever.

By the time Sam and I left Saturday (after being introduced to both Jelly Telly and Chicken Little, the latter of which Sam hadn't seen), Nom Nom Nephew seemed quite content to sit in my lap and watch everything going on around him. Which was good, because Pretty Pink Princess was doing a pretty good job of snuggling with the napping Sammy.

Four Years Ago....

"What are you doing between shows today?" Drama Manager asked.

Never looking up from the intense game of Connect 4 I was playing, I replied, "Don't have any plans. Debating whether or not I want to drive all the way out to the apartment, just to turn around and come back a couple of hours later. Why?"

"Good, then Music Geek and I are taking you to get your Christmas present." the tall blonde replied, satisfaction radiating off of her in waves.

That made me look up from the game. It would be lost in three moves any way, and Magic Bed Guy was grinning far too smugly.

"Oh? What is it?" I asked.

"You'll find out on the way." Music Geek piped up, skulls and crossbones emblazoned across her chest.

No amount of pleading or wheedling on my behalf would cause either girl to relent, and so I had to wait until we'd finished the latest show of A Christmas Carol to find out.

Finally, all of the students were out of the theater, and I made my way back to the green room were the others were waiting on me.

"Ready to go get your present?" Magic Bed Guy asked, as apparently he was driving us.

"Yes, but what is it?" I mock-wailed, thoroughly enjoying myself.

Music Geek and Drama Manager exchanged a long look as we headed out towards the car, as if debating how much longer they could stay mum before I hurt them.

"We've decided to get you a cat." Drama Manager declared as she and I crawled into the back seat.

"What?!"

I had made no secret that I loved cats and dearly missed Tiger. They had all heard my reasoning that a cat is easier for a theatre person to take care of than a dog is.

"We're taking you down to the SPCA to get a cat." Music Geek clarified.

If I thought the students had taken forever to get out of the theater, it was nothing compared to the excruciatingly long drive to the SPCA.

Twenty minutes later, we walked through the door.

A long counter ran down the right side of the room, behind which a ragged woman was processing an adoption for an energetic ball of licky fur that I later found out was a black lab. Another woman told us to feel free to look around at the animals available.

Next to the counter were four cages, each of which contained a cat. Inside the top cage was two cats about a year old. The first, Austin, had white fur with black patches/spots, similar to Sherri's Oreo. The second was a pure black cat standing protectively in front of his brother.

"Well aren't you a cutie." I said, sticking my finger through the wire mesh at the black cat. His name tag read Nelson.

Nelson batted playfully at my finger, then stuck his cheek next to it in a clear command to scratch it. I complied.

"Let's go see some of the other cats." Drama Manager said, gesturing towards a room further back.

I told Nelson he was a handsome lad, scratched under his chin one last time, and headed towards the back room. Two steps later I felt something catching on my shirt, and when I looked back, Nelson had reached his paw through the gaps in the cage to catch my shirt.

"Don't worry, I'll be back." I reassured him as I disentangled his claws.

Music Geek wanted to go look at the dogs before we continued looking at the cats, so we wandered back to the dog area first.

"Aren't pugs precious?" she wondered wistfully, as though she didn't already have one.

"I like labs myself." Drama Manager replied. Her boyfriend had recently gotten one to train as a hunting dog.

"Don't have the time or space for a dog, unfortunately." I told them, and then went back to where the other cats were. Music Geek and Magic Bed guy stayed behind with the pups, but Drama Manager went with me.

Kittens were cavorting with a bell. A couple of the older cats were curled up towards the top of the cat trees in there. Tabbies, calicoes, a Manx, two Siamese cats, and several tuxedo cats stared up at me from behind the glass.

None compared to Nelson, though.

After several minutes of Drama Manager trying to interest me in the kittens, I wandered back to the front room where Nelson and Austin were.

Nelson was at the back of the cage with Austin, but when he saw me he wandered back up to where I was.

"You know I can only take one of you, right? I can't afford both of you right now."

Well, more accurately I couldn't even afford one; my friends were getting me a cat for Christmas.

Nelson gave a sad look back to his brother, then meowed at me. It was the prettiest meow I'd ever heard.

"Okay then." I told him, scratching his chin.

Drama Manager told the lady behind the counter we were getting Nelson. Thirty minutes later we walked out with a very frightened cat in a cardboard carrier.

"I don't care for the name Nelson, though." I murmured to him through the box as we bounced over railroad tracks.

A very frightened meow answered me.

"It's okay, we're almost there." I assured him.

Drama Manager, Music Geek, and Magic Bed Guy made suggestions the entire ride back to my apartment. Like any good group of theatre technicians, they had numerous creative names, from pop culture to literature to names like Spot. As I thought about their creativity, I suddenly knew what my black cat's new name would be. Just then, we pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex.

"Welcome home, Techie."

Here he is, four years later.

Happily Ever After

One year ago today, Sam and I married.

We, along with my sister and best friend Sherri, left OKC early in the morning for our flight out west. There was a great deal of excitement on everybody's part. Quite possibly, Sherri's excitement was that she was getting three days out of town, with one whole day to herself in Las Vegas, but I won't say for sure that's the case. Even though she has gorgeous pictures from the Bellagio.

Ahem.

We had a brief layover in Denver, maybe 40 minutes or so, and then we continued on our way.

A year later I still remember the slot machines in the airport when we arrived at McCarran, and how utterly hungry we were. We wanted lunch, badly, but it was barely 10 am local time.

Ignoring our hunger for the time being, we found our way to the bus ride out to Circus Circus. Once we arrived there, we ended up waiting for about an hour in the lobby until they had our rooms cleared, thanks to the lovely time difference. (I had built in a good deal of extra time between when we arrived and when we were supposed to walk down the aisle, in case there were mishaps.) We kept getting distracted by the ticket booth down the hallway advertising all the various shows in town. Eventually we got to go see our rooms and drop off our things.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the rooms--I've gotten more amenities at a Motel 6. Literally. Hotel room didn't even have a coffee pot.

Vegas just isn't what it used to be.

Anyhow, afterward we went in search of sustenance. I remembered from previous trips how Vegas had tons of cheap buffets and restaurants, so I was looking forward to good, cheap food.

Like I said, Vegas just isn't what it used to be.

After an overpriced meal we could have gotten at any diner in the Midwest, we went somewhere... I can't remember if we went to the courthouse first or upstairs to fill out all the paperwork at the wedding chapel, select our music, and so forth. I think we went to the Chapel first.

To be honest, I hadn't really given any thought prior to that as to music or the other little details they wanted to know. I just knew that I wanted to get married to this wonderful, handsome redhead who'd wandered into my life. All of these details came out of left field. Not to mention that the music choices were rather, erm... uh... cheesy? I know, I know, it was a wedding in Vegas, but still! We went with the only inoffensive choice, which was Pachelbel's Canon in D. At least it wasn't done by Jingle Cats.

As I've mentioned, we also had to travel out to the courthouse to get our marriage license. Thankfully, that was one of the few times in my life when social security didn't screw things up for me. (To date, they have the wrong birthday and name for me. I've decided to just live with it.) It was a very long wait, and poor Sherri had to wait outside in the Nevada heat the entire hour and a half it took us to get through the line and to do all of the paperwork.

I don't think I ever stopped bouncing on my toes the entire time. Or staring at all of the other people waiting to get their license. I couldn't help but wonder how many of them were truly a last minute elopement; Sam and I had made our decision to go to Vegas several months earlier. For many, many years I'd declared that I was not going to suffer through a large wedding, and the man who chose me was A-okay with that.

(To the eternal gratitude of the rest of our family and friends, however, Brad and Regina organized an absolutely lovely reception for us a couple of weeks later. I have the most awesome friends!)

We then returned back to the hotel, and had a couple of hours to kill before the big moment. Sherri got to aid me in all of those last minute preparations for hair, clothing, and such. Everybody needs a Sherri to help them when they're getting married. I'll even loan her out to you if necessary!

The three of us made the trek up to the Chapel about 30 minutes early, and to our surprise and delight we could go ahead and do the ceremony ahead of schedule!

While strains of Pachelbel's Canon floated through the audio system, I walked down the aisle, my entire attention focused on the man I was about to wed. We joined hands and stood before the preacher; it was the beautiful and romantic moment I'd dreamed it would be.

Then we found out that our preacher was straight out of The Princess Bride; but we didn't care.

Twenty minutes flew by in a blur as we said our "I do's," and I became the happiest woman in the world.

Le sigh.

Then came the flurry of pictures and signing papers and taking care of more of those pesky details. Once again I don't really remember that much of it--just that I was wondering why in the world I was wearing 3-inch heels.

Overall, though, I wouldn't have traded any of it for all the tea in China.

A year has passed since that joy flooded my soul, and I can say with complete honesty that despite the roller coaster ride we've been on for the last year, I am just as madly in love with my husband as I was a year ago today.

I love you, my Sam, and I look forward to our spending our years together in love happiness.




Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. --1 Corinthians 13:4-8a