I'm Not Always Lucky

The last few mornings, I’ve woken up looking alarmingly like this:

This is not a good look for me. Nor is it particularly professional.

It has required some intervention, in the form of two to three different kinds of hair brushes, a high-powered hair dryer, and a couple styling products. I have emerged victorious in the end, fortunately.

Happy happy...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Special K!

I love you!















(All others, I apologize if this made you throw up in your mouth a little...)

Fantastic

We just finished a great weekend, with Keith’s cousin, Lil’ D, and his wife, K, who came to visit. They arrived late Thursday night, and Special K took Friday off to hang out with them. Since I’ve started a new job and have no vacation time, plus I had a meeting planned for that day, I couldn’t play hooky with them, sadly, but they had a fun day at the Spy Museum, and then we met up for drinks and snacks before heading to our first Nats game at the new park!

Getting there was really, really easy (three cheers for Metro!), and as we made our way up to Section 302, we commented that there really weren’t any bad seats in the park, an assertion that was helped by the enormous flat screen on which the game was being simultaneously projected so that those of us at a higher altitude could see all the action. As we were heading up to our seats, the Nats scored a 2-run homer, and Special K was so excited that he started to cheer and wave his arms.

Unfortunately, in his excitement, he caught my chin and basically punched me in the jaw. He felt bad, and I tersely told him that touching me at that time would be a really, really bad idea. But then it was really obvious just how bad he felt (because my husband wouldn’t hurt a fly), and I couldn’t stay irritated. (Even though my chin still hurts.) Besides, he made it up to me by getting me a bratwurst and some beer after we settled into our seats. Mmm… Granted, there are many more diverse offerings to be had at Nationals Park, but we went with what was close, and were quite happy. However, we fully plan to explore the offerings of Ben’s Chili Bowl and Red, Hot, and Blue on future outings.

The game was great, close the whole time, with both teams alternating between brilliant plays, and total flubs. Near the end of the 8^th inning, I saw some people wandering around with ice cream, and that seemed like…well, like a really good idea. And going to the ballpark is all about the food, right? Oh – and the game, of course. Well, we went and waited in line to get a helmet sundae, mostly for the little helmet, but also for the ice cream. The line moved quickly, hurrah! But then, we discovered something bizarre – it was a Marlins helmet? Special K was filled with righteous indignation.

The Nats won the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, and then we stayed for the fireworks display that followed – which must annoy the snot out of the long-time residents of the area, who are undoubtedly to be pushed out soon, thanks to the wonders of gentrification. (Grr…don’t get me started.) We took our time heading into the Metro, since it was looking as though the line was looooong and the station was crowded. After the crowd dissipated, we headed in and made our way onto the waiting train. That continued to wait. And wait. Finally, when it was packed and a train had come and gone on the other side, the doors closed and we began to move.

That’s when we smelled it. Someone had let an SBD (silent but deadly) rip in the middle of a packed train with the doors closed. Serious breach of etiquette. Lil’ D looked accusingly at Special K, who said “Dude, it wasn’t me – you know I’d own up to it!”. Lil’ D then began to scan the crowd in our immediate vicinity, and saw the most likely culprit. A woman sitting next to where he was standing, looking neither disinterested nor appalled at the smell, as most of the people surrounding us did – she just looked so angelic and innocent. It had to be her. So he said “I can’t believe that someone beefed on the train!” He nodded his head in the offending direction and imitated the overly innocent look for us, as K and I almost collapsed with laughter.

Our stop to change trains came along shortly, and we got off, and were soon on our way home. It was a late evening, and after an attempt at staying awake and conversing, we all retired to bed.

The next morning dawned clear and warm, and Special K and I set about making breakfast.

One thing that’s a little odd about me – I love planning menus. Love it – and I will spend serious time doing it, getting it just right. So I’d had our breakfast menu picked out weeks ago – Swiss-baked eggs, bacon, lemon-scented biscuits with honey butter, and fruit salad. The lemon biscuits weren’t all that lemony thanks to a cantankerous lemon that didn’t want to be zested, but they were still tasty, the honey butter was good, and I was pleased with how everything turned out. After wallowing in the food coma for a bit, K and I were sitting on the couch talking, and there was a knock on the door.

It was another person from Omni Horizons. I told K that this would be a short conversation and went out to talk to him. He started talking, and I gently cut him off and I said “I’m familiar with your program, we had someone here from Omni Horizons last week. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience, and we do not need any more magazine subscriptions. Thank you for your time.” He then wanted to know who I talked to and tried to explain that he was a supervisor and that if I’d had a bad experience, he wanted to know who it was. I told him the name I remembered and he said that he knew him, but wanted me to write down what happened. (On the back of an order form – very official, no?) I said I didn’t want to get into anything, I appreciated that he had a difficult job to do, but I just wanted to go about my day at which point he told me to calm down.

Which pissed me off, where I had previously been perfectly calm.

K grew uncomfortable listening to this exchange, and went downstairs to get the guys and told them to come upstairs. When the guy at the door saw Special K in the background, he said “well, can I speak to your husband?” Which really pissed me off. The surest way to get on my bad side is to assume that I’m just a helpless lil’ woman who needs my husband to make all the decisions. So I looked at him and said “I don’t know why you’d need to speak with my husband, since I was the only one who spoke with your colleague.” He then said that he really wanted me to report the guy who came to the house, gave me a number to call, and left.

I came in, rolled my eyes at everyone, and said everything was fine. K and I left to head out to the grocery store as the boys played around with drums and did boy stuff. We came back and I started on the evening menu, as the guys left to run some of their own errands. We were doing my garlic-lime grilled chicken recipe, along with creamy corn with sugar snap peas and shallots, sweet potatoes with lime-cilantro dressing, and roasted tomatoes. For dessert, we had the thing I started making first – lemon-raspberry cake with lemon meringue buttercream frosting. Special K’s brother J came over and we all hung out the whole night, eating, talking, eating, watching movies, and eating. K and I went to bed a little earlier than the guys (who are all very close and can talk with each other for hours and hours), and they continued eating. Special K came to bed very, very late, and was up for church the next morning. Lil’ D had been planning to go with him in the morning, but when the morning dawned way too quickly, and he heard the gentle tap on the guest bedroom door…it didn’t happen.

I got up a little while after Special K left and made some mixed berry muffins for breakfast (we needed to use up the honey butter, after all), and K, Lil’ D, and I headed off to church to watch my amazingly talented husband play.

After church, we took them to a local institution, Roy’s Place, where the massive selection of sandwiches necessitated a long decision-making process. We took the edge off with a couple of orders of their fantastic onion rings, and eventually came to a decision.

The post-lunch time saw me enjoying one of my favorite and rarely indulged pastimes with K – we were sacked out on the couch, watching a movie, and for my part, indulging in a post-church, post-lunch nap. It was a gray and drizzly day, so it was perfect.

Eventually, Lil’ D and K had to make their way home, so we gave them some coffee, some left over cake (and there wasn’t nearly as much left over as one would have expected), and they set off, back up I-95.

*sigh*

Special K and Lil’ D have always been very close, and K and I completely hit it off the first time we met, and were chattering away the whole weekend. She’s great, and I’m so glad they’re both family!

After that, Dr. C had an early hockey game, so we headed out to freeze our butts off in the ice rink with Mrs. C. Now, if points were awarded on a per-penalty basis, Dr. C’s team would have kicked some serious ass. But unfortunately, that’s not how the score is determined, so it wasn’t their best game. However, we cheered loudly and had a great time, huddling for warmth on the sidelines. (Poor Special K didn’t bring a heavier coat – I figured he knew what he was doing since he’s rarely cold. Turns out he just forgot how cold the ice rink gets. Pobrecito.) It made for a later Sunday night than we had anticipated, but a good one nonetheless.

So Monday morning rolled around, cool and rainy, and getting out of bed felt like torture. But I take that as the sign of a good weekend.