Today is a dual 'observation' day for myself and one of my best
friends. It's her 35th birthday and -- were I one to observe such
things -- it's <shudder> the anniversary of the day I married my
personal nightmare-monster. Usually I focus on it being her birthday
instead of my anniversary, but she doesn't do her birthday very well,
so it's often just a maudlin day for both of us.

Today, however, was going to be different. Honestly! Her husband and
I had it all planned. We had a wonderful picnic-style early evening
dinner planned that I was preparing (it was a 'sandwich' theme with
puff pastry appetizers, a variety of bite-size main-dish selections,
and for dessert I made mint-chip ice cream sandwiches with home made
chocolate cookies half-dipped in dark chocolate and "painted" in
chocolate with birthday wishes and fortunes). Thank you, Sheldon!

Carol, my friend, was going to take her daughter to camp this morning,
then she and her son were going for coffee before she went for a long,
relaxing shampoo-and-condition at her favorite salon (not a cut or
style, just a relaxing massage-like shampoo. Sort of a 'hair-gasm'
<g>).

My plan for this morning, to avoid all thoughts of my personal
nightmare-monster-wedding-date was to coach an advanced training soccer
workshop, then stop by the fruit stand to treat myself to a basket of
Ranier cherries and a basket of white nectarines, then come home for a
nap and a movie.

The soccer went fine (great big shin bruise aside), but I dropped my
nectarines on the way back to my car and they got ridden over and
smooshed by an inconsiderate, idiotic, mean-spirited teenager on a
stupid looking BMX bicycle.

My friend, however, had it much worse. She did manage to get her
daughter dropped off at camp. And then her cell phone rang. It was
her brother calling from out of state. Her birthday greeting
apparently went something like this (names have been change to protect
the innnocent as well as the guilty):

"Carol! You need to come down here today [remember, we're in Alaska.
"Coming down" anywhere isn't simply a jump in the car and drive for an
hour proposition.] and help with mom. Things are falling apart."

10 minutes later at the end of a frantic phone call... "Oh. Happy
birthday."

She spent the entire morning (six hours worth of it) dealing with her
brother, sister-in-law, mother, and father (all separately) apparently
being the only rational one trying to sort out an hysterical family
melt-down from 3000 miles away. Mom lives with the brother and SIL as
day care and additional income assistance for them, and after a big
argument with the SIL is now moving out and is threating to live out of
the backseat of her convertible. Dad (they're long divorced, but dad
can't seem to keep from butting in to mom's business) is threatening to
call the police and have mom committed because mom is "obviously" a
threat to her own life, brother is caught between SIL and mom (both of
whom seem to be at fault, although from the way I hear it, the SIL was
more out of line, but that's not the point...).

So. We're bagging the dinner party tonight. Carol's husband (bless
him!) has made dinner reservations. He's taking both of us to Orso's
(http://www.orsoalaska.com/) tonight. He's driving AND buying. We're
drinking. And eating dessert. Dinner, of course, but the main focus
(as far as we're concerned) is the designer alcohol and dessert.

I'm saving the homemade designer ice cream sandwiches for tomorrow <g>
She doesn't know about them -- they're going to be my birthday gift to
her.

Alexis.

On Tue 28 Jun 2005 04:02:57p, Alexis wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> it's <shudder> the anniversary of the day I married my
> personal nightmare-monster

What a horrible description. Is it really as bad as all that?

--
Wayne Boatwright Õ¿Õ¬
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Tue 28 Jun 2005 04:02:57p, Alexis wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
> > it's <shudder> the anniversary of the day I married my
> > personal nightmare-monster
>
> What a horrible description. Is it really as bad as all that?

Yes. It was. Worse, actually. Story-of-the-week stuff. But he's now
in prison, and I spend today cooking to remind myself that I get to
make my own choices. Cooking is a wonderful thing, for so many, many
reasons.

Alexis.

On Tue 28 Jun 2005 04:18:17p, Alexis wrote in rec.food.cooking:

>
>
> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Tue 28 Jun 2005 04:02:57p, Alexis wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>>
>> > it's <shudder> the anniversary of the day I married my personal
>> > nightmare-monster
>>
>> What a horrible description. Is it really as bad as all that?
>
> Yes. It was. Worse, actually. Story-of-the-week stuff. But he's now
> in prison, and I spend today cooking to remind myself that I get to
> make my own choices. Cooking is a wonderful thing, for so many, many
> reasons.
>
> Alexis.

That must have been equally horrible to live through. You sound like
you're managing to work through it and come out on top. Best of luck!

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0526-1, 06/28/2005
Tested on: 6/28/2005 8:17:23 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com