July 24, 2003

OW, what a great night!  That was very nearly the most painfully sweet (and much appreciated) night I've ever experienced.

Yesterday was an OK day, but Nathan was fussy, sounding tired all day but refusing to rest or nap and I had the blahs from literally not being out of the house in 5 days.  I can always tell I'm getting ready to run up on the rocks when I start playing songs like, "Maybe Your Baby's Got the Blues," by The Judds or "In a Week Or Two," by Diamond Rio or "Daddy" by Emmylou Harris.  Yes, things are getting better, but I do this odd thing where I'm altogether cool during the crisis, Ms Faith and Lady Serene, then after it starts to pass, I get all weak in the knees and lightheaded and can't breathe. 

I did a tarot reading to try and get a feel of things and it said that I was going to have an unexpected visitor and a surprise.  That sounded pretty cool (tried to assume it was a positive thing and not a midget with a shotgun and a bad attitude or something), so I held the faith and figured some fun stuff might be coming.

Later that day, Georgia IM'd me and asked me if I'd like to hang out for a while.  Pfft.  You don't have to ask me twice.  We made plans to get together at 5:30 at my place.  A little before 5:00pm, I was surprised to hear the doorbell and figured she'd gotten away early but no!  It was my pal, Sage!!  He asked what I was up to and I told him about Georgia coming over (they'd never met)  and he said, "Good, I'll kidnap her too!"  I called Georgia on her cell to see if she minded if Sage joined us and she was excited at the prospect of meeting him.  "Pfft, YEAH!"  She even made it to the house a little early.

We hurried around making Kraft mac and cheese for the kids for dinner (Eric would make himself some fried rice, I knew) and as soon as Eric arrived, the four of us blew out (I'd already talked to Eric about disappearing with Georgia and he was cool with it, so no probs).  We crawled into Sage's big old '69 (of course) Impala convertible (top DOWN) and cruised about  6 and a half inches from my house up to the Century Theater (OK, so it's a mile) near my house.  Sage was treating us to see "Pirates of the Caribbean!!"  Whoa!  He went to his trunk and pulled out all kinds of candy and a cooler of Dr Pepper and Coke (Sage refuses to do diet drinks and says if you're going to do it, do it right).  Since the movie didn't start for a half hour yet and was two and a half hours long, Sage whipped out a pirate of his own, a little Captain Morgan.  I asked him if he wasn't worried about open container laws and he started quoting all kinds of penal code crap about how it'd been in the trunk and inaccessible to the driver and such.  That guy knows more than I've forgotten about booze.  I asked him about public intoxication since we were in a parking lot and he made up some garbage about how if you are parked in a crowded lot in the Northwest corner with no security in sight, it's not considered to be public intoxication, then passed me a dixie cup of Captain and Coke and told me to stop talking and start drinking. 

As my long-time readers know, I'm a total lightweight.  When Paul (my first and second husbands) and I were having trouble back around 1985-86, I found that if I would take a shot of Bacardi rum and chase it with a big gulp of apple juice, the whole world just got a little bit better.  Pretty soon, I noticed that my rum was dropping pretty fast and since Paul was an alcoholic (in my opinion, he denied it then and denies it now, despite evidence to the contrary and two alcoholic parents), I was pretty pissed that he was dipping into my stash.  I kept track one day of my own usage to trip him up and was surprised to see that I'd actually made my whole world a little bit better around nine times that day, so it became clear where the hooch was going.  From that day on, I only drank very, very rarely.  I've had two drinks this year (it's almost August, folks) and both times, I was done before I hit halfway through the daiquiri. Oh wait, I forgot that when I was really sick with bronchitis last month, Sage had me down a shot of rum (which really helped me sleep), so that's 3 drinks this year.   Georgia and Sage, however, are very good at what they do.  I remember there was singing.  Lots of singing that started with the "Yo Ho Yo Ho" song from the ride "Pirates of the Caribbean" and then got into Sage's version which, in full Cockney accent, went something like this, "You say you wan' some candy, girl, well look into me jeans, fer there you'll find me tootsie roll and there's me jelly beans!! OHHHHHHH YO HO YO HO A PIRATE'S LIFE FER ME!!" at the top of his voice.  There was also a bit of "Yo Ho's Yo Ho's a Pimp's life fer me."  I said something about never having had a tailgate party at a movie theater before and Sage allowed that it wasn't a tailgate party, it was a starboard party because his Impala was his Ship of the Night.  Georgia debated that a ship's tailgate would be its stern or its port, she couldn't remember which and Sage said he didn't need any port when he had rum, so it'd be the starboard, thank you very much.    While they were arguing stern/bow/starboard/port, I kept thinking that if we did get arrested, we only have thirty cents in our bank account and Eric wouldn't be able to bail me out.  (Not that he would if he could)  Sage rapped me in the back of the head and told me to lighten up.  He said wouldn't let us get in trouble and to stop being such a mom for just ten minutes and to get into the boat discussion or else.

By the time Pirates started, we were all pretty well sloshed.  When I was walking up to buy the ticket, it seemed like the ground kept jumping up to meet my feet.  Sage stopped off at the concession stand for two large coffees (both for him) and a barrel of popcorn (to share) and Georgia and I went to pee.  We got seated just as the previews were starting. 

WHAT a wonderful movie!! I've been a Johnny Depp fan since the wonderful movie, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and so I was an easy sell anyway, but the story worked so meticulously not only to fully entertain, but to bring in so many aspects of the ride, which was particularly fun.  I'd never seen Orlando Bloom in anything (missed the LOTR movies... I'm just not a Tolkein person) and he was extremely impressive.  Go HERE for more cool pictures from the movie. 

Sage kept saying about Depp, "He HAS to be gay.  No straight man could walk that way" and "God, I wish I had done his makeup."  He quickly determined that he was going to get extensions to make his hair look like Jack Sparrow's and cap his teeth.  I was slow as hell (probably alcohol induced) and Georgia kept me savvy on a couple of points I'd missed along the way.  She's perfect about knowing what's going on in my head and what I did and didn't get (and so gracious about it), saying, "Wow, that's the same guy from the opening scene" (instead of poking me and saying, "Did you get that, short bus??"). 

One thing that kept throwing me off is that the gal who played Elizabeth Swann, Keira Knightley (right), looks like a total twinner for a new girl on General Hospital named Natalia Livingston (left) who wears just way, way too much lip gloss in a really freaky disturbing and distracting way.  I found that although Elizabeth's make-up was completely flawless, I was mesmerized by her mouth, expecting it to look larded up  in a nasty way at any moment.  It didn't at all detract from my enjoyment of the movie; it was just a tiny thing.  That movie and well, the whole night, was just one big delicious meal to savor. 

After the movie, Sage was totally sober (during the movie, he went back for two more coffees and no doubt to take a leak) and we headed back home.  We could easily have stumbled home if need be, but as it turned out, it wasn't necessary.  It was 8:30, so both Georgia and Sage took off for home.  I sat on the couch and thought about how blessed I am, feeling tingly from having had such a great time.  Eric sat with me, rubbing my feet and talking to me for a while about what all happened in his day and what it's like to be working on electronic fixtures in the VA hospital with patients present.  Today, he has to fix the nurse call system and a few other things on the surgical floor.  He says he plans to work the Rushmore line ("O.R. they?") into conversation with the nurses as much as possible.  He even has to wear OR scrubs (O.R. they?) to do maintenance.  God, he would look cute in scrubs.  I'm peeved I have to miss that.  >:<

After two nights of having a solid 6-7 hours of sleeping like a stone, I feel wonderful.  Fatigue takes an amazing amount of oomph out of you on so many levels.  My headache is actually gone and my shoulders don't hurt.  I feel a little sleepy, but I think that is just sleep greed. 

I am really grateful to Georgia and Sage for giving me such a great time and I can't believe the difference in, well, everything that some fun made.  It makes me even more happy that Eric got to go up and see his friend on Monday.  If I could do something like this every week, I'd be about the happiest person on earth.

For now, I guess I'll go clean carpets.  :)

Love,