Tuesday, August 15, 2006
A Visit From Beyond (or the Back Thereof)
Last weekend (the 5th and 6th), my friend Fran came to visit from L.A. – that is, Lower Alabama. She used to live here in the Atlanta metro area, and a few years ago she sought sanctuary from The Big City and moved away to the back of beyond. I had only seen her once since she left Atlanta and she hadn’t seen my house before, so we had a great time catching up and stuff. For a house warming present, she brought me two new tins – O JOY! No, really – I love ‘em. I collect only advertising tins, although I do have some that are just decorative, because some people don’t realize that I only collect the advertising ones, so they give me whatever, and being the kind, gracious and grateful person that I am (see cat food and greeting cards), I readily accept them without a word. A grimace, maybe, but no words. Fran is well aware of the parameters of my collection, so she knows what to bring. One tin was one I had never even heard of – a Slim Jim tin – and it was awesome. The other one is not, in the strictest sense, an advertising tin, but it’s a cross-collectible, and one I had let go by without me some years ago and had been trying to find since then – a Vincent Van Gogh tin. I had bought one of these for Christmas for another friend who is also a Van Gogh fan, thinking that after Christmas I would go back and get one for myself, but of course Murphy was at work and they were all gone when I went back and I missed out on getting one. Lo and behold, it was the very same one Fran brought me, so after I came down from the deliriosity of finally getting this long-sought-after tin, I have added it to my ever-growing collection – of Van Gogh stuff, not my tins.
Before Fran came, I cleaned the house from top to bottom (with the exception of the on-going GMHT project), and from what I had left of the pecans she sent me awhile back, I tried to make candied pecans. I had a good time trying, and rather than baking them in a big hot oven, I used my little toaster oven, which made a good substitute, but obviously I’m candied-pecan impaired, because I ended up with small bits and pieces of individual pecans, a few individual pecans and large globs of pecans held together by the sticky gluey mess created from the sugar mixture, a/k/a pecan sugar stew. It was a total mess, but delicious, if you didn’t mind going at it with a small ice pick
The first night Fran was at my house (Friday night), we stayed up until sunrise, talking and catching up and snacking on pecan sugar stew, so we slept away a lot of Saturday. However, we did get some mileage out of the rest of the day by going to one of our favorite old haunts for dinner. We used to work on a club newsletter together, and every Thursday, we would go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and work on the newsletters. We called this our “staff meeting”, although this implied that we were actually official staff of some paying organization. Not so. We only did it for the joy of newslettering and the joy of Mexican food.
We came back to the house Saturday night and watched “My Cousin Vinnie”, which she had never seen. I personally do not think people should be allowed to live in Alabama (or that would be Ala-fuckin’-bama, according to Vincent Gambini) without having seen this movie, and I could not in good conscience allow her to go back there without having seen it. I don’t know if she liked it as much as I do – I don’t think anybody likes it as much as I do – but she seemed to enjoy it, and after that we once again talked late into the night.
On Sunday, we watched our Sunday Morning show and then went out and got pedicures (Fran’s treat). This was fun, as I was overdue for one. I bought us each a toe ring – I just needed a new one, and Fran had never had one -- and we debated as to which toe should be graced with the toe rings we had just bought. Everyone I’ve ever seen wearing one seems to favor wearing it on the second toe, the one next to the big toe. I personally favor wearing mine on the toe next to the little toe, with the idea that if your finger next to your pinkie is your ring finger, then the toe next to your little toe would naturally be your ring toe. I always wear mine on the right foot, ring toe. I suppose if it were a wedding toe ring, or even an engagement toe ring, I should wear it on my left foot, ring toe. I’m told that I have given this way too much thought.
We took our fancy feet to dinner at Olive Garden, which they do not have in her newly-adopted hometown. The waiter offered us samples of wine, one for each of us, for 25¢ apiece, and since I was driving and don’t drink anyway, she got her sample and mine, too. After we got home, we watched “The Banger Sisters” (if you haven’t seen it, don’t bother – it’s not all that, even though I have always been very fond of Goldie Hawn) and I appointed Fran as the bedtime police, so she would make sure we didn’t stay up all night and talk when I had to get up at silly o’clock in the morning and go to work, and she had to leave when I did. So Fran drove off into the sunrise to visit other friends, I went to work and our visit was finished. We had a grand time.
Before Fran came, I cleaned the house from top to bottom (with the exception of the on-going GMHT project), and from what I had left of the pecans she sent me awhile back, I tried to make candied pecans. I had a good time trying, and rather than baking them in a big hot oven, I used my little toaster oven, which made a good substitute, but obviously I’m candied-pecan impaired, because I ended up with small bits and pieces of individual pecans, a few individual pecans and large globs of pecans held together by the sticky gluey mess created from the sugar mixture, a/k/a pecan sugar stew. It was a total mess, but delicious, if you didn’t mind going at it with a small ice pick
The first night Fran was at my house (Friday night), we stayed up until sunrise, talking and catching up and snacking on pecan sugar stew, so we slept away a lot of Saturday. However, we did get some mileage out of the rest of the day by going to one of our favorite old haunts for dinner. We used to work on a club newsletter together, and every Thursday, we would go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and work on the newsletters. We called this our “staff meeting”, although this implied that we were actually official staff of some paying organization. Not so. We only did it for the joy of newslettering and the joy of Mexican food.
We came back to the house Saturday night and watched “My Cousin Vinnie”, which she had never seen. I personally do not think people should be allowed to live in Alabama (or that would be Ala-fuckin’-bama, according to Vincent Gambini) without having seen this movie, and I could not in good conscience allow her to go back there without having seen it. I don’t know if she liked it as much as I do – I don’t think anybody likes it as much as I do – but she seemed to enjoy it, and after that we once again talked late into the night.
On Sunday, we watched our Sunday Morning show and then went out and got pedicures (Fran’s treat). This was fun, as I was overdue for one. I bought us each a toe ring – I just needed a new one, and Fran had never had one -- and we debated as to which toe should be graced with the toe rings we had just bought. Everyone I’ve ever seen wearing one seems to favor wearing it on the second toe, the one next to the big toe. I personally favor wearing mine on the toe next to the little toe, with the idea that if your finger next to your pinkie is your ring finger, then the toe next to your little toe would naturally be your ring toe. I always wear mine on the right foot, ring toe. I suppose if it were a wedding toe ring, or even an engagement toe ring, I should wear it on my left foot, ring toe. I’m told that I have given this way too much thought.
We took our fancy feet to dinner at Olive Garden, which they do not have in her newly-adopted hometown. The waiter offered us samples of wine, one for each of us, for 25¢ apiece, and since I was driving and don’t drink anyway, she got her sample and mine, too. After we got home, we watched “The Banger Sisters” (if you haven’t seen it, don’t bother – it’s not all that, even though I have always been very fond of Goldie Hawn) and I appointed Fran as the bedtime police, so she would make sure we didn’t stay up all night and talk when I had to get up at silly o’clock in the morning and go to work, and she had to leave when I did. So Fran drove off into the sunrise to visit other friends, I went to work and our visit was finished. We had a grand time.
# posted by Anne Arky @ 5:26 AM 
