Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wow. Weather Service Confirms It: Tornado Hit Wethersfield Friday. Sounds like it was a lot worse than it looked driving down the Silas Deane, even.
Posted at 8:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We repotted A2, Cyrus, and Banyan, and I got to do the drain hole screens and curly pot wires!! Nice nice day out on the deck, with big dramatic clouds looming, and thunder rolling, but the rain never got us.
[written on my Treo:] My brain is numb tonight. Playing solitaire on my Treo and listening to newly iTunes-purchased "Rock With You" and "Human Nature" over and over and over. Coming out of the dark, haunting, comforting. Vague memories of liking "Human Nature" when it was on the radio (right after we moved to Connecticut; I was 11 and not into music yet) but David telling me not to because MJ and/or the song (can't clearly remember) was queer. I don't remember what word he used. Not gay. Maybe homo or homosexual. I was bothered by the disgusted/rejecting way he said it, and I didn't believe it was true but at the same time was secretly fascinated by the possibility. I never became a Michael Jackson fan but somewhere buried underneath was that "Human Nature" protectiveness of being different. Weird night tonight lying here in my chaise, feeling sort of vulnerable but focused, brain numb. Full of invisible black holes. Every time I play each song I get totally lost inside and it seems like my favorite of the two. It seems long. I feel like I'm young and alone in the dark of my room and it's LATE. Like 11:11 late. Clockradio. It's not a good feeling, but it's interesting. Need to go back to the solitaire now.
Posted at 3:03:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
[edit: just checked... I listened to both songs 15 times]
Friday, June 26, 2009
Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings on the radio! HARDHARDHARD rain, and small hail, while I was driving back from Rocky. Cars (not me) were hiding under the overpass.
Posted at 5:24:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Edit: On the way to the Haj for dinner, we went on the Silas Deane Highway as an attempted shortcut because 91 was really slow as an aftermath to the storm, and the entire Silas Deane from Rocky Hill through Wethersfield was without power! No traffic lights, all the restaurants and businesses along the sides of the road dark. There were at least five large trees with big branches down, and leaves everywhere all along the road. The storm in that area must've been crazy. It was kind of interesting driving slowly down the S.D. getting a good look at everything, good music playing on the radio. Once we reached Hartford (FRIED CHICKEN place!), the power was OK.
At the Haj, I overheard the owner telling one of the other customers that he took over the restaurant in 1988. We've been going all that time (or at least Dean has, and even before then... the first time I went with him was 1990... I remember because it was the same day I watched the final episode of Blake's 7). So then Dean pointed out that we've been going to the Haj for 20 years, which blew my mind. I don't feel old enough to have been doing anything for 20 years! Twenty years sounds long.]
steely grey clouds above while I drank my tall dry caramel driz cappuccino outside; then huge raindrops but only one landed in my coffee before I slipped back inside SBUX. Then hard hard hard, watching through windows, lights flickering in rhythm. The air feels so good today
Posted at 4:53:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Playing the radio really loud and driving with the moonroof and driver's window open all the way letting in the sky helps but I keep grinding my teeth. It's a beautiful soft blue clear day.
Posted at 3:15:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Aaaagh. :-(
Posted at 2:50:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Oh wow, I just read on someone's blog that Michael Jackson is dead. I was just listening to the Jackson 5 on the radio today, thinking what a sweet and expressive voice he had.
Posted at 9:06:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
1) We're going to Greenbelt for the 4th of July!!! I am highly buoyed up about this. :-)
Posted at 3:21:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
B) It's NICE out! Actual sun! 80°! All that! It's amazing.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
We ate the beet greens (from a farm in South Glastonbury) tonight, and they tasted fantastically local. The Gs used to give me beet greens from their garden when they thinned their beet row. With the tender baby beets on the bottom, just like the ones we had tonight.
Posted at 7:52:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
When Dean came home from work, I was making the beet greens while still wearing my dress, slip, stockings, and new shoes (to try them out without wearing them outside), along with an apron to protect my dress from the beets. He said I looked like an early 60s ad. Hee hee. Yeah.
Warning: Boring Shoe Post. Skip unless you're interested in my personal shoe revelations!
Posted at 5:42:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I have been on a shoe investigation mission for the past two days, to determine what kind of shoe would go with my new dress. I didn't own any dressy shoes, and I didn't like dressy shoes very much either (they're uncomfortable, I can't walk in them, and I feel weird in shoes that make me too tall) but for the purpose of the investigation I tried on all different styles of dress shoe. Trying on lots of shoes, I discovered: 1) I hate shoes with "toe cleavage" (I learned this horrible term online), which is a shoe with a shallow front section so part of your toes (where they connect to the foot) shows. Yuck. I do not like the way that looks at all. Also, I have really long toes, so a lot of fancy shoes are like that. 2) Regardless of whether they are comfortable, walkable, etc., I don't like the way high heels look on me, either! If the shoe is just elevated on the whole bottom (a platform style shoe), with a slight angle to the heel, that looks okay, but a shoe that creates a significantly pointy foot angle is actually unflattering! It makes the front of my leg look really straight and shin-bone-ish and flat, and messes up the curve of the calf. Very weird, since high heels are supposed to be sexy. My leg looks waaaaay more shapely in a low heel. That's great, since I don't want to wear high heels, anyway!
Anyway, I did stumble across a shoe that I actually like today, AND I decided that I liked it so much that I bought it! It was immediately comfortable when I put it on, and it has a 1½" wedge heel, is soft black leather and lambskin (not stiff and hard and poke-y), but has a nice slim dress shoe shape that looks nice on my feet and with my legs. It has a crossover kind of shape, so it's prettier than a plain old pump, and the toe is open in the front center just a little, so my toes aren't crunched but are still mostly covered. (I like shoes that cover my toes). The cut walks the line between reserved and cute (hm, kind of like me). And there's no "toe cleavage." I wore my dress while trying the shoes on, and all three store employees thought the shoes went with my dress perfectly. They were on sale, too (still kind of expensive, but they're quality shoes, so I guess that's acceptable). So now I have shoes! Real grown-up dress shoes! I got lucky.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Beet greens! :-)
Posted at 5:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Wow, that was an exciting board meeting! And I thought it was going to be a boring one.
Posted at 10:53:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
D: "You have that collar flipped up like a vampire! Is that going to be your costume??"
L: "Hahaha!"
Store manager at Javapalooza, sounding impressed: "You know exactly how you like your cappuccino, don't you?" Ha. Well, yes.
Posted at 4:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Comes with a default spoon & chocolate-covered espresso bean. Pretty nice! I'd only been to Javapalooza once before (with Susie), but I went there today as an alternative to Klekolo. I still like Klekolo's coffee better (in general; the quality does vary), but the atmosphere is a little hard to take, so Javapalooza clearly wins on that front. Pleasant, hip place to read the paper vs. scary drives-you-away music and employees. (Sorry, nice Klekolo lady, but it's true.)
I finally got to go to the library, and it wasn't raining too much. I think I feel so strongly like reading something because I always really enjoy reading a book when we visit the Gingers at 4th of July time, even though we're not going to the Gs for the 4th this year (since we just went two seconds ago for the party).
On the way back, I stopped at Uptown Consignment (because everyone knows Rocky Hill is on the way to Middletown) and I bought a dress that I really really love. It was way more expensive than most things I buy at Uptown ($28, shocking!!) but I still did it anyway, even though I had to talk myself into it, since I'm very cheap about buying clothes, especially at Uptown. But, 1) it was new with tags, 2) the original price was $99, 3) it's a petite and crazily small size, so it fits me perfectly and doesn't make me look like I'm a little kid trying to wear a grown-up dress for dress-up. That last one is pretty darned unusual. (Re-reading this, I'm realizing how ridiculous it is that I even questioned buying a super-nice dress for $28. But the stuff I get at Uptown is usually about $6.) I might even wear it to June's wedding.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I had a dream that I ran into the Contientious Guy as a fellow customer in line at Rocky, and I was so pleased to see him again that I shook his hand.
Posted at 1:14:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean got an iPod Touch last night, and it's very cool and very attractive, but I don't want to steal it.
Posted at 3:32:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
We amazed many people by the length of time we stayed at the wedding reception! Apparently there were even bets riding on it.
Normal weddings are soooooo different than ours was, it blows my mind just thinking about it. I can't even imagine us having a big show wedding type wedding. Wedding receptions are weird. I wonder when the modern Big Production style American wedding reception came into being?
Dean looked super-cool in his mob suit and fedora. Here's me. (I'm not good at posing for photos! My smile always looks sort of forced.) And here's my grandmother Whaples wearing the same dress, at my parents' wedding 50 years ago. I had it shortened and altered slightly to fit me, but otherwise it's exactly the same, and I wore it to my parents' 50th Anniversary party last Saturday. Here I am at the party, reading a letter from my dad's best man while my parents tried to guess who it was from (which took them about 2 seconds).
The veins on the backs of my hands are sticking out really far (and are really blue) today. I wonder why? It's super noticeable.
Posted at 3:25:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
