Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 - 12:10 p.m.
Greetings,
I’m sitting here sneezing and all congested. It sucks. It’s gorgeous autumn in New Orleans and I’m sitting here in a cubicle with my back to the window sneezing my brains out. What’s wrong with this picture?
Tommy and I had a fabulous, romantic time last night. He called me about 5 p.m. and asked what were the plans for the evening. I had none except for reading Harry Potter and perhaps watching SpongeBob Squarepants, so when he suggested we go out to dinner to reclaim October and celebrate us, I was all over it.
He read my entry from the 15th about my first wedding memories and was horrified that the best month of the year should have been defiled in such a way. Even though I do tend to laugh at my wedding memories, thinking about them makes me appreciate what I have now that much more
Luckily I have never considered October ruined, before, during, or after the divorce. I don’t think Tommy thought it had been ruined either, but he thought getting some positive memories up and running would do a lot to reclaim the beauty and magic of this month..
We went to Vincent’s on St. Charles and sat by the open front door so the autumn breeze and the sound of the street cars could drift in over the top of our conversation.
We shared a bottle of red wine and some memories – mostly about the first few days after he left Irvine, California and moved in with me in Manchester, Connecticut.
It just worked out that he would come live with me in October. Being anal retentive lavenders, we puzzled and pondered over which date would be the most propitious for him to descend upon New England.
October 15th was right out the door. It was both a Tuesday and associated with little troll I had once been unwise enough to marry.
I wanted him to arrive on a weekend day, preferably at night, because weekends, as everyone who reads this diary knows, are my favorite days of the week. (And I suspect that they are mostly everyone’s, but I probably obsess a little over the average about them).
He wanted his first full day to be on a weekend.
We settled upon Thursday, October 17th because we both have a soft spot for Fridays and the thought of extending the weekend to three full days was something we couldn’t resist.
I also think we added up 10+17=27=9 and 9 was our mutual favorite number for a multitude of reasons I won’t get into here. Suffice it to say we are anal retentive lavenders.
I will never forget picking him up at the airport that Thursday night. I hadn’t seen him since the end of August and I’d only spent two days in his physical company up to that point. All the rest of our relationship was on paper and within ourselves.
I was actually wondering if I’d remember what he looked like, but then I saw him through the crowd of tired, cranky people pouring through the airport gate.
We picked up his luggage which consisted of a seabag and about 4 pieces of carry-on type luggage. This was literally all the man had in the entire world. Well, he had CD player en route via UPS, but apart from that, he had nothing.
He left some things back in California with John, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he’d never see any of it again and he was right.
I, of course, lived in Divorce Apartment and had like 4 glasses, 4 plates, 4 forks, etc. from halving everything with Lou. I had handmedown furniture, stuff relatives and friends were throwing out or donating to Good Will. I had a nice computer though, for the time.
I took the wrong exit on the way home because I’d never driven to the airport before. Someone had always driven me. I wasn’t precisely lost, I had to go a longer, back way, but I ended up sneaking into Manchester through a less crowded, congested route which gave Tommy the opportunity to see a sleeping New England mill town under cover of darkness instead of the faceless suburban sprawl the more direct route would have shown him
We stayed up practically all night talking. We did a lot of talking that weekend. My favorite memory is going for a walk in the woods that Saturday afternoon. It was off again/on again raining, it was cold and damp, the sky was a gorgeous gunmetal grey that it only turns in the fall and it was perfect.
The road leading into the woods was carpeted with wet golden leaves. It was like out of a movie starring Tommy and Mina as we walked hand in hand through them.
We feasted on wine and cheese atop a large boulder midway through the walk and I remember geese flying overhead in an uneven V formation as I sat cross-legged atop the rock sipping red wine from a plastic cup with the love of my life by my side where he belonged.
So, October already has good memories, but last night added more.
Replete with Italian food, a bottle of red, and some after dinner coffee laced with Sambuca (me) and Bailey’s (Tom), we went home to Sinwood and watched “White Zombie” by candlelight with incense perfuming the air. And it wasn’t even a weekend!
Onwards…
The Great Caftan Conspiracy has been resolved. I know you all will be relieved to hear that Friend Ken chose to wear the BLACK caftan and that Mina the Bitch can wear her frickin’ blue one.
So now you can all take some time out of your Saturday nights to picture me wrapped in a light blue caftan (probably with sweats on underneath since it’s getting cold) drinking champagne and giving thanks to Friend Ken’s excellent decision making prowess.
Then you might also picture me showing up on Jerry Springer one day, throwing chairs around screaming, “I WANT TO WEAR MY FRICKIN’ BLUE CAFTAN! NOT THE BLACK ONE! NOT THE GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING BLACK ONE!”
Only because it’s television, it will sound like:
‘I WANT TO WEAR MY (BLEEP) BLUE CAFTAN! NOT THE BLACK ONE! NOT THE (BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP) BLACK ONE!”
I might even be wearing a caftan onstage.
Oh, the insanity!
Halloween card update:
I harvested my first Halloween card last night. It was from Tommy and along with it was a gift: The DVD version of “April Fool’s Day” one of my all time favorite slasher flicks. It has Deborah Foreman and Amy Steel in it, two of my favorite 80s semi low budget actresses.
The card was a Harry Potter Halloween card complete with a detachable bookmark! My Tommy is so good to me. I’ve been thinking about the “Today I Marry My Best Friend” invitations that I didn’t get to send all those years ago. Seems prophetic now. I knew I was going to marry my best friend, but I was a little ahead of myself there. As the old adage goes, “Good things come to those who wait.”
Tommy’s still up in the air about going out to the Quarter this evening with his co-workers to get drunk and stagger around Bourbon Street, but I still plan to make my first Live Journal entry tonight. I’ve chosen the layout, I’m working on my bio, and Tommy’s Photoshopping a picture of me in a caftan to post. I can’t wait.
Well, before I write so much here that I have nothing left to say tonight I’ll end this entry.
Until next time.
Olrun
