Tuesday, Sept. 02, 2003 - 10:14 a.m.
Ah, there’s nothing like returning to work after a three-day weekend heralding the end of the summer.
I know. That’s transparently a lie.
But the summer is over and Mary Beth is wearing white and white open toed shoes. A no no. But this is the South. I myself am wearing my open toed Wal-Mart sandals, but at least they are black.
I retired my summer purse and moved everything into my new black leather Tommy Hilfiger autumn/winter purse. It really is quite a sassy little purse that holds more than it looks capable of.
I celebrated the end of summer by donning a lot of caftans. Not at the same time, mind you, but a lot of them.
For instance, after a hectic day at work on Friday I drove home, poured myself a glass of white wine courtesy of Mr. Carlo Rossi, and after straightening up things a bit, settled into a lavender scented bubble bath by candlelight.
At one point there was Hamburger Helper and there was an episode of X-Files (which began promptly at 9 p.m.), and there was a caftan present for all those things.
However, I called it night pretty early (around 11) because I had things to do the next day and a caftan to wear the next night.
Saturday morning it was rainy out and so I sat in my rocking chair in my Study and rocked and read a library book while sipping hot Plantation Mint tea. Putting a chair in my room was stroke of genius.
However, eventually did get up off my ass to clean Crescentwood and Tommy obliged me by vacuuming and dust mopping all the floors.
Saturday night I drew myself a lovely Tranquil Moments scented bubble bath and sipped champagne by candlelight. I donned yet another caftan and watched the entirety of “House on Haunted Hill” (the old version).
Tommy and I yelled at Watson Pritchett, thought Annabelle was just “so amusing” and grew indignant when Ruth Bridges kept asking for a “scotch and”. And Nora just screamed. And screamed. And screamed. And then, for variety, she screamed some more.
While I have seen “House on Haunted Hill” many times, I have never put together my own “homemade” pizza before. Saturday night saw the first ever “homemade” pizza at Crescentwood.
I put “homemade” in quotes because really all I did was assemble ready-made things into one thing – namely dinner on Saturday night.
I’ve been toying with the idea of “making” my own pizza on Caftan Nights instead of buying frozen ones or waiting 6 hours for delivery. Plus since we can’t get Roman Pizza anymore, it’s just not the same. Papa John’s or Italian Pie pizza is good, but I do miss Roman Pizza sometimes.
Besides, change is good.
When I went shopping on Thursday night, I bought myself a pizza pan, a Boboli ready made crust, a jar of Bertolli 5 Cheese tomato sauce, some Sargento grated mozzarella cheese, and some pepperoni.
It took about two minutes to assemble the pizza and it was fun. I also got to add onions to my side of the pizza and extra pepperoni to Tommy’s.
Best part is it took only 10 minutes to cook and it was actually pretty damn good.
My ex-husband used to make pizzas like that, only he’d go the extra mile and make his own sauce from tomatoes either he grew or his mother grew and he’d also grate fresh mozzarella from an Italian supermarket. And the onions and peppers he put on top were homegrown as well.
But bah. I personally think the Bertolli sauce kicks ass. And why grate the cheese when you can buy Sargento by the grated bagful at Schwinn Pixie?
Perhaps at some point I may get all creative and buy a cheese grater and try that whole “grate your own” thing, but for now I think I’ve got a good plan.
And Tommy doesn’t have to take off his caftan to intercept the pizza delivery guy at the door and I don’t have to argue with assholes that just because I have a cell phone, does not mean I am making a crank call.
And since I am something of a penny pincher, the homemade pizza costs a lot less and isn’t as greasy.
Plus, it’s FUN!
But enough about pizza.
Saturday night I danced and drank and did all the caftan night things I usually do before watching the whole of “House on Haunted Hill”. I guess it’s no wonder that the beginning 20 minutes and the ending 10 are my favorite parts!
I wish some eccentric millionaire would give ME $10,000 to stay the night at some old haunted house – even if he did murder his wife during the party. What the hell? I’d stay in my room reading a book and make myself $10,000 in the bargain.
Sunday it was rainy again. So I spent more quality time rocking in my chair in my Study. I drank lots of Plantation Mint tea over the weekend. A sort of harbinger of fall, I think.
Sunday night I ran another bubble bath (this time Oceanus scented) and donned another caftan and had a great time dancing to Limbo and laughing at Ab Fab and talking to Ken.
He was supposed to go to NYC last weekend to a Dark Shadows Festival, but he bailed at the last minute and so that’s why we added three Caftan Nights in a row to our August schedule. I had only planned to spend the weekend quietly at home, so adding caftans was a bonus.
Yesterday I made cheeseburgers on my George Foreman grill, corn on the cob and pasta salad and Tommy and I had a little mini “Friends-y” while eating it all.
And this morning I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 5:45 to get ready to come here. But I did use some of the time to transfer things to my new fall purse.
And so even by calendar standards it is still summer, by Mina reckoning it is now fall.
My favorite season of the year! And next month? HALLOWEEN!
Well, enough blathering for the day. I must go do some work and prepare for my upcoming weekend.
