Monday, July 14, 2008

Ruby And Maxine Are Ready For Their Big Date

It was a glorious weekend with as much music and frivolity as I had imagined it would be.
Mr. and Ms. Moon did not go to bed until after midnight THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!
I'm sure the very foundations of the earth are being shifted as we speak.
If you can feel the ground trembling beneath your feet you may blame it on me and my wild, wild weekend.
Last night the four of us, Mr. Moon, Mr. Williamson, Lis and I, all gussied up and piled into the 1972 Cutlass for its (re)maiden voyage to the coast for dinner. With the top down. With the wind washing over us in great waves of joy and abandon.
Down around Sopchoppy, it began to rain so we pulled over and the fellows put the top up which made it much quieter and cozier (sort of like being in a tent, except hurtling down the highway at sixty miles an hour) while outside the lightening flashed as the mighty American car carried us to Panacea where we ate dinner at Angelo's.
It was over eleven years ago that the four of us made this same trip in the same car to celebrate a special birthday of Lis's. It was a night we'd never forgotten. Mr. W. gave his wife black pearls. We were all happy and beautiful and we could not quit smiling.
And last night, we got to recapture that night and it was all we'd hoped for. The Cutlass ran like a dream. We got to eat outside over the water at Angelo's. Lis and I renamed ourselves- Ruby and Maxine- and the men had their own secret names.
After we'd eaten so much we could not eat even one more sweet scallop, we drove home through the piney woods down the very dark back roads from Panacea to Lloyd and when we got home we ate key lime pie and agreed that it had just been the very best night.
I think we get a few of these special nights in our lifetimes and we keep them like individual pearls, strung on silk, that we can put on and wear in our memories. We fondle them and cherish them. We put them away in a velvet pouch in our hearts. They are there forever.
And we can add to them, one lustrous, shining pearl at a time, each one more valuable than the last because as we get older, we know how precious, how few they really are and they shine brighter and more fiercely because they are so rare.
Look and Ruby and Maxine.
They know.
Such a simple thing. Four friends, dressed up and driving through the night in a 1972 Cutlass to the coast where they will eat and toast to the friendship, to the love, to the night, to the beauty of being together again as the water flows beneath them and the lightening flashes in the not-so distant sky and the eyes gleam and the smiles never quit and not for one moment does any one take any of it for granted.
The joy must never be taken for granted.
Just ask Maxine and Ruby. They'll tell you.

15 comments:

  1. Hear hear! Sometimes I think of myself as carrying around certain shows or parties or road trips or whatever in a bag like marbles. Like a weight to remind me of the good times.

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  2. Very nice, a string of pearls, the car lightning, very, very nice. It must be good to have all those colors on your pallet. A good brush stoke never hurt either.

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  3. sorry, stroke (I meant)...still surfing in my head I recon.

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  4. Your pearl necklace analogy is absolutely lovely. I'm wistful now for good friends and road trips. And cars from the '70's.

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  5. DTG- like the bag of marbles thing. Very nice.
    Brother Ball- brush stoke is fine by me.
    MM- I'm lucky. I'm very, very lucky.

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  6. Coming out of lurker-dom to tell you I enjoyed this post - and I enjoy your blog every day.

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  7. Hey Raining- Thanks for commenting and thanks for reading the blog and enjoying it.

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  8. BEAUTIFUL! Beautiful! beautiful! I've got goose bumps all over. what a wonderful night. how wonderfully told. Excellent post :) wow

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  9. I agree...nice post. So often we focus on the bad and let the good times fade from memory, but we shouldn't.

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  10. I think Max and Ruby could run this world alot better than whose doing it now. YOU go Grrls!

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  11. Well, Ruby can hardly run her house but Maxine could probably run the world.

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  12. I never realized how depressing my user name is - and I even like the rain :) This may be something to work on :)

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  13. Oh no. Rain and all its forms are just this side of sacred to me. Go back and check my first post.

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  14. Ms Moon,
    I have been enjoying "Bless Our Hearts" long enough without leaving comments of appreciation. It's like listening to a concert and not clapping. Wonderful writing. Looking forward to further installments of those vicarious, vivacious vixens Ruby and Maxine...

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  15. Big Lou! Be still my heart. I am SO honored to have had you stop by and leave a comment.
    Rest assured that Maxine and Ruby will keep you apprised of any further adventures.

    Much love...Ms. Moon

    P.S. Don't lose that flashlight. One never knows.

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