Saturday, March 6, 2010

How In Hell Did I Get So Lucky?


We went out last night to Kool Beanz for our supper and it was nice. Mr. Moon had procured a new vehicle (new for him) yesterday for resale but before he re-sales it, I think he just wants to drive it around. It's a yellow jeep and so we got in it and headed to town, a little dressed-up, my face painted some, and we thought that with the FSU kids out of town for spring break, we'd have no problem getting a seat.
Ha!
We probably waited an hour before we were seated at the bar, our favorite place to eat because we can watch the chefs doing their magic with flame and meat and veg and sauce and also because I can blow kisses to the dishwasher who has the most beautiful face in the world.

As always, it was delicious but we way over-ordered and have enough in the refrigerator for about four more meals.

I do love to go out, I do love to eat something I did not cook and I certainly do enjoy not cleaning up after but it's odd, somehow, being waited on. And I never feel as if I fit in. Everyone there last night looked like people who lead lives so different from mine but of course, that's probably not true. I felt better and more comfortable when a woman who is a server at the restaurant came in and sat at the bar next to us with a copy of Another Roadside Attraction, one of my favorite books in the world. It was her night off and if that isn't an indication of good food, then I don't know what is. We chatted and it turns out that she knows May and that they share a last name and it's an unusual last name. My ex-husband's people were from Virginia and so are the people of this girl. I can see a resemblance in her face to my daughter's. She is beautiful too.
So we talked with her and had a few snips of conversation with one of the chefs who was wearing a fedora to cook in. His name is Ted and I asked him if it was short for Theodore. He said it was and I thought about how few Teds there are anymore. Ted Danson, I suppose. But I doubt there are any little Teddys in the daycares, which is sad. Such a good name, Ted.

We rumbled home in the yellow Jeep and it was such a luscious experience, falling into a bed where the sheets had been dried on the line. I slept so well. I woke up this morning with the congestion. I felt it coming on last night as we waited for our supper. I could literally feel my sinuses swelling, feel the mild pain of that.

I met Kathleen this morning at the Opera House where the Altrusas were having their annual Junk and Treasure sale. Or, as Kathleen called it, The Drunken Treasure sale. She bought a few things, I bought nothing and then we went across the street for coffee (me), tea (her), a blueberry muffin (her) and a scone (me). It was amazingly sweet, sitting there and laughing with each other, saying hello to people on their way to the counter to order. Monticello is a very small town and even I see someone I know, every where I go there. When we were at the Opera House for the Drunken Treasure sale women kept coming up to me and telling me how great I'd been in the play, how much they'd enjoyed it. I love to hear words like that, of course, but it's funny how lightly those words skim over me. For some reason, I cannot take my acting abilities or what other people may think of them seriously. It's all play. Children play and pretend as soon as they are old enough to talk and we could all do that at one time or another. I'm just lucky enough to have the opportunity now and then to do it again.

I've already started dreaming of the Opera House again. When I'm not involved in a play there, I dream of it. I feel so at home there. I know where the back doors are and I know where the secret bathroom is and I've been up to the scary prop room above the dressing room. It's dark up there and the stairway is funky and I don't like to go up there alone to find old phones and hats and our sound effects toys. I've done it, but I don't like it.

Jan was there, working at the sale, and she has a bad cold. I offered to go make her a cup of tea and I did, the Altrusa ladies curious to know what I was doing in the kitchen. I was tempted to steal some of the lemon poppy seed poundcake which one of them had brought, but I did not. It looked very good though.

I love the south. I love the way there are garden clubs and Altrusa clubs and camellias and azaleas and big old courthouses and locally owned coffee shops and surprisingly good Chinese food and people who know you every where you go and stop to chat. I love home made baked goods and I love knowing secrets about people because they trust me to keep them. Secrets that would shock other people if they knew. I love that there are all sorts of people in these small southern towns. Not just the scratch-the-surface-and-you'll-find-a-racist people, whom you would expect to live in such places, but also a lot of crazy left-wing liberals who wouldn't vote Republican if you held their feet to the fire. You'd be surprised at how tolerant people can be if they know your heart and find it to be good. Even the scandal of Jan and Jack seems to be blowing over. At least they haven't kicked her out of the Altrusa Club.

"We really do live in Mayberry, don't we?" I asked Kathleen as we left Tupalo's. The woman who runs the Milady's Clothing store next to the restaurant was sitting outside in the sun, talking to a gentleman who was also sitting there. "Doesn't the sun feel good?" she asked, and her smile was as big as the world.

Oh yes. The sun feels good. And here I am about to go out into it to leisurely weed and perhaps trim up the Confederate Jasmine which is pulling the chain link fence over with its bountiful, milky vines. There are delicious leftovers in the refrigerator and I do not have to go to the Opera House to put on a show tonight but I have visited there today and had a wonderful time. Kathleen and Jan and Pat and I are talking about forming a secret society called The Jezebels. We already have a motto- "Once a Jezebel, always a Jezebel," and also, "The Unredeemables." We have decided that we will have a secret knock and passwords. We shall get together and drink champagne (or beer for me) and eat chocolate and talk about our Jezebel experiences.
But don't tell anyone- it's a secret.
And it won't be a club. I don't join clubs. But I will gladly be a member of the Jezebel Society.

I have noticed the redbud in the yard is starting to bloom and when I was across the street, letting the dogs out for the people who live there who are on vacation in New York City, I took a picture of their blooming pear tree.


I hope it does well this year because they always offer me as many pears as I can take. They are the gritty sand pear, or at least that's what we call them and their flesh is more apple than pear-like and they make the very best pies and preserves.
Another thing I like about the south. Sand pears.

I hear the snap of the seeds as the cardinals feed beside me and the cluck of chickens and the feisty rooster-crowing going on between my rooster and the ones next door. I hear mockingbirds, I see that blue sky, I have a beautiful weeding tool, practically new clippers and I'm wearing my overalls. So is Mr. Moon.

Last night was fun and I enjoyed it but it is here, in my own little county, my own little world, where I feel at home, surrounded by flowers and by birds, with a bit of work to do, work that can be done outside.

I hope your Saturday is going as well as mine. I would wish that for everyone in the entire world but especially for you.

I really do.

21 comments:

  1. Well, contrary to you, I was feeling quite gloomy and irritable this morning, but those feelings are allayed, a bit, by your cheerful, sweet post. Thank you, Ms. Moon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My youngest daughter (28) thinks I need to "get out" more. Why do the young think that the "good life" is somewhere "out there" ? I've literally danced on the rooftops of London, spent a month in Italy/Sicily, and soaked up the sun from one end of Greece to the other. Sometimes I think there isn't a great restaurant in the USA I haven't tried at least once, and I've danced till 2 a.m. in more clubs with more "famous" people to more great bands than I could ever remember.

    But nothing in this entire world feels as good as sitting next to my husband, sharing jokes that make sense to no one but us, cooking dinner together, moving the coffee table out of the way to dance in the living room when most of the world is asleep -- nowhere else feels as good as when there are clothes on the line, daffodils popping up to announce a new season, and the smell of homemade bread wafting through every rafter. Today we'll probably wash the truck, go to Lowe's for some lumber to finish a DIY project, and lately I've been thinking about roasting marshmallows by moonlight. And I will be really, truly happy - I won't have to smile, nod, and pretend.

    All I ever wanted in life was to find the true peace and joy of home. And I have. The first time I read your blog, I recognized the same thing in you. I love how you type out my feelings so I don't have to! All I have to do is make a nice hot cup of chai tea and sit down to enjoy "our" blog.

    What a beautiful day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good god, there's eating and drinking in this post. HOw gorgeous. And I read it eating my dinner, new potatoes fried with mushroomsand peas and haloumi cheese and salt and pepper and it was gorgeous too, and they complemented eachother.

    I love Another Roadside Attraction too.

    And this post is so full, this one needs to get published right now, and you need to write more like it and DO something with them. Delicious!

    PS Who gets to be Grand High Harlot?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your post felt like chocolate that is melted and stirred to a smooth creamy swirl...it felt like home even though I don't live there...I know redbuds..but I don't know how...I was never raised in the south but since my mother and father were I do believe it still courses through my veins...so odd. Your day ahead of mine as I sit in my robe and nighty, drinking my cappuccino feeling lazy and relaxed...your day sounds lovely...as you and Mr. Moon began your weekend...with dinner on the town...then when you wrote about the scones and the lemon poppy seed poundcake...mmmm..because my Nan use to make the best poundcake...not poppy seed but an old fashion southern poundcake rich with butter...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth- I do hope your day goes so much better.

    Laynie- Yep. Some of us have gotten out all the ya-ya's we need to get out and now we are pleased to be at home. Your day sounds lovely, your life too. I am glad I can write the words that make you feel at home.

    Jo- Silly girl. But thank-you. Your dinner sounds marvelous. I just ate peanut butter for lunch, right off the spoon, because I couldn't find any yogurt and it's almost four o'clock.
    Now- Grand High Harlot? Oh. I don't think we'll make decisions like that. Perhaps we can trade that crown around with every party. I mean, meeting. Oh dear. We need a crown, don't we? See- this is why I don't get involved in clubs. Oh well.

    Ellen- Poundcake is good food. Who doesn't love it? It doesn't even need icing. Not one bit. And I will post pictures of the redbud as it blossoms more fully just for you.
    I do think there is something about the south which calls some of us home. It surely did for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There really is something about the south, isnt' there? Then again, I've never lived anywhere but below the mason-dixon line, so maybe I'm a bit biased :)

    That's so interesting that you sat by a girl that might be related to May. What are the odds of that?

    Anyway, it's a sunny Saturday here too. And heading out on a date later...so there is that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love reading about sunshine and smiles and goodness. It helps.
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just smiling gnetly over here in gray, gloomy Idaho. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful post. It reminds of Australian poet Dorothy Porter's final poem before she died, titled 'View from 417': 'Something in me/despite everything/can't believe my luck'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh Ms Moon, another glorious post that warms me, cheers me, makes me sigh. Started reading it at work and then got interrupted and had to actually work and only just now got home and thought, Oh I didn't finish at Bless Our Hearts. Lucky me. Love the pic, love the descriptions every which where. I felt like I was trailing along, holding your soft hand. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kool Beanz sounds like a great place and I love where you sit. The jeep sounds fun and the clean sheets a dream :o)

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's a gorgeous picture of the Moons. Beautiful people.

    Home is my favorite place to be. I guess that's a good thing and the way it's supposed to be.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hot damn, Mama! This is some fine writing. Just fine fine.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know you have your demons, but you are indeed one lucky broad!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I think the Jeze society is a grand idea! I remember when me and some of the other Finale girls wanted to start a band called PMS and open for The Cramps! Ah, those were the days my friend.

    Glad you had a good Sat. and happy for Jan that she has not been kicked out of everything.
    xo pf

    ReplyDelete
  16. My best friend's name is Theodora. She was named after her great grandmother. We call her Teddy.
    You and Mr. Moon look happy and lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Maggie- Despite the tragedy in this world, there is goodness too. I swear there is and you know it too.

    Kori- I'm sharing all I can!

    Nigel- Exactly! But I hope I'm not about to die. But you know what? If I was, it would be okay. This life has been so amazing in so many ways.

    Bethany- Ah, darling.

    Bucko- All true!

    Michelle- For some of us it is. Not all- there are those who love to travel and wander. Takes both kinds.

    May- Big compliment from you who takes words and makes silk and satin of them. I love you, honey.

    Lucy- No shit, girlfriend!

    Ms. Fleur- Ha! That was a great idea for a girl band.

    Angie- I love that! Theodora. Lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I've just spent an hour of sunday with you and am crying for happy, teaars just pouring down my cheeks. I am so happy to be me and so happy that someone like you can just share your experience, and without preaching, make me feel like one of the richest people on earth. Much much love back to you. so often you are the very words and feelings that I AM.
    xoxoxo Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  19. Charlie- That makes me so happy. Damn. Isn't it funny? The words come out of my heart and they fly away and touch others' hearts. Thank-you for visiting and spending such time and thank-you for telling me how you feel.

    ReplyDelete
  20. There are so many wonderful things about the south. I feel more at home down there than I do up here in Buttfuck, Ohio. Any day.

    It was a great Saturday. I'm so glad your's was wonderful, too!

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.