One of those weekends -- conclusion

[pameladean]

When I read the archives of people's journals, or read the published journals or letters of literary figures, I am always fretted by the intermittent lack of continuity. A huge dramafest will dry up, never to reappear. A tempest will appear out of a clear sky, with no explanation. Characters vanish without a trace; new ones appear with no explanation. That is to say, very few personal memoirs are remotely like fiction, I suppose.

In any case, having titled an entry "One of those weekends" and then stopped at Friday, I thought I would finish the story, albeit briefly.

When I got home from seeing Iolanthe I had a telephone message from Eric. It wasn't very late in California, but he's getting himself credentialed to be a substitute teacher, and this means being able to answer a telephone call at five-thirty in the morning and then assemble oneself to face a class of strange kids. So when I called him back, he was in the winding-down phase of his evening and did not want to be either intellectual or sentimental. He had plans for Saturday afternoon and I had my delayed anniversary celebration for Saturday night. We arranged that I'd email him if I discovered a window in which he could call me.

David then sent me email saying that, because this weekend's schedule was too simple, there was a music party as well. There was already a Minn-Stf meeting on Saturday and a Minicon work party on Sunday.

I just wimped out. I spent Saturday afternoon doing tiny finicky yard work -- clearing dead stuff from around sprouting tulips, daffodils and crocuses; watering; raking, only not too much; picking up trash. At around six Raphael and I negotiated a pizza, and I called Pizza Luce and ordered it. They said it would arrive within the hour, but not by much.

About five minutes later the phone rang; it was Eric, having arrived home from his afternoon hike, put his dinner in the microwave, and realized there was time to call me before my evening's festivities commenced. He and an acquaintance had gone hiking in Black Diamond Mines, now a state park of some description. I'd been there with him in February, on two of the wilder, gloomier days we had during that visit. He said it was overflowing with wildflowers and he so wished I had been there. When I was there it was fresh and green and very soggy, but much populated with meadowlarks and loggerhead shrikes. Eric also told me some things about the state of his life that I was grateful to be told but that could be productive of uneasiness.

I didn't worry about them then, though. The pizza arrived. Pizza Luce had left off the red sauce, as they are wont to do with our orders. The resultant dish was tasty enough, but not like pizza. I told Raphael it reminded me of some of the pizzas you can get in Britain, where pizza seems to be any combination of anything one wants to put on a flat crust. Rosemary and potatoes and olive oil; curried chicken; no lamb vindaloo, though.

We watched a first-season episode of "The West Wing," which was lovely but a sad contrast to recent ones. The rest of the evening was an unqualified success.

I forgot that the change to Daylight Savings Time would be occurring overnight, though.

Pamela

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say--I love your garden/skywatching/nature posts. They make me realize how much I miss puttering about a garden. (Should be getting some pots this weekend for a container garden, though.)

[pameladean]

Thank you. I should be puttering right now.

My mother has a container garden and it really makes a big difference.

Pamela

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I just returned from a meeting with the Park People (PP) and I will soon have a good sized container garden; looks like I may eventually be growing into quite a bit of the city. *grin*

[pameladean]

That's excellent news. I hope we'll see you writing about it.

Pamela

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Sure, but there's very little to write. Thank you for asking though, of course.

Ken (one of the parks guys, very nice if a little burnt out on trying to do stuff in a town where vandalism can be wearying) is going to build a trapezoidal bed out of railroad ties and back it up against the fence around the basketball court. That really is what I was daydreaming for as now I can base it on my favorite cl roses clematis type of combo. I'm going to go with the concept that you sparked in one of your entries. (It’s down journal a few entries, I think.)

The backbone will be the roses... right now (unless I get a brainstorm in the next two weeks) it'll be...

--------------New Dawn--------------------Constance Spry-----------
Abraham Darby--Heather Austin--Aloha--Autumn Sunset
Comte de Chambord--Queen Nefertiti--Therese Bugnet

I’d love to take some of my Old Roses over, perhaps Fantin Latour or Madame Hardy, or maybe Konigen von Danemark but they are only once bloomers, and that seems to bother people. If it works out, we’ll expand the beds next year and then I’ll get to play more. Oh and I was reading a new bulb catalogue last night (instead of the Ford believe it or not) and I'm going to throw a couple hundred bulbs in (in Sept) hoping that they'll bloom and then the daylilies will fill in enough to cover the yellowing when they are done. That'll give it a nice spring and fall and I still have to think about Autumn.

~Angela

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Psst--have you read matociquala's This Tragic Glass (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/bear/bear1.html) yet? It gave me a yen to re-read Tam Lin.

Do you know what the #1 pizza topping world-wide is? (not counting red sauce and cheese)

... Corn. No kidding.

[pameladean]

No, I am hopelessly behind on my reading. Will jog it up the line a bit; thanks.

I saw corn on pizza in Britain, but I don't think I ever ordered any. I wonder why it's so widespread?

Pamela

[watergarden.livejournal.com]

I've heard corn is very popular in Japan, although I haven't actually been there so I don't know.

I do like pineapple, though.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

This is not possible. Corn is not a pizza ingredient at all and hence cannot be the top one.

:-)

Not that I have any objection in principle to hot open-face sandwiches, you understand.

[pameladean]

Giant hot open-face sandwiches, even.

Pamela

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I couldn't eat most of the pizza in Taiwan--pizza crust, tomato sauce, mozzarella, corn, mayo, and squid was a really popular combination.

heh.

[pameladean]

Ohmigod, it's like a nightmare pizza -- any one of those ingredients is fine by itself and even in combination with some of the others, but urgh. Mayo. Urgh. I love mayonnaise, but NOT THERE.

Pamela

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

You won't want to know either about pineapple on pizza, or chicken tikka pizzas. The British habit of multiculturalism in its food has gone way too far.

In London, assorted Italian restauranteurs are trying to get back to their pizza/pasta roots, and clear out the non-canonical ingredients. I wish them joy though I predict a lack of success.

I make my own pizza, and rarely eat them when out, preferring something a little more traditional and conventional in the way of topping.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Potatos. That's the most crazy thing I've ever heard of on a pizza. And it was in England, where the pizzas are indeed truly bizarre.

For my sins, I have actual friends who like Canadian bacon and pineapple on pizza.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Potatoes.

I'm embarrassed on behalf of my fellow inhabitants. I have to admit that a friend once cooked me a pizza with black pudding on it, which was delicious, but he was definitely being ironic about it!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Eric also told me some things about the state of his life that I was grateful to be told but that could be productive of uneasiness.

*twinge* of empathy. Some of that going on in my LDR, too; I try to strike the right balance between "ignore it and it will go away" and "fret about it to no avail." Sometimes I even do.

[pameladean]

Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. Somehow it's worse when the person is not right there.

My own fascinating drama has a satisfactory resolution in this particular case -- Eric had simply presented the facts to me, but when we talked again he said that he too felt uneasy about them. In this case, that was sufficient to reassure me.

Pamela

WW

[ephany.livejournal.com]

We watched a first-season episode of "The West Wing," which was lovely but a sad contrast to recent ones. The rest of the evening was an unqualified success.

Was it sad because the old ones are so much better and the series has gone downhill or sad because of the content of the episode, or some other reason entirely that I have no clue about?

Just curious...

Re: WW

[pameladean]

Because it was so much better than recent episodes. The series has really gone downhill. It has shown intermittent signs of recovery this season, but meh.

Pamela

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Your details always remind me of how I walk around in shameful botanical ignorance, like this: "Ooh, nice green stuff! Pretty blossoms on that, er, tree!" Just as I know Orion and Scorpio and the Big Dipper and Andromeda out of all the constellations, I can pick out hyacinthus, bachelor's button, Indian paintbrush, forsythia, lilacs, and that's it. (And dwarf cherry trees, but I feel those can't count; they practically have signs saying DWARF CHERRY TREES on them).

In Italy I wouldn't eat the handmade gourmet pizza a couple specially baked for our family in their stoneware oven because the crust was v thin but at the same time sort of puffy, and there were all sorts of things on top, like salami and sliced hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes. In my defense, I was nine....

[pameladean]

Take me out of Minnesota and I too walk around in shameful botanical ignorance. Well, it's better now -- I've been to California several times and Eric has a tree-finder book. But the first time I went to Arizona with Raphael and the first time I went to California, every other phrase out of my mouth was "What's that?"

It's interesting that this did NOT happen the first time I went to England.

I think food weirdness is a part of childhood and should not be made such a fuss about by adults. Do you regret that pizza now?

Pamela
Pamela

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Ah, I am less botanically ignorant in NM, where I grew up, but there also were a lot less green things there. Also, you would have fool landscapers planting huge bush screens of stuff like chamisa. What I was really good at identifying in NM was lizards.

Welll, I was a very fussy eater as a little kid (if you have heard the George Carlin routine about fussy eaters, that was me) and didn't even like going over to other people's houses to eat Their food because it was not Our food. I still think putting hard-boiled eggs and sliced tomatoes on pizza is kind of....ick....