giant giant post

I walk around thinking, "I have to blog about this. I have to blog about that. This would be good blog fodder." Then I come home and sit here and don't remember a damn thing.

When I get to this level of busy, I do crazy things like this, like sit here and blog instead of work. The logic goes thus - I'll be up all night anyway. Logic! Hah! My bags are exploding and I've yet to consciously pack a thing (right now it's more, "throw that in; throw that in; throw that in"). God.

So I'll sit here and be on IM with Emerson ("What am I doing?" I ask him, "Procrastinating." "ME TOO," says he. "That's a kind of busy!" says I), and ignore the lunatic pile of things I have to do or how sleeping on the plane will not be a problem anymore, because I'll be sleeping just trying to walk into the airport. La. Going on. Some things:

• David called yesterday and his voice melted me right into a chair. I didn't know how badly I needed to hear it until I did. The last time he was here, I was literally rolling on the floor in tears of laughter while he grabbed my kitchen countertop and almost died of same, both of us trying not to wake up Mike but that was el futilo. Like that's a word. Anyway, he called and I was out shopping and just sank. He's having such a blast over there, I envy that kind of I'm-in-school-things-are-just-FUN kind of mentality. And I get to see him in like 36 hours! I shared with him some chapter titles of HBP that I THOUGHT were real but it turns out were not, and I am glad about that because I was so pissed that I got spoiled, and anyway, while we thought they were real he busts out with, "SHE IS NOT KIDDING AROUND ANYMORE!" in such a way that I almost spilled my coffee all over my new coffee-colored skirt. Fun.

• I heard from Kathleen and she is also safe and sound and so, phew.

• A while ago, TLC designer John and his mega troupe of sisters came out here for a weekend. They took me to see Mamma Mia! which was a ridiculous amount of fun. And then there was karaoke. We went to this bar, and I should have known, when we walked in, that it was a gay bar. But no, I did not. Until I looked up and saw the rainbow flag with the pawprint on it. Yeah, Liz. Rainbow. With a paw print. I took a picture but can't locate it at the mo; more pics are here, here and here.

• I had an absolutely divine July 4th. Actually perfect; it seems, from the calls my mom is getting, everyone did. (Pics here; my favorites are this group shot, which I didn't take; and this scenic one, which I did.)

  So on the friday, after seeing Mr. & Mrs. Smith (very funny, not a well structured or believable in even a surreal format story, but still funny), Cheryl and I hit the Cargo, and then picked up some stuff from my house, and got to NJ at 3am and went right to sleep after a short tour.
  
  We spent the rest of the weekend sunning, swimming, playing poker by the bay, and trying to wring the identity of the Half-Blood Prince out of her*. We trained Nicky in the art of the puppy dog eyes - and his eyes are quite the puppy's. Little Joe started asking her common, normal questions and then switching stream, in the Ron-trying-to-ask-Hermione-about-the-ball fashion ("So, who's your favorite author? Who's the Half-Blood Prince?"). At one point he said something about the books and then followed up with, "Great, is that important in the rest of the series?" to which, again without missing a beat, Cheryl said, "That's an excellent question." After awhile she became sport. Sitting around at dessert, various family members passively encouraged the mafia stereotype to try and "scare" her into coming out with it; LauryAnn offered handbags (tempting); Joe finally resorted to offering a bet on the result of a Scrabble game. If he won, he got the name. Man, I thought she would crack. Her chances for beating the sixth grader were incredibly high, but there's always that slight possibility, and she didn't want to reneg on a bet. While comforting her for turning down an easy Scrabble win, I told her I was proud. But she fit in with my fam like a hand in a glove, and joked as if she'd been on our humor track for years. My sister and she talked a lot and she wants to hang with her more, even. And when we came back we were just wondering why the hell we didn't find more time to stay.
  
  The thing that made it so wonderful, though, was that there were about 50 people there, about 20 of whom stayed over, and it felt like there were maybe three people to take care of. There was some light cooking and cleaning and such, but for the most part over the weekend people just took care of their own stuff, which isn't in and of itself what made it wonderful. It just contributed to this free atmosphere where everyone had fun. We crabbed; we played poker; we swam; we ate a lot; there was always chatter and laughter; the weather was clear blue and hot and slightly breezy, so our skirts ruffled up in the wind; we had Scrabble games (hem hem) while the fireworks were blasting off over the bay, and daquiris in the pool (well, one of us did). After two hours there my whole body melted into this calm, lazy, relaxed stance, and stayed like that the whole weekend; environment and choice of company do that I guess. Ah, perfect.

• The moderators of the Leaky Lounge gave me such a terrific surprise today that it sent me to the bathroom in torrents of tears. They had made a thread called "Good Luck Melissa, We Love You!" with all these wonderful messages...I had to leave the room, because people at work started asking if I was all right. You know, crying at the middle of your desk, not good.

• I met up with Anthony the other night, who is less smoldery and more sinewy these days, doing lots of filming and eating really healthily. Oh, what a wonderful catch-up, in an open-fronted Malaysian restaurant, a leisurely walk back to the apartment, and watching of some stuff he had saved to show me. Doing visits like that feel like recharging, after such a long absence, and you always seem to walk away from them having so much new information about your old friend that you feel heady and full with more than food.
• I had a fantastic time tonight with Cheryl sitting in Prospect Park, eating a feast of celebration, doing Scrabble (and we had to pause, just when I was going to go in for a SECOND kill! Blast!) and eating chicken, and meeting up with HeidiD later. Then I ran home to see my sis before I take off; there was a worry I wouldn't get to see her and I couldn't let it happen.
  

Ah well. I must pack now.

*Not really. If she had started to say a name I would have sat on her. Though, if she had said what she said to a friend this week, it would have been even better. Someone asked: "Who is the Half-Blood Prince?" and she said, "Steve" without missing a beat. :djaf;dka

OK, this post is ginormous. Teaches me for not updating for so long. Guess I remembered it all after all.