HOME AGAIN OR HOME? AGAIN

I returned late last Friday from my wonderful, if a bit sad, journey to Seattle. I have always loved Seattle...there's just so much attractive about that dang place. (Try over 20 vegetarian restaurants to St. Louis' ZERO. It's call may be too compelling this time, with my son and daughter in law now there...ah, time will tell. I'll not make any REALLY fast moves, like next week, but may act pretty quickly if the call keeps beckoning. I might just be writing a restaurant review for the lovliest of veggie restaurants, Cafe Flora some time soon. Wow! Do they have great food. When I ate there last time, the people I was with just couldn't stop moaning about how good everything was...you'd have thought we were all in the throes of some crazy lovemaking.

SO delicious.

I've much to chatter on about this time so wake up.

Since I have returned I tried something I've never before tried. A gimlet. I know, this drink is an old fashioned, sorta pre-cosmo era. But I was so enthralled by reading about a woman and her sweetie and how they'd have a gimlet when they finished all their work at the end of the day. It just seemed like so much fun. Well, it really was delicious...not quite as much fun alone but fun, nonetheless. And it was made for me by that shockingly handsome young bartender at Acero, in Maplewood where, I might add, I had a wonderful, light dinner...salad and a special veggie pasta that the chef cooked up for me. Very nice evening. Now I just need a sweetie to share those evenings with. Ah well.

I'm reading Elizabeth Berg and love her. Her writing is so accessible and so funny and so touching. I read today in her book one of my favorite-sounding phrases "in perpituity"...when you say the word aloud it sounds like a whispered song sang to a lover. Silly how words affect us or feel to us. I love that phrase...in perpituity...I could hear it over and over. I know, I know, it's weird. So what?

I'm bearing up well under this crazy St. Louis heat. I've always liked heat and humidity. I must admit, though, that this is a tad beyond the pale. Fall will be a beautifully welcome transition time.

Tonight I have a date with my friend Steve. We shall go to L'ecole Culinaire to see what kind of fish dinner they can cook up for us. It'll be fun to see the school and see how the students do with their cooking skills.

It's been an interesting day thus far...talking to my friend, Will as well as Ben and Rebecca (he has a job, she's interviewing and they have found a groovy apt in a cool woman's house. Hooray), carrying in all my boxes of bamboo to sit in the house for 48 hours. Damn!! Heavy!! (I am way stronger than I thought, at least physically), getting the trim board at Home Depot, having a pleasant time sharing a light lunch and white tea, and as usual, thinking about what I might do next. All in all, a good day, for which I can only be deeply and continually thankful.

Now tomorrow in the afternoon I have to move all my living room and bedroom furniture outside so that the fellas can do the flooring early on Thur morn...where shall I sleep? The tent is too hot...Oh, I guess I'll take everything out, cover it all and then just throw the mattress on the floor on Wednesday night. Hey, think of the fun...anyone want to help me move it all? I know you're just dying to do this in the heat. Me, too. No, it'll be fun, trying to figure out how to consolidate everything onto my back deck. In the morning I'll have to get boxes and pack my books and cd's and videos...it's good.

You know, I may be turning into someone who is like that guy I read about a few years ago...nothing was real to him until he wrote it down. He had boxes and boxes of journals and diaries where he had written everything, and I do mean everything, down. He started writing about what happened from waking until going to bed again because he said nothing seemed real unless it got written down. His wife was pissed because the boxes took up so much room. So, anyway, maybe that's how it's getting with me and bla, bla, bla. Enough for today.