Shots! Shots! Shots!
Yes, I am making a drinking reference for the 21st post, because I can. I haven't written for two days. Why, you ask? Because I've been settling. Where, you ask? My grandma's house.
I've been here for almost two days now. We met up at an IHOP halfway to her house, and my mom and I had brunch with my grandma and step grandpa (yes, I have a step grandparent, and I was even the flower girl at the wedding). Yesterday I was settling in, and we got groceries for our fantabulous meals we had planned earlier in the day. With my grandmother, the two most important components to vacations are 1) Where you're staying and 2) What you're eating. She figured out the first step easily, given I was staying at her house. Step two is what we plan the first day. We sat down and planned out every dinner for the week, followed by the ice creams/sorbets we'd make. Yes, I said make. It's a tradition, for my grandma and I to make ice creams when I visit her for a week in the summer. We started doing this when my brother and I were smaller, but then we both visited at the same time. A couple years ago, we figured it'd be better if he and I visited during weeks, so we both got to do what we wanted with our grandma.
Yesterday, for dinner, my grandma made pasta with pesto and cheese, and a caprese salad (tomatoes and mozzarella with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar). Afterwards, we had homemade strawberry sorbet. The trick to getting the sorbet to freeze faster is adding alcohol. I believe we added a berry liqueur. The sorbet was heaven, and I took some artsy photos to capture the moment. Then, today, I had a cinnamon roll from IKEA for breakfast. Later in the day, we set out for a cute local cafe for lunch. We both ordered grilled cheeses with tomato and lemonade. The grilled cheese bread was extremely crispy, not at all soggy, and the cheese was gooey. It was the perfect combination of textures, and probably the best grilled cheese I've ever had. My grandma had bought tickets for us to see a play called "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" put on by a local theatre company. The basic idea was that the characters were participating in a Spelling Bee, and they sang about their lives and how they got to competing in the Bee. One of the characters, Leif, mentioned offhandedly that his family was in the audience, and he pretended to wave to his mom. Cute, right? I thought so at the time. But then, a few minutes later, a character named Chip called Leif over and said "Hey, the girl in the second row, fifth seat in, with the blue hair, is that your sister?" I realized, a bit shocked, that he was talking about me. Leif nodded his head and said "Yep, that's Marigold!" And Chip gazed moonily at me, and said "Marigold." I thought "Oh boy, that was a little embarrassing. Good thing it's over now, right?" I couldn't have been more wrong. When it was Chip's turn to spell a word, they were calling his name, but he was staring off into space, saying "Marigold, Marigold" while staring at me. They finally got his attention, and he tried to get out of spelling the word. They told him to go up there, or forfeit. He stood up, and immediately moved the sign from his neck to the front of his pants, covering his crotch. He, unsuccessfully, tried to get out of spelling the word again. He then made some reference to Marigold again, and looked at me, insinuating that I was the cause of his unfortunate accident. He got disqualified, after incorrectly spelling a word. He got sent off, and everyone sang the "Goodbye" song they had procured for the rejects. I thought "Well that was pretty dang embarrassing. Glad that's over. It is over, right?" Nope. Just when I thought I was safe, he appeared during the contestants' "snack break" to pass out candy. Then he started singing about his erection. And stared at me some more. If my face wasn't red during all the previous "Marigold" references, it sure was now. He didn't even throw any candy at me, even though he had practically tortured me. After the performance, I was thinking about running up to him and telling him I was a lesbian, but I was with my grandma, and he didn't seem interested in talking to me in the least bit. However, one of the female cast members did thank me for playing the role of Marigold against my will.
After that horror show (I'm only kidding, the rest of play was actually pretty good), we stopped in at a boutique my grandma frequented. I spotted some sunglasses, and immediately fell in love. I've been looking for a good pair, because all of mine seem to have gone missing. The ones I picked have black, round frames, connected by a gold metal nose piece. They look kinda retro, a little out there, which I believe fits me pretty well. After we had acquired our purchases (gram got a candle), we headed for the home front. We made a salad, and ordered a (cheese) pizza. By using paper plates and napkins, we eliminated clean-up to the bare minimum-- putting the forks in the dishwasher. We had made a pineapple sorbet with a twist. By adding in pina colada mix, we changed the sorbet into more of an ice cream. It was really nice, sitting out on the front porch, eating pina colada ice cream, talking.
In between all those fun activities, I was reading. In the course of 24 hours, I was able to read a 338 page book. It was "Fall of Night" which is, of course, the 14th Morganville Vampires book. I'm not going to go into book analysis mode, but I loved being able to read about Shane and Claire outside of Morganville, on their own (mostly). One thing I will talk a little more about is music. I've found that listening to The xx, the band, doesn't distract me while reading or writing. I'm actually listening to The xx Pandora station right now, because I like to listen to something while I type, and the bands similar to The xx are also perfect for this purpose. Bon Iver has showed up a couple times, and he's okay, but his volume raises a little sometimes, which can take me out of the zone temporarily. One song I fell in love with for writing was "Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions in the Sky. I don't remember there being any lyrics, but the instruments were very soothing and easy to listen to. I highly recommend it. Buhbye fuh now!
