Eureka! I have found it, and by "it" I mean the secret to a perfect Valentine's Day weekend. Here's the trick...forget it's Valentine's Day. I ignored the "holiday" and had an exceptionally nice Saturday instead. This is my recipe for a perfect V-day...
Step one is breakfast. The most important meal of the day, sadly, is usually under appreciated due to busy schedules and those pesky morning classes. A Saturday at home with no particular plans is the perfect opportunity to both sleep late and have fresh scrambled eggs with ham, peppers, onions, potatoes, and cheese. There were also thumbprint cookies. Let's face it, that is a real Happy Meal.
Step two: pamper yourself. Do something just for you. Personally, I went the new haircut route. I love getting a good haircut. It does wonders for my sense of self; it's like some of my burdens go away with the excess hair.
Step three is shopping. I know you were wondering when this would appear. My mom and I went and looked around at Dillard's and Sears for a while. After that we met my grandmother at Cavender's. New shoes are great, that's a given, but new boots are even better. Also, there's not much that compares to finding a perfect pair of blue jeans.
Step four involves and evening with family and/or friends. We had a birthday party for Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Lottie. There was steak, potatoes, mushrooms and cherry pie...perfect. After my grandparents went home, my parents, aunt, uncle and cousins watched Tombstone and toasted in front of the fire. All in all it was a lovely evening.
So, you see, I managed to get through the entire Valentine's Day weekend without any trauma or drama. All I had to do was go on with life as usual. I felt just as loved as the day before and the day after, and I was perfectly happy without it. Moral of the story: Valentine's Day is stupid. It does nothing more than cause grief (for both the attached and singles) and make money for Hallmark and Hershey. If we need a special holiday to show love to our family, friends, or lovers then there is something seriously wrong with this society. That was my rant, sorry if you are offended. Actually, I'm not really, so try not to be too upset.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Fishin' in the Dark
I went fishing today. That may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but for someone who hasn't been fishing in about ten years, it was an event. I wasn't very good; in fact, I actually did more of what Amanda calls "pole castin'" since I couldn't even cast my pole correctly. I had tons of fun though! Here's how the adventure went...
When Kendra and Amanda go fishing, they go out to our friend Steven's residence. He lives about fifteen minutes outside town (kind of like I do at home) and there is a stock tank out there full of catfish and perch. First, however, Kendra had to bribe Steven into letting us come out. This, of course, led to the making of homemade cinnamon rolls at midnight on Thursday night. This, as always, was fraught with misadventure, but cooking just isn't the same if everything goes as planned. The rolls turned out well in the end, and we even had a sampling that night.
Well, Friday evening, we rendezvous at Kendra's, and load up poles, tackle boxes, cinnamon rolls, icing (which Kendra had dyed purple for some inexplicable reason), Girl Scout cookies and people. Then, we head to Jonathan's house to pick him up. Jonathan uses a wheelchair, so we had to unload and reload into his van before proceeding to Steven's place. We were so close to having everything go without a hitch when Dex realized that there was not much gas in the van, and we needed to stop. Being the directionally challenged group that we are, we went all the way to Navasota to get gas, rather than going to the closest gas station.
An hour after leaving, we finally get to Steven's. We have our cinnamon rolls and some laughs and then head to the tank. Everybody gets their poles baited and then the mayhem begins. Jonathan, Dex, and Steven all caught fish at the same time, but Steven's swallowed the hook and I had to jump on it and put it out of it's misery (as a result, I now have fish residue on the bottom of my shoe). I threw out about six casts and never even got my hook in the water, so I gave up and just enjoyed the outdoors and the entertainment.
Amanda has been having a hard time catching anything lately, and it didn't look promising when the first thing that she caught was a misplaced sock. When she did finally catch a nice catfish, she didn't want to touch it and made Steven get it off of her pole. Of course, this opened her up for all sorts of ridicule, and Steven ended up whacking her in the face with her own fish...no lie, it was pretty hilarious! She then curled up and went to sleep right there on the ground.
At one point, Kendra caught a big catfish and as she and Steven were unhooking it, they started a very comical fish fight. Kendra got the fish, threw it at Steven, and hit him square. It was actually very impressive. Of course, Steven now had possession of the fish, and threw it at Kendra. During her effort to escape, she ran away, tripped over a branch, and fell down. On the bright side, she avoided being hit with the fish until Steven fish slapped her on the way back to the tank. They then proceeded to throw the traumatized fish back into the tank.
No one caught anything after that. We think we may have been catching the same fish repeatedly all evening, and after swallowing one hook and being used as a weapon it had had enough. So we loaded up and took everyone home, which did not take an hour the second time around, although there were some funny challenges along the way. All in all, it was certainly an exciting evening, and I was glad to have it. All of that laughter just puts me in a good state of mind and I always feel so relaxed afterwards. Just goes to show that laughter really is the best medicine.
When Kendra and Amanda go fishing, they go out to our friend Steven's residence. He lives about fifteen minutes outside town (kind of like I do at home) and there is a stock tank out there full of catfish and perch. First, however, Kendra had to bribe Steven into letting us come out. This, of course, led to the making of homemade cinnamon rolls at midnight on Thursday night. This, as always, was fraught with misadventure, but cooking just isn't the same if everything goes as planned. The rolls turned out well in the end, and we even had a sampling that night.
Well, Friday evening, we rendezvous at Kendra's, and load up poles, tackle boxes, cinnamon rolls, icing (which Kendra had dyed purple for some inexplicable reason), Girl Scout cookies and people. Then, we head to Jonathan's house to pick him up. Jonathan uses a wheelchair, so we had to unload and reload into his van before proceeding to Steven's place. We were so close to having everything go without a hitch when Dex realized that there was not much gas in the van, and we needed to stop. Being the directionally challenged group that we are, we went all the way to Navasota to get gas, rather than going to the closest gas station.
An hour after leaving, we finally get to Steven's. We have our cinnamon rolls and some laughs and then head to the tank. Everybody gets their poles baited and then the mayhem begins. Jonathan, Dex, and Steven all caught fish at the same time, but Steven's swallowed the hook and I had to jump on it and put it out of it's misery (as a result, I now have fish residue on the bottom of my shoe). I threw out about six casts and never even got my hook in the water, so I gave up and just enjoyed the outdoors and the entertainment.
Amanda has been having a hard time catching anything lately, and it didn't look promising when the first thing that she caught was a misplaced sock. When she did finally catch a nice catfish, she didn't want to touch it and made Steven get it off of her pole. Of course, this opened her up for all sorts of ridicule, and Steven ended up whacking her in the face with her own fish...no lie, it was pretty hilarious! She then curled up and went to sleep right there on the ground.
At one point, Kendra caught a big catfish and as she and Steven were unhooking it, they started a very comical fish fight. Kendra got the fish, threw it at Steven, and hit him square. It was actually very impressive. Of course, Steven now had possession of the fish, and threw it at Kendra. During her effort to escape, she ran away, tripped over a branch, and fell down. On the bright side, she avoided being hit with the fish until Steven fish slapped her on the way back to the tank. They then proceeded to throw the traumatized fish back into the tank.
No one caught anything after that. We think we may have been catching the same fish repeatedly all evening, and after swallowing one hook and being used as a weapon it had had enough. So we loaded up and took everyone home, which did not take an hour the second time around, although there were some funny challenges along the way. All in all, it was certainly an exciting evening, and I was glad to have it. All of that laughter just puts me in a good state of mind and I always feel so relaxed afterwards. Just goes to show that laughter really is the best medicine.
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