Tuesday, June 13, 2006

It's Good to be Me






"Fiona" - Lyle Lovett (The Road to Ensenada, 1996)

All day long I thought I was going to post something about my marriage and our upcoming 10th wedding anniversary---with such a large milestone approaching, the scale seems just huge and its become more like an "anniversary-year" than an anniversary date. Good thing, good thing, especially with Rob's cataclysmic health event over the winter.

Faux-Fawning
But I've just returned from sushi with my co-best friends forever (cBFFs) Dave and Asia. Dave and Asia on their own are each more fun than a sack full of puppies but together they are explosive and generally engage in vulgar, sophomoric one-upmanship. I typically try to limit the occassions the three of us (actually the two of THEM) are together in public with no other moderating influences because they have actually caused people to ask to be moved from adjacent tables... at any rate, there was none of that tonight. Because Asia was just on a roll and it was pointless to try to keep up. She likes few things more than great merchandise at a great price and her upcoming move to a new condo has inspired her to new heights of furniture and home electronics purchasing. Of course none of it would be any fun if we weren't all truly amazed with her uncanny ability to get a great thing for a great price. I don't know if it was intentional or not but when she (kind of) demanded that we guess how much her new Phillips 50 inch plasma screen television cost, Dave kept giving her like, Goldstar CRT pricing or something---very low. She was most displeased. So Dave told her to just cut to the chase and tell us how much and assured her we would "faux-fawn" over her remarkable bargain hunting skills. That was good enough apparently and we have a new euphemism. We'll add it to the list that includes... well, other stories for other times.

We laughed a lot, pretty heartily and maybe overstayed our welcome a little bit. Dave and I have met there for sushi most Thursday nights for the last eight years and we tip well so I have little remorse. There was no alcohol involved. When Haley was a wee one and along for the evening all of the wait staff kept saying how much she looked like her Dad.... so far as I know they've never met Rob and suffice it to say that Dave ain't nobody-baby-Daddy. Truly---that girl has always looked like me.

The rest of the day
Work was great today, too. Very productive, great balance of analytical work for my own projects compared to project management/IT requirements work kind of stuff that I do because we have no IT staff on our team and my skill set is more well-suited than my other team-mates. I only get annoyed by it when I'm not getting enough time with data or epidemiologic capacity building. Today was just about perfect. I'm spending some time putting together my performance plan for the next year and it looks sadly as though most of my time is going to be taken up with managing several fairly large IT projects for the team.

I arrived at home from the office just as Haley and Anna were returning from school. Anna's last day, Haley has a half-day tomorrow. There is palpable excitement in the neighborhood---that combined with some really lovely temperate weather made for a delightful time hanging out in the front yard with lots of little friends before dinner.

Guilty Pleasure
Lyle Lovett. I can't help it. My Dad was a fan of what would be called "classic country music" when I was growing up and although I honestly and truly LOATHE country music, there's been some imprinting on my brain and Lyle Lovett really speaks to me. Its that Western Swing kind of rhythm, but with really overdone orchestration. And then with wry lyricism all wrapped up with sophisticated (in my opinion) arrangements and the total package is almost ironic. Speaks to me, yes it does. Can't help it. I chose this particular clip for today because the night was just overwhelmingly funny and so are these lyrics---don't expect to find any proof here of the clever lyrics. Although it may be worth noting that Julia Roberts' middle name is Fiona and this tune was penned toward the end of that marriage...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is your friend Asia Asian or just the lovely name she has like China Phillips? It sounds like your cBBFs are a fun thing for you to get away from it all. I love to hear of your antics of life seeing as I have none. I need to get me one of those I think it just kinda sounds like work. Don't get old it's no fun.

Donna

KHM said...

Asia (AH-see-uh) is of Pakistani descent but she was raised in Birmingham AL--it makes for a crazy perspective. She's a hoot.

Donna--you have the greatest cBFFs on the planet. What are you talking about?

BTW, does the sound clip sound funny? When I clicked in Lyle sounded like the Crickets... maybe its just the sound card at this workstation I'm at today? I hope...
LYFE

Anonymous said...

Clip sounds good to me!!! And you know I like country, although usually more recent then classic.