June 7, 2003

I had only finished a glass of water at the restaurant Bacchus’ when I chanced to look outside in a springtime reverie and saw a lovely woman sitting on a bench outside a neighboring building. I paid my bill and walked into the May breeze, inhaled a deep draught of the fragrant air generously borne my way from the park across the street. Dandelion seeds took advantage of the soft zephyr as well, as the wind lazily swirled them until they happened to become stuck between a trashcan and a wall, blades of grass around an ornamental cherry, or stray cigarette butts strewn about the city benches.

Walking past the beautiful young lady, we made eye contact. I saw a few strands of loose blonde hair, which had loosened themselves from the ties, play upon the sunglasses propped on her head. To my amazement and immediate pleasure, she smiled at me, revealing her glowing ivory teeth. I smiled a sheepish smile, looked to my feet and moved on. After continuing some twenty feet onward, I had the sudden urge to go to her and initiate conversation. I wondered what she was doing, a pretty gal, companionless, sitting on a bench.

Ordinarily, I am far too shy to talk to a strange female, but, as I was in a foreign territory, not a resident of the college town of Kendall Valley, and since I felt rather capricious and breezy, I turned around. She again spied me, and smiled as I approached this May Queen’s throne. Asking if I could join her “on this lovely day,” I sat down, not six inches from her bare knee. She was wearing a loose white blouse with light printings of garden flowers, a garment that left her fair shoulders vulnerable and reached just above her smooth knee.

She asked how I was doing and we went through all the trite salutations. Even performing that awful social ritual was glorious with her beaming vernal face in front of me. She showed no signs of feeling ill-at-ease, as such a fine woman is unlikely to feel when with a man; I, on the other hand, was fidgeting my feet and picking at my thumb’s cuticle with my forefinger.

I asked for her name and she said Lily. Lily! How fitting that this elegant springtime creature should bear the name of a flower. How much like a flower! Her hair as alluring as the petals to a honeybee, her sangfroid and familiarity with her terrain, like a perennial. Her eyes themselves appeared as an ultraviolet photograph of a daisy, dark in the corolla and giving way to gray and light blue. Yet the plant’s opulence could not rival Lily’s fresh, clear countenance, broad stem, and fertile effluvia. This Lily of the Valley sat poised, her pendulous bellflowers currently hoisted by her gown. She leaned over to me and

I got up, paid my bill, and walked past her, never again to behold her.

Wow, it's been a year (yesterday) since I'm joined E2 and has the time flown!

I've learned a lot including everything regarding HTML to regular grammar lessons -- but above all I've made tons of new friends!

Since I've been on E2 many have been unaware in seeing me make the transition from being a city/party girl to being a country bumpkin. Nocte, and Fone_Op can back that up in real life - they got an adventure finding me in Atwater, Ohio.

I would like to thank everyone for making E2 a great experience for me, and am looking forward to the future with E2!

A 4:32AM this morning, my nephew, Brandon Xavier, was born by c-section, weighing 8lbs 12oz, and being 20 inches long. Everyone is doing wonderfully.

:)

Originally entitled "Using bees as decoration, or how to lose your mom", but it was decreed that this should be a daylog. I couldn't choose a better day!

It was a Wednesday in June (three days ago), it was rather hot this particular Wednesday. We set out really early, as we had to be at my grandpa's house at 11 since his doctor's appointment was at 11:30 that morning. My grandfather is getting rather old, and we decided to come up for this appointment because he needed to drive into town for it; but traffic was heavy so by the time we got to his house he had left. We drove 30 min out of our way to "go and pick him up" and we barely had time to make it to the office before 11:30, but by luck we did (we also forgot how to get to the office, but found it before the appointment.) When we got there we were greeted with "Well hi, I didn't think you guys were coming then."

"Of course we were coming, we told you Tuesday night we were…" But that didn’t matter since we were there. We made it for the appointment, which consisted of waiting in a room for the doctor, him showing up, sitting down nervously, talking for maybe 15 min, then leaving with "Schedule an appointment with Beth*"

Since his appointment was at 11:30 he decided that for the effort of coming down we should have lunch "in town", in the parking lot we discussed three options.

"Ponderosa…?"

"No, I don't want to go there, Grandpa… You like Cheddar's."

"No, I don't want to go there… Ryan's?" Grandpa put his foot down. "No no no, let's go to Ponderosa."

We also decided that since the doctor's parking lot was small, we shouldn't leave my mom's car there, but have her drive separately. I rode with grandpa. We got separated at a light, but that was ok because, "She knows where it is right?"

"Oh yeah, I think so".

We got there to find that the building was closed… permanently. We weren't going to eat there again… ever. So we waited, assuming she would show up. What we didn't know at the time was that she was waiting at Cheddar's for us to show up as well. We missed each other completely. After waiting for a little while, my grandpa, who is nervous by nature, decided we should do SOMETHING, anything.

So we drove home. There wasn’t really anything to do but wait. We got home around 1pm, and finally heard from her around 3:30pm. While waiting for her, I was laying down on the davenport looking out his big bay windows (which have really nice lace curtains). As I was looking out the white lace curtains, I noticed this dead bee that had been sitting there for a long time.

"Grandpa, you have a dead bee in your curtains, want me to move it for you?"

"No. I like it there. Adds decoration." So I left it. Cannot argue with that kind of logic.

My mom called, she was at my great aunt's house (my great aunt lives in the city), and mom was wondering where we were since she had tried calling around 2pm, but we had been outside tinkering in the garden waiting for her to show up. She had been VERY worried that we got into an accident or some such. Ironically it was our sentiments exactly.

"Don't suppose her car broke down…?"

Her worries were justified in that my grandfather should NOT be driving, as he has three eye problems effecting his vision; macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts. However, she did eventually come to pick me up… my mom was an hour later than she should have been as she stopped at my aunt's house on the way home, we were worried the entire time. When she did eventually make it home, I hugged her and helped my grandpa make dinner. After dinner we drove the 3 hours home.

What a long day.