Things Remembered (not the store)

Ok, so here are some things I remembered recently:

When I was waiting to pee on a stick, we had dinner at a friend's house. They make the best fajitas, and Marci's guacamole is... amazing! (That's not what I remembered. I never forget good guacamole.)  Anyway, while we were there, the grown-ups went to play Munchkin, which is kind of like a card-game version of Dungeons & Dragons that totally makes fun of itself. John & Marci have 2 lovely daughters. Cassie, the oldest, wanted to play Munchkin with the grown-ups, which was totally fine by me, because I didn't really want to play Munchkin, so I gave her my spot and went to play dress up and dolls and watch Tinkerbell movies with Tori, the youngest. I love these kids, by the way. I just do. My favorite part of the evening was when they took me on a tour of the upstairs and showed me their rooms and all the cool stuff they got on their recent trip to Disneyworld. ANYWAY, while we're up in Tori's room and she's showing me the goods, she showed me this... thing. Ok, it had the Green M&M lady on it, wearing a turban, because she was a fortune teller, and there was a bubble thing that you pressed, like in Trouble! (the board game, remember?) and it would tell your fortune, Magic 8 Ball style. Then an M&M would come out of a shoot on the bottom--only this one was dispensing marbles instead because they'd already eaten all their allotted M&Ms. So, I asked the Magic 8 Ball/M&M Fortune telling marble dispenser if I was pregnant, since, you know, at the time, the question was pretty top on my mind. It said yes, and I thought, "well, gee, I hope your right."  AND IT WAS! Only I forgot, and I've remembered twice since then, but... but now I'm telling you, because I forgot again.

I really love U2. This isn't a surprise to those who know me, and they've been my favorite band since I was 16, so you know... there's that. Last night I was watching the most recent tour DVD and just sort of remembered all over again how much I love the music and the show and the way they don't take themselves seriously, but are serious about what they do and using their voice for things they believe in, and how some songs just totally come alive when played live in a way I didn't ever imagine from listening to the cd, and how in this HUGE arena, it can still feel like an intimate moment when you realize that up there on the stage, Bono is worshiping God in the midst of a rock concert, and so are you... yeah... I really love that band. This song (Magnificent) is from No Line On The Horizon and it's my favorite U2 song ever to be released as a single. I've been listening to it a lot lately (as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows) and it still makes me happy and makes me smile and makes me worship every time. I love, love, love it. Also, I touched Bono. Not recently. It was back in 2001, when he came to speak at a little church in Lincoln before giving his big address at the Leid Center for World Aids Day, and at the end, I got a chance to give him a card to say thanks for the music, and I touched his elbow. Yes I did.

I decided last night, that in a lot of ways, U2 & Alkaline Trio are kind of like the angel & devil on my shoulders sometimes. Not that either gives me ideas or talks me into anything, or that one is evil and the other good, but that I turn to music for comfort a lot and musically and personality wise, those two groups are very different, but both long time favorites, and there are Alkaline Trio moods and there are U2 moods. That's what I meant. I'm not explaining it well, but there it is. Imagine a little Matt Skiba on one shoulder, Edge on the other.

I don't do a very good job decorating for holidays or seasons. I have many friends who have a passion and a gift for turning their homes into wonderfully seasonally appropriate welcome places for friends to gather. I don't have that gift. I have some random pumpkin stuff, because I like fall, and I have some space in which to put it, but nothing elaborate or fancy. This year, I bought some lighted twiggy things for the front of the house so that we look vaguely festive. Our neighbors to the left (when you're facing the house, in case you needed clarification) always do a really great job decorating for the fall/winter holidays and it makes me happy to see their house, then sad that all I've got is one purple plastic pumpkin on the front porch.

Also, I don't have people over very often. I forget most of the time that you don't need a special occasion to invite folks to dinner or a movie or something. I'm bad at calling out of town friends just to check up. Thankfully, my friends are mostly the same way, so completely understand & still love me, and when we do talk, we just sort of recap the intervening time and move on from there. It's comfortable, and I like that. But what I remembered is how much I like talking with them when I do get a "hey, it's been a while" call or e-mail. I like hearing how they are, and telling stories and all that. So, this isn't a promise to be better, because these days I'm lucky if I remember to do all the steps involved in just getting myself put together to face the day, but I'm hopefully reminding myself that I do like talking one-on-one with friends, so maybe I will remember to do it more often, but no promises.

I remembered that I bought some pre-fab pastas the other day--tortellini & ravioli & those ones that look like tiny crab rangoon? So I boiled some up for dinner last night, and then I sliced up a summer squash & a zucchini & I sauteed them a little, and then in ANOTHER pot (3 pot dinners are rare for me), I dumped one of those cans of diced tomatoes that comes with the basil & garlic & onion stuff in them already, and when that had cooked down a bit, I poured it over the squacchini stuff, then spooned it on top of the brie & garlic pasta bits and it was like ratatouille on pasta... sort of.  It was really good!