May. 31, 2006

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mollie is sleeping now [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:57 pm

on the big white chair across from me. we took a walk through the park this evening and she was overjoyed to trot through each and every puddle, big or small, and they were mostly GIGANTIC because of the tremendous amount of rain we had this afternoon. when we got back home, she was wet and dirty and smelly, so i had to give her a bath.

it’s not like giving shortie and gizmo a bath, because they are very small dogs and i’m used to washing them. but mollie was very good about it even though SHE HATES BATHS. afterwards i gave her about a dozen dog treats, plus some of my ice cream sandwich.

now she’s sleeping peacefully, exhausted from her busy day which included two walks and a car ride.

ok, so i’ve MADE SOME WEDDING PROGRESS. i went to this one site that had wedding invitations and i ordered a couple of sample invitations. we’d planned on just making our own, but these seemed quite nice. we’ll see how they look in person.

and, more exciting than that, i also ordered some sample PERSONALIZED BRIDE AND GROOM STIRRERS. they’re like long swizzle sticks, with a bride and groom on the top and our names and the date along the stick. they also had PERSONALIZED FOIL ASHTRAYS and PERSONALIZED CAKE BOXES. i’m not getting either of those. for one thing, i’m not giving out ashtrays, and i’m certainly not giving out wedding cake TO TAKE HOME!!! i mean, let’s not get ridiculous here. no smoking, and no eating all the cake after the wedding!

if there is gobs of cake left, i guess we’ll have to figure out what to do with it. but not now.

now, i’m still spending the majority of my time looking up honeymoon places online. oahu and kauai. i actually spoke on the phone to a woman in kauai and i’m reserving a very very cool-looking place there for a week. i’m still working on the place in oahu. it’s hard to find something on the beach, so i think we’ll have to settle for a five-minute walk to the beach.

PROGRESS MADE ON WEDDING PREPARATIONS, whew. so now at least we’ll have some nice stirrers.

DAMN, i just realized, i could have ordered some sample WEDDING CHOCOLATE BARS; they’re hershey bars only instead of saying HERSHEY, they say HERETHEYARE, with our names at the bottom. i probably won’t actually order them, but i would definitely like a free sample chocolate bar!

and that reminds me, when are we going to go sample wedding cake?

i’m going to start looking at my IMPORTANT LIST OF THINGS TO DO FOR THE WEDDING very, very soon.

except we’re going to florida on saturday, and i’m kind of very busy till then.

WHEN WE GET BACK, it’s FULL STEAM AHEAD.

ok ok ok,

the VERY end of may grace.



May. 30, 2006

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invisibility [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:48 pm

so i’m sitting here in my lovely duplex apartment drinking a beer...

WAIT! you’ll cry, if you know me at all. YOU NEVER DRINK BEER, GRACE! YOU HATE BEER!

except christine, she may recall that i did drink a beer once, it was a stout, i had it when listening to a truly fabulous beatles cover band in a little divey bar in marina del rey.'

but maybe she’s forgotten.

anyway, when MFH and mom and i went to Trader Joe’s in St. Louis last friday, i saw some beer, and this is what it said on the label - STOCKYARD OATMEAL STOUT. “A deliciously creamy stout in the Irish tradition. This deep, coffee-colored beer has the aroma and flavor of chocolate, roasted oats and coffee with a rich tan head.” i read the label to MFH, who i’ve seen drink beer before, and so we bought some.

and so tonight i’d sit here and sip some beer. i’m trying to drink it fast enough so that it doesn’t get warm. if i do ever drink a beer, and it’s probably been at least six or so years since that stout in marina del rey, i can’t ever finish it and it just gets warm and is really, really terrible.

the beer’s not bad. kind of good, but i wish it was really icy cold. it’s been in the fridge for a few days now, so i guess that’s as cold as it gets.

anyway, invisibility - sometimes, when i’m looking particularly awful, wearing my ugliest pair of (incredibly comfy) shorts and a ratty ancient t-shirt and no makeup, i pretent that i’m invisible. This makes it ok to go out in public looking like a bag lady, although randy frowns on this type of behavior.

but so tonight i was at barnes and noble and i realized that people on their cell phones must surely think along these same lines. a guy was taking up one of the soft nice chairs, but instead of reading, he was having a lengthy phone conversation, and it was pretty loud and i could hear him from a few aisles away. if i recall, he was saying very disparaging things about some girl, maybe his sister or a friend’s sister, and he was just going on and on and on. i turned and looked at him for a minute, wondering if he realized he was broadcasting this information to most of us at the store.

maybe he believed his voice couldn’t be heard by ordinary mortals.

and then i got in line to buy a couple of books because THE STORE IS CLOSING IN 10 MINUTES, PLEASE TAKE YOUR PURCHASES TO THE COUNTER. and i was in line in back of a woman who was having a lengthy discussion on her cell phone. she continue to talk even when she got up to the cashier and she had to ask the guy a couple of times what the total was, because of course she couldn’t hear him because she WOULDN’T GET OFF HER DAMN PHONE.

i really don’t think these people don’t realize they can’t be heard.

I THINK PEOPLE ARE BECOMING MORE AND MORE RUDE.

where’s emily post when you need her?

i got a book at the library called “Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette.” so far it seems too filled with information, but there are some interesting tidbits like Sikh Ceremonies - “The Sikh wedding ceremony is called Arnand Karaj, which means ‘the Ceremony of Bliss.’ It solemnizes the union of the couple’s souls and seals their religious, moral, and legal obligations.”

that sounds nice, but also, do MFH and i need to have a conversation about our religious obligations? hmm, better get on that right away.

my beer is getting warm.

mollie the dog and i have been eating peanut butter filled pretzels (delicious, also from trader joe’s) along with the beer. (OF COURSE i’m not giving mollie beer!). i tried to give her a peanut butter filled pretzel earlier in the day, but she spit it out. now she’s popping them in her mouth like she’s never had anything so tasty.

mollie and i are alike in that regard. we JUST SAY NO TO SNACKS early in the day when our willpower is strong, but now, at night, WE LOVE ALL FOOD.

i keep reading that one thing you should NOT do before going to sleep is look at a computer screen, because that jazzes your eyeballs up and makes you too agitated. so TURN OFF THE COMPUTER already!

i’m just going to look up a couple of things b4 sleeping...

ok ok ok,

end of may grace.


May. 29, 2006

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may 29th [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:54 pm

i’ve been sitting here looking at my computer for about 20 hours right now. i keep looking stuff up; right now i’m looking up b&bs in Oahu. the last place i looked at, it was definitely the oddest website i’ve ever seen. there weren’t any photos of the actual property, and no prices listed. how helpful.

sitting here looking at the computer is making me a little crazy.

i was going to go to sleep early tonight. i think i have at least a couple more minutes before it’s officially late instead of early.

did you have a nice memorial day weekend? i did, especially today when i did almost nothing, except for the excessive looking up factor. we ran in the park this morning and it was VERY VERY HOT.

i just looked up the weather in ft. lauderdale florida, where i’m going with MFH and my parents on saturday, and the forecast for every day we’ll be there is RAIN RAIN RAIN. scattered thunderstorms, to be precise. i guess we’ll be spending our vacation at the indian casino.

dad keeps telling mom that there are going to be hurricanes, though, so at least maybe a little rain won’t be so bad.

tonight i got my FREE BIRTHDAY ICE CREAM CONE from baskin robbins, i almost missed the deadline which was TODAY. it was delicious.

so, people have been asking me, “how are the wedding plans coming?” hmm. it’s been almost four weeks since he proposed, and we did make a reservation for the place, and i do have a list of things that have to be done...but i haven’t done any of them yet. i haven’t really thought about them so much, to tell you the truth. the stack of wedding books i got at the library has been sitting on my living room floor for quite a while now. i keep renewing them.

see, the wedding is only going to be a few hours. but the honeymoon, that’s a GREAT VACATION! so once the honeymoon location is found, then the wedding stuff will fall into place, i’m sure.

that’s my plan right now, anyway. i guess it’s not so much as an actual “plan,” but it’s all i got right now.

mollie the dog was sleeping in her bed, but now she has completely slid out of it, except for hr feet. she was very very tired, because she had an adventure-packed fun-filled weekend. involving socializing with many humans and dogs and cats, plus running quite a bit and of course eating or at least hoping to eat as much as possible.

i feel that many many things have happened since i last wrote, but maybe not. we saw the musical “dr. dolittle” in st. louis on friday night, and tommy tune stars in it and he looks like he’s about 30. we figured he has to be around 60 or so. lots and lots of plastic surgery. he kind of reminded me of barry manilow in that regard. the show was a little bit sappy, and oriented for kids, but i liked it anyway. at the end tommy tune talked to the audience, saying how happy he was that we were there, and how he has godchildren who have computer games and how it’s nice that we were all at the show which was just about being nice to other people and stuff like that. i agreed with him wholeheartedly.

there was an article in the paper today, or maybe it was yesterday, about “boot camps” for brides and grooms and bridesmaids, about getting into shape for your wedding. this struck me as kind of funny. i guess i want to see three photos of these women - one photo taken before the boot camp, the next photo on the wedding day, and a final photo taken six months later. i bet all the married women look just like they did before the boot camp.

that’s just my cynicism of course, i’m sure they’ll maintain their lovely figures well past all the wedding photo ops.

my week is going to be busy, but at least it’s only four days.

i hope yours is a good one.

that is all for the moment, and i’m NOT going to spend any more hours tonight looking stuff up online.

ok.

end of may grace.


May. 24, 2006

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soooo.... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 4:30 pm

this morning when i woke up there were three messages on my phone. three “happy birthday to you,” each very melodic and lovely. but then, later, amy left me a singing message and that was the BEST one of all, quite full of much musicality and notes.

everything is good.

ok then,

may birthday grace.



May. 23, 2006

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good morning, and bread hangovers [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 3:27 am

hmm, very very early right now. very very early. i had no intention of being up at this hour, but i am. i got very very sick of just lying there in bed. so here i am.

yesterday morning i went jogging through the park at about 8:30 in the morning. i ran past the duck pond, and the vast majority of the ducks were still sleeping. this seemed a little odd to me; i know the sun had been up for a couple of hours; why weren’t the ducks paddling around in their ducky way?

bread hangovers. since it was so lovely and warm and sunny on sunday, i bet the people with the great big loaves of bread were out in full force, hurling entire bags of bread at the ducks who of course have no willpower about stopping after a loaf or two. not to mention that people always take big loaves of crummy white bread to the ducks, never anything with any nutrients or anything in them, plus sometimes the loaves are stale, so it’s no wonder the ducks had bread hangovers and were still all tucked up inside their own feathery wings at the late hour of 8:30 a.m.

i went to the dentist yesterday. no cavities, very good news.

and that’s just about all the excitement of my week thus far. i hope to sleep again very soon because i have many things to do today although it doesn’t actually feel like today just yet, it still feels like the middle of the night on monday.

there are many many trains going by. i love the sound of trains going by.

goodnight, hopefully,

may grace.



May. 21, 2006

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man with pony [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 9:09 pm

MFH and i were walking to baskin robbin’s from my apartment, because we COULD walk there from my place, and we got to macarthur and in the parking lot of that family video there was a man with what looked like a fairly large dog. not a HUGE dog, but a good sized one. bigger than Mollie, who was doggedly walking and walking and walking wherever we went today.

but then MFH said “it looks like a pony.” and then he said “it IS a pony!”

a very very tiny pony. smaller than a great dane. a nice little brown pony with a long tail and fully outfitted with a saddle and all. the man led it through the parking lot and of course a kid rushed up and wanted to pet the pony because there was a PONY IN THE VIDEO STORE PARKING LOT.

we got ice cream and sat across the street at butler elementary school, and pretty soon there was the man, leading the pony through a parking lot, and then they scurried across ash street; actually the pony was definitely trotting. and they kept going, past baskin robbins (what would the workers have done if he’d brought the pony in? would they have given it a free cone? SURELY they would have), past the new restaurant imaginatively called “springfield restaurant” and down the street.

1. WHERE WERE THEY GOING?

2. WHY WAS THE MAN LEADING A PONY DOWN MACARTHUR BLVD???

ok, i grew up here in spfld, i lived here for many many years, i went away for maybe 10 or so, but i’ve been back a while, and i have NEVER EVER seen any ponies AT ALL on macarthur blvd. or walking down any other streets for that matter.

see, you think a place is boring and nothing ever goes on but if you’re PAYING ATTENTION there’s all kinds of stuff, all the time.

pony walking down macarthur blvd.

that is all at almost the end of a very relaxing weekend.

ok then,

may grace.

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bread [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:58 pm

i took a walk through washington park yesterday and stopped for a while to look at the ducks. there are lots and lots of baby ducklings right now and they’re quite adorable. but the day before i’d noticed different people headed over to feed the ducks and some of them carried ENTIRE LOAVES OF BREAD.

this is excessive. i’m surprised the ducks are even able to waddle at all anymore, with all this bread feeding going on constantly. i’m amazed that they’re not just sprawled out on the bank, their stomachs hanging down, belching and snoring after eating so much.

yesterday i saw quite a bit of floating bread. some were entire pieces, floating there on top of the water. i wondered why the slices of bread hadn’t sunk, and also wondered at what point the ducks say "i’m not eating THAT bread, it’s way too soggy. maybe they only like it freshly-thrown. and since loaves and loaves of bread are being hurled at them, they can’t possibly eat it all as it comes flying.

last night we saw the jazz band Real Time at the State House Inn. it was the SHI’s third anniversary of their remodel, and there was a whopping five dollar cover charge, and lots of good food to eat while listening to the band. i don’t feel it’s been that long since i’ve heard them but maybe it has. they were great, and the really great thing is that i convinced mom and dad to go, too. well, i told mom about it and somehow she coerced dad into going and he told her he was just going to LEAVE if he didn’t like it and i’m sure it wasn’t easy convincing him to go at all. but he loved the band! which i thought he would since they’re so good, but you never can tell with dad. david was also there, and amy and jim even showed up for a while.

a good time was had by all. we told the band of our engagement, and afterwards asked them if they’d play a little during the reception. and they said yes! quite exciting.

afterwards we watched the movie “big night” which i’d gotten at the library and it was just as good as i remembered, although it’s been a very long time since i’ve seen it. it’s funny, there are plenty of people in it who weren’t well-known yet, like alison janney who was on the west wing, and minnie driver. and there was somebody named Marc Anthony and i just took the time to look him up online and he’s the same Marc Anthony who’s the singer. hmm. how did anybody find out anything before the internet?

it’s a gorgeous beautiful day today, which is why i must stop writing and go OUTSIDE.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 19, 2006

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friday! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:00 pm
although it feels like the weekend has been here for a while already because of the not working yesterday.

the japanese restaurant was, indeed, very delicious and quite lovely. plus it’s all healthy and good for you; we had salmon and scallops and lots of veggies and stuff. it’s a lot like the restaurant Tokyo of Japan in spfld, except this place is much much classier. i don’t know why more restaurants in spfld don’t make some effort on decorating. only the chain places seem to have that locked in, and they’re usually just faux kitchy stuff or faux italian stuff or something.

after dinner we went to a restaurant called the machine shed and it’s a lot like cracker barrel only a much smaller chain and seemed much better. we each had HUMONGOUS desserts. this is slightly vexing because i weighed myself the other day and i’ve gained about eight pounds and now i feel VERY VERY FAT and i did not need a huge piece of german chocolate cream pie as big as my head.

the waitresses at the restaurant were dressed in red plaid shirts, big overalls, and john deere hats. they’re the antithesis of hooters waitresses. i told kevin that i don’t know which would be worse. at least wearing the weird thick hose and the little bitty shorts at hooters would mean that you wouldn’t feel good about gaining EIGHT POUNDS, and so you wouldn’t. and they probably have strict rules about weight there anyway. so it’d be more comfortable to be a waitress and wear big overalls all the time, but it sure wouldn’t make a girl feel very attractive. plus i’m sure if i worked somewhere surrounded by huge desserts, i’d be very huge myself.

here’s the photo that MFH took of my last night as i was typing away here in lovely rockford. the lovely roses next to me are the ones he had waiting for me when i got here. BECAUSE HE’S A WONDERFUL MAN.



i think we’re going to go somewhere with a lovely beach for our honeymon. anybody out there have any suggestions? i started looking at greek islands online this morning and there are too many choices.

all right, i was excited about going to gordman’s which is about a 10 minute walk from here and it’s already 11:58 and K. said his class might be over at noon, and it takes him 20 minutes to drive back, so that doesn’t give me a lot of time to shop. with the walking, that would be about 10 minutes, if my math is correct.

i must go. i hope your friday is lovely.

ok then,

may grace.

p.s. i just got my online coupon for a FREE BIRTHDAY ICE CREAM CONE from baskin robbins, and i’m quite excited about that. notwithstanding the weight gain. you should sign up, too; it doesn’t matter your age, you’re ENTITLED to a free cone!



May. 18, 2006

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the train! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 6:17 pm

well, it was very early in the morning, the train. it was supposed to leave at 6:33 a.m. and they said IF YOU DON’T GET HERE BEFORE SIX A.M., YOU WON’T FIND A PARKING SPOT HERE AT THE TRAIN STATION.

randy and i pulled in at 6:05 and there were still places to be had. whew.

but then we sat down and waited...and waited. it wasn’t so long, maybe 40 minutes, and i tried not to think of the fact that i could have gotten up at 6 instead of at 5:10 which is not necessarily the best time of the day for me.

we slept on the train, and at about a quarter to ten (a.m. still) some people got on and they were carrying beer. this seemed a little early for beer. the only people i’ve observed drinking beer early in the morning are runners after a race, and i thought they were the only crazy ones.

not true.

the ride was fun but randy and i agreed that boggle would have disturbed the people who were sleeping - the shaking of the boggle cubes and then the electronic and loud BEEP at the end of every round. instead we wrote down everything we could think of that might need to be done for the wedding. randy keeps saying YOU NEED TO WEAR A VEIL, but i’m not going to. and then i read about giving out wedding favors and randy said YOU DON’T NEED WEDDING FAVORS, THEY’RE ALREADY GETTING A FREE MEAL. i said he was being awfully arbitrary about the whole thing, veils and favors.

we got to the train station and these four young very tall women were there eating lunch across from us, and i knew they were models because they were talking about a shoot and then during lunch (only one of them actually ate) they were talking about somebody who did a great job on eyebrows. i wished we’d been sitting closer so i could have heard more of their model-talk, but instead i had to make up what they might have been saying. at one point they all sighed kind of loudly and longingly and randy wondered what they’d said and i said one of them probably recalled a piece of cake they ate one time last year, and it made them all tear up.

their thighs were as big around as my arm. and they were very very tall. but they weren’t absolutely stunning or anything, and one in particular seemed a little plain besides the tallness/thinness, but i guess when you slather them with makeup then voila, they’re gorgeous.

so i’m in rockford right now with MFH! and we’re about to go to dinner at this place called JMK Nippon which is supposed to be the BEST japanese restaurant in northern illinois and maybe the world, and so i’m excited about doing that. and kevin just took my picture without me knowing it because i’ve been busy typing and then he e-mailed it to me because he took it with his camera and then the camera e-mailed it and how did we suddenly get so overloaded with techology anyway? but we have to go now, no time to post the photo, later later later.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 17, 2006

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sunny wednesday afternoon [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 4:30 pm

FINALLY, FINALLY, it feels like spring again. we had all that warm lovely sunny weather and then BAM, dark and cold and grey. jason goodreau came to my place this afternoon to take my picture and he said the grey weather puts him in a bad mood, and that’s just how i feel. i told him winter must be bad for him, and then i told him that you can get a special lamp to help you, and he hadn’t heard of it, so maybe he’ll go buy one. they really need to install those lamps everywhere, don’t they?

but right now, SUNSHINE! i’m taking the train at 6:33 a.m. tomorrow, aned now randy is going on the train too, only he’s going for work, and he got the special state rate, which round-trip is cheaper than my one-way ticket. i plan on sleeping for the first part of the trip, and i have to remember to pack my pillow. i’m taking quite a few things even though i’m just coming back on friday. i know that MFH won’t be mad about this. i was once with a man who got mad at me for taking two bags on the train to meet him in san diego for an overnight trip, which would have been quite lovely except for him being mad at me for having WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.

this is why HE’S not MFH, and kevin is.

plus, in rockford, my final destination tomorrow, kevin says there’s a GORDMAN’S two blocks from the hotel so that’s a happy thing. our gordman’s is closed till august because of the tornado.

randy and i are going to play boggle on the train, and we’re going to make wedding plans. my friend gary wrote about a wedding reception he attended in LA where he lives; he says the festivities were hosted by an eight-foot drag queen from canada and a former Miss Universe. maybe he’s exxagerating slightly about the eight-foot part, or maybe she wore very very high heels.

i don’t think my wedding will be quite that spectacular. but you never know.

today jill and i went to baskin robbin’s because i needed an emergency ice cream cone. maui brownie madness lowfat yogurt at least they CLAIM it’s lowfat but that’s hard to believe. next week i get a free birthday cone and i’m getting peanut butter chocolate. not to obsessively plan ahead for ice cream or anything.

that is all for now.

ok then,

may grace.

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the case of the missing peanut butter [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:31 am

yesterday morning i got a jar of peanut butter out to make a sandwich. when i went to make the sandwich, i’d misplaced the peanut butter. i spent too much time searching my kitchen for it, and then i looked again last night and this morning and clearly, clearly it’s not there anymore. did it just evaporate into thin air? did somebody break in and steal it? WHERE’S MY PEANUT BUTTER?

i want to make a peanut butter sandwich tonight to take on my very very early train ride tomorrow morning. my peanut butter MUST be somewhere.

i probably won’t find it. maybe somebody else will find it for me. i don’t know how i manage to lose everything all the time, but usually they turn up, and i never lose anything as LARGE as my large jar of peanut butter.

when i moved a few months ago i found my long-lost bathing suit bottom. that had vexed me for a good long time because i knew i hadn’t taken it off somewhere and left it. it was behind the bed, i believe. i also found a pair of really cute webbed stockings that i was sure somebody had stolen. they were buried under many things in the top of the closet.

i’m sure that when i move out of this place i’ll find the peanut butter. in the meantime, i guess i’ll have to be content with the soy nut butter i have, although it’s not the same thing at all.

ok ok ok,

may grace.



May. 16, 2006

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the reason they have groomsmen [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 2:27 pm

is because, way way way back when, a man would go and capture himself a bride, and he had to have a bunch of warriors with him.

groomsmen, actually warriors. they were needed to the bride’s family wouldn’t be able to steal her back, nor would anybody else get her.

but what if she was annoying or something, would the family say “good riddance, you can have her?”

and a reason for bridesmaids was that they were a bunch of women dressed JUST LIKE the bride, so angry ex-suitors and others wouldn’t be able to figure which one was the actual bride.

fascinating information from some bridal book i got at the library which was otherwise stuffed and clogged with all kinds of bridal stuff i didn’t care about reading about.

but one funny thing - there was a book all about questions a bride might have, and one of them was about what to do about wedding crashers. they went on and on about ushers escorting them out and stuff, but then the question was posed, what happens if a dog wanders into the ceremony? it can just sit there if it’s being quiet, or otherwise, once again, the ushers need to escort it out.

i feel that there will be at least one invited dog at my wedding. mollie, of course, who will be a good dog. shortie and gizmo aren’t invited, though, because they would be quite unruly and would certaily have to be escorted out, except of course that they’re so little and cute that people would want them to stay.

tuesday already! i’m taking the train on thursday, and i bought my ticket, and i’m excited about that. just up to rockford to meet MFH who is teaching a class, and then i get to lounge around all day on friday while he teaches. not to mention the large amount of lounging on the train itself.

that is all for right now.

ok then,

may grace.




May. 15, 2006

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french toast [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 7:14 pm

that’s what i really missed at the crappy Tuscany non-buffet. i love french toast, although i rarely ever eat it anymore. when i was a kid and we’d gon on vacation, i’d always order french toast for breakfast and they’d bring out this GIGANTIC thing of french toast and i loved it.

i went power-shopping in saturday morning. well, i attempted to power shop, anyway. i had to give a massage at ten and they kept advertizing DAZZLING SPECIAL DEALS at famous-barr (now macy’s, i believe) and i need a new purse so i was in the store by ten after nine, buzzing around trying to find a good purse.

the sales weren’t quite as dazzling as they led me to believe, and i didn’t find anything i liked and i quickly realized that it was too early to make a decision about anything anyway. i did notice quite a few older couples walking around, mostly the women were ahead and the men were sort of shuffling behind, and they didn’t seem into it so much, the men.

one time MFH and i went to some sale before xmas and i think we were in bergner’s at seven in the morning. surely that can’t be right? i definitely remember that even though it was close to xmas, there weren’t many people there yet (BECAUSE THEY WERE ASLEEP) and it was kind of fun to make decisions about gifts even though i might as well have been asleep.

i’m taking the train to rockford this week, and i’m looking forward to it immensely. sleeping, reading, watching the world go by, it’s going to take hours and hours to get there and i’m quite happy about that.

ok, i have more things to do now before i can rest. i hope you survived monday.

may grace.

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THE WORST MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH EVER [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 4:33 pm
was had on sunday (MOTHER’S DAY, in case you forgot but now it’s really too late) at TUSCANY RESTAURANT.

such a horrible, rotten time.

randy’s mom told him she saw an ad for a mother’s day “buffet brunch” at tuscany. $16.95 per person, $12.95 for people over 65. even though it was a “buffet brunch,” you had to order off the special menu and the waiter brought you as much as you wanted.

this was ONLY IN THEORY, however.

we got there at 11:00 a.m. because they said they couldn’t accomodate my family and randy’s family, all eleven of us, at noon.

we got there at 11. there was a small menu, and brunch items included scrambled eggs with some stuff like spinach and ham in them, hash browns, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, and fruit. the non-breakfast things were about five kinds of pasta, and also a prime rib and stuffed sole.

we all ordered, after everybody arrived by about 11:10 and we waited and waited for our drinks and finally the waiter took our order and finally brought out some fruit which consisted of still frozen melon balls.

we ate the delicious warm bread they brought us, and then we waited.

and waited.

AND WAITED.

all the tables weren’t full, and finally, sometime well after noon, we’d been there about 45 minutes, they started bringing out our food. mom’s hash browns were cold. SHE’S THE MOM, CAN’T YOU AT LEAST HEAT ALL HER FOOD?

all the breakfast stuff was ok, and they brought my sole last of all. i didn’t really want sole that early in the day but i decided to pretend it was dinnertime. the sole was very good, but very rich, especially for lunchtime.

we could then order more food, which some people did, and once again the WAITING AND WAITING AND WAITING started up again. they did manage to keep re-filling our tea. but waiting and waiting and waiting, so some of us left. i ordered dessert but then asked if it was included in the price of the “buffet.” nope. i decided i didn’t need dessert anyway. randy and his brother rick and his mom all ordered more food, and we left after getting the bill which also included $1.65 for each tea. COME ON HERE, a buffet where it’s not actually a buffet and they charge for drinks and dessert? RIDICULOUS.

later randy called. they’d waited another 45 minutes for more food and none ever showed up, and finally the manager asked them what they were waiting for and randy said OUR FOOD! and then randy got mad, and i hope he YELLED at him, but he’s too polite for that, so the manager comped their meals. but the rest of us had already paid our hefty bills.

BUT AT LEAST WE GOT TO LEAVE TUSCANY, NEVER TO RETURN.

i told mom that next year is sure to be better.

i have many more things to say at this time but i’m about to be late for a massage so that’s all for now, MORE LATER.

ok ok ok,

busy may grace.



May. 12, 2006

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so... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:12 am

things are winding down here inside my brain. it’s past midnight, which means i should have been asleep a while ago. at least a little while ago.

lickety split, and i’ll be in bed, fast asleep.

well, in bed anyway.

some nice person just wrote to me and told me about some fabulous kind of pillow i could buy to make my neck pain all go away. so that’s on the top of my shopping list for tomorrow.

i actually have no shopping list at all for tomorrow, so i guess it’s technically the only thing on the list at this time. but you never know when i’ll suddenly decide i desperately need to buy something.

just this evening i bought some cherry vanilla diet dr. pepper. don’t you think that’s too many flavors in one? they also had berry cream diet dr. pepper but i felt that slipped into the much too weird to try category.

berries and cream AND diet dr. pepper? randy claims he went to a coca cola museum in atlanta where they had all kinds of displays, including one that showed all the different kinds of coke around the world, and you could try them, and some of them were wretched and tasted like cough medicine. you’d think we’d have ALL the flavors of all the soft drinks right here, wouldn’t you? but maybe people in europe and various other countries are more adventuresome than us.

more adventurous than cherry vanilla diet dr. pepper?

i listened to NPR for at least 25 seconds today and they were going on about the palestinians and the israelis and i decided that i surely haven’t actually missed anything important in world news because it’s always the same stuff going on, over and over and over.

instead of news, they should call it BAD news. let’s have the GOOD news hour sometimes, ok? where they only report good things that happen. because, i mean, i’m sure some pretty amazing good things are happening all the time, aren’t they? it’s not just about people blowing each other up/terrorizing each other/bloody fights/massive discontent and strife and hardship and badness, right?

GOOD news. maybe i’ll have to start a good news program, on cable TV.

when i get some free time.

right now, though, the bed is calling to me. “grace, you should have been asleep at least a half hour ago, you’re starting to get delirious,” the bed is softly calling.

tomorrow - FRIDAY. all day. make the most of it. even if you live here in spfld and it’s going to be miserably cold and rainy all weekend. stay inside, go to the movies, find something fun to do.

that is all. for tonight.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 11, 2006

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once more, briefly... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 8:48 pm

GREAT DINNER.

plus i beat randy at boggle.

by only one point, but still.

kevin would have beaten both of us, but he had to go back to work.

here are some of my favorite words that randy made up tonight:

vont

pift

randy always makes up highly entertaining words. he also usually has some idea of what these imaginary words might mean.

that is all for the moment.

ok then,

may grace.

---

lickety split! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 7:01 pm

that’s how QUICK and SPEEDY i’m going to be FROM NOW ON FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE about writing on here. doesn’t matter if i’m very very busy or riding my bike in scotland or seeing shows in NYC or driving up the coast of CA, I’M GOING TO KEEP WRITING NO MATTER WHAT.

kate just chastised me for not writing for FOUR WHOLE DAYS.

right now i’m at randy’s, after a day of massaging and other stuff, and he’s making dinner. I’M SORRY I CAN’T HELP YOU AT ALL WITH ANYTHING ANYMORE BECAUSE I HAVE TO SIT HERE AND KEEP WRITING.

lickety split.

randy says lickety split a lot, and i love that phrase. fast fast fast, lickety split.

uh oh, my aunt sandy just called me but i didn’t answer in time because i was writing away, and she, too, craves to read this. SORRY, NO TIME TO ANSWER THE PHONE I HAVE TO KEEP WRITING.

she left a message. THANKS FOR THE CONGRATULATIONS, AUNT SANDY! because of my ESP, i know that’s what she said. words to that effect. affect? effect.

ok, i have to take a little break to eat a delicious meal that i didn’t have to help prepare IN ANY WAY, but you betcha i’ll be writing more tonight.

may grace.


May. 10, 2006

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why phooey anyway... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:12 pm

i was watching “sex & the city,” except i wasn’t really watching because it was a repeat i’ve seen more than twice so i was really flipping the channels except that was very pointless, and i realized that i didn’t even mention the reason for saying phooey in that last entry. it’s because i just looked up the weather for the next few days including the weekend and it’s supposed to be in the 50’s and rainy the whole damn time. and in the 40’s at night.

bad. very very bad.

that is all at this time, except for the fact that i should probably be asleep right now because i’m quite tired. very very tired. busy day tomorrow. kind of busy. some amount of busy-ness. involving stuff of one kind and another.

enough. goodnight. ok then.

may grace.

---

fooey! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 9:44 pm

is that the correct spelling? i’m thinking maybe it should be “phooey.” yes, i think that’s right. not that i’m going to actually spend the two seconds it would take to look it up RIGHT HERE ON THE COMPUTER. i’ve entered a whole new realm of laziness.

i was lying on the floor with this neck stretcher thing behind my neck. my neck has been hurting for almost two months now and enough is enough and i’ve tried many different things to get relief and tonight it was this neck stretcher thing and i still can’t decide if it made it better or worse or if i was actually using it correctly. but anyway for about 15 minutes i was just lying there on the floor and so i started flipping through one of the books i got at the library about weddings and i got totally bored with the whole thing.

instead, let me tell you about mollie the dog. please don’t get the idea that i have NOTHING going on in my life besides thinking about getting married; i’m not some brainwashed lunatic or anything. pretty much. but anyway, mollie the dog is, like all dogs, ALWAYS STARVING TO DEATH.

i got back to MFH’s house at about 6:45 tonight and i could hear mollie whining pitifully, throwing herself against the door over and over again. MFH tries to feed her at about six o'clock every night. now let me just say that Mollie gets all kinds of treats and snacks all throughout the day, plus she has an automatic feeder that spits out dry food every few hours. mollie is not going to go hungry. mollie had to go on a diet a while ago because she was looking more and more like a fat little sausage and i think she’s gaining all the weight back. but she NEEDS HER FOOD at six o'clock or close to it. sometimes she will throw up if she doesn’t get her food, because she’s so hungry.

the thing is, when a dog eats, it IMMEDIATELY forgets that it got any food. i can feed mollie an entire hamburger and by the time she’s swallowed the last bite (and usually one bite is all it takes), she is looking at me pleadingly, longingly, hoping i’ll take pity on her and give her just ONE BITE OF FOOD.

so i got home and she danced around like a maniac and then i fed her her half can of dog food and set the can down and after taking at least one full second to eat the food in the bowl, she started nuzzling down in the can, dragging it around the kitchen, trying to scrape out every last morsel.

because she’s STARVING.

kevin got home and mollie did her dance again, mostly because she was happy to see him, but i know that a big reason she loves him is because he’s been feeding her for quite a few years now.

we made dinner and mollie waited patiently, expectantly as we cooked, hoping we’d give a poor pitiful starving doggie a little morsel.

we sat down to eat and she proceeded to drool all over the floor, just sitting there with her big puppy dog eyes, drool dripping out of her chin which really wasn’t such a pretty look. but she couldn’t help herself because SHE WAS STARVING.

kevin, who never ever spoils her to death, had grilled her her own piece of chicken and he cut it up into little pieces so she wouldn’t choke by inhaling the one big piece, and he gave her some couscous alongside and she ate it in all of two seconds.

after dinner i washed dishes with mollie at my side, as she was still hoping and praying for a little food. i gave her some piecrust in a metal pie tin and she rattled that around on the floor for at least a half hour.

she’s sleeping on the bed now because clearly, clearly, NOBODY IS GOING TO FEED HER. and if she’s going to STARVE TO DEATH she might as well be well-reested, at least.

unless she hears the soft rustle of a cookie wrapper opening, or the refrigerator door, and she’ll be at my side in a split second, hoping against hope that i’ll take pity on her because she hasn’t eaten in at least six or seven days...

that is all for wednesday night.

ok then,

may grace.

---

ok, so this is my excuse today for not writing every day or at least every other day... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 5:01 pm
i thought i HAD just written on here! JUST.

but i didn’t.

i’m not going to apologize because i can’t just spend the rest of my LIFE apologizing for not writing. much too tiring.

here’s a new and fabulous thing i found out yesterday - BECAUSE I’M GOING TO GET MARRIED I’M GOING TO GET SOME FREE CAKE!

somebody just told me that she went to a cake place when planning her wedding and it was delicious but she didn’t order a cake from there because it was too expensive. but she got free cake samples!

so, maybe i haven’t mention this, but i’m going to make my own cake. YOU’RE CRAZY, at least one person has told me, but most people i’ve told haven’t said anything because they know i can do crazy things. i’ve done MUCH more crazy things in my life, believe me. wedding cake, no problem. it’s not like i’m going to be decorating it the morning of the wedding or anything.

but i get to TRY FREE CAKE. so that’s awesome. much more fun than looking at ridiculously expensive rings. free cake, life is very good, if i’d have known about the free cake i’d have gotten engagaged LONG AGO.

oh, except for not getting asked.

it’s going to be delicious chocolate cake. maybe a carrot cake layer because MFH likes carrot cake. i don’t think that’s his favorite; maybe i should consult with him. he said we can do WHATEVER I WANT for the wedding but it would nice to have some input. like what kind of cake he likes. coconut, i know he likes that.

this woman who told me about the FREE CAKE also said that i need to expect people to show up for the wedding who i didn’t invite. this seemed very strange to me. she said that people would hear about it from other people and then they’d just show up. huh. maybe i need to get a bouncer.

i can think about that later.

free cake. life, good.

i sort of have the whole dress thing figured out too, but i want to go try on dresses just because i can. i have a feeling that they’ll be as serious about the dresses as the woman was about the diamonds which had various levels of CLARITY CUT and...one other thing, i can’t remember. lots and lots of hooey, i still maintain, COLOR, that’s the other thing, but probably they will be slightly less pretentious about the dresses since they wouldn’t cost as much as diamonds.

and perhaps they’ll serve cake and champagne. if i had a wedding dress store, i’d definitely serve cake and champagne. at least to give an upcoming bride the chance to practice eating and drinking while wearing a great big dress and not spilling on it.

but then again, i’d probably spill and then would have to buy the dress.

ok, even though diamonds are all a big scam of expensiveness, at least you do wear it forever (well, that’s how long i’m going to wear mine, as opposed to over half of marriages that end in divorce). but you buy a wedding dress and then wear it FOR A FEW HOURS.

this dress that i sort of already have and is hanging in a closet at my parents' house in a garment bag and is very beautiful, i’m going to wear it first at my wedding, then i’m going to wear it around. i mean, i’m not going to wear it while going for walks or to the grocery store (but then again you never know), but i’ll definitely wear it out. if i get to do fancy things after getting married. which i assume i will. many fancy things. i might just wear it for my next one-woman show, so if you don’t get invited to the wedding or if you can’t make it, you can see the dress anyway. which is VERY IMPORTANT TO OTHER WOMEN i assume, based on how excited women i don’t know are about the engagement ring.

yes, there are other things going on in my life. no, i’m not just going to talk about getting married ALL THE DAMN TIME.

for example, i’m going to read the paper any day now because i’m sure there are many VITAL AND IMPORTANT THINGS going on all over the world not to mention here in spfld illinois that i’m NOT KEEPING UP WITH.

i’m going to a cabin concert this weekend. www.thecabinconcerts.com. have you been to one yet? if not, you should at least check out the website. it’s a completly unique and fun thing to do right here in spfld, except it’s technically just outside pleasant plains but that’s not far at all.

and also, VERY IMPORTANT, did you remember that sunday is MOTHER’S DAY? luckily randy is always remembering vital things like that, and we’re taking out mothers out for brunch.

you wouldn’t be here at all without having a mother, just remember that.

that’s all the wisdom for wednesday afternoon.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 07, 2006

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the engagement phenomenon [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:28 pm

well, i haven’t really told many people yet about being engaged, but i was at a couples' house tonight with amy, and i kind of know these people but not really and amy announced “grace is engaged” and the woman WHOOPED with joy and hugged me and stuff. and these other two women standing there, two women who i had never even laid eyes on, not ever, they ALSO whooped and said congratulations a million times.

now, this was very nice and all, and i did appreciate it when, say, my parents and my good friends said they were happy about it. but complete strangers? why, i guess is my question.

amy said it’s because now i’m part of the club. the serious couple club, soon to be in the married club. hmm, will i learn a secret handshake? is there a song that goes along with it?

my own personal theory, after reflecting on the matter for at least 10 minutes or so, is that these women (and there was no whooping from any men, by the way) are happy because that’s what PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO. one of those life things. now, i, personally, have never followed the “things people are supposed to do” chart, most of my life, or rather i guess all of my life, i’ve just sort of gone along on my own little path. so now that i’m doing a thing that MANY PEOPLE DO, the women are damn excited about it.

amy says that when she has told people about my upcoming marriage, many have asked “are they going to have kids?” i was pretty amused by this and asked amy what her response was and she said she told them she didn’t think so. i told her to say, instead, “grace said HELL NO,” only not quite as politely as that. i mean, i guess there is a very slim chance of children in my future, but the chance is very very slim, mostly because MFH and i are quite content with the thought of spending the rest of our lives together, just the two of us, plus whatever pets we have now or may have in the future. so i guess now because of the no kids thing, i’ll slip back into my path that’s not so familiar and cozy to many MANY people. but now i’ll be walking along the path with this man who i happen to love.

i’ve decided to leave all the wedding planning to randy. i think i’d better call and tell him right now.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 06, 2006

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enough already [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 5:35 pm

after two days, almost, of thinking about wedding planning, i’ve decided that it would be much MUCH better to just go to las vegas to get married.

i’m not going to do this, mind you, but there are way too many things to think about.

the only thing i really want to concentrate on is where we’re going for a honeymoon.

today we went to a fine jewelry store to get an idea of a ring that we might want MFH’s sister to design for us. i was fairly appalled at the whole DIAMOND SCAM.

they could mine buckets and buckets of diamonds if they wanted to, and they could sell them for almost nothing. instead, the lady at the fine jewelry store showed us a few very precious exquisite RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE diamonds. i mean, they were from $4,500 to $6,000 and i’m sure you can get ones that are much much much more expensive.

and she explained all about the clarity and the brightness and the cut and the color, blah blah blah and i was nodding and smiling and oohing and aahing and i kept thinking WHAT A BUNCH OF HOOEY.

when we finally got out of there i said LET’S JUST BUY A GREAT BIG CUBIC ZIRCONIAN.

by looking online i found out many other wedding stuff that you’re “supposed” to do but i won’t bore you with all that right now.

the race was ok except i didn’t race, i just walked, but i did go four whole miles, so at least that was something, but i felt like a total fraud, surrounded by all these runners who were actually running instead of plodding along with the other walkers who just seemed to be doing it because they had spouses/significant others who were actually running.

me, my BETROTHED was running. i like that word.

afterwards we had a sandwich and could have had some free beer except i HATE beer and of course it was only 10 in the morning. there were plenty of others eager to drink beer after running like crazy. like crazies.

all i know for sure about my wedding right now is that i want NO POTATO CHIPS. i think randy was relating some wedding he went to somewhere where they served potato chips.

so at least i’m starting somewhere.

i have to go now. i hope your weekend is full of fun stuff and goodness at every turn.

ok then,

may grace.



May. 05, 2006

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clarification, plus a PHOTO [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:40 pm
when i said “weird and crazy” in that last posting, i didn’t mean that MFH is weird and crazy, but rather the situation. just because it’s so very different for me.

here’s the ring.



ok, but now i have to explain this beautiful engagement ring to you.

kevin has a sister who is a jeweler. he’s going to ask her to design our rings. but if you happen to be reading this any you KNOW his siter, PLEASE DON’T TELL HER, because i feel it would be rude for her to hear it third-hand instead of actually from him. so please DON’T TELL.

anyway, so because it could take some time to make these custom-made beautiful rings, he said we need a temporary ring. a practice ring? a training ring? so after he proposed at eight last night, we rushed to K’s merchandise mart to pick up a temp ring.

when we got there they started turning off the lights and locking the doors and stuff which made me a little edgy, not to mention the fact that i’d never actually tried on an engagement ring before or really even looked at them at all. it’s not that i’ve been avoiding engagement rings, but i figured there was no point in looking at them if nobody was going to get me one.

so anyway i couldn’t decide which one i liked so we had to leave because they kicked us out. when we later got to mom and dad’s, dad said it would be silly to go buy a temp ring when they have PLENTY of diamond rings lying around.

they said i could have my grandmother’s ring.

so this morning MFH and i went to the lockbox where everybody was pretty sure the ring was, and there it was, and now it’s on my finger. it’s very lovely, especially for just a temp. ring.

mom had said that amy and i could share the ring, and amy used to wear it all the time in high school. not because it was a temporary engagement ring, just because it’s beautiful and sparkly.

so now it’s my turn. for a while, anyway. i know i’ll have to let amy wear it again soon (even though she has a very lovely permanent engagement ring of her own, not to mention the matching wedding band).

that is all the wedding story for tonight. i have to watch the final 20 minutes of “sex & the city” before going to sleep and then we’re getting up in the morning for a race in bloomington although i can’t run in it because my neck is bad so i have to do the three-mile walk with all the crippled lazy slow people.

more later.

ok then,

may grace.

---

MNB Update [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:00 pm

if you’ve been reading what i’ve written for a couple of years now, you’ll remember me mentioning MNB (my new boyrfriend). i started writing about him almost two years ago, when we first started dating. i wrote about going with him to his first triathlon, about doing a triathlon with him, about going to the movies with him, about camping, about how great it was to be in love. i wrote about when we broke up, but didn’t go into any detail about the many ups and downs of the relationship.

until now.

when we go places, we still run into people who want to know if THIS is MNB.

he used to be.

but as of about eight o'clock last night, his status has changed.

he’s now MFH.

my future husband.

yep, engaged. he said “grace smith, will you marry me?” and i said yes. OF COURSE I WILL!

it feels great, but also kind of surreal, since i’ve never ever been proposed to or engaged or going to be MARRIED.

jim was surprised and happy. amy was happy, but i know the night before she’d been whispering stuff to MFH like “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO POP THE QUESTION?” and just yesterday i know she called him and told him something wedding-related. not that she was pressing for it or anything.

mom and dad weren’t surprised but they were quite happy and when we went to their house they offered us some of dad’s delicious leftover birthday cake, but we were too delirious to accept any. it’s probably too late now to get any of it.

dad said YOU DON’T NEED TO START PLANNING ANYTHING NOW, and he said we need to keep it simple, and not to listen to all the tons of advice we’re going to get. not if we don’t want it, anyway.

and then we went to randy’s and he said WE HAVE TO START PLANNING RIGHT AWAY! LISTS, WE NEED TO MAKE LISTS! he brought up mom’s surprise birthday party we had a few years ago, which involved much planning and lots of lists and boy that was a lot of work. hmm, we’re going to have to figure out how to make this plan less stressful. maybe randy and amy can be in charge of everything. that would make it infinitely easier, but of course the wedding would end up costing about a million bucks, probably.

so we’ll just see. randy says he can do things very economically, but also FABULOUSLY.

MFH’s mom, nancee, asked him today if, now that we’re going to be married, i’ll use his REAL NAME.

ok, it’s kevin.

who is MY FUTURE HUSBAND.

weird, and crazy.

and very very exciting.

and that’s all my news on this (ridiculously chilly although somebody just told me it’s snowing in wyoming so at least i don’t live there) lovely friday afternoon.

ok then,

may grace. soon to be MARRIED.




May. 03, 2006

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the only reason i’m writing right now is because [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:29 pm

randy is standing here, breathing down my neck, yelling at me that i haven’t written in four days. he wanted to know how to write on here so he could fill in for me. so now i’m forced to write SOMETHING...

i’ve been too busy. i’m sorry about that. randy continues to yell in my ear, so it’s hard to concentrate. he says too busy is not a good excuse, i’ve used it way too much. last night i gave two million more chair massages to nurses at the hospital, then i went home and decorated my dad’s birthday cake until midnight. i took a picture of it and i’ll put it up here. at some point.

it seems like dad’s birthday last year was just...yesterday. weird. of course this means that i’m getting VERY VERY OLD, to be making statements like that. damnitall. and in three more weeks, it’s my damn birthday. old old old.

but i don’t care. things are really good at this little moment, so i’m happy.

carefree, too, too footloose and fancy free, not spending enough time sitting around writing.

i talked to christine tonight because SHE CALLED ME. this is practically unprecendented. that just shows that not only have i been bad about writing, i’ve even been bad about CALLING. jeez.

so when i wrote about the TIC NIGHTMARE last friday, i didn’t mention the fact that it was so surprising and nice that K’s mom didn’t get all freaked out by the fact that we were potentially bringing MILLIONS OF TICS into her household. but hopefully we didn’t. hopefully we got them all. i haven’t seen any more of them. not only did she not get mad, she GAVE ME CHOCOLATE. very very nice. made my day.

we drove into chicago on saturday and i noticed lots and lots of huge lilac bushes lining the highway. they were beautiful, and i adore lilacs, especially the smell of them, but i found it very sad that all these lovely lilacs were on the side of the highway because nobody is ever going to stop and smell them. even if you did stop (and you’d probably get into a big accident if you did) you wouldn’t be able to smell them over the smell of the car exhaust.

sad. very sad.

please take the time to stop and smell the lilacs. they won’t be around much longer.

this year, anyway.

“wicked” was good, for the third time. go see it. smell the lilacs, go see wicked. it’s playing indefinitely (i think) in chicago.

i have to do lots of massaging tomorrow and then again the millions of chair massages at the hospital tomorrow night and i’m tired just thinking about it, so i’m trying to not think about it at all.

the weekend...we were going to go camping in southern illinois, but according to weather.com, that’s the only place in illinois where there’s going to be TORRENTIAL RAIN. so instead we’re staying home. doing stuff. maybe just hanging out? hanging out sounds really good.

that’s enough for now, i’m trying to write during commercials while watching the 10 o'clock sex & the city, and randy keeps yelling at me that i have to make it “fun and interesting.” TOO MUCH PRESSURE.

i just got the first mosquito bite of the year on my forehead.

there was something on NPR today about pandemics. it seemed very very troubling. is this something i need to be worried about? becuase there haven’t been any huge things to worry about lately, but if there’s going to be a pandemic, things will be very bad, it appears to me. much worrying.

enough already.

ok then,

may grace.

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