the Dalaverse

*yawn* I keep sleeping later and later.

Anyway, weekend stuff. The Penn State trip being postponed, I drove home on Friday with Liz and Katie in tow. Lizzie's parents couldn't come pick her up at Katie's, so I offered to drive her home, which is all the way out in Frederick, about forty-five minutes out of the way. It was so pretty up there in the mountains, though, nearly as pretty as the river. When I finally got home, Mom took me out to Chili's, where she ordered the margarita-grilled chicken and they brought her....the margarita-grilled tuna. Let me explain: we do NOT eat seafood. Either of us. Any kind. Ever. Just the smell of it was making me ill. I had to smell a bite when Mom started to eat it and suspected it wasn't chicken (it looked kind of funny, like a porkchop, but she bit into it anyway) and I nearly gagged. Ugh. It was disgusting, although not as bad as the time Red Lobster brought me clam chowder instead of potato soup -- they're the same color and the little chunks of clam *shudder* look like potatoes. And they didn't even take anything off our bill.

I woke up really early Saturday morning from a dream. The day before, while I was driving Lizzie home, we kept passing horse farms and I talked about riding a little. I said it was good that I wasn't dreaming about it anymore, and that I'd probably dream about it tonight just because I'd said that. Hey. I was KIDDING. I had this awful two-part Silver dream. First I was grooming her and she'd been in some kind of accident -- she only had three legs and her right ear was missing. I guess I was nursing her back to health. I took her halter off and she let me touch her wounded ear and it was a Big Thing. Then I was walking away, looking at all these signs and posters of Silver and some girl, and I realized that I was about to give her away to somebody else. And that's when I woke up doing that kind of crying where your chest hurts and you can't breathe. Well, I suppose I was due for a horse dream and a sad dream, although lately those have been where somebody died. But it was still really upsetting.

Nothing much of interest happened on Saturday. I put my tax refund checks in the bank (it's like FREE MONEY! WOOOO!), I watched some TV, I did laundry. I went to Borders and bought the "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" soundtrack and Toby Lightman's album, the first of which is excellent T Bone stuff (except the Tony Bennett song, which we're pretending isn't on there), the second of which is, as Randy might say, just aight. I had myself a lovely carnitas burrito from Chipotle. When Mom got home, we went shopping, because I'd agreed to go to church if she bought me a new dress. The one I picked out was shortish, plaidish, and nice enough, but what I really wanted was this dress that just happened to have been left in my dressing room, in my size. It was a a full-length, black velvet, off-the-shoulder gown, and it looked FANTASTIC. I mean that. I never think dresses look great on me -- it's merely a case of finding which one is...least bad -- but this dress...*sigh* And it was marked down sixty freaking percent. But I didn't buy it because I'd have nowhere to wear it. WHERE was the damned dress when I was despairing over finding a decent prom dress, I ask you?

Sunday I made good on my word and went to church. The sermon was pretty bad, and normally I like Dr. Seckman. It just had no direction, and he started off praising the women, which is the same thing he did last year. Plus the icky creepy youth minister was there. Eventually we wandered over to Aunt Carolyn's house, where I finally got to see Baby Jamie!!! Gahhh he's cute. Kind of fussy, but then I'm used to Jacob, who is the happiest baby ever. Anyway, I did get to hold him for awhile while he slept so Beth could get something to eat, but then he woke up hungry and started bawling and I was perfectly happy to give him back. I hung out with Christopher for a bit. That kid's going to be so much fun when he grows up. Allison took turns hanging off of me and Jennifer, and Jack was perfectly well-behaved for an hour or so before he started his usual obnoxious bullshit. Kid's eight now, he's much too old to still be biting and pinching. I put him in a headlock at one point, but that just makes him crack up and attack you all the more. My Lauren wasn't there, and I was sad. But awesome news! Nicholas seriously and truly knows his letters. I'm not just talking about the alphabet song -- Beth picked up a volume of Shakespeare from Aunt Carolyn's shelf and when she pointed to each letter, Nicholas said it. He's only TWO, for heaven's sake! I'm pretty sure this is because he's so close to Christopher. Oh, and I learned that my sort-of-but-not-really-cousin (they're old family friends and they come to pretty much everything, though not this Easter for some reason) Zachary is gay. Apparently Bunny is really upset and blames it all on June, but as Daddy pointed out, Zach is a great, incredibly bright kid who's going to be a success at whatever he does. Why on earth would you be unhappy with a child like that? Especially considering how much useless wastes of space you can find in our very own family...

Thankfully, there were no drunken rages. I guess we're saving all those for Christmas now. Also, Michelle and Mary Ann weren't there. I was itchy to get going because I had to drive out to Adamstown to pick up Lizzie, so I left around five. Jack immediately starting hanging off on my ankle and I had to get Christopher to defend me. I left him with strict instructions to teach Nicholas to read and a smooch for Ally, who'd gotten absorbed in one of those little needle-point kits Grandma had given her. The long, long drive back to school was awesome, but also kind of sad. Because I like Lizzie a lot, and it's never as easy for me to make friends as it has been with her. We can talk until we're hoarse -- on, say, a three-hour car trip -- and we have a lot in common. Sunday night we talked at great length about a lot of stuff I didn't realize I needed to talk about and I learned that we have similar roommate problems (both of Katie's parents are Southern Baptists ministers. I think that's all I need to say). I could tell she was eager to unload some frustrations too. Anyway, the sucky part is that she's transferring to College Park next semester. So I've got about a month left to hang out with a person I have this great connection with -- the only person I've made such a connection with, not counting Vanessa, in the entire year -- and then she's leaving. To put it simply, it blows chunks.

I gave my Oates presentation yesterday, managing to not fuck up (I hope). I also meant to write the next chapter of "A Simple Twist of Fate" in Polysci, but I kind of fell asleep. Sorry, Professor Hall -- not that I would've been paying attention anyway. And I started a maybe-sort of story set later in the Nailverse. I don't know if I want to commit to the bunny I've got in mind quite yet. And I have Will fic-a-thon to worry about, which is bad because I haven't been feeling very Will-like lately (the chapter I attempted in Polysci was Will-narrated). Ah well, I do know basically what I'm writing.