2000-10-11 - 1:19pm

On the internal soundtrack: "And the Glory of the Lord", a chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Something in the paper today made me think of holiday events, which made me think of Messiah sing-ins. I need to go to one this year. I can't sing, but I sure do like to listen.

More on the wedding weekend.

The day I arrived, I went to a nail salon with S and her friend. They were getting French manicures. I was just going to watch, but I caved and got a regular manicure with polish the color of my bridesmaid dress.

It took a long time for me to cave. It was kind of creepy. It smells horrible in there (all the chemicals) and people wear face masks, and they have sharp instruments that make me think of a dentist's ofice. One of those sharp instruments is used to, uh, remove the cuticles. So there's all these dead skin pieces. It's gross. I do, however, have very nice clean nails now.

S got a pedicure, which involved a lot of foot-scrubbing. Very bad for ticklish people. She was covering her mouth so she wouldn't laugh out loud. I would not have been able to remain as composed. I'm sure I would have laughed and shrieked until tears ran out of my eyes.

On Friday I had lunch with Isabelle. It was wonderful to see her. I hope we can visit more often from now on.

It seems like I did most of the talking, since she asked a lot of questions. I wish I could remember to ask good questions like that. I try, but when people ask me good questions, I forget. Or sometimes I get sort of shy and can't think of questions.

She had a bunch of pictures of her daughter, who is impossibly cute. I can't wait to meet her.

Isabelle seemed a little distracted, which made me feel funny. Like, was she having a shitty time? But she had been up until 2am cleaning house for her ex-mother-in-law's visit (my grand-aunt) and had to leave work early to pick her up. Plus it was this middle of the work day, as Poindexter pointed out. I hope so. I'll write her an e-mail and see how her weekend went.

I had a good time walking around the city. I walked through The Gallery, which looks very different from how I remember it (haven't seen it in over 6 years, I think). The Plough and the Stars, where Isabelle took me to lunch, is in Olde City, which seemed cool, although not as pretty as I was expecting.

I was surprised to see that Center City Philly is very dirty compared to DC. I guess they don't have as many tax dollars to clean up the streets. It hasn't been gentrified as much as DC (Northwest, anyway), I guess. I still have lots of exploring to do, though. I have a map of the Center City neighborhoods with a little bit of information about each of them.

Poindexter thinks we need to explore the possibility of Southern cities a bit more. He thinks they suit our friendly personalities better. Hm. I don't know. Definitely worth looking into. I desperately want to live close to one set of parents, though. It's just too hard cramming it all into weekends and vacations. I'd like to be able to just pop over for dinner and still make it home to sleep in my own bed.

So I missed Poindexter quite a bit. When he showed up on Saturday morning I was very excited to see him. I kept staring at him all day. I like to look at him from a distance and watch him interact with other people. He uses different facial expressions than he does with me.

I hate being away from him, but it sure is fun when we are, uh, "reunited", if you know what I mean. ;)

Poindexter's beard is coming along. It's pretty wacky, though -- it's the wrong color. The hair on his head is very dark brown, a very rich chestnut color (he has gorgeous hair; all the people who cut it have said so, so it's not just me being goopy here). But his beard is mostly red and even blond in spots. It's hilarious.

Everyone at work is telling him to keep it, but I'm getting tired of being prickled when he kisses me, which is often. I will miss the nice tickly feeling elsewhere (ahem) but I just can't take it when my nose gets poked with those bristly hairs.

So, sometime earlier this year, on a Saturday, I found Poindexter in front of the television watching the local community channel as some guy played the keyboard and sang. Poindexter had been watching him for quite some time and was unable to tear himself away.

The guy,whom I'll call PS, was playing in our local mall. He is one of those people who obviously really loves his work. He was singing his heart out and tapping his feet, while playing keyboards in the middle of the food court. Plus there were little kids coming up near the stage and dancing around in that instinctive way that they have. It was just too cute.

During one of these broadcasts we found out what his name was. And a week later, on a trip to this mall, I discovered that he would be playing one night this month. So guess where I'm going to be eating my dinner tonight? I can hardly wait!

previous index next