MissMeliss: Escribition

For those of you just tuning in, Alliterative Saturday is when I use alliteration as a jumping-off point for sharing the highlights of my week.

Autumn: It’s here, it’s here! Finally officially here! I always feel as if season changes should come with some sort of fanfare, with trumpets blaring, bells ringing and children singing silly songs. Instead, I will settle for the fact that even if the thermometer says it’s 91 degrees today, there’s a distinctly autumnal tone to the sun’s warmth. If it’s possible for there to be a “cool 91″ as opposed to a “hot 91″ (sort of like a long cup of milk) we have the former.

Apples: We bought Braeburns at the grocery store when we went shopping on Monday night, and last night I had one with some very sharp cheddar. Bliss in every bite. There’s something so perfect about the combination of crisp, sweet-tart apple and sharp, smooth cheddar. The dogs shared the snack and they agree.

Audio: I received in the mail a sample CD of “Mozart’s Greatest Hits,” with a little booklet of liner notes. Part of me thinks this is stupid and kitschy, but the other part thinks it’s quite a clever way to get classical music more exposure.

Artichokes: At that same afore-mentioned grocery store trip, I bought an artichoke. I love them, and almost never have them. I had to tell the cashier what it was, and he looked at it, and looked at me, then back at it, and his next words took my voice away. “I always thought,” he said, “that an artichoke was a kind of fish.”

Amusement: My writing companion for the past week has been one Nicholas Knight, vampire cop, as personified by Geraint Wyn Davies. I was a fan of the show Forever Knight when it was originally on over a decade ago, and we bought the first season DVD last year, but I wasn’t really in the mood for it. Right now, I am, because I like the accents, and it’s familiar enough that I can write to it, but I’ve finished season one, so now need to acquire seasons two and three, which are both out.

Angel: And speaking of DVDs, the box set of Angel is being released at the end of October.

For those of you just tuning in, Alliterative Saturday is when I use alliteration as a jumping-off point for sharing the highlights of my week.

Fall: It’s not technically autumn, but signs of fall are growing more prominent. Pumpkins have appeared in local storms, spiced cider is back on the display menu at Starbucks (they have it year-round, but only advertise it in fall), as has the pumpkin spice latte, and even though we’re still reaching the 90’s for high temp of the day, the evenings are cooler, and the temperature doesn’t LINGER at the high, just reaches it, then cycles downward.

Fashion: Tim Gunn is one of my personal heroes. If you’ve seen Project Runway, you know Tim as the gently snarky guiding soul of the show, part host, part confessor, part cheerleader, part color commentator. On Thursday his new show, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, premiered on Bravo. It’s a little like a more refined version of What Not to Wear coupled with the sensibility of Queer Eye, and like the latter, it offers fashion advice to the DotW (disaster of the week) in a way that is both frank and kind. It’s the kindness, the obvious intention to help people, that I think makes it work, though Gunn’s snark is also a crucial part of the mix. Thursdays at 10/9c on Bravo. Check it out.

Friends: I am blessed with some really cool friends. Clay listens to me whine about all my writing being fluff and drivel and gives me a good kick in the ass, and injection of creative energy even when I know he’s feeling depleted. Sky brings me back to grace, often without knowing it. Gin makes me laugh. Rana introduces me to things I’ve never considered, like bull riding, and is more addictive to gadgets than I am. Ben is really Fuzzy’s friend whom I acquired by marriage, but he and his wife Julia never fail to be interesting and supportive. (There are no links in this paragraph because I don’t have their permission - well, I link to Rana all the time - but the others write in less overtly public places.) There are others, of course, but these are the people I have the most, regular interaction with.

Fish: Sushi for Christopher’s birthday dinner last night was great. He had salmon. When I married him I had to force him to eat any kind of fish. 12.5 years later, he willingly orders salmon and ahi tuna at restaurants. (I had salmon also, but with sashimi instead of California roll.). There was a group of young women - college aged, we guessed - sitting next to us. Three Japanese girls and one American. Japanese as in “just got off the plane from Tokyo” and NOT Japanese-American. We were trying to figure out the relationship - were they friends from school? Foreign exchange students with their mentor? Who knows? We could have asked, but we didn’t want to make them feel self-conscious, and sometimes it’s more fun to speculate.

Freezing: My body temperature is shifting. I’m not sure if it’s an unlisted side effect of alli, or if my metabolism is shifting, but lately I’m always cold. I keep turning the thermostat up, or going outside to sit in the sun, and while I used to like the car a/c set to “iceberg” lately I can barely tolerate it when it’s mid-way on the dial. Last night, I was so cold that not only did I wear my warm cotton lounging gown to bed, but I snuggled so close to Fuzzy he could barely breathe and was almost choking on my hair, and didn’t make the dogs move. I suppose in summer it’s better to feel cold than uncomfortably hot, but it’s very weird.

Funny: I’m really not a funny person. I can pretend to be, sometimes, but the reality is that while I can make humorous observations, dish out snark, and be ironic or sarcastic, I’m not truly funny. I say this because while I’m still enjoying CSz, I feel like I’m coming close to the end of my time there, like I’ve gotten almost everything out of it that I can. I feel myself disconnecting. I need to think about this some more.

Fuzzy: Yesterday was Fuzzy’s birthday. While I celebrate mine with bells, whistles, announcements to the blogosphere, and copious amounts of chocolate, a day of sleeping late followed by presents and dinner was really enough for my sweet Christopher. We’re such geeks. I gave him a gift certificate to the game store so he could buy role-playing books without me having to spend vast amounts of time near the unwashed miscreants who lurk in such places, and the first season of Heroes on DVD. And a heart-shaped rock, because I thought it was cool. He’ll be away all week, and I hate that, but at the same time, I kind of like not having to account for his food tastes or plan meals around his schedule.

September:

The morrow was a bright September morn;
The earth was beautiful as if newborn;
There was nameless splendor everywhere,
That wild exhilaration in the air,
Which makes the passers in the city street
Congratulate each other as they meet.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sleep: I went to bed before midnight last night and, except for a brief time awake when Fuzzy came to bed around 3:30, slept through til eight, then stayed in bed til nine. My head feels less spinny, my brain more focused. I don’t feel like I was skimping on sleep this past week, but perhaps I just wasn’t sleeping well.

Salon: Today I go to get my har re-pinked, and the bangs cut, but I don’t think I’m going to have her trim any length from the rest, except perhaps to keep it healthy. I’m ready for long hair again, with fall coming.

Sugar: I meant to make chocolate chip cookies last night, then decided I was far too dizzy and disoriented to be dealing with measuring and hot ovens. Perhaps I’ll make some this morning. I wonder if we have any parchment. A piece of parchment on top of the cookie sheet keeps the bottoms from burning, while the tops are browning.

Shakespeare: I caught a bit of last year’s version of As You Like It on cable last night, and have the showing tomorrow morning set to record. I like the concept of using 19th century dress for it, but while I understand that Branagh probably had all the actors affect English accents so that the accents all “matched,” I really dislike it when Americans use fake British accents for Shakespeare. It’s silly. It’s also wrong, since Shakespearian English actually sounds more like certain pocket accents in the Appalachians than it does modern British pronunciation. Repeat after me, Bryce Dallas Howard: I do not have to be English to do Shakespeare. (I enjoyed, btw, the performance of David Oyelowo, who played Orlando. Also, he’s seriously nice eye-candy, as is Adrian Lester, who played Oliver.

Stage: I’m on stage at ComedySportz tonight. Likely to be my last show for a while, as September is a weird month for us. I wish I could say I’m looking forward to it, but right this moment, I’m really not. I’m sure that will change as the day progresses, however.

I’ve done so many memes by other people that I thought it was time to create my own. I therefore offer Alliterative Saturday, in which I pick a theme letter and summarize my day. Today’s entry is brought to you by the letter S.

Sleep:
I’ve been getting up with Fuzzy for the past few days, and taking the dogs out while he does his morning thing. This way, by the time we’re back, he’s done with the shower. Today, since we had no where to be before 7:00 PM, I still got up around seven, because nature was calling, but then I went back to bed, and fell into dreamland. I must have needed the rest, because when I finally woke up enough to get out of bed, it was nearly one.

Strolls:
Despite sleeping into the afternoon, the dogs and I still took our stroll around the neighborhood today. They’d been so good about letting us sleep, and they asked so nicely: Zorro sat on my lap and looked at the door, then looked at me, several times, until I got the point, and Cleo turned in happy circles when I asked her to find her leash.

Storms:
I wasn’t expecting any rain today, but as we were driving into Dallas a sudden storm made its appearance. At one point, there was so much water on the road that our Forester was hydroplaning, but I was so excited about rain, that I didn’t care. I LOVE RAIN!!!

Salsa:
Fuzzy took me to Mia’s for Mexican food today, and the salsa was so spicy it did that thing where it whites out my taste buds and all I can taste is soap. I like salsa, but I prefer it to be savory, not spicier than hell. The carne asada was great, though, even if I did only eat half of it.

Smiles:
We went and helped out at CSz tonight, and I shadowed Mr. Voice. It was nice to watch from the sound booth, and also get a better flow for how sound should work. We opted not to go to dinner with everyone, partly because I’m tired, and partly because I really don’t ever want to go to Spaghetti Warehouse again. Ever.

Serenity:
While I never much cared for Firefly when it was on, and while I didn’t watch it when Fuzzy borrowed the DVDs from friends, and while I still never watched it when we acquired our own copies, I finally got into it a couple weeks ago, and so we’ve been slowly working our way through the series. It helps that I liked the movie, without having much cared for the series.