Well, this has been a delightful weekend.

Friday afternoon I went to see The Great Gatsby with some friends, and since I love the book a whole bunch (it’s borderline unhealthy, really), it was fun to see a new adaptation of it. I wish that the pacing had been a little faster, though I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was great, and the sets were oh-so-beautiful. I also wish that the theatre had been a LOT cooler because it’s bad enough watching a movie about the 20s when they’re burning slap up and putting blocks of ice in front of oscillating fans, but it’s a whole ‘nother level of frustration to be watching people burn slap up while wondering if the air in the theatre WILL EVER CIRCULATE AGAIN.

I’m happy to report that we all survived the heatwave. But make no mistake: the thermostat at our local theatre is on my Summer 2013 Watch List.

D and I went out Friday night for a Real-Live Fancy Dinner, something that we rarely do because we’re just not fancy restaurant people. But about a year and a half ago, some friends of ours gave us a gift certificate to a great place here in Birmingham, an lo, eighteen months later, we finally got around to using it. The food was absolutely delicious, and we had a really good time, but it’s just not very often than we eat in a place that doesn’t have TVs.

We have very refined tastes.

Saturday I went to a wedding while the fellas ran some errands, and it was a fine way to spend a pretty May afternoon. My friend Alison did the flowers at the church and the reception, and they were gorgeous.

See?

She is so talented.

After I got home, I cooked some supper, and after the young’un was in bed, I took it upon myself to get caught up on Scandal (OH, I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS) and watch Kristen Wiig host SNL. I fell asleep about fifteen minutes into SNL (obviously, I love the night life / I’ve got to boogie), so while I don’t really have a strong sense about whether or not SNL was funny, I do know that I was rested as all get out when I got out of bed this morning.

THE 40s ARE AWESOME.

We had a really sweet service at church, and right after the sermon started, Alex passed me a couple of different notes.

Listen. That first note was mighty sweet in light of an ongoing conversation / discussion we’ve been having about worship, but the second note just cracked me up. HEAVEN FORBID a child would have to eat at Chuy’s two days in a row. That would be terrible.

(We did end up going to Village Tavern, though.)

(The brunch option was oh-so-appealing.)

(But next week I plan to have a deeply meaningful reunion with deluxe tomatillo sauce.)

This afternoon I was fairly worthless but in the most enjoyable ways: I took a nap, hung out with my people, kept up with the State / Ole Miss baseball game, read a little bit, took another nap, heated some leftovers, read a little more, watched The Help, and now I’m typing this post with the Survivor finale on in the background. There were probably lots of things that I could have done, but it surely has been nice to throw all of that stuff on the back burner and just relax.

Even if those two naps mean that I will probably fall asleep around 3:53 Monday morning.

But that’s okay. I have Mad Men and a couple of new books to carry me through.

Hope y’all have had a wonderful weekend, too!

Now I know that the title sounds like an exciting new breakfast offering from McDonald’s, but alas, it is just a made-up word that popped in my head when I was putting together a mental list of links I wanted to post.

And yes, it would be ever-so-exciting if I managed to write a post with some semblance of a narrative thread this week, but it may not happen. There is lots of busy busy-ness on the work front for the next couple of days, not to mention that I plan to see a matinee of The Great Gatsby this Friday so that I’ll be able to stick around for a second showing if necessary.

The level of love that I have for that book is not at all normal.

All righty. Let us begin the Linktacular.

Linkapalooza.

Linkaroo.

I could do this forever.

– Today I felt a surge of white hot panic when I realized that I had not yet ordered Mother’s Day gifts for my people. I can blog about this, of course, because my mama and mother-in-law will never, ever see this post thanks to their long-standing personal policies of never really having a reason to “look at the computer.”

Anyway, I am happy to say that I found gifts that I think they will enjoy very much: Sparkly Green Earrings and Mended: Pieces of a Life Made Whole for Martha, who loves to read more than she likes to shop for jackets (hard to believe! but true!), and for Mama, who loves all things related to hospitality, I picked Return to Sunday Dinner, which is an absolutely gorgeous cookbook.

Just thought I’d pass along the suggestions in case one of you happens to be in white hot panic mode, too.

Also, let us pause and give thanks for the wonder that is Amazon Prime.

Amen.

– So this is epic.

Just FYI: “Don’t Cry Out Loud” is one of my all-time favorite pageant songs. It lends itself to a wide range of Deeply Meaningful Motions.

And when Jimmy Fallon broke out the Sam Harris song, I looked at my husband and said, “Oh. The fact that he pulls out a Sam Harris reference from almost 30 years ago makes me think that I would like to be his friend.”

– So. Let’s just re-visit that Sam Harris Moment, why don’t we? Because I was in junior high, I think, when I discovered that I could scream/sing in the same range that he sings in, and that made for some memorable vocal moments with my jam box and my Sam Harris cassette.

I continue to love this performance with every fiber of my being.

– If you’re a Mad Men fan, you will understand why I’m a little obsessed with this GIF.

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Oh, Pete Campbell.

– If you live in Birmingham or like to visit here, Rachel has put together a great Pinterest board called Birmingham: Eat Local. Really, it’s a catalog of some of Birmingham’s most beloved restaurants. And I’m totally using it as a reference the next time D and I stare at each other and say, “So. Where do you want to go?”

– I’m getting my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow.

I don’t have a link for that, but SWEET MERCY, IT IS TIME.

1. Despite the fact that I’ve always been devoted to the flour tortilla, I find that I’m developing some affection for the corn tortilla.

2. In fact, I bought corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas at the grocery store this week, and now I’m sitting here thinking, “YOU STARTED A BLOG POST BY TALKING ABOUT TORTILLAS?”

3. Yes. Yes, I did.

4. Sometimes, I reckon, a tortilla is the highlight.

5. The other earth-shattering development around here is that our Publix is being remodeled.

6. I am of the personal opinion that until the remodeling is finished, they should think about changing their slogan to “Like a rat in a maze.”

7. Because my goodness at the confusion.

8. Earlier today, in fact, Melanie called when I was getting ready to check out at the Publix, and I told her that I feel like customers should receive a complimentary parting gift after they successfully navigate the remodeling madness.

9. My suggestion for the parting gift is some sort of nerve pill.

10. And when I was talking to Melanie, a woman overheard me, and she said, “Honey, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’m just as undone as I can be by this whole thing. Truth be told, I’m so rattled I can’t even remember what I came in here for.”

11. I totally understood what she was saying. If I hadn’t had my grocery list with me, I would’ve just thrown a bunch of tortilla chips in the cart and called it supper.

12. The tortilla chips were the closest item to the front door, by the way.

13. I should’ve cut my losses and gotten out of there before I wasted fifteen minutes trying to find the frozen blueberries.

14. Not to mention that I think we can all agree that the shampoo has absolutely no business being over by the bread.

15. That doesn’t even make good sense.

16. In other news, I don’t understand why everybody on Revenge is whispering.

17. Because all the whispering makes me want to scream at the TV and tell everybody to SPEAK UP, ALREADY.

18. I’m looking at you, Emily Amanda Thorne Clarke.

19. Also.

20. Tonight’s low is 48 degrees.

21. I realize that 48 degrees is practically shorts weather for some of you midwesterners / northerners / East Coast dwellers, but here in Alabama, on May 6th, 48 degrees is BRISK.

22. I wouldn’t be at all sad if D decided to build a fire.

23. Pretend that there’s a transition right here.

24. You know how you hear a song and it doesn’t really resonate with you – and then you hear it a few months later and you’re quite certain that you’ll love it for the rest of your life?

25. That’s the way I feel about this OneRepublic song.

26. Okay – I believe this series of disconnected sentences has gone on long enough.

27. After all, tonight’s episode of Dancing With the Stars isn’t going to watch itself, now is it?

28. Hope today was a good ‘un, y’all.

I know that I don’t write about my work – and I’m not about to start because, well, BOUNDARIES – but last week was, to put it mildly, FULL. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was full, primarily on an emotional / spiritual / mental level. So by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I wanted to sit outside and NOT THINK and look at some trees and NOT THINK and maybe hang out with some friends and – you got it – NOT THINK.

Which is how we ended up here.

And no kidding: a high school baseball game was the cure for (almost) every single thing that was ailing me. The little guy and a buddy threw a baseball to each other for the better part of two hours. There was plenty of time to visit with friends, to look at the trees, to breathe a little bit and soak up some end-of-the-day sunshine. We had a delightful time.

We went to Five Guys after the game, and by the time we got home, I felt like I’d been hit by a wave of BONE-WEARY TIRED that demanded I proceed straight to bed just as soon as I had my standing appointment with this stuff.

Listen. I KNOW. It’s awful to be 109. But the fact that I have a standing appointment with the Icy Hot is indicative of the fact that I have not yet found my dream pillow. Oh, I bought a very nice pillow at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and everything about it seems like it should be perfect (side sleeper, synthetic down since I can’t do the feathers, very plush but still somewhat rigid), but when I put my head in the center of the pillow, it doesn’t give me enough support. For the first three or four days I thought that I had found a winner, but then it was Neck Discomfort 2.0. So the search continues.

Saturday morning I woke up way earlier than I expected, but that was totally fine because I got to write in my new journal.

Isn’t that SASSY MCGEE? I got it at a bookstore here in Birmingham, but it isn’t on that store’s website. So here’s a link if you’re interested. It’s just as cute on the inside.

(Just FYI: the paper is lined.)

(I know that some of you are probably unlined journal people.)

(Free spirits. DEVIL MAY CARE-ISH.)

I spent most of Saturday working on some book-related stuff, but I took a break around 11:30 to cook lunch for my fellas. Normally I don’t do a whole lot of cooking on Saturdays, but I had pork chops and squash that I bought earlier in the week, so I decided to fix some rice, too, and just go ahead and serve what my mama would call a big ole country dinner. So I made a squash casserole, cooked some rice, pan seared the pork chops, then put the pork chops in the oven to finish cooking. I figured I might as well make some gravy to go with the pork chops and rice, so I pulled out all my gravy-related ingredients, grabbed the pork chops out of the oven when they were done, and as I was taking the pork chops out of the skillet, I somehow forgot that I’d just taken them out of a SCALDING HOT OVEN and grabbed the skillet handle with my left hand.

Here’s my biggest understatement of 2013: ouch.

You know how sometimes you stub your toe and it takes your brain a few seconds to process that OH YES MA’AM THIS IS GOING TO SMART? That’s what happened when I grabbed the skillet. I stood still as a stone for what felt like thirty seconds, wondering WHY IN THE WORLD DID I NOT THINK THAT WAS HOT? And then I started to feel the burn, but in an entirely different way than Jane Fonda intended back in the 80s. I made some sounds to the effect that SWEET FANCY MOSES I HAVE HURT MYSELF, and D came running (okay. maybe not running. maybe more like walking really fast.) down the hall to see what he needed to do to help. By then I was holding my hand under some cold water, so he made me an ice pack and cleaned up everything that splattered when I dropped the skillet. He also made sure that I didn’t require any medical care, and then he said, “Is there anything else that you need me to do? Can I finish making lunch?”

And y’all, I don’t know what came over me, but in that moment I felt as determined as I’ve ever been in my life. I assured D that I could still take care of lunch, so I rubbed a little salve across my finger tips, put the skillet back on the stove (with my right hand, of course), and by diggity I whipped up a batch of gravy. My left hand was holding tight to that ice pack, but my right hand mixed flour with pan drippings, poured in some beef stock, adjusted the temperature, and whisked for upwards of ten minutes. I did have to ask D to twist the pepper mill for me there at the end, but other than that I made that one-armed gravy all by myself.

Honestly, I felt like I was in some sort of impromptu Southern Woman Olympics. And while I had suffered a setback with an unexpected minor burn that was all better within a few hours, I would not – I could not – let that injury get in the way of my gravy. Oh no ma’am. I have trained for way too many years.

(I was so tempted to say “gravy trained” in that last sentence.)

(Clearly I exercised remarkable restraint.)

(And I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend.)

Lately, more often than not, I look at this little blinky cursor on the screen and think, “Eh. I got nothin’.” And really, it’s not that I don’t have anything to write about; it’s more like I don’t know where to start.

Okay. That sounded way more dramatic than I intended it to sound. Because now, if I were you, I would be thinking that this is the part of the blog post where I’m about to tell you some earth-shattering news. And I do not in fact have any news of that particular variety. Oh, I could tell you about how I cooked tilapia tonight for supper, and how it was the first time we’ve eaten fish since An Unfortunate Mahi Mahi Incident the last time we were at the beach, but that is certainly not a life-altering event. Or I guess it was a life-altering event for the mahi mahi because, well, IT WAS OUR DINNER, so I guess by comparison we fared pretty well – other than a short-term aversion to fish that looks beautifully cooked on the outside, but on the inside, not so much.

Anyhoo.

The reason that I don’t know where to start when I see the cursor blinking is that our days are so dadgum full lately, and by the time I cook supper and visit with the husband and get the boy to bed and sit down for a few minutes to process the day, I can’t always muster the energy to chronicle a few of the day’s details in a blog post because, well, that requires brain power.

And do you know what doesn’t require much brain power?

TV.

I waffle between thinking that it’s pointless to post anything and thinking that no! something is better than nothing! even if it’s just a Mad Men GIF.

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See? WE ARE ALL HAVING GOOD TIMES NOW!

Okay. I have to go now because we have some friends staying with us tonight, and they just texted to say that they’re ten minutes away. Which means that I might need to do something about the large pile of laundry on our bed and maybe fold a couple of towels.

But I just wanted to say “hey.”

So.

HEY!

Have a great weekend, y’all.