happy M day!

Lovely, nice day! We headed off this morning (okay, noonish) for the big city. We didn't quite make it, though, stopping instead at the little festival set up in our area of Bridgeport. I'm not sure how to describe it. Bridgeport is.. I would call it a wide spot in the road but really, it isn't even that. It's not a subdivision, it's not a suburb, it's certainly not a town. Anyway, one of those. They closed off a section of the road and people set up to sell stuff and play music and socialize. There was a silent auction. It was so so cute. It took half an hour to walk up the road and be back in the car but still. They're trying and I must admit that it was a lot more stuff than I expected--the sign has been up for a few weeks about "Bridgeport Ruritan Day" but that was all the info we had. I still don't really know what being a Ruritan entails but I am assuming that it's some sort of club.

Then! We had lunch and it was really nice. And then we went to Walmart ten different small, locally owned establishments to purchase the household and food necessities. Okay, I lied about that but we did eat lunch at such a place if that makes me any less a traitor to my country. We also drove by our old apartment (someone is living there! and that is all the information we have and really that is okay because.. who cares?) and stopped at a scenic overlook of the state capitol building.

Did you know that in 2001, four months after M moved to the US, we were summoned to Louisville for INS business and decided to have a tiny tourist excursion? We stopped in the very place we are currently living. Same exit, even. We followed the signs to the capitol building and made it as far as this scenic overlook (lovely, really, if overgrown) and took a few pictures of us kissing. We like kissing. Oh, I mean, we like taking pictures of ourselves kissing. Apparently. Anyway, then we got bored with the whole idea and didn't know where else we would go, so we got back on the interstate and went to Louisville and moved on with our lives. But then.. three and a half years later, we found ourselves living here, about two miles from that scenic overlook we stopped at that day to kiss. And.. it has now been two and a half years since that first day of work and I think that it should be safe to go ahead and say it: I had a perfectly miserable first day of work. I wouldn't have mentioned it at the time because G would have felt bad (please don't feel bad, okay?) but the job? It pretty much sucked for the first little bit because of the vastness of overwhelmingness to learn. Grammatical, that wasn't, but it sums it up very nicely. So when I came home and cried piteously, my sweet boy hugged me and petted me and then stuck me in the car, somewhat against my will, and he drove me up there to that scenic bypass and he reminded me of the day we had been there as newlyweds, and he took pictures of me being sullen until I finally smiled a little bit and then I perhaps grinned a bit and then I was laughing... there with the capitol building in the background just as we had done years before. And now I am teary again because my boy? He's swell. That was really sweet. I just looked at them again and it would make a great slideshow but I look like crap and I really don't enjoy looking at these pictures because they make me sad so I won't.

So, that's why it was pretty cute that we pulled in there today and walked around. We didn't have the camera with us (my fault, I left it by the door) so no pictures today, but it was nice. Also, I had no earthly idea that I was going to tell that story until now. Surprise and intrigue and.. oh, wait. Not so much, actually. Whatever.

After that, we made country-style ribs (my first time!) and hasselback potatis/weird little potatoes and had ourselves a fantastic dinner. Mmm, I sure can cook. I told M that I would make him anything he wanted for dinner today because it is A Special Occasion. It's his citizenship anniversary! One year ago today, M became an American citizen. Yay Boyo! We thought that ribs would be an excellent way to celebrate his Americanization. Would have been hilarious if he had also picked today to mail his Swedish voting papers but he did that last week. I should also have made him an apple pie or something but instead, I.. didn't. Okay, anyway. I was also going to buy him a gift--because no, it's not really an anniversary or gift-giving type of day but don't we all wish there were more opportunities to get presents? So why not make up your own? And did I ever tell you about Couples Day? But, instead, I... also didn't. Oops, my bad. I didn't go anywhere to buy anything in time. Maybe I will buy him Salman Rushdie's new book. Yes. Baby, that's what I'll buy you, okay? Okay. When I get around to it. Hey, the day's over so I already missed the boat on prompt anyway.

The last thing that I was going to write about was the followup to yesterday's post. I have this tendency to over-explain things sometimes (GASP! ME? I KNOW!) so I try to muster the willpower to not do that sometimes. The real story is not that exciting, though, so that helped. M works with a woman named Donna. Donna and his boss have recently been talking about and quoting a movie, which is apparently called Friday. M has not seen the movie, and Donna is planning to bring it so he can borrow it. She keeps forgetting, so she wrote him a note to remind him to call her to tell her to bring the movie to work. (He didn't. Seriously, M is not communicative, forget about it with stuff like that. Not that I can talk since I also avoid calling people at all costs.) Donna and M's boss both think that M is "too much a white guy" to enjoy this movie. I don't even know what that means but apparently he is at risk. Perhaps we should set up an At Risk White Guy after-school program or something.

Perhaps I'm really sleepy and should stop making jokes now.