Aussie, Robert Frost, and Derek

After settling in at Wingate's and Catherine appeared an hour later, "after making a right at the dumpster," we settled into an evening of chat, beverages, and reminiscing.

[< Wingate's porch]

I am quite thankful that I really don't remember the stuff from college -- it sounds like -- well, it sounds like I had a good time, even though they always tell stories of which I don't think I had a part. They assure me I did.

*wonders if I went to college at all?*

At least I'm not like Catherine who doesn't remember that she was Wingate's roommate one summer at JSU.

I do remember all of my roommates. *giggles*

Wingate's sister Martha came over to join us for dinner, and she brought her dog, Aussie. Martha lives across the street next to Wingate's parents home ---

BTW: Wingate and her sister have moved back to the home place in Thomasville... the land was originally 10,000 acres [it could be more than that -- I can't remember the specifics] and in Wingate's family since before the Revolutionary War. Now they are down to about 125 acres. They have retired to the land .... it's a wonderful tie to the past .. how blessed they are to have this legacy to return to....

Robert Frost wrote .. "The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. .."

Of course, that was taken totally out of context, but that line jumped in my head....



Aussie is an Australian sheep dog called a blue heeler --[that is no misnomer -- she literally followed at Martha's heels]. When she and Martha came to the door of the screen porch, she was jumping four times her height because she was excited.

Aussie: More people to herd! More people to herd! More people to herd! Let me herd them! Let me herd them!

Since the sheep she wished to herd mostly sat on the screen porch sofas, she settled for having her belly rubbed.

Aussie: No need to herd? Then rub my belly! Rub my belly! Rub my belly!

Wingate's sister Martha sounds like her, looks like her (but her sister is 15 years older), and the two of them are really "farm" girls... they even laugh alike... but there is such love between them -- the way they care for each other, see to each other, and just enjoy what each other does...

We shared a dinner of boiled shrimp, corn on the cob, crusty bread, and salad with home made blue cheese dressing. YUM. It was delicious....

We settled in on the porch for a good night of talking, and we spent the rainy evening laughing and gossiping.... and throwing "men" under the bus.

Eh. It was a hen party. It's in the constitution.

Aside: Wingate's house has a tin roof -- the wind was blowing -- and the acorns hitting the roof sounding like rifle fire. The whole time we were there -- things hit the roof... it was a noisy place for a quiet place, if that makes any sense. When I was outside taking pictures the next day, an acorn came down like it had been hurled by Nolan Ryan and hit me in the temple. Whoever said the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree needed to amend that statement to ... it depends on the weather... dang. I could have been maimed.

The next day we were all slow moving --- for various reasons ---- and we headed to downtown Thomasville for lunch and shopping in a misty, miserable rain.

We ate lunch at Relish, a upscale kitchen store with a small deli in the back that served coffees, sandwiches, and salad.

I ate a ham and cheese sandwich with fig spread and dill pickle potato chips. I chased it down with a Diet Coke. I don't know what the other girls had -- I was too focused on my delicious lunch..

Relish had baked goods to die for -- I bought David a three dollar brownie, which somehow I restrained from eating before I brought it home.

The little girl who waited on us had a broken arm. It was like a Flannery O'Connor short story without the digs at religion.

We tried to shop in Thomasville, but we were too tired from staying up late the night before... we halfheartedly walked the streets, gazing in shops and trying to buy things. We failed. We decided to come back to Wingate's house and rest so that we could get up the energy to go out to dinner.

We did stop at the farmer's market for Wingate to buy "green" peanuts to boil.
Lawd.

I told David that afternoon that Wingate was "boiling" peanuts, and he said, "Crazy butt farm girl."

I dozed in a big chair in Wingate's living room, watched the weather channel, and tried to read this book that I have been waiting to finish. It's not a good book, and it's not a bad book; it's just an annoying one --

Do you ever have one of those novels {they are always long} that gets on your nerves and all you want to do is find out what happens, but you really don't care?

Quite the conflict. These are the types of conflicts you have when you are retired.

*does a little jig*

This novel is one of those --- I wanted to scream at it, "you are all dumb characters, and I just want to see if you live to make more mistakes or die and be thankful there is no sequel."

Argh.

They lived. All five of them....

*emails author -- "i hated all of those people"*

We went to dinner at Marabella's -- an adorable Italian restaurant in the old train depot.
When we got there, the restaurant had eight customers, and they were all women.
It was already loud.

Derek was our hostess and then our waiter.
Derek fumbled behind the counter. Derek looked around the restaurant.
Derek saw many tables vacant.
Derek put us right next to six women who were five glasses into a girls' night out.

*looks at table full of gabby women; looks at Derek*

Derek was new.
Derek was a little slow.
Martha wanted to make him her pool boy.
I wanted to make him take a literacy test.

Derek tried really hard, but if you confused him like Catherine did when she asked for "hot pepper flakes" on the side, Derek went blank.

*blink, blink*

Oh, Derek. You might be cute, but you know, there are other occupations that don't require you to remember to refill the water glasses.

We had a delicious meal in spite of Derek, but I have no idea what Wingate, Martha, or Catherine said the whole evening.

The restaurant filled up with people and noise -- between the hard wood floors, the high ceilings, the cackling of the girls' night out group, the rain on the roof, the rectangular table, and my going "huh" all the time, I gave up and just enjoyed my fettuccine.

Thomasville, in spite of it being in the middle of the pine forest from a Disney movie, has some delicious restaurants.

Indeedy.

Back to the house, more talk, more laughter, but an early bed time...

*twirls*

ETA: I'm too old to stay up late two nights in a row.... and it turns out I will need the rest for our eight hour excursion into North Florida.

*wink, wink*