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Blast From The Past Blast From The PastEvery few months or so, after scheduling and rescheduling, Kristus, Cute-Naked-Man and I get together and make dinner. We start at THE Safeway (no one ever specifies which one anymore) with no idea of what to cook. We generally find the cookbook stand and flip through to decide what we feel like making. Almost everything we create turns out delicious and we often get to try out new recipes and embellish old ones. We take our time and generally don�t end up eating until 8 o�clock. We�ve been doing this for about 4 years now. When Cute-Naked-Man moved to Utah for the summer, Kristus and I decided to go on a road trip to southern Utah in my old Volvo. Let me tell you: this is not the way to visit the Utah-Arizona border. Kristus couldn�t drive a standard so I did all the driving; her job was to keep me awake. We had 8 days. Eight days is definitely not long enough for a trip of this magnitude. It was late July so the temperature was ridiculous. It was 39 degrees and we were spending over 10 hours a day for 6 days in a dark brown Volvo station wagon with a black interior and without air-conditioning. I�m from Edmonton and I was born in December so 39 degrees is like the fires of hell to me: so hot you can�t even fathom functioning in it. Some days I literally had to wrap my hands in T-shirts in order to touch the blazing steering wheel. At one point we had to pull over and sit in an Arby�s for 2 hours before I could go on. Did you notice the timeline? We had 8 days to make the trip; we drove for 6 days, leaving us 2 days in which to explore southern Utah and part of the Grand Canyon. Never again I tell you! NOTHING is worth that! That said we had a blast while we were there. We spent one day exploring an edge of the Grand Canyon and one day lounging in the Virgin River in Zion National Park. We saw baby humming birds and a lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes. We tried out at least 6 flavors of Ben & Jerry�s. We all slept together on a big mattress on the floor with the lukewarm air from the swamp cooler flowing over our bodies. We endured Cute-Naked-Man�s breakneck back-road driving and lived to tell. We made Calzones and lasagna and whole wheat pancakes with fresh peaches for topping. We have some great photos and great memories and I don�t think geography will ever stop us from continuing our tradition and staying friends. Last night after dinner we went out dancing with Bear, Africa, Foreman, Princess, and Jago (who went home early). Dancing with Africa, Princess and Kristus is always intimidating for me, and now even more so since my feet are all messed up and I have to be careful of them. Those three are by far the best female bar dancers I know. Africa is tall and blonde and drop-dead gorgeous. She�s loud and enthusiastic and FUN! She draws men like flies to honey. Princess is made for bar dancing. She knows all the words to all the �hump songs� and she can dance to absolutely anything while looking blistering hot. She always wears the right clothes and when she peeks up at you through her pixie haircut with those big brown eyes you just can�t resist smiling back at her. Kristus has got the moves: on the dance floor she�s cooler than cool. She holds her liquor better than any woman I know and better than most men. She�s strong and confident and smooth. She has an alluring smile, stunning blue eyes and the most infectious laugh. It�s a tough crowd to be in when you know people are comparing. It�s been a long time since I�ve closed a bar and a long time since I�ve had that much to drink. We slammed back shots while toasting the prevention of breast cancer (an inside joke) and danced like we used to. Princess commented that she missed dancing with me because I always used to accidentally grab her butt; I do it on purpose now. Last call passed in the blink of an eye and all too soon we were cabbing it home. There�s something comforting in the way your friends treat you when you�re too drunk to function (I was exhausted and started with wine: a recipe for a hangover). Jago thanked me for kissing him on the cheek. Cute-Naked-Man patted my head when I was almost passed out on the table with my cheek hovering over sticky drink rings. Foreman caught me and held my hand after I almost fell down the front stairs. Bear helped me take my bra off, and found my pills and splint before bed. He made sure I had a pillow and blanket and a full glass of water. Granted he also won�t tell me what we talked about from 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. and teases me that I can�t remember. So despite a pounding headache and the feeling that perhaps some small animal died in my mouth last night, I am happy. I proved that I can still party like I used to, even when I wasn�t planning on drinking at all. I just can�t do it as often as I used to and I need more time to recover. I�m not too old to have fun yet, and boy did I have a blast!
2003-10-11 || 12:42 p.m. |
