In which I say au revoir to les vins d'�t�

The many things I have to discuss with you all have swirled themselves into a knot, blocking transmission from my brain to keyboard.

Instead of forcing it, I will sit quietly, listening to PJ Harvey's "Long Snake Moan" and the White Stripes' "Martyr For My Love For You" and stare out the window. It's a beautiful day out there. If I hadn't given up ros�, regardless of its fashionability, I might say it's the perfect day for sitting at a sidewalk caf� with a glass of same. You might substitute Prosecco, and if I hadn't also given that up, I might join you.

Prosecco was the beverage of choice for me and my fellow witches on the set of Satan Hates You, and flowed liberally during the filming of the party scene. All the cool witches drink Prosecco. Well, except for the lovely Francine, who doesn't drink at all, sensible girl. Her sensibility meant that she wasn't around later, much later, when the director and lead actor started sending startling photos to the Keelhauler's phone. It was so late that the Keelhauler, in California, three hours behind, had gone to bed. You can probably imagine his joy when, upon waking, he was greeted by a photograph, sent by someone he's never met, of an acquaintance's balls.

Despite my lack of religion, I'm indulging in a belated Lent, giving up the Wines of Summer. I bid them a fond farewell after my four-hour lunch with the lovely Maven, who joined me and the Keelhauler at a pleasantly hippie-ish caf� in Minneapolis, a few blocks from the Mighty Mississip. The ros� was a beautiful peachy-pink, like the heart of a tourmaline. A glass too many, plus an overestimation of my capacity for the heat, found me sliding sideways into a mellow haze that made attending the Keelhauler's nephew's T-Ball game later that day a challenge. Anyway, I seem to have developed a distaste for it, much like my disinclination to drink peppermint schnapps since that incident when I was 19.

Still, a day like today was made for sitting at a pleasant sidewalk caf�, looking into the heart of a tourmaline and talking in long, looping arcs with the sort of friends who indulge that kind of thing.



Star of the day. . .Dr. Pepper
posted @ 1:00 p.m. on July 14, 2008 before | after

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She lay awake all night,

zzzzzzzzzzz......