sneezes bless me

Sometime between the time I wrote last and now, the first day of spring happened and when it decided to come it brought pollen. Heaps and heaps. Is it like this every year? This much? This yellow??? I think I ask that every year.
But even with pollen and sneezing and nose blowing and ear popping, March has had bright points. One was that I found an old photo I'd lost. Another is the fact that I got to spend four days in Alabama for spring break. It wasn't really my spring break because I have spring break all year long now. But it was Graham and Whitney's, so we had coffee and adventures and got stranded and rode with strangers on their pontoon boat for an hour. We had Saint Patty's Day in Adamsville and I tried to find a four leaf clover to give Graham because he was sick. I thought it might help him. In the end, I couldn't even find a three leaf clover so I settled for a raggy looking weed and gave that to him instead. Also on Saint Patty's Day we had king cake which, I discovered tastes like goo and doughnuts. Oh! Another spring breakism of the season. Nertz. Have you ever played Nertz? It will fray your nerves the first couple of rounds and tire your brain and make you feel dizzy and just when you think you're getting the hang of it, it will be time to quit. So then you'll be haunted by the ghost of Nertz who will follow you and give you the most irresistible urge to play it, until you finally give in and go through the whole process again. WHO INVENTED NERTZ? I think I would love and abhor them. So that was the spring break of my march. It was amazing. So was the bar.b.que salad Graham bought for all of us at Greentop on Saturday. And P.F. Chang's. Ah. That was beyond good or scrumptious and then there's the whole atmosphere rating and that you have to factor in that scored high. Not as high as the food though. Oh man. That was good food. Our waiter had tattoos and muscles and could talk fast. Really fast. I felt like we needed to rewind and play in slow motion every time he came and left. He told us lots of cool stuff from his life, like being in the marines and his girlfriends and how much money he made. Which was a lot. While we were there, Caleb texted Graham and asked him to figure out how many thousand hockey pucks could fit in the bed of a certain truck so he worked it out in his mind and on his droid. Now, I don't know if we ever figured out why Caleb needed to know that but he did, for some reason. Happy March.



yes. a good looking boyfriend.




i include this because it is a classic. never fails. whenever we get pictures together almost half of them turn out being out of focus. i've grown somewhat attached to the look.





Even though Graham was sick, he still managed to function somewhat normally. This included messing up my hair.


Why do boys do that?

I should have brought my rain boots

Chris has hens. Eleven of them. He calls them "the girls" and has one of the nicest chicken houses in all of Newton County. I'm pretty sure it would be considered by the girls or any other chicken for that matter, to be a five star residence. I would like to announce that they laid eight eggs today. Bravo, ladies. And while they were laying eggs, Chris and I were playing Pirates On the Ship. His house, Hebron, was our ship and he being captain and chief pirate instructed the crew on how to shoot a semi - automatic pistol. It was tiny and had a laser and he said it could burn the back of your eye. It is so drippy and wet and I like it. Nothing cheers me so well as an occasional thunder storm and rainy day.

once upon a woodsie ambsle

Here's a story for you.
Once upon a time there was a girl whose Daddy liked jungles and exploring. So he got a job doing just that. He and his daughter were as tight as jews and liked to eat ice cream cones together, so they had a bond like no one you've ever known. One day, however, the dad left on an exploration and didn't come back, so his daughter, being as spunky and courageous as she was, hired a guide to help her find her father. Now, the guide was strong, handsome and champion of his rugby team, but he didn't much like the girl and the girl didn't much like him. She found him stuck up and insensitive (mainly because he didn't let her change her shoes as many times as she thought necessary) and he found her sissy and ridiculous (because he cooked fried python and she didn't cotton to it, saying she'd much prefer a cold chicken salad from home).
As you may imagine, throughout the journey there were a few more cutting remarks than necessary, a few hot tears that dropped from a certain lass' cheek and a few more cold glares than civil people would have understood.
But one day the guide, being as strong as he was, kept a giant tree from crushing the daughter, and after that she never could hold a grudge against him for quite as long and before they knew it, they were both examining lizards, catching pet monkeys and discussing all manner odd subjects. In the end, there were not so many cold glares, complaints or cutting remarks and there was a great deal more laughter and fried python. This made traveling much easier and when her was father recovered, the journey over, and all were back home safely, the father and daughter invited the guide to the house and long into the evenings they all swung from jungle swings in the Father's study and carved bamboo pipes. And when they played together such music was never heard before then or since then to this day, THE END.

little girl

Once I saw a little girl. And I saw her eyes. Then I saw everything else - her hair, her little smile, her hands, her disposition and the way she would lose herself in her own world. So I asked her to let me sketch her and she stood there and I did. A lovely little bit of a girl.

























'There! little girl; don't cry!
They have broken your doll, I know;
But childish troubles will soon pass by. --
There! little girl; don't cry!'
-j.w.r.