Women Who Eat Chocolate

We're celebrating our anniversary tonight -- 20 maddeningly lovely years .  It's not that I picked George out of a crowd, God led me to him.  I was supposed to do my VS assignment in Phoenix, AZ that winter of 1988.  At the last minute, they changed it to San Antonio, TX.   Where George lived.  God just knows. "By in love she meant the acuteness of the heart at the sudden sight of a particular person or the way over a couple of years of interested friendship one is suddenly stunned by the lungs' longing for more and more breath in the presence of that friend."  ~Grace Paley The wine is chilling, steaks and shrimp are marinating, and a variety of veggies to grill are cut and prepared.  French bread is waiting to be torn off as needed, and two lovely pink candles (a anniversary gift from a friend) are waiting to be burned.  We are setting this day aside for us -- because that's what we were first...us.

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality.  Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.  ~Malcolm X I'm not a radical.  I grew up in a sleepy town that afforded me certain freedoms city folk just didn't have.  The days of summer were slow, languid and stretched out like a rippling curtain of promise.  Mornings spent eating cereal at a table with a vase of daffodils, packing a lunchbox with baloney sandwiches and hopping on my pink Huffy bike to ride off where the wind blew.  The back alley was a freedom highway for me.  This was before they widened it and built restaurants(The Farmstead), banks, and hotels.  Back then, riding up to Toothpick's house (our Amish neighbors up the road) was the biggest adventure I could have.  I was eventually allowed to go a little further and bike up to Boyd & Wurthmann's grocery store.  I can still see the dark, wide planks of wood that graced the floor of tha...

Back from Miami all, and I'm peeling like a potato .  I don't think I have ever peeled this much in my life. The sun was so intense and lovely down there that you feel as if you could lay in the sun forever.  When you're cavorting in the waves you don't feel it at all.  We stayed in one of the old art deco hotels right on Ocean Drive.  I did alot of searching beforehand for the right hotel and price.  I found this place, for four nights, and paid a song.  The only thing we didn't expect was the valet parking.  They charge you up front for four days of storage.  It was worth it though, because we only took the car out once to cruise through downtown Miami.  The rest of the time we spent walking to the beach, down Ocean Dr., Collins Ave., and Espaniola Way .  After the first day the walking became habit.  My figure benefited from this and I unknowingly lost some weight!  I'm continuing this trend by walking out at our high school...

Next week I will be laying under this tree.  We're picking up the girl in FL and all I'm packing is some flip-flops.  Can't wait to see her and lay awhile in the sand....