Friday, April 9, 2010
As I was getting my grocery list ready to send to Linda for a Friday delivery, I opened the door and decided one thing:
I needed a lot more food.
I’m so limited in what I eat, and for simplicity’s sake I pretty much eat the exact same thing every single day… but I wanted to make sure Alece was going to feel at home, so…
Saturday, April 10, 2010
I stocked the fridge! I think I may have actually seen it shudder from the sheer weight of having to do what it was made for.
And I found it impossible to get a photo without Riley poking his nose in the shot… I may have seen him shudder from the sheer excitement of all the good smells. :)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
This shot pretty much summed up the previous week of rain, rain and more rain. But I’m pretty sure nothing could damper my excitement about the week to come. Up until Sunday I really was still holding my breath about Alece coming. But when she emailed that night that she was packed and ready for the next day’s flight, she was healthy and nothing was preventing her trip…
…people, I could hardly stand it. I rested up all day so I’d be ready for when she got here, but if I could have walked well I would have been pacing the room. :)
Monday, April 12, 2010
She’s here! To say Riley fell in love with her would be a bit of an understatement. As much as he is by my side 24/7, I found myself seeing less and less of him as he made sure to spread the love. He’d lay with me for awhile, then leap over to Alece’s chair to make sure she wasn’t lonely.
He’s nothing if not an equal opportunity schmooze.
At one point, we were discussing our mutual love of all things Sydney Bristow when Alece mentioned that she was unable to get the final season of Alias in South Africa.
The woman had no idea how all the mysteries of Rimbaldi ended. Or the significance of the Mueller device. And if you don’t know what these things mean, you need to rent all five seasons of Alias and watch them immediately. We spent every evening with snacks and drinks and DVDs… managing to finish the entire season before she had to leave.
And it was fun for me to watch her face when people she thought were dead were really alive. I love a good twist. :)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
This was one of my favorite things about having Alece here… just the fact that she was here. That I could hear someone else’s keyboard clacking across the room. That she could show me brochures for Thrive Africa and we could brainstorm together. That we’d be on Twitter and crack up laughing at the same things. That we could both be working on our computers, have a thought, and talk about something important to us at any time…
…because she was right there in the room. I forgot how nice it was to have someone around to just BE.
Riley, however, didn’t enjoy the computer very much. It distracted her from all the toys he was throwing at her feet in an attempt to woo her into playing.
He’s all attention-seeking like that.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Here’s the truth: we lived in pajamas. And Riley spent most of his time gazing at her adoringly.
He has a crush. A very serious crush.
Another blogger, Mary, ended up driving up from Kansas City this day to meet Alece while she was here and spent a few hours with us as well. I guess with all the talking I didn’t think to get out the camera for random shots… it was so surreal to sit around with people who are normally little avatar photos next to their Twitter names and then see them in real life.
Hence, the reason Alece had real clothes on in this shot that I captured later that day from around the corner.
Look at that dog. It’s love, people.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
One of the things Alece had on her list of things she’d like for groceries was chips and salsa. It was at this point that I shared with her that I had never tried salsa before.
Go ahead. Gasp. Faint. Fan yourself like a southern belle.
Because, apparently, that is like one of the seven deadly sins or something.
I had no idea people would freak out by this piece of information, but they did. I am happy to report that I LIKED THE SALSA. And I’ve since learned there are fruit salsas that are now on my list of things to try and fall and love with. I’ll let you know how it goes.
For the record, I introduced Alece to a few excellent things as well. Like, she turned up her nose at the idea of green apple Smirnoff, and then fell in love with green apple Smirnoff.
And, the woman had a severe dislike for Oreos. But I made her try double stuffed Oreos straight out of the freezer… and once again made a convert out of her. To the point where she’d grin and walk to the freezer and admit she craved them.
Ah, I had so much to teach her. :)
And she had so much to surprise me with… like ALLY McBEAL!!! Ohmysoul, people, I loved that show. And we may have squealed at the first disc when all of the funny started flooding back. If you’ve never watched it, you really should. It’s the quirkiest kind of brilliant.
It’s so hard to show you a couple of pictures of a whole lot of nothing and explain how fantastically wonderful the week was. I love that a friend from South Africa, who I came to love as family over a computer, turned out to be the exact same person when she sat in my home.
We ate, we drank, we talked, we laughed, we did absolutely nothing that added up into a lifetime of something.
I had a really good week. And I stored up a lifetime worth of happy.
