Six For Saturday

We just returned from the Olive Garden, and even though it’s not authentic Italian food it was still damn good. Heidi had these gift cards burning a hole in her pocket so I suggested we take the kids today and do something about them. So we did, we had a blast, and we have an abundance of doggie bags to show for it. Man, those portion sizes are HUGE. Sometimes, when I haven’t been there in a while, I forget just how much food a serving contains.

As usual there were a ton of my former students working there (apparently they all have to interview there when they graduate), so it was also a reunion of sorts. The ambiance in Olive Garden is unmatched, with the faus-artifacts on the walls, and the climbing wine racks (do they ever sell any of that wine or is it just for show?) that pop up where you would least expect them. And on the tables were these new-fangled screens where you can order before the server even gets there! OMG, indeed.

Of course the kids were all over the place, though, all hopped up on the sugar their mother allowed them to have on the ride there, for some odd reason. If I had to say, “Sit still!” one more time I would have felt like a painter trying to corral his antsy subjects so the oils didn’t dry before he finished the masterpiece. Yeah, I won’t be painting portraits of these kids anytime soon. But all in all a good time was had by everyone, we were able to use both a coupon (cha-ching) and the $50 gift certificate, and I had both a caffe mocha and a large cup of Dr. Pepper. It was the life. It was a special Saturday afternoon.

It’s afternoons like these that I like to use to sit and reflect about life, and I come up with six recent developments to share with you. So here is my much-delayed Six For Saturday…

1. Winter has come. For ages it didn’t seem like the ground would freeze, or the birds would fly south, or the snow would come. But it’s here, and it’s going to stay for a little while. I hope not too long because spring can’t come soon enough, in my estimation. Of course for spring to come sooner winter had to make some kind of appearance. Usually I want it to stay, but not this year.
2. The semester is here. While spring still hasn’t come to central New York, the spring semester is here in full effect. I was on campus yesterday, getting things together, and tidying up so that I would be ready for when the students come next week. There’s just something about a college campus that is inspirational in many ways. It always makes me nostalgic.
3. I am not a handyman. When we returned from Olive Garden I was tasked with helping to move around furniture in this large house. While the house is large, the doorways are narrow enough that we had to get creative in figuring out how to move things around. And, ah, my back still hurts after the fact. But the furniture has been moved, and a cold beer is waiting for me.
4. Massages are heavenly. Well, they’re heavenly when you’ve got the right masseuse, and I’ve certainly found the best one. I decided to treat myself to a massage for my own birthday present, so I scheduled one for this week, and I was not disappointed. I hadn’t realized how tight my muscles were until she began working on them, and now I feel like a new man.
5. I finished a book. Before you get too excited, it was the new Dean Koontz book I was reading, not the novel I am still currently writing. There were many twists and turns in that book that I hadn’t anticipated, and it was like classic Koontz all over again. I can only hope that his next book follows the same renaissance.
6. The music dies. Yesterday I plugged my iPod into the computer and tried to sync the plethora of playlists I created this past week, but when I unplugged it, after it said the sync was complete, the iPod display said there as no music on the device. Eek! While this wasn’t the first time it happened just like that, I was still devastated  because I thought after I restored it the last time that it would be the last time. No such luck. Now I’m re-syncing with my fingers crossed.

Now I’m re-syncing with my fingers crossed.

Sam