By Zane Campbell
When I cleaned out your room
I painted the walls to cover any memories
But still it seemed like you were hovering over
Still out there keeping an eye on me
I never really was able to tell you
That's why I'm telling you now that you can't hear
It's not going to be the same around here without you
And I'm holding back a flood behind one tear
We'll go down to the post-mortem bar
And catch up on the years that have passed between us
And we'll tell our stories
Do you remember when the world was just like a carnival opening up?
I never thought that I would ever see the day
And I don't want to believe it's true
You were supposed to always be there
A part of me has died with you
If I could have one more day with you
The way it used to be
All the things I should've said
Would pour out of me
I took a walk I didn't know which way I was going
But somehow or other I ended up here
Where we said we'd meet again and I guess I was hoping
The place had been closed down a while - it was all dark in there
But we'll go down to the post-mortem bar
And catch up on the years that have passed between us
And we'll tell our stories
Do you remember when the world was just like a carnival opening up?
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That's the last song on the Longtime Companion soundtrack, the one that starts playing during the fantasy sequence when the surviving characters imagine if AIDS had never happened and everyone they had known was still alive, and then everyone they've just imagined alive disappears. I thought it was very sad when I first saw the movie in 1989; now it's completely devastating. I have the song on my MP3 player and I really need to take it off because bursting into tears makes any form of exercise really difficult.
My morning was really great -- everyone woke me up early including the cats, but rather than complain I decided to get out of bed and get the rare Superpoke Pets Earth Day items before they sold out. Then I answered e-mail and got some work done and went to meet Gblvr at Caspian Kabob in Germantown, which has the best stuffed grape leaves in the area (and the best salmon kabobs, though I don't eat those any more), and excellent hummus as well. We sat and talked for more than two hours before we realized we were about to be late to pick up our kids.
So I started driving home, and noticed a little light had appeared on my dashboard. What is it with Thursdays and my minivan? I called my Toyota dealer, who said I needed to bring it in at once since that was the engine warning light and it was going to cost $120 just to have the engine looked at even though the van was in not two weeks ago at which point they were supposed to have looked at the engine when they fixed the air conditioning. I made Paul come home early so he could drive me home from the dealer, who concluded that the problem was that the gas cap was loose. (We haven't put gas in the van since last Saturday and we're quite sure the gas cap was tight then.) Anyway, the little light went off, the van was declared safe to drive, and at least it didn't cost us anything since the engine did not in fact require work.
Evening television started with the first round of the NFL draft, which we turned off just after the Redskins picked Oklahoma offensive tackle Trent Williams, who seems universally to be lauded as a good choice. I wonder whether anyone is left at Oklahoma at all, since it seems like their entire team went in the first round -- three of the first four picks! We watched FlashForward, which offered me the good news that not only are we going to have a woman president in the very near future, but that the world is NOT going to end in 2012. Then we watched Next Gen's "Tapestry" so I can review it tomorrow; the kids agreed that it is not a good as "The Inner Light" but still enjoyable, which is pretty good praise. Every week older son reads me TV Tropes about Star Trek while we watch, as if his generation is the first to think of these things.
From the National Arboretum's annual exhibit, Ellen Dutka's Sogetsu School Ikebana with anthurium and split-leaf philodendron.
Carmen Boyd's Ichiyo School Ikebana with curly willow.
Rosalie Ingenito's Sogetsu School Ikebana with bleached palm, Chinese fountain palm, and ginger.
Elizabeth Berry's Sogetsu School Ikebana with lily, orchid, leather leaf fern, and ranunculus.
Holley Green's Ohara School Ikebana with lily and pink dogwood.
Yoko Sprague's Sogetsu School Ikebana with anthurium, orchid and philodendron.
Elise Schoux and Sylvia Tetrault's Sogetsu School Ikebana with curly willow, lily, and New Zealand flax.
Patricia Painter's Kazan School Ikebana with tulips and hydrangeas in addition to origami cranes.
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