Thank you, Dr. Chlorine. My vocabulary is something I am very proud of and try very hard to cultivate! ;)

Well, it's looming over me. I, the writer, have no idea where to even begin. Trisha's was easy in comparison. I just sat down at the kitchen table and wrote what I felt. To be perfectly honest, I doubt I can say what I really feel this time because I'm not sure what that is. But part of me wants to do something else. I don't know. How dorky would it be to just sing a song that I think represents what they'll really be feeling, because right now, that's where I'm headed. I'll have to stew over this some more. Maybe I'll try writing something and if I'm not happy with it, I'll do the song thing. Hmmm... I'll keep y'all posted.

I detest Valentine's Day. Absolutely cannot stand it. I suppose that this is because I have been single for every single one my entire life and I can't stand walking into every single store and being bombarded with red and pink and white and fake "I Love You" sentiments. If you truly love someone, then do something nice when you aren't required by society to be so. It just seems to cause more stress and anxiety to couples and make single people feel really, really low. Last year, I spent my Valentine's Day with one of my very best friends, just talking. And when I went outside, my car wouldn't work. It turned out it was bad gas. What a bummer. Two years ago, I spent the Dreaded Day with my agoraphobic, Schitzo-effective friend. We watched the most Anti-Valentine's Day and Anti-Love movie I could find- my choice- "Dangerous Liasons"- sooo decadent and sooo bad and sooo, well, just sooo. This year, perhaps, I think I will go in the opposite direction. This year, especially as it falls on a Monday, I think I'll come home from work, hole myself up in my room and watch all five hours of A&E's "Pride and Prejudice", perhaps with a bottle of wine. We shall see. But "Pride and Prejudice" I think it shall be. What a lovely way to counter all of the ill effects of that odious, dreaded day!

So, last night, Mrs. Trisha, myself and our dear friend, Miss-soon-to-be-Mrs. Natalie went out for dinner in order to send off our friend to wedded bliss. It was just the three of us as it has been many times over the ten years that all three of us have been friends. Natalie did not want a Bachelorette Party, nothing like the Bachelorette Extravaganza that was Trisha's (and my liver thanks Natalie, Highly!) So dinner it was decided. Trisha was late and Natalie and I were on the verge of freaking out, feeling guilty and trying hard not to. It wasn't our fault that we had a table and were ready to order and Trisha was no where to be seen, right? But, she did arrive, in frazzled fashion and once we heard the tale of In-Laws at her apartment, we totally understood. And then Mine and Natalie's guilt was assauged- our dinner companion had arrived!

We had gone to the Poppyseed, and for those of you that don't know and have never been there, truly great food, everything's fresh, and the prices are pretty resonable. It was so good to just laugh and talk and eat and laugh and talk. After dinner, we were trying to decide just what to do. It was early, only 9:30. Who the hell goes out to bars at 9:30? No one we know, so we swung to Natalie's mom's, to kill sometime and talk wedding stuff and see the beautiful bouquets that she's made for us, and then we went to the Bear's Den, a local Lackawanna watering hole. It was quarter to 11 at this point, still early, but doable at least. So we went out for a beer and just laughed like we hadn't in years. We're all so very different, the three of us, but we work, we blend, we mesh, and as we've known each other for so long, it doesn't seem to matter how long we haven't seen each other or talked to each other, we still fit into our neiches of Blossom (myself), Buttercup (Trisha), and Bubbles (Natalie). For those people out in the cosmos that know us, they know precisely how apropos those little monikers really are.

I can't believe that The Wedding (Part deux) is in exactly TWO WEEKS! And I still haven't written a word in manner of a speech. I'd better get going on that.

TTFN

Dapled sunlight hits her hair causing it to glisten like gold at dawn. Cold, cold air brushes over her face making her eyes water and her nose and cheeks turn a vibrant shade of pink. "This is winter," she thinks, as she trudges onward, "and I am longingly waiting for Spring." Then, she spies a very little rose bud, somehow still alive despite the cold snap and she smiles. Such a tiny little miracle in the midst of December