Just Looking For A Publisher

Yesterday, we took Maximo and Jacob to get groomed. It was overpriced as always but somebody has to do it and I just don't really want to so we pay the people at Petsmart to shave Jake and rake Max.

We decided that while they were being groomed we would drive out to Altavista, a short 20 minute drive or so from Wards Crossing and snap some photos for our new photo blog. Ward moved to Altavista when he was a Freshman in High School and lived there until he was 22. The quaint little town holds a lot of history for him and many a photo opportunity, so there we drove.

We took some interesting and not half bad shots, we took blurry deletable shots and we laughed that Roses was still opened. We used to rent movies there for $1 before we joined Blockbuster.

There is this old grocer in town, Vista Food. It was Ward's first job, as a bag boy circa 1989. I remembered they had these old registers that were so archaic seeming in the late 90s and I wanted to get a shot of them if they were still there. So we got the children out of their car seats, grabbed the enormous seeming Nikon D80 and went in to capture a little part of history.

The registers had been updated but much about the store was still the same. I decided to get a few shots anyway. Before I took any pictures I asked Ward what I should do if anyone approached me.

"Tell them you're writing a book about Altavista," Ward suggested.

OK, that'll work, I thought. It isn't like anyone is going to ask me anyways.

I didn't want to get any people in my shots. Just some interesting shots from the produce section. So I stood off to the side waiting for some people to pick their snaps and move. The people were eying me but I really didn't think anything of it. I moved to another aisle and took some photos of some archaic shelves. When I returned to produce a lady came up to me.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" She asked.

"I am writing a book about Altavista. Blah, blah, blah, my husband used to work here, blah, blah, blah. "

"I have been the assistant manager for fourteen years," she combated.

"Well it was around 89-90," Ward chimed in.

She started to walk away, "You're fine. You're Ok. Go ahead." She said not looking back at me.

I laughed to myself, did she think I was taking pictures so that we could put together a heist and rob the joint?

I wonder if she is going to go home and tell everyone she knows that she ran into a lady taking pictures at the Vista Foods that is going to write a book about Altavista. I almost feel bad.

-june

Vegetarian F, No Hongos, Side of Rice

If we decide to go out to eat no one who knows me has to ask me where it is I want to go to dinner. They all know before asking, mexican. I love mexican, A LOT. And I have never been to a mexican restaurant that didn't have something vegetarian to offer. My favorite of all the mexican restaurants is La Carreta.

Before I became pregnant and before the twins were born I would frequent La Carreta at least once a week but often more times than that, once or twice I ate their four times in one week.

La Carreta is the only restaurant in my ole hometown other than fast food, chinese or Pizza Hutt and we frequented the place often as teenagers. When I was in the hospital after the twins were born our friends brought us La Carreta to go which I had never had before but was very good.

Last night we ran to Target and came across my brother and his girlfriend, we sat in the cafe for a few minutes talking and trying to decide how many small popcorns and drinks for a $1 to purchase when I suggested that we get something more substantial to eat. La Carreta here I come. We went to the La Carreta closest to our home which only opened a few months ago, making it their fourth location. There are now two in my hometown (#2 and #5), where my brother and Lucy reside. A smoking and nonsmoking one across the street from one another. Folks, I am not the only one crazy about this restaurant. If you can have two of the same restaurant across the street from one another (and the only other food chain I have seen do that is McDonald's) than you have something. Or than again you are dealing with a town where the folks have some difficulty crossing the street. Lucy told me they are now adding a 6th location in Amherst, where we went to high school. I can only imagine the teenagers like myself, skipping their last class to dine on free chips and salsa after La Carreta's siesta.

I love La Carreta and over the years we have become such regulars that they don't bring us menus anymore and they know what I am going to order. Ward and I both have our choices that we stick to. I have tried other things but I always come back to the Fajitas.

We don't go out to eat as much anymore but whenever we do, it is usually mexican.

-june

Lynchburg Has A Lot To Offer

We were online looking for some local attractions to visit when our out of town family comes to visit in a few weeks. We stumbled across this fascinating website. If you've got time to peruse the whole site that would be great, if not we recommend you check out some of the highlights:

"Mags" the Headless Cat

Evington's Lost Locomotive (wreck site of the "Gorilla Train")

The Dreaming Creek "Troll" (The Mysterious Dark Vortex of Windsor Hills)

Pinehurst Mulleted Naturists Retreat

The Hiccup Man (He's Had Hiccups For Sixty-Four Years. Find Him A Cure And Win $500!)

Now we know that not all of you are from towns so cool as this. Try not to be toooo jealous. Before we found all of this great stuff we were just planning on doing some hiking on the Blue Ridge Trail and visiting the National D-Day Memorial. Do you think that the Mulleted Nudists will be appropriate for children?

Listen Here

In October 1996 we went to see a band called The Lemonheads, maybe you've heard of them? Maybe you've read a blog about them if you've never heard of them? Anyways the opening band was called Fountains of Wayne and they rocked. I remember thinking they were really good for an opening band. I remember thinking they were just really good. Then in Febrauary 1997 we went to see the Smashing Pumpkins (whom used to rock a lot), maybe you've heard of them? Anyways, the opening band was none other than the Fountains of Wayne. And they rocked even more.

Interesting (lengthy) sidenote, my husband to be and I both attended (though not together) a show at Randolp Macon-Women's College when They Might Be Giants came to town in 1994 or 1995. Anyways the opening band was called Ivy, co-formed by none other than bassist Adam Schlesinger whom would go on to be half of the real talent that goes into Fountains of Wayne (the other half, Chris Collingwood). Schlesinger also produced several They Might Be Giants songs. Ivy's album 'I Hate December' was put out by Scratchie Records which is owned by James Iha and Darcy of the Smashing Pumpkins as well as Schlesinger himself. Maybe that's how FOW got the gig playing for the Pumpkins, I don't know.

So anyways, Ward and I saw them at Tremont Music Hall where they played with the Lemonheads and we bought the album. By the time we saw them with the Pumpkins we knew all the songs and we're really digging them. To this day that album is my favorite but they have continued to put out some great stuff. Unfortunately, we haven't seen them since they were the opening band.

Ward says listen to:



I say listen to because this is my ALL time FAVORITE Fountains of Wayne song:



-june

Schlesinger also wrote the title track to the movie "That Thing You Do".

I Am Concurrently Listening And Reminiscing

When I was in high school I knew few people who loved music quite the way that I do. Most of the people I hung out with were no longer in high school and in bands and then my best friend moved away and I was left alone in my ole hometown, heartbroken and lonely. Fortunately, I found some people who could put up with me for the duration of high school but we didn't have a lot of similar tastes in music, with one exception. The four of us were all big fans of The Lemonheads 'It's a Shame About Ray'.

So whenever we were hanging out or driving around (when gas was much, much cheaper) we would listen to this album. I like the Lemonheads in general but this is by far my favorite ablum. Maybe because I listened to it 3,502 times in one year or maybe because it is good, or perhaps a little of both.




-june

Ward took me to see The Lemonheads in Charlotte, NC. They were pretty awesome. Circa, 1996 Car Button Cloth had just been released.

Update!

My friend's son has come home as of Tuesday evening! She says she isn't getting much sleep and she couldn't be more happy about that.

-june

Oh, and Happy 5th Anniversary ST &HT!!!!

Casual Disregard At First Sight

I Do Not Know How We Ended Up Together
But This Is How I Remember It

So I mentioned the other day that Ward introduced me to The Smiths. But upon reading my post again I felt that I may have given the impression that when Ward and I met it was sort of love at first sight so I thought I would share the story of how me met, for those of you who may not already know.

A long time ago, in what now seems like a galaxy far far away, my sister and I threw a party. Our father was away on business, we were young and much too wild for our own good. The party lasted three days. I was 14 or 15 at the time, I don’t remember. I was pretty young and so was my sister, not even 18 and we had a party at our house that would give many parents a heart attack. It was just that bad. The first night we had high school friends come over as well as the heavy metalites from our hometown show up. It was pretty scary, actually. One of the guys kept brandishing a weapon that he later stored in my sister’s wicker hamper for safe keeping. I think he was only trying to scare us, but he succeeded. And he stayed the whole three days. We just couldn’t get the guy to leave.

I think it is important to note that we were wild and naïve but my sister and I escaped the teens years virtually unharmed (though maybe a little cynical)and we never did heavy drugs or slept around. We were raised by people who told us like it was and the unintended result was to scare the dickens out of us so we smoked nothing and slept with no one. Drinking though, drinking was another story. I am just being honest. Again, my sister pretty much escaped that one too but I didn’t. I drank more before I could drive than I have since I turned 16. But I have NEVER EVER EVER driven drunk. I have a mother who taught me a lesson about drunk driving before I was old enough to drive. When I was 13 my mother got her license for the first time in her life and six months later got a DUI and then another one while on restriction with the first. So again unintended result was a lesson about drunk driving. Thanks, Mom!

So my sister was in a band at the time. You know one of those garage bands that is really a basement band because no one in the band has a home with a garage? Anyways, she decided on the second night to invite her band mates over. They came. They didn’t really seem to mesh well with the metalites.

One of her band mates I instantly found attractive and did my best all evening to flirt with. He was older than me and had long hair, two things that I was drawn to at the time. He was wearing a t-shirt for a band I had heard of and I made a mental note to go back and listen to the album again (I just don’t like Dinosaur, Jr. even though ‘Feel the Pain’ isn’t all that bad a cut). He was, I suppose, what they called ‘grunge’ at the time. He was in a rock and roll band. I thought it was love at first sight. He had come along with a friend. I didn’t think much of his friend at the time, though he too was older and had long hair.

So I spent all evening flirting with this long haired Mascis’ fan, he was quiet and had a beautiful nose (I am ridiculous and there is no rhyme or reason for whom I find attractive, but long hair and noses are a weakness of mine, I HEART Adrien Brody). Anyways, he turned out to be one of the biggest jerks I have ever known in my life and I had the luxury of knowing him for another decade or so. The other guy was pretty rude, slightly annoying and reminded me of Gavin Rossdale of Bush, they had just put their first album out(I was the first but nowhere near the last person to make that comparison by the way). I thought he was a jerk. He thought I was a brat. We’ve been married now for almost 7 years.

A lot has happened between that first night and today but the story is perhaps a lot more long winded then I remembered when I began this post. I should probably stop there for now. The funny thing is, it was definitely NOT love at first sight for either of us. It wasn’t even casual acceptance. And he definitely didn't lend me any Smiths albums for quite some time.

When Cooper and Bailey get older they are probably going to ask how we met. I am thinking of telling them the story of Rapunzel. That just seems easier and I mean, I did have long hair back then.

-june


How I Met Your Mother.

Alright, so I was in a band, on this much we can agree. I had joined a band a few months before because the drummer and I were friends from another band, and for some reason which I can't remember they needed me for something. There was a singer in this band, a girl who never came to practices, and is now my wife's sister.

Anyway, one time, after she had finally come to practice and I had met her, she was telling the whole band that she was having a HUGE party on the upcoming weekend and that we should all come. It was going to be so awesome, their parents were gone and her and her sister were throwing a massive three day bash. Well, there wasn't anything much to do so that drummer friend of mine and I decided to go to this party. We weren't very excited, you see she lived in a place where we didn't like to go, a very backward place were the local inhabitants reminded us slightly of the Deliverance cast. I can't remember exactly, but it must have been a very dead weekend.

But we went. We got there and the place looked like Lollapalooza had just left. I think that one of the couches was still on fire. We sat on the other one. There weren't many people there, but the ones that were... Oh, the ones that were. We sat down, and I could tell that my drummer friend felt a little uneasy, so I tried to break the ice with some of my time-tested award-winning wit and charm.

So as it turns out Rednecks can't really understand sarcasm, and are completely unable to laugh at themselves. I could have been killed I suppose (I didn't know that the big maniacal metal head really had a gun), but I couldn't help but notice (and point out) the similarities between this crowd and Beavis and Butthead.

So we stayed awhile, made no new friends, and left the same way we came. Which is not sure that we should have been there. The End.

Oh, you wanted to know about how I met my wife? Well, she was the singer's little sister. I think that she was 15. I know that she was unfriendly. At the time I thought that she wanted to kill us, but I've learned since then that that's just the way she likes to look at me. She had long straight died black hair and wore a black shirt and basically fit in well with the metal-heads. She mostly paced around or sat on the arm of some smouldering furniture, trying to top my sarcastic remarks with rude comments and evil stares. You could even say that she gave me the 'stink eye' all night long. I think she had the hots for my drummer friend. Everybody else did.

I don't think that we exchanged a single kind word that evening, but as fate would have it, we ended up together for the long haul. Now that I think about it, maybe it's because no one else could stand either of us.

-Ward


June's Rebuttal

I really have no idea how we ended up together!

That band mate of your's has always been my sister, that didn't just happen.

First off, my parents were gone because my mom had abandoned us and my dad went out of town unexpectedly and it was Frbruary and we had snow and school was closed from Tueday on the rest of that week. She called you and you guys came running on short notice that Wednesday night.

That drummer friend of your was pretty hot, if only his good looks were matched with his treatment of other people, something could have evolved there, but alas, he is and has always been more pompous than you.

I didn't have my hair dyed. That was later. And if I looked at you funny it was because you were insulting an armed maniac. I was trying to tell you to shut up, I may have even saved your life.

I don't think that we exchanged kind words for quite some time.

We are together for the long haul because Ward pays me very well to be his nice and obedient wife. He docks my pay if I give him the stink eye.

Ward's Rebuttal

So it was a Wednseday night, that's why there was nothing better to do. Makes more sense to me now, but I can assure everyone that no one comes running to a party in HogTown. Unless maybe their from there.

Thanks for saving my life, but if you knew that that idiot had a gun why didn't you call someone? Like maybe 911.

"Hello 911, what's your emergency?"

"Beavis is in my house, and he's got a gun!"

I'm sure they would have sent someone to investigate. I've seen those movies about teen parties.

And, your sister was not my wife's sister until I married you. And as everyone can tell, we still don't say kind words to each other. We try not to even use them around each other. By the way, you've violated our non-disclosure agreement so you owe me everything I've ever paid you.

-The Cleavers

I Hope You're Alright.

My friend from my old hometown had her baby last Monday. Her beautiful son was born early in the morning weighing 7 lbs and 15 oz and measuring 21 inches. My friend came home on Wednesday. Her little boy is still in the hospital. Nothing severe. He had a little jaundice and a little trouble eating that was a result of her Gestational Diabetes. She is understandably upset and says it is harder to be at home without him suffering sleep deprivation from worry than having him home and suffering sleep deprivation when he awakes hungry and wet in the middle of the night. Two days before her delivery, her mother had a heart attack and is still in the hospital. She has been dividing her time between visiting both of them in the hospital.

I feel truly bad for her, she seems to be having a difficult time right now. Having had what was labeled a high risk pregnancy I spent months worrying (unnecessarily) about premature labor and phantom twin syndrome, long stays in the NICU, underdeveloped organs, bed rest, birth defects and the list goes on. Fortunately being pregnant was far easier for me than getting pregnant. I never had to go on bed rest, though my doctor warned me that at 18-20 weeks I might have to. I never developed Gestational Diabetes though I became slightly anemic near the end of my pregnancy but that was easily controlled by a once daily Iron supplement. I never got hypertension or morning sickness. I got huge but I delivered two good sized babies. The worse thing that happened to me was also the best thing that could have happened. I made it to 38 weeks and 6 days and begged for an induction that resulted in a 20 hour labor and delivery of two healthy, never even saw the NICU, babies.

I wonder pointlessly, why things are so hard for some and so easy for others. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for this. I have PCOS and have battled infertility for years, but in the end I had a healthy easy going pregnancy but I was still enraged when the doctor scheduled five weeks between my visits. My delivery was difficult and didn’t follow any sensible person’s birth plan but my children came straight to my room and got to stay with us and came home with us four days later. I could consider myself unlucky or extremely fortunate. It just depends on which view I want to take.

I have this silly plaque that used to belong to my parents, it says ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ It’s the cheapest little thing you have ever seen but the phrase has always stuck out in my mind and I often think about this saying. When times are difficult I tend to think in extremes but when I look back I tend to feel a little foolish, because things aren’t usually as bad as I have perceived them to be and I often come out of an experience having learned something, however small and trivial. And I often feel stronger. Not stronger in the physical sense but in the fact that I feel that now that I am stronger and more capable of handling more and more challenges; and life always seems to be sending us more and more challenges.

I hope that my friend’s son comes home soon and that she can come out of the experience feeling stronger about herself. I can only imagine the strength one would need when going through such a difficult time.