Blue Moon

We were pummeled by a blizzard today. I love the snow most of the time. Today, there was so much snow outside that it made me claustrosnowbaphobic (the fear of having too much snow in your small yard) when I went outside; oh, of course, I made that up, and when you quote Dr Jean in regard to that malady, please give me credit.

For some reason, it seemed like it had been a while since I had gotten out of the house; actually, it was really only Christmas Day when I spent almost the entire afternoon and evening away with Iz and Suze’s lovely family. Of course, I really didn’t want to get away from my home or my kids. I wanted to get away from a ghost in my house, the Ghost of a Relationship Past Which Was Still Unfortunately Present.

Anyway, today, after coming home from the gym and showering, I decided I needed to get out, especially to get over my claustrosnowbaphobia. Due to the snow storm and it being Monday, there weren’t too many places it would be easy to travel to nor would the local pub be open. So, when the going gets tough, the tough go for a pedicure.

I grabbed my gift certificate, said, “I’ll be back later,” and I headed out onto the frozen tundra. By the way, I loved the word “tundra.” I recently admitted to a friend, like I was admitting to an addiction, that I loved saying the word “tundra.”

Tangent blog…

I told my friend that I first heard the word in the my sixth grade class which was taught by Mrs. Alley. (Laura is the only person who will understand this for this is where this Lovely and I first met.) For Social Studies, we watched a series of films about Eskimos. The films were all about the Eskimo's lives in which the “tundra” and “caribou” featured predominantly.

I love words obviously, but I love saying some particular words, too, like “tundra” and “caribou.” I guess I have a mild word fetish. Before my Dad died, I remember sitting by his bed and the discussion of words came up; I confessed that I always loved saying “apropos.” My Dad said, “Oh, yeah, that’s a good one!"

In addition to “apropos,” “tundra,” and “caribou,” I also liked to say “femtocell,” “stiletto,” and “kiosk.” These words were even sexier when you said them pretending to be a Polish Supermodel. Imagine how much I could potentially amuse myself by saying this sentence: “It was apropos that I tripped in my stilettos and banged into a kiosk that sold DVDs depicting where the buffalo roam while the caribou on the tundra dreamed of femtocells!

Back to our somewhat regularly posted blog…

I drove down my street which was not too snowy. When I attempted to come to a complete stop, or at least tried to, my brakes said “Yes,” but the snow said, “No, we’d like you to slide through the intersection. Fortunately, it was not a busy intersection given the snow won.

I drove downtown and took a right turn onto Main Street. Usually, it takes me five minutes and a Random Act of Kindness from some motorist to make a right turn onto Main Street at 4:30 on a Monday. Today, it took me less than thirty seconds.

As I approached the nail salon, I noticed that not all the neon signs were lit. Upon driving by, I then noticed that the most important sign, “Open,” was not lit. I sighed, drove past, and then I thought sadly, “I do not want to go home.”

I knew I could drive around for a while, though given the snow, it was probably not a wise idea. I could call Suze and ask her if I could stop by; I’m sure she would have said it was okay. But just then, I knew a friend would be working at the local beer and wine store, so I drove there.

I had every intention of just stopping in and only buying a bottle of wine; however, once I saw my friend, I blurted out, “Um, can I stay here with you for a while?” He said, “Sure!”

After we caught up for a bit, I saw a stool that I really wanted to sit on for a while. On it, there was a cardboard box with two six-packs of Budweiser in it. I picked up the box, sat down, and put the box on my lap.

I knew I really didn’t belong there, but I felt that in the moment, I didn’t want to leave there. Like the cell phone towers that pathetically pretend to be trees, I was sitting on a stool pathetically pretending to be a case of Budweiser. My friend and I chatted in between customers.

Does anyone know why someone would come in and buy just one beer? Did you know that Budweiser is still the most popular beer sold? And, do you how expensive cigarettes are? Seventy-five cents in 1979; seven dollars and seventy-seven cents in 2010!

As I sat there, I looked up at the Blue Moon neon sign. It looked quite lovely beaming over the beer refrigerator. I learned a lot tonight about beer, though it was not information I needed to know. The only thing I needed to know was that when I was blue, there was always a moon and a friend that would shine over me. ♥