O'bit o' Reality

A friend passed on the obituary written by her family and posted in the papers. Reality hit hard. Yes indeed, it's true, she's passed away and there was the hallmark documenting her life, or as they saw it. Which was really strange. It was documented as such where I indeed felt compelled to ask the questions as to if they really knew her at all. It was burnt toast dry and written from the perspective that Shortcake was still in fact 13 years old, and had never crossed over into adulthood. Mind you I wasn't expecting a homage to JAB (publishers of Girlfriends and On Our Backs) nor the Lusty Lady where she worked for a year and a half until she left for law school. But there just wasn't anything there that signified the person I knew. And perhaps maybe there were many things she kept from them, well, quite obviously due to the nature of her passing. But it was in fact strange to read. There was also a posting on the Boston College website and that article was much more true to Shortcake's nature, far more accurate. At any rate, my friend Shortcake is gone and with that, the reality of this has set in and is hitting hard. Miss B and I went to a folk show two days after the news had arrived. It was Dar Williams, one of Miss B's favorite performers. The great part of the folk concert is the story behind the story and Dar shared one about her song entitled "If I could write you a letter". It put many things into perspective and it's amazing timing and made me weep at the show due to it's message and clarity. I can still write a letter and it can be heard. Whatever I wanted to say, I can now and with any luck, it will be received. I don't think I will be making fun of folks shows anymore. Sure learned a lot at that one.

Onto lighter topics....Miss B is majorly ill today. Several of her students were out last week from the killer cold looming around in ever office, grocery store, school, or pretty much any place in public. She has been sleeping for the majority of the day and running a 101 fever which just won't seem to drop. Her lungs are sore and heavy and she's coughing up whatever you can think of, I am thinking the kitchen sink may be next. She's also pale and has zero energy. So I made some homemade chicken soup (which has taken 3 hours and I had to touch chicken parts!) and have been giving her meds, picked her up some videos, washed the linens and made the bed so it would be cat hair free for her to sleep in and she is now resting peacefully while I type. We also watched 3 episodes of Popular and the Disney flick Cars. (Which is really good by the way and I would recommend.) I anticipate she won't be going to school tomorrow so will be running substitute plans over in the morning so she can continue to sleep this bug off. It's not looking good. One teacher from her school has been in the hospital this past week with pneumonia. I really hope it doesn't result into that. Miss B does get the trooper award for attending the Procrastinator's New Year's Eve party last night. She hung in there as long as she could and at one point I found her sleeping in the room with the back drop for the annual photo shoot. As soon as the ball dropped at 12:30 we were out of there with A and the Investigator. I like taking care of her. I just feel so bad for her as whatever this is has got her knocked out. We may watch another episode or two of Popular and then call it a night, depending on when she wakes up. Poor thing.

The party itself was of course a great time, as always. It was well attended and people really got into the theme, "Be Your Own Superhero". Miss B and I were the Carpet Crusaders and she did a great job sewing our capes, making our conversion list, and sewing our carpet brown triangled emblem onto the chests of our unitards. Which, when we first got them in the mail we immediately tried on and then ran around the house testing them out. Who thought two gals like us would order ANYTHING from Discount Dance Supply. Our capes were also made out of millennium material, on sale post year 2000. I think it was 10 cents a yard at JoAnne Fabrics or something like that. Once we receive some groovy pictures I will be sure to post here. It was funny stuff. There were lots of great costumes and my favorite of the evening was Wolverina, by the one and only Bear in Training. He had boobs for the first time and really seemed to enjoy them. Also had some makeup help from one of the best Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on the planet and let's just say, he looked FABULOUS! There were also lots of folks there whom I hadn't seen in a long time and it was great to catch up. Joe Mud and I wrapped for a long time and his costume was indeed the best for originality--Mr. Crafty. Glue gun included. The most original cape was the Investigator's with the Doormat for her"Captin Doormat" costume and A's was stunning with her underwear OVER her tight as the Super Activist, flyers included. A shout out to Misty and Ted for another wonderful PNYE party! Yee haw!

I am off to go watch Strangers With Candy and nurse my girlfriend back to health.