2000-03-07 04:45:11
Ketchup
I've been laying in bed an hour trying to get back to sleep, thinking of what I could do if I got up and writing entries in my head. I finally am hear, ready to fill in some of the gaps since last week.
Nicest surprise today. I am a bluebonnet fanatic. It is a very very special flower to me and has been for a long time. I am ecstatic each year when I spot my first bluebonnet (and they are everywhere in Austin now and I'm loving it) and especially when I find a bluebonnet plant in my own yard or gardens. I found two tiny plants a couple of weeks ago in my flower bed and have nursed one along. The other gave up out of shyness. Today I came home from work in the early evening for a change and stood talking to Mark in the driveway. I walked over to oversee my garden and admire the blooming poppies, lantana, salvia, daffodils, grape hyacinths and roses, when I looked down and saw a beautiful bluebonet plant ready to burst into bloom. "Look! Where did that come from?" Mark was playing dumb and then I saw more and more. He'd found a nursery today with bluebonnets in stock (he's been to more nurseries lately than I have) and brought home ten really nice plants and even got them planted. What a great surprise and another plant to be watching day to day. I may even go back to that nursery and see what other wildflowers they have. It would be lovely to add some Mexican hats and coneflowers and prairie verbena to the mix.
Speaking of wildflowers, this is the other entry that should have been put in the journal as it happened. Friday was the most exciting day since I've lived in Austin! I went back to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to buy my mother a birthday present. I chatted with the volunteers and may soon volunteer myself. They were really nice people. As we talked one mentioned that Mrs. Johnson "was here today." I said, "You mean, here at the center?" She was! They told me she was very sweet and approachable and they were right. I went to the cafe and introduced myself and told her how much Mark and I loved her and LBJ and how much I appreciated her making the Wildflower Center possible. She autographed my souvenir book from the Center by her beautiful picture in the bluebonnets from several years ago. I am certain I have never met a more famous person than Lady Bird. I'm still in awe.
We've had a weekend of computer problems at work but I, fortunately, was mostly ahead and they didn't affect me much. I went in early for one overdue shift and got my studio early and got everything finished early today. Really nice to be home in the evening. I even went to the gym for the first time in probably a month. I must get back in the habit. I came home and cleaned the kitchen and then ironed! I was really Martha Stewart tonight. I even pulled out all my sheets (which have not found a good permanent home in this new house) and got them all sorted and folded and, believe it or not, I even ironed some of them. Whatever for, I can't imagine, but they looked pretty. I want to find a battered women's home or something that needs some sheets and some silverware and some other things I am cutting back on. Choosing which sheets to give up will be the hard part. I've gotten pretty attached to them.
Great Texas Independence Day parade and festivitied last Thursday and a chicken fried steak at Threadgill's to really celebrate the occasion, Mardi Gras celebrating Friday night with the bunch from work and shocking revelation that my friend and co-worker Hondo's mother is only four years older than me, Saturday gardening and mowing and grocery shopping and cooking of a fabulous meal for the first time in ages, and Sunday at Perfect C's wonderful place in the Hill Country and a couple of hours of looking for the dogs Alex and Lucky who chose to go on an adventure of their own. City dogs in the country. As each day has gone by I've intended to go into glorious detail about the day's events and the wonderful world that is Austin, but now I'm happy just to have made an entry.
Still haven't upgraded the computer to the cable modem, haven't even looked at the taxes that are quickly becoming due, houseplants are drooping and in dire need of water and fertilizer. . . I did get a birthday present bought and wrapped for Mom and, thanks to Mark, it actually arrived for her birthday Monday, March 6. One accomplishment I can chalk up for the month of March.