Pulled G's & a Looo-siana Road Trip
Monday, November 22, 2004
All went well that Wednesday evening at the concert. Diana played marvelously with Amy Oshira, and all was quite pleasant – pieces one could “walk along the hills and sing” to, as the viola instructor commented. Even Carrie-Bri who could normally not sit through a concert without a pen in her hand, failed to doodle at all. By the time Mom had pulled out a paint brush, a small package of oyster crackers, and other odds and ends, searching for a pen for Carrie, Mrs. Gentles finally produced the pen, which was not used after all, in the end.
Afterward, wine and cheese were served with sparkling peach juice beneath the monstrous crystal chandeliers (ancient and musty), mirrors, and red velvet of the front hall. On the way home, old times were discussed and times of change… reminisces on the “old times” of Bing, Carrie-Bri, and Eve linking arms and singing “Boghole Worms”, a Carrie Snicketts original, while walking out of the symphony as kids, “Yo Yo Indians” of Laurel Park, rolling in an old rusted dryer drum down the dry-pond hill, pretending to own the Botanical Gardens and Powell Hall, of numerous lunches of bagels and cream cheese, Bing being lost in the Botanical Gardens…
“Remember, Bing,” Carrie had called back to him on the way home in the van, “how you thought you were just going to have to live there forever?”
Laughter.
“Don’t remind me,” Bing covered his face with his hands in mock shame.
“Don’t you just wish we could go back and be kids again for a couple of days?…” Diana thought aloud, speaking for them all.
Carrie’s birthday also went off with a snap, crackle, and pop, as she was excited on the upcoming events, (i.e. skydiving, a Muse concert, New York, etc…).
(And earlier in the morning, Collette and OLeif were officially labeled the aunt and uncle of Maxwell and Joy, Ivy’s cats, as Collette was informed by her at work.)
Before presents that evening, Carrie amused herself on the couch, making Pumpkin squeak her little mew from time to time.
“Mew at Carrie,” she held Pumpkin in front of her face, with a “goo-goo-ga-ga-ness” in her voice.
“Mew.”
“Oh! Hee, hee, hee!”
“Mew at Collette,” she stuffed the black fur ball in Collette’s face, with arms extended and a mischievous grin.
“Mew.”
“Oh! Hee, hee, hee.”
“Mew at Joe,” she directed the kitten toward Joe in the rocking chair, sketching cars on paper.
“Mew.”
“Oh! Hee, hee, hee.”
“Mew at Collette’s book.”
“Mew.”
“Oh! Hee, hee, hee.”
“Mew at the world!” She held her out in front with a Lucia-like obnoxious confidence.
“Mew.”
And on it went… Then in the early evening, Francis was presented with his Webelow patch at the troop meeting, with a group of whooping maniac scouts and their proud parents. The whole family took some hearty laughs out of the ceremony. Following, Rose, Carrie-Bri, and Collette accompanied Dad to Olive Garden for take-outs and sat in the cafe where elegant drinks were served guests while waiting. Then, loaded down with bread sticks, salads, pastas, and sodas, they headed home for a viewing of Shrek 2 and for some good laughs over whatever came. So by the end of the evening, it had all been good, and those who were leaving early the next morning went to bed far later than they should have.
The whole weekend seemed wonderful… Collette would spend the upcoming weeks writing it all in a separate work, one she affectionately entitled, “Loooo-siana”, after the peculiar yet pleasant and soft accents of the Louisiana folks they met during their stay. It seemed to have a good effect on most everyone who came from St. Louis – Mrs. Gentles, Mom, Diana, Collette, Bing, Eve, Annamaria, Rose, and Leia.
Collette decided, during the road trip, that the entire Gentles family were somewhat English, refined taste in general. A tea, rice cakes, and Heath bars family.
Their first road trip together was decidedly a success, and the total twenty-two or so hours spent in the car was enlightening and rather funny. All in all, the trip could likely not have gone off better, and upon arrival home, it was good to reflect on the whole of it.
While they had been enjoying themselves down south, Carrie-Bri had managed to successfully jump from 14,000 feet in the air from a plane, and land in a cornfield somewhere in Illinois. Her instructor had lost them both in a cloud for a spell and thrilled Carrie by pulling off a dead-man’s spiral in order to pull out before the chute would be opened. Carrie later told them of the black spot that closed in on her, as g’s were pulled, and how they were almost afraid she would contract hypothermia from the extreme cold. Of course, she had the time of her life and vividly described it to them at Grandma’s, Monday.
Also, she had been given birthday presents from Elizabeth, including a shawl of dyed bunny tails (or what seemed to be bunny tails) in chocolate, dark rose, and burgundies, linked like a patchwork with spaces allowed between each tail, in four rows. Also, she received a black knit purse (fashionably French boutique-like), a powder blue pencil with Mardi-Gra like pom-poms and twirlies, a pair of silver donut earrings swinging from tight-linked chains, and a lily rhinestone brooch, all the perfect compliment to Carrie’s personality.
Aside from these occurrences, everything else seemed to have gone on normally and well, so Collette was satisfied and spent Sunday afternoon in bed, sleeping away church, Diana’s concert, and small group, although no one could blame her, for she had hardly slept a wink on the return home.