lunar eclipse

martha slept over again on friday night, so she joined edith and i at the ward's annual strawberry social. the stawberry social is a wun'erful (as bethany would say) tradition! it was our first time, so it was with excitement and anticipation that we lined up to receive our bowl heaped hight with strawberry shortcake, whipped cream and ice cream. yum. naturally we took our bowls into the gym where there was music blasting and children dancing. we found seats at esther's table and dug into our strawberry delights with gusto.

brother sirani was leading everybody in dances and games. we were very entertained watching. one game was musical chairs. adults and children were playing together and there was this one lady who was hilarious to watch. she was dancing as she walked, swinging her arms out in front of her to the beat, but she was cut-throat when the music ended, even sitting on top of a kid and squishing him out! eventually near the end she tried to dive in between two kids but couldn't and she was out. we had some good laughs watching her. everybody got really into the macarena and that's when we noticed that brother serani sure does shake a good leg. they also did this other song that i don't know the name of, but it looked really fun. you stomped and jumped and slid and got funky and did the cha-cha. as we were leaving we heard the chicken dance starting.

we left early because of free movie in the park. i heard about it on the radio. it was up at ubc on the rugby field and the movie was eclipse. it was perfect because edith hadn't seen eclipse yet and because it was free. so we rushed home, changed clothes, grabbed blankets, hoodies, bug spray and pillows, piled into the car and took off for the rugby field.

parking was surprisingly easy. we grabbed all our stuff walked around the fence to the field and found... a big empty field. not even a screen was up. did we feel foolish. we stood there a while looking around with our arms full of blanket and martha said "let's go. this is embarrassing." "but there's nobody here!" we said.

so we drove to spanish banks and watched the sunset. it was cold.

the truth is the movie was on saturday night not friday night and it was all my fault.

saturday morning bright and early we drove all the way to renfrew and 1st-ish to pick up edith's wedding gown. she looked gorgeous in it. i really like her seamstress. she has 5 sewing machines but that's not why i like her. i like people regardless of how many sewing machines they have.

i forgot to say that on friday i looked at a basement suite which is for rent near here. it's part of a 4-plex and old but definitely a step up from this place. it's bigger and it has a small but real kitchen with a new stove/oven, big fridge and actual cupboards and drawers. the living room is long and narrow. the bathroom is small with only a shower, but the shower is glass encased, which i like and the walls are white and there's no carpet baseboards and there's a tiny little cabinet. the bedroom is ginormous, with a washer and dryer of my own in one of the long closets. before the bedroom is a little area where you can have your computer or sumpthin. the big plus is that pets are ok and they didn't say anything about a pet deposit.

so i took an application. and i filled it out. saturday morning i called to see if i could drop it off and terry's father answered and he said in a rather confused way that terry had promised it to someone else. just to be sure, i emailed terry and asked him to confirm. then i left for the primary activity and dropped martha off on the way.

the primary activity was ok. the kids were wild and crazy and hard to direct but it was still fun. i was in charge of the dress-up race. it was hilarious to see the kids in the clothes but i had too much stuff for the kids to wear and some stuff was too complicated. the big favourite was a fur coat i got from the thrift store. ironically when we stopped trying to organize the kids, they organized themselves into their own games. "next year we're just doing a picnic." said suzanne grimly.

when i was leaving my phone rang. it was terry's dad. he said that the girl they promised the place to was having a hard time coming up with the damage deposit right away. he said if she didn't come by 5 with the money then i could have the place if i was still interested. "sure!" i said. "i don't have the damage deposit until pay day." i thought. so i went home and called lisa. she's a friend in deed. she has several cash paying jobs so often has cash on hand. "if i had an emergency, could i borrow some money until pay day?" i asked. "sure!" she said before i was even finished. that's what kind of friend she is. before lisa even dropped off the money terry's dad called to say the place was mine. as soon as i had the money i dropped it and the application off and signed the contract. i felt bad for the girl i was replacing. if i didn't have a lisa, i would be in her same place. but that didn't stop me from taking the place. so there. it's done. i have a place!

so edith and i decided to go to the free movie at the park on the night it was actually playing. we were around an hour early but on the way up i kept having nerves that it was going to be super busy and we wouldn't get a good spot. we traveled all along the windy ways of south west marine drive behind a long line of cars. "all these cars are going to the movie." i said to edith. "no they're not!" edith would object. "yes they are. they're all going. why would this road be so busy on a saturday night?" "as we passed each car edith would look in and say things like "those are old people. they are not going to see twilight. they're going home." they could be taking grandchildren." i argued. we passed three people on the side of the road waiting to cross at the light on the edge of the endowment lands. the lady had her coat folded over her arm. "those people are going." i said with rising hysteria. "those asians are not going. " said edith firmly. "to them, twilight is what is happening right now."

parking was fine. i didn't pay. i payed 2.75 the night before. the field was not too full and the screen was up. it's a blow up screen. we put our blanket right up in the front row on the left hand side. i was wearing elicia's yellow crocs over my rainbow knit slipper-socks, my blue sweat pants with the fuzzy inside, a hoodie and randy's warm ice fishing jacket. we played crib and i had a fabulous game. edith didn't. i over skunked her. then we played golf which we both won and lost. i was glad i was wearing bug spray because the mosquitos were everywhere--except on us. i even got edith to spray the top of my head.

edith had to blow her nose. "what am i going to do???" she panicked. she only likes to blow her nose in private. "just blow it." i said unsympathetically. instead she put the blanket completely over her head in a tent like fashion to blow her nose. this girl is for real, folks.

when the movie finally started playing sometime just around 10, we settled on our backs propped up by pillows, with a blanket over us. they played a lot of clips from the next movie, which i didn't like. i tried to block them out. then the real movie began. it was fun to watch it outside in the night under the stars. i saw two shooting stars. it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing! there were two girls by us in tank tops! i don't know how they were shivering right down to their bones. we decided they were drinking vodka. russian warmth, edith said. edith and i jostled over the blanket. at one point it was pouring rain on the screen and splat a drop of rain landed on my forehead. same thing happened to edith. "it's raining!!" she stage whispered to me. "i know!" i stage whispered back. what happened next was edith sat up and began pulling the covers off of my freezing legs. i sat up in a rage and stage whisper/yelled "what are you doing???!!" "i'm making a tent." she said. "you're pulling the covers off of me!!" i fumed. "well i don't want to get wet." "I DON'T CARE!" and with a viscous yank of the covers i laid back down. edith thought this whole exchange was pretty funny especially how mad i was about it. we both made mental notes to bring two blankets next time.

there was a lunar eclipse that night but we didn't notice. fitting though.