Desert Magnolia

The day when Daughter signs. Her National Letter of Intent. For Providence College. (Yes, the Providence in Rhode Island.) It's happening. At last.  So soon. After all the dust has settled. The lump in my throat? It's about pride and happiness for Daughter; it's about love and following dreams and being absolutely fearless on the outside even if you're trembling on the inside. The lump has absolutely nothing to do with anything but that. Ok, maybe there's a little 'Holy crap, this is real. It's happening. Baby is all grown up, has created a dream that led to an opportunity and she's following her heart. And she's going to be leaving...' Maybe there's a little of that. But mostly, it's about the Daughter.

When I wrote about those charming people who suck the emotional energy out of us, I couldn't use names. For obvious reasons. Well, last night, as I was watching Grey's Anatomy, then Private Practice (they lured me into watching Private Practice because some of the story lines were actively crossing over...they're very clever that way), and my friend JL was texting me periodically to comment on the ridiculousness going on with our favorite characters, she made a really great observation. Mark Sloan, aka Mc Steamy, is an energy vamp. Big time. He's gorgeous. He's smart. He's compelling. He's manipulative, and, as his colleague characterized him, 'he's like a Dachsund'..which was NOT a compliment. Being a Golden Lab, that would have been a compliment. But you get my drift. Right on JL. You nailed it. And, you gave me a great way to provide an example to my windy energy vamp post. Even better. :-)

Dating, as my friends who are out there playing the game insist, is not for wimps. Whether you're trolling via your friend network, or utilizing the worldwide 'web, the process is fraught with silliness. So my friend J is going out tonight. To dinner.  With an engineer her friends introduced her to at a wedding they all attended recently. Safe meeting ground, and good references since it was real friends and not some online service or scam 'vouching' for the guy. She feels good about this upcoming dinner, thinks the guy actually has a pretty good sense of humor (I did NOT say 'for an engineer' cuz that wouldn't be very nice). There's only one problem. She's letting him pick her up. She never does this. See, she needs a way to escape..just in case things get dicey, which, as it turns out, they can do with no warning. Turns out by the time he'd had her confirm her address, she was too deep in to back away without seeming rude. J is intensely ...