Such clear skies tonight: frosty & chill and full of stars. The longer you stand on the frozen lawn looking up, the more stars appear in your vision. As if they’re multiplying. As if they never end. “Mom,” Martin asked me, just as we were walking back out the door after getting home, to enjoy the heavenly display for a few minutes longer, “when are the shooting stars again?”
“August and November,” I answered. We still had our coats on, as we stepped from the door to the back yard. Just as we lifted our heads to the sky, all three of us gasped: a shooting star! Seriously, what are the odds?? We stood there for several minutes, pointing out constellations. I really only know Orion and the dippers, though I sometimes remember Cassiopeia as well. Martin knew the Crab, which I think might be the one I learned as the Scorpion that Orion is being chased by (although I could be misremembering my mythology and I don’t feel like googling it right now).
One of the friends who was at dinner tonight, during a discussion of great band names that segued into the names of streets we had lived on, had a grandmother who lived on Black Velvet Lane somewhere in Florida. Isn’t that awesome? That’s what I kept thinking about as my sight reached upwards into that night sky. Black velvet, indeed.
I felt like a complete idiot tonight. All gung-ho for sushi night with friends at an excellent restaurant, and I didn’t think to book a table. 1) because they only HAVE four tables and most people order take-out there and 2) because I’m positive the last time I scheduled an AWC sushi night at this place they didn’t even take reservations. Guess they’ve gotten popular since then. Drrrr. Anyway, we still had sushi, but at a different restaurant, and it was MUCHLY inferior.
Ah well, the weekend, despite my husband still being out of town, is still jam-packed with good things. Sushi night with friends being one of them, even if the restaurant wasn’t our first choice. The kids were on their best behavior and we had a shooting star, to boot. Plus we bought the first season of Glee and watched the pilot episode just now: good stuff. I love that all those great old songs that I grew up with and loved when young are being made fresh and new for this generation of kids.
Tomorrow we’re going to our new Canadian friend Catherine’s house, right here in Flyinge, for dinner and to watch the Melodifestivalen final with her and her husband Nik and their Canadian cat Sasha. Fun! And on Sunday we’re going to paint murals at Martin’s school (Swedish theme: moose and dala horses and knäckebröd) and then to see Alice in Wonderland in English and 3D.
And, of course, sleeping in!
I hope your weekend has got some good things in it. What ingredients add up to a good stuff weekend for you?
Really Great Writing Out There Right Now: Conscience on a ledge