Here's to you

Yesterday at around 3, Robert told me that the go-live date has been pushed back again. So, I don't have to have all the menus done by Monday. This means I don't have to work full time today or come in on the weekends, and that next week I can just work half-time and I should still be able to get it all done just fine.

I had managed to calm down about it, so this news didn't really faze me, but I'm finding that I'm very, very tired.

Last night, Mari and Brooke and I went to see Cathie Ryan and her band perform Celtic music at the Depot in Thomson. We were all dressed up :) I did this weird thing with my Hairagami: first, because I like to have a wisp hanging down, I pulled a small clump of hair out on the left side of my face and held it in my mouth while I wrapped the rest in the Hairagami. Then, I was trying to follow the instructions to make a particular kind of bun, but I couldn't figure out what I was doing. I wrapped my hair around the thing, then curled it, then snapped the bands into place, and what ended up happening was I had a ponytail coming out the middle of a circle that had blue Hairagami showing at the top and a half-bun of hair at the bottom. I thought that it must look ridiculous, but I liked it from the front with the wisp hanging down along my face and the ponytail flipping back and forth behind my head, so I went with it.

I also wore the size 12/14 purple velvet dress that has been sitting in my closet, unwearable, for longer than I've been married. (Weight loss = teh gud.) I finished off with nylons, calf-high black boots, and a matching set of junk jewelry earrings and a necklace. It really wasn't a bad look. (Sean kept saying "you look good" and finding excuses to touch me when I got home later.)

We were all charmed by downtown Thomson and the Depot building. It is really neat down there.

The concert was great. I don't know that I am a huge fan of the more "contemporary" stuff...I would have been happy to listen to all the songs in Irish rather than English. But Ms. Ryan has a very pretty voice, and she is funny to boot. It was very entertaining.

Her backup fiddler, Hanneke Cassel, was amazing, though. I think I stared at her the most during the concert. Her long thin arms and the intense look on her face as she played reminded me poignantly of Kristanne. I wonder if Kristanne can fiddle? (For those of you not in the know, Kristanne Harden went to high school with me and Jazz, and we were all in kung fu together, along with Michael Jennings, who was a grade ahead of us. Kristanne is a violinist. She now lives in Germany with her husband, Kilian Kubala.)

The concert lasted until nearly 10, so we couldn't go to Mikoto. We headed back to Augusta and went to Denny's instead, where I doubled my caloric intake for the day o_o All in all, it was a very satisfying evening :)

The most incredible part was during a song called So Here's To You. It's a song rife with blessings and promise, and Ms. Ryan had the audience sing along. I'm not sure I can really explain why, but I cried my eyes out.

It starts like this:

When first we met, complete total strangers
We did not know if we could be friends
How soon we've come for to know each other
So now I know we will meet again

I couldn't help but think of Mari and Brooke and how we first met. How I didn't know how things were going to be with these new people, whether or not we would have anything in common or like each other at all. "How soon we've come for to know each other." It seems like we just met yesterday (actually, it was 2003), but already I have two of the best friendships of my life.

I was filled with the feeling of friendship and parting, and the certainty of meeting again. That's how I feel with Mari and Brooke. We all three live different lives. Mari's in North Augusta in a house with her husband, bellydancing and working at social security. Brooke's downtown in an apartment, working at Shepeard blood center and running with a computer gaming/party crowd. (Or something.) I'm here in western Augusta/almost Martinez, living in an apartment with my husband, working part time and spending the rest of my time reading and writing on blogs. We're not terribly disparate, but our lives don't always match up. We all have different things to do, and time passes with us apart.

But we always know that we have each other, and we always know that we will meet again.

So here's to you and our time together
I'll share with you now a parting glass
And bid adieu with a smile and laughter
Our time apart will be short and pass