Memories

When I got home the other night there was an Amazon box waiting for me. I knew I hadn't ordered anything (well, I had, but I knew it was too early for that order to be arriving), so I figured it must be a gift. It was -- Joanna had sent me a copy of Junior, the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito movie about a scientist (Schwarzenegger) who tests a fertility drug and gets pregnant.

In the enclosed note, Joanna said that she had gotten it for me because it had been on my wish list for four years!

I wrote to her this morning and said that there was a story attached to that, and that I would tell it today.

Actually, the story was from back in 2000! Bob and I were in Sarasota on vacation and had an interesting last evening before heading home:

Bob called sometime after 4:00 and said he was finished, and I asked him if he'd had a snack in the bar as he'd planned, and he said that the kitchen at the country club was closed--they were having a party that night and they were getting ready for that. He was starving. So I went out to pick him up, and he said we should head directly for the restaurant. We had planned to have dinner again at Phillippi Creek.

I wasn't hungry at all, though, since I'd had such a late lunch assuming he would have something in the late afternoon, too, so we decided we'd go back to the hotel and have drinks at the tiki bar (we were becoming quite the regulars, obviously), and he could have something there, then we'd go out for a late dinner.

While we drove over the drawbridge to get to the hotel earlier, we had noticed a bunch of boats sitting in the bay--our hotel was on a key and was only reachable by the bridge. When Bob went up to the bar to get cigarettes, the bartender told him there was going to be a boat parade that night, and that the bridge would be up until it was finished. I thought, well, it was probably better to be stuck on this side rather than be outside and not be able to get back to the hotel, so we still thought we'd just wait and go out later, and we went back to the room.

We napped for an hour or so, then watched the "Parade of Boats" on local television--yachts and boats from miles around, strung with Christmas lights, parading through the bay. Not terribly compelling on television, though. It seemed to go on forever, and it must have been close to 9:30 before it was over. I still had to pack, and by that time I didn't have much interest in going out.

Bob had to get gas, and he said he'd get something for us to eat while he was out, and I'd stay and pack. It was actually kind of nice. I watched "Junior," which I'd never seen--a movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a scientist who experiments on himself and gets pregnant. Pretty stupid, really, but I enjoyed it. Bob came back with a grocery sack--sometime after he left he realized he only had $12 cash, and he ended up buying deli sandwiches and a bag of potato chips at the grocery store.

So our last night was a picnic in the hotel room--a turkey sandwich and a carton of orange juice for me. It wasn't bad at all, really. It was kind of fun. Just not what we would have done had we had a choice.

It's funny how sometimes things that don't seem particularly memorable at the time are the things that you remember most of all. I had a really nice, quiet time packing that night in the hotel, watching the movie, and then later, sitting on the beds and sharing a grocery store sandwich with Bob while we watched the ending. But yet, it seemed silly to buy the movie, even though it wasn't very expensive. It was just hard to justify. I'm weird about things like that sometimes. Sometimes I don't have any trouble buying something expensive, but other times, something inexpensive will cause me to really stop and think.

Anyway, I have it now! And tonight, while Bob's at work, I can watch it, and knit or make jewelry or something. Thanks, Joanna!

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