Post-Dog Weekend

I'm surviving my new life without Jax. The apartment has been sort of quiet, but I've been able to manage it well. I look around the apartment and I think of the memories from every little corner, every part of the room, the kitchen, bathroom, my bedroom, hallway... memories are everywhere. But I'm dealing with it well. In time I'll look back on my life with Jax with a smile, rather than a heavy sigh. I did a lot this weekend to help me cope with it all...

First, I went to a holiday party with Tracie, for her work. It was held at The Coronado, which is a gorgeous facility that used to be a hotel. Now it's mostly for banquets and meetings. Very posh. People walked around with appetizers offering them to us. Everyone was dressed nice. Dinner was fantastic (except for those cooked vegetables... ick). And we danced a little too. ("California Love...") :) I had a great time and it was a good way to get my mind off Jax for just a little bit (except when they started playing "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," I had to leave the dance floor because I used to call Jaxie my Sugar Pie).

Anyways, after that, we had to meet Kristen and Janice to head off to Ste. Genevieve with Kristen's friend Eddie. Eddie is from Ste. Genevieve and was going back there to sing for the town's lighting of their Christmas tree. So we went with him and stayed at his parents' country home outside of Ste. Genevieve, along a dusty gravel road, with cows and barns and the whole country bit. When we got there on Friday night, it was about 11:30 or so and the stars were just brilliant. We stood outside gazing at them until it got too cold and we had to go inside. We had a little slumber party together, sleeping on couches and mattresses, and awoke the next morning to Eddie making us biscuits and gravy (from scratch!) for breakfast. Oh man was it ever wonderful. Then we got ready and headed into town, shopped at some little stores, visited a winery and sampled the wine, wandered around some more, met the World Champion of Footbag (hackey sack.. whatever you want to call it)... very interesting lady. She ran a jewelry store, selling all her handmade jewelry and sculptures and glass jars and lots of stuff. We became entranced with the idea of renting out a little house like she has, operating a business like that. Apparently it's VERY CHEAP to do it in Ste. Genevieve. She practically makes money just by living there, because she rents out a room in it to someone else who pays her more for rent than the payments she herself makes on it! Anyways. Very cool. Go visit Only Child Creations (I think that's what it's called) and she'd love to tell you about it!

We had dinner at a restaurant called The Anvil and then headed down to the Ste. Genevieve Interpretive Center for the lighting of the tree. Lots of the townspeople were gathered there to see it and sing some Christmas carols, and listen to a message from the mayor, and they recognized a prominent citizen of the town. They turned on the tree and... well, I wish there were maybe a FEW more lights, but it was cool nonetheless. I loved how everyone got together to see this. We got to hear a children's choir sing some carols, and then the high school choir did some (they were VERY good) and then Eddie sang some songs. Then after the people dispersed, we hung around the keyboard awhile longer singing carols along with Eddie and his parents. That was SO cool... we felt like streetcorner carolers (well, we WERE!) and we sang harmonies and everything... I think we sounded pretty good! And we had such a great time with it. Eddie's parents are VERY cool.

Then we were going to head off to a little pub, and on the way we stopped at a house that Eddie had helped to renovate. We knocked on the door while singing "Joy to the World," and the woman who lived there, Yvonne, finally answered and we did the whole caroling bit. Hee hee. So quaint. She invited us in and had us sing one more song, "O Come O Come Emmanuel." It was so great. Then she invited us to look at the house, and Eddie showed us around (GORGEOUS! What a cool house. It was I-don't-remember-how-old, only that there are only five houses in North America built in that style, and three of them are in Ste. Genevieve.) Someone help me with the name of that style. It is something in French. Anyways. Then she served us drinks, and well... we ended up spending the rest of our evening there, just chatting with her. I think it was 11:30 when we left. I felt bad for infringing on her time and being there so late, but she was just wonderful about it, hugged us all goodbye, and we left there feeling like we'd made a new friend. We will definitely visit her again if we ever return to Ste. Genevieve (and I'm sure we will).

We drove back to St. Louis, and I had to drive back home from Tracie's, exhausted, but glad I had a good time.

On Sunday I went to Target and bought myself an artificial Christmas tree. It is a "northern spruce" and it is 6.5 feet tall (at least, that's what it says on the box... doesn't look that big to me). It has white lights on it. It is just perfect. I was so happy to find it; it was the last one they had for that price (on sale for $49.99!) so I jumped on it. Then I bought some blue and silver ornaments because I want to decorate it all in blue and silver. (Except they didn't have hooks! I will need to get hooks to hang them up.) I like Christmas trees that have a color theme. "*GASP*" you say, "Why isn't it PINK??" Hee hee. Yes I love pink, but pink would look weird in my living room. That room's primary color is blue, so I'm decorating the tree in blue. Blue is my other favorite color, anyway. :) I set it all up and plugged it in, and just fell in love. It looks so pretty in my apartment. I can't wait to get more decorations for it, and a star to put on top, and a white cloth to wrap around the base, and I'd like to get a manger scene to put underneath it... It definitely cheers up the apartment and helps to ease the loneliness. Now I don't mind being in my apartment as much, with my happy tree gleaming in the corner.

Okay, time to wrap up this huge post. Thanks for hanging in there and reading the whole thing, if you did! Time to get some work done... and I still have to set up my little Christmas tree that I have at my desk! That's always fun. :)