Well, first I must apologize for this taking so long, but I needed to learn how to use my new camera as well as set up a new network place on my new hard drive, blah blah blah. But here we go.
First of all, we must first wish MARJIE in Michigan a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Her birthday was yesterday, the 24th. Here's a little message from the gang: We were thinking of you on Sunday at our social, but we didn't have your phone number! So Heidi has a little message for you.
Present at our first social of 2004: Mary Rose, her friend Jamie, Jessica, Amanda, Julia, Matt, Heidi, Cheryl, and Leah.
Celebrating: Spring, Heidi's birthday (March 22), Marjie's birthday (March 24), Cheryl's birthday (March 29). Can we say "Holy Aries, batman!"
Birthday girls
Mary Rose brought a friend from work, Jamie, who was awesome.
She fit right in, meaning she didn't think we were a bunch of depraved perverts, but that's only because we had to behave since Heidi was there. I managed not to drop the F-Bomb this time.
Julia and Matt were in town from Jamestown to visit family, and it's always nice to see them. They'll be a-gettin' married in July.
Most people ordered some food so we got to chat awhile. Mary Rose surprised us all with little gifts: Ice Cream Pendants! Here we all are holding them:
And a closeup for the visually challenged among us:
Along about 3:00 Julia, who is usually very quiet and observant, speaks. She looks right across the table at Jamie and says "Did you go to St. Charles for religion classes?" And Jamie looks right back at her and says "Yes! I thought you looked familiar!!" And I said "Have you two each spent the last hour thinking you know each other?" Well, whaddya know, they did indeed go to religion classes together, waaaaay back when. Small world! But wait until you hear exactly HOW small the world is.
Julia happens to mention her last name, and big ol' lesbo Amanda says "Wait! Are you related to Chris?" And Julia says "That's my cousin." And Amanda says "I DATED CHRIS!!!" And Chris being such an androgynous name, I ask is Chris a male or female. Turns out a male! Woo hoo! How long ago was that, when Amanda dated a boy, and it happens to be Julia's kin!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Am I the only one finding the humor and irony in this? So our motto is now "Bringing people together, one ice cream social at a time."
Jessica and Amanda
So everyone is done eating and our ice cream is coming, and we decide to call Maria, our goddess, since she had to work. Her phone rings, she picks up, and the first words out of her mouth were "You guys love me!" and she was getting all weepy because we all called her to say we missed her. AWWW!
So Heidi gets a few presents, and then proceeds to draw a portrait of everyone at the table. She worked on it for more than an hour, because as you all know, you cannot rush the creative process. Then she presented it to me, and I now present it to you. Look at the near-perfect representations of each of us. She drew each of us in the order we were seated at the table.
l. to r.: Leah (with blond highlights), Mary Rose (with spiky hair), Jamie (the flaming red-head), Jessica (with bandana), Amanda (with bb cap and glasses), Julia (blondie), Matt (with his curly 'fro and glasses), Heidi (she made her head smaller since she's little), and Cheryl (with her big hair).
We passed it around the table and Matt tried to buy it from her for a lousy buck. Ain't that the way, artists never being paid their worth? But I said, hey buddy, it says "To Leah" on that print and it's gonna cost you 10 grand! I should be an agent. Or an extortionist. Or is that the same thing?
But I digress. We finally finish and we pay our bill; EIGHTY BUCKOS!!! Yeah, baby. Then we finish our outing the way we usually finish them, by finding the nearest "adult novelty" store and browsing around, since we never lose sight of our mission statement. (See "about", above.) Of course, Cheryl did have to go home and drop off her little package first. We couldn't very well bring a seven-year old there now, could we?
As always, what happens in those stores stays there, so we'll not discuss it. But we will say the dude that worked there was totally creepy. He proofed us all, for one. Then later, when Cheryl and I were alone in an aisle and the rest of the folks were in a totally different part of the store, he makes it a point to come up to Cheryl and look at her in this creepy way and say, "Do you need any help finding anything?", completely ignoring my presence and not caring if I needed help. I think he really likes you, Cheryl!
And not that this is relevant to the story, but may I just say he happened to be a black man who was wearing an enormous Star of David necklace. The last Jewish black man I knew of was Sammy Davis, Jr. I'm pretty sure his Rabbi would disapprove of his career choice...
I think that about sums up our little event. I know this was a boring accounting compared to my usual posts, but I hope you will all forgive me. I'm a little overwhelmed with too much crap to do, and it's almost 2:00 in the morning.
Happy Birthday to all our Aries babies, and thank you again for the pendants, Mary Rose! Thanks, too, to Jamie for hanging with us. I hope I spelled your name right.
Our Mascot, Alice, may she rest in peace 
