Seeing Texas through Mississippi eyes

Last night in memoir class we talked about the idea that you cannot tell another person's story. You can only tell your perception of it. So I can't tell you for sure how my houseguests reacted to the mini-Texas tour today--but from my point of view, it was a great success and they enjoyed it thoroughly. We first drove to Granbury, where they admired the picturesque courthouse, newly cleaned up and now glistening, and the charming buildings around the square. My eyes have seen the Granbury square many more times than I can count, but I thought it looked lively, a bit more spruced up today. We browsed for quite a while in The Panhandle, my favorite cooking store--and I did a little Christmas shopping. Then on to my friend Linda's store, Almost Heaven. Actually Linda met us at The Panhandle and gave a walking tour as we ambled along the block and a half to her store. Linda's store is a delight with beatiful and clever decorative pieces, mounted sayings--Barbara bought one that said, "Grace is not something we say before meals. It's a way of life"--purses, throws, all sorts of things, but all tasteful.  Linda has a terrific flair for display these things in an eye-catching way.
Then it was on to the old house that Linda and Rodger have redone with the same flair they show in the store--it's a delightful residence. Dee Gormley, who ran a knockout bookstore and put on wonderful literary events for years, joined us for lunch--chicken tortilla soup, salad, cole slaw and pumpking cheesecake. Wonderful company, wonderful food. The ladies came away thinking I have really great friends--which is true.
We went on to Tolar and Musick Road and my brother's ranch. He practically met us at the door with wine glasses in hand.We visited for a bit and then John and Cindy gave us the deluxe tour of the ranch--it is so dry and the stock tanks down, but they still have pastures of little bluestem, now dry and straw-colored, and something I  think he called King bluestem, which lies close to the ground. Both will make excellent forage for the cattle in the winter. John loves to explain the geography and ecology of his land--how they brought the pastures back, the view of the Brazos River valley, the menace of feral hogs--and Barbara and Pam asked intelligent questions, plus Pam took some incredibly good pictures of the cattle feeding. My idea of their story is that this was a day unlike any other they'd ever spent, and they enjoyed it. Pam has traveled extensively to Europe and places in the U.S., Barbara has traveled but not quite so extensively. Still I think this was a new and totally different day for them. And I always enjoy riding around the ranch--the land is beautiful, and today was a perfect day. Back at the house, I rushed us off to Fort Worth fairly quickly, worried about my puppy who had been in her crate all day. She seems none the worse for it.
We went to the Old Neighborhood Grill for supper with Jordan, Christian and Jacob. Barbara knew about the Grill from reading Skeleton in a Dead Space and hearing about my two signings there, so she was delighted to visit it.  And everyone seemed to enjoy dinner.
My house is quiet again--dogs asleep, guests gone to the apartment. But as they left Pam said to me, "Wonderful family, wonderful friends." Yep, that's how I feel about it too--I am blessed with family and friends. And it's fun to share my little corner of Texas with others, particularly with someone who like me grew up in Chicago's South Side. John felt that too, and at one point said, "It's not the South Side of Chicago." Other times he referred to growing up in the city, as we all did, and once said you couldn't see weather coming in the city but out there, you can.
Yes, Barbara and John, we've come a long and good way from Chicago's Hyde Park.

24-hour getaway

I'm just home from 24 hours in Granbury (TX, of course) with my good friends Rodger and Linda Preston. Linda and I go back years and years, and she's been married to Rodger about 11 years. I love him too because he's a great cook, a steadfast liberal, and an all-around good guy. Linda came to get me Friday about 3 p.m. and we chattered all the way to Granbury. They gave a dinner party that night--a former bookseller of whom I'm particulary fond, one of our TCU Press authors and his wife, and the mayor and his wife. Turns out the mayor's wife went to high school in Scotland, so we had lots of fun talking about all things Scottish. Rodger fixed bouef bourguignion according to Julia's Child's recipe--Linda kept saying it was too complicated and she liked recipes with four ingredients, but today she and my brother agreed I would have done the same thing. I like those challenges. It was delicious, meat marinated for two or three days, lots of mushrooms. I avoided the noodles and the dessert and came in under points for the day.
Rodger and Linda own a gift store, Almost Heaven, on the square in Granbury (watch for their blog soon), and this was Harvest Moon Festival, which attracts a lot of vendors and a lot of people. Linda and I walked to the store about ten, and I holed up in the office, checking emails, working on a column, doing my free writing. We went to The Merry Heart, a lunch place two doors down, for chicken salad, another good visit, and then back to the store, where I signed books from 1-3. Well, I would have signed books but people weren't buying. I sold three, and two of those were to a woman I knew and her daughter, good friends of Linda's. Still, I talked to a lot of people, and maybe they'll remember my books. I have developed my "draw them in line" for Cooking My Way Through Life with Kids and Books--I point to the picture of Jacob and say, "That's my grandson. Isn't he adorable?" When they say yes, I launch into the story of what the parents of my other grandchildren thought. It worked well as a conversation starter, but not so well as a sales pitch. The people who come into Linda's store are looking for scented candles, odd gifts, etc. The lady who was demonstrating a salt scrub did a lot better than I did.
Highlight: My brother and his wife, John and Cindy, came by to visit, with Cindy holding their two-year-old granddaughter, Emery, who would not be detached from her grandmother. She clung and looked long at all of us. When they got ready to leave, she began to wave bye-bye--I think it was out of relief that they were leaving, for she'd been saying, "Go, Go." John said the crowd scared her. After they left, Linda brought me back to Fort Worth and we shared a glass of wine and a bit of cheese and stale crackers (I threw them in the trash after she politely said they were a bit stale but not too bad!). We had yet another good visit. She makes me think of that old saying, which I'll surely get wrong, but "New friends are silver, but old friends are gold." When Jamie married, he ordered silver steins with that on it for his groomsmen.
I'm nursing a cold that has been lingering on my horizons all week. Tonight it has turned into frequent sneezes and a constant need to blow my nose so that I look like Rudolph the Reindeer. Although I didn't feel on top of my game last night, I felt good all day and am fine now home and settled at my desk. It's taken me so long to catch up, I hope to have time for reading tonight.
After I unpacked, fed the animals, and got everything back to normal, I had a big debate with myself: did I want to saute that ground sirloin patty in the fridge or fix an anchovy pasta. The pasta won, and I cooked a handful of ditali (small short tubes of macaroni). While it was cooking, I heated olive oil and dumped in three chopped anchovy fillets, a generous helping of capers, and a small (single serving) can of tuna. When it was done I put some fresh grated parmesan over it. No salad, nothing else, though I felt a bit guilty about not having greens. But it was a delicious supper with a glass of wine.
Moral for the day: writing leads you into all kinds of fun situations. When Rodger asked why they were doing something--maybe having fresh raspberries for breakfast?--Linda said, "Because we have an artist in our midst." Who, me?