The Chef is taking a break this week, so I got my questions from Stone Girl.

Appetizer
What is your favorite vacation spot in the United States? A lot of people are going to think this is sad, but I love Branson, MO. I just do. I like being around older folks, things going at a slower pace, and Silver Dollar City. People let you in during the heavy traffic and are just all around nicer than what you’ll find most places. For beauty, I really like the Rockies and the countryside of Virginia.

Soup
If someone else (friend, co-worker, family) brings up a religious or political topic, how likely are you to join the conversation, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = not likely, 10=very likely). If there is going to be a disagreement, 2. If I know pretty much where the person stands and it’s not too far from where I am, 10. I’ll talk politics (with my limited knowledge) all day with someone who isn’t going to turn it into a shouting match, e.g. Rosie O’Donnell.

Salad
What song do you listen to when you feel very sad? I’m not sad very often anymore. However, when I was in high school and bummed out about a boy or some kinda junk like that, I’d listen to Nina Gordon sing “The End of the World” over and over. How’s that for depressing? Let me think, I did have some sad times in college…okay, I just checked my last.fm charts for the spring of 2005 (aka, the semester that Liz could have flunked out of school – but didn’t – because she was always bawling over the last stupid thing some jerkface said or did. We’re talking, wearing a bathrobe, sad music on, sitting on my bed with a box of Kleenex. It was NOT pretty.) and it’s pretty telling. Let’s just go ahead and make a soundtrack for the most depressing point in my life (albeit a very dumb reason to be depressed. Scumbag.).

Break Me – Jewel
Main Title from The Notebook
This Years Love – David Gray
Tear In Your Hand – Tori Amos
I’ll Be Seeing You – Billie Holiday
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane
Mark’s Song – eastmountainsouth
Mr. Lonely – Bobby Vinton
The Hard Way – Keith Urban
If I Could Turn Back Time – Cher
Rain – Patty Griffin
Lost In Love – Air Supply
Stupid – Sarah McLachlan

Main Course
Someone you really admire is coming over for a home-cooked dinner. What do you serve him/her? Hmm. I can’t think of anything that I am super impressive at cooking (Kevin and my friends like it, that’s good enough for me), but to give them a little taste of something that I enjoy, I’d make my mom’s Chicken Cheese Spaghetti. Oh, I love it.

Dessert
If the only form of transportation left in the world is by animal (horse, mule, camel, etc), where would you live? I move back down to Pernell, OK and live the way my great-grandparents did. Get myself a little house, plant a garden, grow flowers, and get a few cats for the barn.

Because many of you are fairly new readers, I thought I’d link to an older post where I talk about being on a Match.com pop-up ad. Yeah, yeah. Check it out.

(i wrote this for my myspace, but i thought it would be fun to share something a little different here for once. i used to write heart lists. i need to start again.)

i miss my hair being this long:

sometimes i just want to live in pretty music videos

i love people. i love you people. wish everyone knew it. maybe i should say it more. and louder.

i love lots of things really. a short list:

♥ long phone calls
♥ my Bible
♥ hope.
♥ being ready to wake up after a good night’s sleep.
♥ a new year
♥ where i want to go
♥ turtledoves
♥ just for a moment
♥ blackberry picking
♥ porches covered in flowers
♥ “love is an illusion.” “it’s the only illusion that counts, my friend.”
♥ watching storms roll in
♥ everything e.e. cummings ever wrote
♥ inspiration
♥ we laughed until we had to cry
♥ java chip frappucino w/ a shot of mint
♥ “there will come a time…and i will know.”
♥ a glass of cold, cold water
♥ hashbrowns covered in pepper & ketchup
♥ freshly vacuumed floors
♥ waking up early w/out a trace of drowsiness
♥ santa fe, nm
♥ morning rain
♥ “I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.”
♥ if i hold you again i will never let go
♥ empty parking lots
♥ two drifters, off to see the world
♥ there’s a full moon over tulsa/i hope it’s shining on you
♥ inky fingers
♥ “i’ll take care of you. i will.”
♥ you stormed my winter palace/you rid my heart of every bit of malice/you’re how i won the war
♥ making sense
♥ the smell of oleander
♥ take a good look, make it last/and when you’ve found the moments’ past/just remember that/nobody loved you like me/nobody loved you like me/nobody loved you like me/nobody loved you…like me
♥ these things take forever/i especially am slow/but i realize that i need you/and i wondered if i could come home
♥ tiny green tomatoes
♥ toes
♥ aeroplanes overhead
♥ remember the time you drove all night/just to meet me in the morning/and i thought it was strange/you said everything changed/you felt as if you’d just woke up/and you said “this is the first day of my life/i’m glad i didn’t die before i met you/but now i don’t care/i could go anywhere with you/and i’d probably be happy”
♥ having plans
♥ the lake.
♥ ceiling fans
♥ sunshine in the backyard
♥ baby strawberries
♥ Virginia
♥ so if you want to be with me/with these things there’s no telling/we’ll just have to wait and see
♥ “why wouldn’t she marry me sally?” “she was afraid.”
♥ mrs. dalloway
♥ “he always hated…anyone that wanted to marry you.”
♥ and you just may be the one
♥ “are you happy?”
♥ a girl called daisy
♥ did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?
♥ “i wish she’d see things more clearly.” “clearly enough to marry you, you mean.”
♥ nothing lasts too long
♥ hat designers
♥ my own true love/my own true love/at last i found you/my own true love/no lips but yours/no arms but yours/we’ll live eternally through heaven’s door/i roam the earth in search of this/i knew i’d know you, know you/by your kiss, by your kiss/you’ve showed true love/i’m yours forever/my own true love
♥ “she’s going to marry that man.”
♥ you can’t love like that twice
♥ “i know that i loved her once and that it stayed with me all my life and colored…everything.”
♥ let the rain fall, i don’t care/i’m yours and suddenly you’re mine
♥ poking people on the nose
♥ “i’d hug you, if i could.”
♥ i can hardly catch my breath
♥ stoplights. golights.
♥ i look up/you’re standing next to me/what a feeling

enough now.

i like songs that go la la la and songs that sound like they belong in a music box. and songs people write (for me). and songs with my name in them.

In more ways than one

I told her from now on I’m calling her Coates-Kreeger, just ’cause.

And this is my obligatory post-wedding mirror photo, featuring my “I’m so glad they’re finally married after 7 years of dating!” face:

Today, my college roommate/best bud/second cousin is getting married. *tear*

Happy 100th Birthday to my favorite state! I couldn’t be prouder of the place where I live. Well, I guess if they hadn’t robbed entire people groups of their homes…that would have been better. But other than that!