February was never like this

Spring has sprung. The early flowers are up all along the rural highway. There is one place in a town called Maxeys*, about 10 miles north of here, where there's an old pink dogtrot house with a little woods next to it. The woods are full of naturalized daffodils. It reminds me of a field of tall yellow daffodils at my grandparents' place when I was a kid.

Also in Maxeys, the farmer(s) at Green Acres Farms have freshly manured the fields. I keep forgetting to put the car fan on "RECIRC" when I drive through there, but it's not so bad, really.

I was worried that the torrential rains had washed away all my seeds, but today I found that my radishes had survived and sprouted. You know how you look and look in the dirt and can't see a thing, and then you see one sprout and all of the sudden they're everywhere you look?

Today was so lovely (70 and sunny again) that I went out in short sleeves for the first time this year. I drove into Athens and ran errands:

New battery for the Accord - check!
Deposit check at ATM - check!
Craft store - check!
Big Lots - check!
Wine store - check!
Bakery - check!
Real grocery where they can identify the produce - check!

At the grocery they had watercress. Watercress! Good, fresh watercress, too, not the flattened, yellow watercress you see sometimes that already smells like decay. I've been waiting months for it to appear. I grabbed it and a head of butter lettuce so I could make my favorite salad of all time.

The s.o. is as enamored of the watercress salad as I am. We both take seconds--so what if we spoil our dinner! I see this as one of many signs of our compatibility. Let's put it this way: Once upon a time when I was married to my ex, I took that same salad to an Easter brunch with his family and every one of them turned their noses up at it. Great people, but no taste. That was the brunch where I was introduced to the Swedish-American dish known as "sandwich loaf." It's Wonderbread with the crusts cut off, layered with ham salad, egg salad, etc., and then "frosted" with mayonnaise so it resembles a cake. Gak! Please let me never see such a thing again.

Spring also brings American Idol. Seacrest...in! The house! Tonight was the results show from the first week of voting. Super emotional. I'd say the viewers pretty much voted off the right people, with the possible exception of Sarah Mather, who simply sang the wrong song for her talents (Earth to Sarah: If you are a delicate Victorian beauty, do not choose a song that requires raunchy soul).

I still have high hopes for my boy Constantine, although earlier this week he was so nervous that he kept lapsing into Tourette's-style grimaces and winces**. He's gotten over it now--he's all smiles and smoulders. Something very beneficial has happened along the way: The producers have drummed up a faux rivalry between him and the other "29-year-old rocker guy," the also-excellent Bo Bice. Psychologically, that's cool, because the little girls will pick a favorite and vote for him. I think it will benefit both.

I should finish painting the pantry, but no, I'm lolling around, paging through my new Sunset and Vogue magazines. The s.o. is listing eBay items, as he does. We are both looking forward to morning, too. Don't think I would have visited the bakery without getting a breakfast pastry. The s.o. is lucky--Big City Bread cuts its raspberry coffeecake into pieces that are too big for any sane person to eat alone, so I share mine with him.

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* Supposedly the only town in Georgia with a possessive name, except that it's not a possessive anymore because they dropped the apostrophe. I hate to be a grammar nitpicker, but...no, wait, I don't hate to be a grammar nitpicker. That's how I am, dammit.

** It reminded me of the first chapter of Infinite Jest, it was that painful. I can't believe I just wrote that in a footnote.