Dear emeraldtiger,

My favorite colors are: brown, wine, and drab green. My favorite color for a room, however, is bright yellow - especially if wood floors are involved. I don't like primary colors unless they're occuring in flowers or otherwise in nature. I'm darn picky about colors too. And I like to do my photography in black and white.

It was lovely out today. It was sunny and warm enough to be outside. I went to our p-patch meeting and got all excited about getting ready to plant stuff. I can't WAIT to start! I have to cool my horses though or else all of my plants will die. No planting until late March/early April!

John and I went to the Japanese Tea Garden too. Today was opening day. I hadn't been aware that it closed ever. I can't wait until it's a little warmer and more of the trees have bloomed. I LOVE that garden. It's so peaceful and beautiful - I love the shapes of the rocks and... well, everything. They pay so much attention to detail there.

I also went shopping for bulbs and seeds for the p-patch - although I might not be allowed to plant yet, I can certainly have all of my little ducks in a row so that when it IS time to plant, I will be able to start right away without having to plan a time to go to the store. I've got some really super cool flowers to grow this year. I also have better strategies for the vegetables - namely, I'm going to mulch well to conserve water. If you leave the ground bare in our patch, it just fries and the ground bakes and all the water just runs off the plot and into the path. Mulch is your friend!

Tonight Abby and I went to her friend, Serena's house. Serena cooked us and her neighbors a lovely indian food feast. We played with her cats and had some great conversation. Everyone there but Abby and I were totally into alternative healing, so everything we said got analyzed - too much water in my life apparently, I need more fire. More fire foods.

And then Abby and I went to the Century Ballroom. I am DYING to take a dance class now. It was SO much fun. It was great people watching and I can tell that it would be a great place to meet people as well. I think I'll sign up for their next round of classes which should start in April or thereabouts. I can't wait! It's only too bad that I won't have a dance partner to take with me to the classes. John would certainly never dance (and futhermore, I can't imagine that it would be much fun if he DID take the class with me). Perhaps RePete will sign up.

I did dance with this one very young fellow there. He was asking me if I knew how to swing - and yes, I had actually taken a little intro to swing thing back at the beginning of college. And then I heard myself say to him, "Yeah, I took lessons about... oh... nine... years... ago." JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! I started college NINE years ago!?!??! I was 18 NINE years ago. Suddenly, I found myself ancient. Particularly because the boy seemed like he was only about 18. (Abby later pointed out that he had to be at least 21 to get into the club - but still). Wow. So I'm a bit older than I realized. It was quite a shock to realize that college was that far back. My ten year high school reunion should be next spring, I guess. Class of '94! Woo! Oh dear.