Spring Up

I haven't written on this particular blog in a few weeks. For that matter, I've only written sporadically on my WordPress. There have been several events in that time I feel are worth mentioning. My dad and his girlfriend were up in the city a few weeks ago, and we went with them to Burger Bistro and to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. My dad was interested in seeing our place, but it's still not really in an appropriate condition for guests. When the scope of something is overwhelming, it's difficult for me to even start. I mentioned before that, for Easter, Beth and I had dinner at her mom's house. I've finished drafts of a few new Oz stories. I feel I always have to specify "drafts," even though I sometimes don't do anything else with them, because I don't want to discount the editing process. If anyone wants to read them, let me know. One of them is a Super Mario Bros. crossover, an idea I had way back when there were only three main series Mario games. I like the idea of crossovers, but it can be really difficult to get two different fictional worlds to interact in a way that makes sense. More often, I tend to just sneak in brief references to other works I like, without really explaining them. I have ideas for a few more tales, but I don't know how long those will take me. And I made macaroni and cheese, which turned out to not have as much flavor as I'd hoped. I used cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. I guess I'm a bit of a cheese snob, in that I grew up on sharp cheddar, and stuff like American cheese and Velveeta just seem dull to me.

Yesterday, our friends Tavie and Sean got married, and had their reception at a place called Le Petit Café in Carroll Gardens. It's a nice place, but we were all packed in pretty tightly. There was no room to dance or kids to run around, which are things that often happen at wedding receptions. Beth wore a new dress, but while I did get a few pictures, none of them came out that well. You can see one of them on Facebook if you're interested. It's weird, because I always wonder why people don't want pictures of themselves on social media without screening them first. Then, when that happens to me, I'm like, "Okay, I get it now." For me, it's mostly because my hair doesn't behave. Speaking of marriage, Beth and I just recently saw a stand-up set by another guy we've known for a while, Matt, who is now a Daily Show writer, and he's also married now. We don't see him that much, but we have friends in common, so you'd think we would have known about that before. In my experience, marriage doesn't change much in the dynamic between couples. I mean, it's really just a bureaucratic thing, when you get down to it. But I think it totally affects how other people view you, "wife" or "husband" just sounding so much more serious than "girlfriend" or "boyfriend."

At one point, Tavie was talking about how her cat Neelix likes Sean better, and I mentioned how our Wally prefers Beth and Reagan prefers me. I've heard it was similar with my grandparents and their male and female cats. It's strange, but I don't think there's really anything to it on a grand scale. And when I lived with Beth's cousins Patti and Dorothea, they had a cat named Cracker whom they said preferred men. I know I got along well with him. I walked by a cat café earlier on Friday, and I've never been to one of those. I'm kind of afraid I'd want to adopt another cat, when we already have two who are on pricey medication.