For those of you who didn’t see it on the news, today’s headlines from Richmond, Virginia:

State of emergency, 3 dead, about 20 blocks condemned after Gaston
Three deaths were reported after Gaston battered Virginia, and the governor declared a state of emergency.

Major bummer. After Mike and I got married, everyone met us down at Havana 59 in Shockoe Bottom for dinner and drinks. As of last night, Havana, and the entire Farmer’s Market in front of it, was under 10 feet of water . . . very depressing. As I said to a friend, seeing new buildings destroyed is always sad, but to find out that historic churches, buildings, and restaurants like Bottoms Up are gone is just heartbreaking. The Bottom is one of the most historic places in Richmond, and watching cars float down Cary and Main Street was beyond bizarre. I was very glad that our current office space was at higher ground, but felt sorry for all the people stranded in buildings last night. No one I knew was prepared - even after Isabel. I don’t think anyone really understood what was going to happen or that we were going to get up to 14” of rain in 10 hours . . . or how fast water rises when you are truly in a flood emergency. I ended up stranded on the Southside last night.

I think it’s my parents - since they moved here last July, we’ve had one of the worst hurricanes in Richmond history (Isabel), the biggest flood ever (yesterday), and more rain and bizarre weather than I can remember. Maybe they should return to South Carolina and take their funky vibes with them . . . .

Lily learned to kiss today - we kept thinking she was trying to attack our faces by biting us, but instead it turns out she was actually trying to “kiss” us. Half the time she puts her tongue out so we get licked, but it’s still really cute. We told her to kiss her stuffed bear today and she did - she puts her lips against the animal and just stays there for a minute, then starts giggling. I told her to kiss daddy, and she did the same thing. She doesn’t quite get the smacking sound, but it’s still really great - 14 months and finally she can be demonstrative. And we thought her hugging us was the deal! I still love that - but the kissing is even better. I attribute it to grandma’s insistence that she “kiss the grandma”, which usually meant grandma was about to get licked by the lizard child.

Mike had a snow day today and we did some stuff around the house and played with Lily. I bought some huge bin organizer thing at Target today and now all of Lily’s toys are more neatly arranged. She thought it was Christmas in January - she hadn’t seen a lot of those toys in a while and spent the night ripping the bins out and dumping them on the floor. I just cleaned them up again. Matt taught her to pull her “kitchen” on to the floor so that’s her new favorite thing - it makes an extremely loud crashing sound that she seems to appreciate. And this is the same child who is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. Go figure.

Tomorrow I’m “schlepping all over town” as Mike puts it (he thinks we’re going to crash the car because the roads still aren’t clear). I’m taking Lily down to Midlothian so I can do a business meeting and then put together the remainder of my office, with some help from my father. I now have two desks and a filing cabinet to put together, as well as a ceiling fan to help cool the tropical environment caused by the radiated heat set at an ungodly high level. I usually just leave the windows open, but you gotta love Richmond - when I do that, I am greeted by the screams of bible psalms and “Daddy, Daddy, don’t kill me” from the anti-abortion activists who stand outside the Ob/Gyn clinic right next to my office. They also put up really heinous graphic pictures of fetuses as well, and scream “Baby Killer” at all the women who come in. One of the first times I had to go through their line, they screamed that at me, and then saw the car seat in the back. Since then, they have stopped screaming at me, but I still call the police when their chanting gets far too annoying. I feel sorry for all those women, but I worry more about the doctors and nurses - you just have to wonder how far they will go. I kid you not, this one guy is out there 10 hours a day, every day. I feel like screaming, “GET A JOB!” at him, but that would be rude.

Lily is walking . . .

Sort of! We are counting yesterday as her first day of walking, since she did it a number of times and was taking more than just a couple of steps. Today she is more reluctant to try it, but that’s okay. Maybe she tired herself out yesterday.

Richmond is bracing itself for a huge “snow storm” (which down here means 3 inches). Inevitably, forecasts of snow drive people to the grocery stores, buying milk and bread in huge quantities. It’s pretty funny. We actually did go to the store today, and did buy some milk - but only because we were running out of Lily’s whole milk. We had an excuse. I was almost embarassed to be seen buying milk on the dawn of the blizzard of 2004.

We spent yesterday painting at my parent’s house - we textured painted their half bath. It looks good - better than ours, really, since we sort of knew what we were doing this time. Lily had fun destroying their house and playing with everything she could get her hands on.

Just a quick note tonight - it’s 10 PM and I just finished up working. Mike and I started lifting weights again and my arms feel like gelatin. At least now they look and feel the same way! You’d think with all the lifting I do of Ms. Lily, they’d be stronger.

We spent the day at Grammaw’s and Grandpa’s house - Lily spent her time crawling up and down the stairs, and up and down the aluminum step ladder. She also gorged herself on Gram’s home cookin’ - roasted chicken, green beans, potatoes, and some carrots. She was shoving them in, double fisted. Apparently my cooking is less than desirable. Did I mention the peaches? She ate those, too. I’m glad - maybe she’ll hit 20 pounds before her 2nd birthday and she can finally go forward-facing in her car seat. She got some good practice walking today as well since I didn’t bring her cart and in order for her to motor around she either had to crawl, cruise, or climb.

Lily made googly-eyes at the restaurant tonight - there was a table full of kids with their parents. It kept her entertained. I was entertained by the very large woman, who was very Southern. She must have ordered some sort of queso dip. It came out and it was spinach dip. She told the waitress she had brought the wrong thing, and then said, “But kin I taste that there dip?” The waitress just nodded mutely. She dug in, then passed the plate around to her family, telling them to “Taste it!”. The waitress held her hand out for the plate, and the woman said, “Do yer have to take it? It’s yer mistake, cain’t we keep it and eat it?” The waitress just said no again and tried leaving for the kitchen. Apparently the woman felt she could just continue to eat whatever was ordered incorrectly - perhaps she’d be visiting the dumpster for an after-dinner aperitif. I was really almost open-mouthed about the whole experience - and felt very sorry for the waitress. But what do you expect when you’re dining out on Hull Street on a Monday night . . . at least her daughter kept Lily entertained. Her son had on a large t-shirt with a painting of Jesus, nailed and bloody, to the cross. He liked Lily too and she liked looking at his dangly cross earring. Ah, I love the south.

Well, you know you are in the south when people stop in the middle of a professional, networking meeting and bless their bagels.

So I go to this meeting where I don’t know anyone but the person who set up the meeting. The first person I meet introduces herself to me and begins talking about her business. She promptly stops when her bagel arrives and makes the sign of the cross over it, blesses it, and says something silently to herself (but her lips were still moving).

I think to myself, “Okay, that’s cool - whatever makes the food taste better” and move on. I worked for two hardcore “Christian” companies in the past - both automation distributors - and one went so far as to hire a corporate CHAPLAIN to counsel us in times of spiritual need. I used to pretend to be on the phone whenever the chaplain came by to see me. Anyway, the company before them used to put pro-life flyers in our paystub envelopes. For all you pro-lifers out there: I’d feel the same way if they put pro-choice flyers in my paystub. I don’t want that kind of stuff in my business life. Period. One of the first interviews I had with one of the above companies made me aware of how seriously these people take their christianity . . . the man I was eating with stopped me in mid-bite, at a Shoney’s, of all places, to tell me that I needed to pray with him. I blessed my seafood buffet and got on with it: “Dear God, thank you for this bountiful feast of fried fish parts. I especially thank you for the giant piece of chocolate cream pie that is sitting to the left of me. Please keep me safe from food-poisoning and overeating. Thank you.”

The reason I put the word “christian” in quotes is that in both cases, the men running those companies, those supposedly godly men - were about the biggest pigs I’ve ever met in my life. One was a porn addict and looked at it all day on the internet, while at work (to make it worse: he liked kiddie porn, and had 3 young daughters - GROSS!) - the other was a liar and vindicitive as all get-out, and a womanizer to boot. So I am immediately suspicious, based on my experiences, when people go out of their way to tell me they are a christian.

I digress. She eats her bagel, talks some more about her company, and then says, and I quote, “I’m a christian. And it’s very important for me to work with other christians and people who share the same values and morals as I do.” This meeting was a highly intense, professional meeting - and this comment she made was completely out of the blue. I had no idea what to say. “A-hem, well, I’m a marketing consultant for small business, and I’m also a Wiccan? Does it pose a problem that I am celebrating the autumnal solstice by dancing naked around a bonfire?” (No offense to Wiccans - I know I’m poking fun at them too). I just get so tired of the religious undertones, but that’s part of living in the South. I think up north, people can be just as religious, but they know better than to start preaching during the middle of a business luncheon. Good god, I wanted to just be evil and tell her “I’m a lesbian! I worship the devil! And I’m of the Jewish persuasion as well! Is that a problem for you?” Of course, I’m none of the above, but it sure would have been fun watching her face.

Needless to say, I kept quiet and said a prayer to God to get me out of this meeting as fast as possible. And guess what? I get to see her again on Friday. Lord help me.