soup's on

lynda is here.  we're a bottle of wine in and laughing a lot!  christopher is teaching her how to make the sauce for the pasta and i'm writing and keeping the kitten from biting our heels and eating the salami.

jealous?

to dust or not to dust ...

dear lynda,

considering he just uttered the phrase, 'i can only find one sandal,' i cannot guarantee the state of things when you arrive at christopher's home tomorrow. 

the desk will be a mess.  the kitten will be all over the place.  but... the table will be set, the food will be divine and a good time will be had by all.

including the dust bunnies.

can't wait!

:) leigh anne

new look

new look for the blog. what do you think?

yes!

yeah!!!   we have our first 'yes.'   here's what lynda said:

OK, so I had to wait for the tears to clear my eyes before I could reply to your wonderful, touching post. I accept with great honor the invitation. Mexican or Italian. Ice cold Pacifico or Bombay Sapphire & Tonic. Anything but music that is yelling at me...........I can't wait !!!

dinner is at 7 p.m. on wednesay, june 16.   (i should probably inform the chef!)

closer to home

hey, would you look at that?  i finally published my letter.  it took forever, because as it turns out, it's harder writing to someone i know than someone i don't. 

for those of you not in the know ... lynda is a dear friend i work with.  she is funny and kind and generous beyond words.  she's the only person i know who takes vacations to volunteer.  (she also takes vacations with her girlfriends where they do nothing but drink wine and well, i don't know what else ... she had me at 'drink wine.')

not long ago, she went to haiti for a week.  she will never be the same, i imagine.  and i intend to learn why. 

so close and yet, so far

dearest lynda,

we still work in the same building, don't we?  i think i remember seeing you ... as one of us was coming or going or dealing with something on fire.  what does it say about me that i communicate with you more via facebook than in person?  what does it say about me that even after recognizing it, i'm doing it again?

this time, though, there's a good reason ...

i would like to invite you for dinner. 

i'd like us to sit, with a cocktail, and christopher cooking something remarkable (maybe on the grill?), and have a proper chat about our lives. 

i'd like to know how you came to be in the place that you have chosen for your life ... i want to know what inspires your tremendous generosity and your fiercely loyal friends and your great, loud laugh.

bring your favorite stories and pictures of haiti and your other trips (whether with friends or with your church) and prepare yourself for a ton of questions, great food and what i am sure will be an evening the others will envy.  (my, don't i have a high opinion of myself?)

we can't wait to have you in our home ...

much love,

leigh anne

p.s.  the questions begin now ...

a) what is your favorite food?
b) what is your favorite cocktail?
c) every dinner party playlist should include ...?

why yes, i am a slacker. thank you for asking.

yeah, yeah, yeah.  i've missed a few wednesdays. 

i had a cold ... and i can't write if i can't think and i can't think if my brain hurts and there's a cough rattling my ribcage.

then one wednesday, i had to work. 

then my car broke drown.  literally.  the brakes fell out.  they're fixed now and i can stop whenever i want. 

and last week, i was just plain lazy. 

so, a new letter is coming soon.  wednesday, to be exact. 

maybe sooner. 

unless something distracts me.

fan mail?

dear mark,

i am a little old to be sending fan mail. is it okay if we consider this a love letter?

i don't live in san francisco.  i've never even been to san francisco.  unless you count that one time i changed planes on my way to visit my mother, which i don't.  but, i found your column in the gate by mistake once while searching for something else - actually, that's not quite true ... to say 'mistake' would be to imply error and it's never wrong to discover a new voice.  i have been addicted ever since.

i love the way you write.  i do.  intelligent. relevant. and almost always a little naughty.  the subjects are simple. the structure is so complex.  in those long, descriptive sentences, your words beg to be plucked from the page to warm the hand or land on the tip of the tongue, tickling the roof of the mouth spilling out into the room.  i want to be able to write like that.

writing is a strange business, i imagine.  committing something of yourself to the page when there is no reason why anyone should respond. (or finding yourself to be the recipient of about a million unwanted attentions ... people claiming connections that seem so false.)  i imagine people have a difficult time separating the man and the message ... who you are vs. what you do. (or maybe there's no separation at all.)

still, there is something lovely about it, isn't there?  like the small craziness of talking to a stranger.  when you write, you can just talk ... say all the things you wouldn't say to your acquaintances or best friends, because the context is entirely new. lots of times you meet someone and there is nothing to say, or you've been friends forever and there are all these things you can't say ... but when you sit down to write, everything else falls away.

i love figuring out how to talk about things. and i suppose that's the whole reason for this letter. working through the grammar, if you will. 


reading your column gave me the first glimpse of the idea that i could spend my time doing something i love in a space that's mine.   and for that, i owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude.  would you settle for dinner? next time you're in L.A.? maybe while on your book tour? 

now before you start freaking out and thinking i'm some sort of strange stalker, this is not a date.  sorry.  you should know, before you start crushing too hard, that my affections have long been engaged elsewhere (he loves listening to me laugh while i read your column aloud to him) and it was his idea to invite you to dinner. 

i think it would be great fun to hear your perspective on the business of creativity and to talk with you about the the potential of words and what it's like to abide within the energy of expression.  the country, i think, is impossibly hungry for intelligent conversation. one good conversation, one new opinion, has to be worth the possibility of making an enemy or looking like an idiot.

don't let me look like an idiot.  please?  come to dinner.  christopher will cook whatever you like.  i will set the table and keep the cat off your lap.  we'll drink and eat and have a lovely time.  and we won't ask you to write a thing.

leigh anne
http://wednesdaynightsupper.blogspot.com/

making a list, checking it twice

christopher and i keep throwing names around and if we don't start writing them down soon, one of us is going to forget ...

recipe for disaster? (or how the ultra-conservative money-grubbing jesus-fest actually gave birth to a good idea.)

this was my boyfriend's idea ...

... but only because he's very good at listening to the volumes of nonsense i speak and even better at culling from it the parts that are interesting and worth acting on.  plus, he laughs in all the right places, which makes me seem very smart and entertaining.  let's hope he's right.

it was his idea to start this project ...

... but only because i came home with my head spinning and my soul in need of a good scrubbing after the 'motivational seminar' i had attended turned out to be an ultra-conservative money-grubbing jesus-fest -- the highlight of which turned out to be general colin powell.  (colin powell AND a surprise appearance by rob lowe in place of lou holtz ... because who wouldn't want rob lowe in place of lou holtz, but that's another story entirely.)

it is his idea to do this, because there are three things i do really well:

1) eat. 
2) hold my liquor
3) tell a good story.

and when i mentioned i would really like to sit down and have a drink with general powell, owing to how charming and funny he had proved himself to be, the boyfriend (christopher) said i should write and tell him.  and while i'm at it, invite the general for dinner, because, while there are A LOT of things christopher does well, he is famous in our circle for two things:

1) making a great cocktail.
2) making an even better meal.

which brings us here ... to the wednesday night supper club ...

we're making a list of folks we'd like to have dinner with.  not all of them will be famous or even people we like all that much, but all of them will be people we admire or wonder about or find we have something in common with or we hope have something interesting or relevant to say. 

then, we'll invite them over for cocktails or dinner (or both) and we'll publish the letters here - along with responses, if we get any. 

and if anyone should actually choose to join us, you'll hear all about it here, right down to the very last bite.

... the wednesday night supper club ... dinner, drinks, great company, good conversation ... even if it's just the two of us.

that being said, i've got a letter to write to the general.  all i need is his  address.  and a stamp.

a smaller song

Dear General Powell,

I don't really know what to say.  I don't really do fan mail, but, I heard you speak at this ridiculous 'motivational seminar' a few months back and your voice has stayed with me. 

Your stories were filled with joy and humility and such an authentic appreciation for the balance between a life of service and the service to a life, that I wanted to let you know you affected me.

And I wonder if you'd like to come to dinner the next time you're in L.A. 

This is, perhaps, an unrealistic request; you are monumentally busy and have all manner of important things to attend to, I know, but there are so many things I'd like to talk with you about. 

I am curious about your life now and how it must feel to be (mostly) accountable to yourself after a lifetime of service to others.  (How is your wife handling it?)  I'd like to hear how you're faring with Facebook; has your grandson continued his tutelage?  And for once, I'd like to talk about Vietnam.  If you knew me, you'd know is a rare occurrence, since my father was killed there, but I wonder what it was like to participate in that conflict and I'd like to hear how that experience informed the decisions you made later in your career. 

And something tells me you know some really dirty jokes.  I'd like to hear those, too.

If you can make time to join us, let us know your favorite dish.  Christopher, my beloved, can make just about anything, and it's always good.  (He just got a new smoker and now no one can beat his spareribs!)

If you cannot make it, well, that sucks. 

Still, I am still thrilled to have been able to hear you speak,  In the midst of the pyrotechnics and the chorus of 'God Bless America', it was your smaller song, filled with intellgence and honesty and humor, that showed you to be a real patriot and the sort of leader we are so lucky to have known.

Warmest regards and heartfelt thanks,

Leigh Anne

P.S.  Please bring your lovely wife.  She sounds like a hoot.