Anastasia at The Owl

Good evening. It’s Anastasia and I’m not going to stay long. I’m heading out to the casbah tonight and I just thought I’d pop by and say hi. I’m meeting a girlfriend over there and we’re planning on giving ourselves something to talk about next week.

Speaking of strange places to drink alcohol, have you ever been to The Owl? I believe the official name is The Owl Wine Bar & Home Goods Store, but that’s a lot of words, so I just usually call it The Owl. If you spell it out, though, make sure you use the ampersand; they’re kind of picky about those things.

Anyway, I just love to pop in there on Friday and Saturday evenings. Friday they have open mic and Saturday they have a musician or small band or something. I have so much fun going there, getting a bottle of wine and sitting with some friends to talk. I like to sit on one of the sofas or soft chairs. I’m not really one to sit on a barstool. Much. Any more. Much.

And they have a menu of munchies. I’ll never forget the time I offered my cousin Myrna a piece off of my plate. She had been trying to eat more healthy and I had a Mediterranean plate. It seemed nice and light and she said she’d been eating more vegetables and trying new dishes, so I gave her one the of dolmas, thinking she’d love it. The look on her face when she bit into it let me know I was oh-so-very wrong about that. I shouldn’t laugh because I love Cousin Myrna dearly, but her face hides nothing. The sour, desperate look on her face made me laugh and feel bad at the same time. I discreetly handed her a few napkins to relieve herself of that unsavory burden.

The lighting is nice because the ceilings are about a hundred and fifty feet high, so the lights don’t glare down on anybody. They have nice lamps and it makes a very nice atmosphere, with the original wooden floor and wooden ceiling. And one day I’ll tell you the story of how they got their name. Our little town has been famous a more than a few times.

It’s so fun to go there because they have the place laid out so nice, with little nooks and crannies everywhere and just wonderful things for a strange home. They have nice pillows for sofas and chairs, but they also have magnifying glasses that look like something Agatha Christie would have used. And I don’t know why you’d buy a candle anywhere else. They have the most darling candles in little metal bins, or glass jars. They’re not French Vanilla; these are scents I love having in my home. They even have one with tobacco and patchouli.

I found a very nice gift for my cousin Jackson a few weeks ago. Actually, it was for him and his wife; I just didn’t tell him that. They have these handsome kits for men; a Swiss army knife, or a shaving kit. I got him a very nice ‘manly’ manicure set. It came in a rugged-looking case and the typography was straight out of a hunting magazine ad. His wife told me that he loved it so much, he used it. So, that was my gift to her; he can keep his overgrown spiky toenails under control.

Well listen, I don’t want to keep you. I’m going to head out and meet up with my girlfriends. Check for us in next week’s Elgin Courier. I’ve never caused a big enough scandal to make it into our little newspaper, but it doesn’t keep me from trying.

We’ll see you.

Anastasia Absolutely Does Not Gossip

Now, I want you to know that I absolutely do not gossip. But, you already knew that, so let’s move on. Being that I do not gossip, I find it difficult to tell this story in a wholesome way, so I’ll just do my best. Do you know that house down there on Lexington and Ila? The brownish one? Well, my cousin Myrna told me that the other night there were police surrounding the place at 2 in the morning. She was out driving around, as one does. Now, it’s none of my business, and I’m not going to say that there was anything improper going on there, but I will insinuate the living daylights out of it. I don’t know the people who live there, but I imagine they won’t be living there much longer.

On a similar note, but not quite as scandalous, have you noticed that Maxine has been dressing up awfully nice these days. I can’t figure if she’s come into some money or she’s finally found a love interest. Who that might be, though? I don’t know if Maxine has left the city limits of Elgin Texas in the last three years. But one never knows.

That’s not to say that I disagree with her outfits. She really has put some thought into it, and she’s probably consulted with Juanita over at the G&M Dry Goods store. (Honestly, I can’t imagine why they’d call it that. They don’t sell flour or sugar, but who am I to judge. At least they had a nice sign plastered over the doorway, all ready for them to call it that.)

At last month’s Sip, Shop & Stroll (They really need to make a decision on commas) I saw Maxine walking with a gaggle of friends, just laughing and looking the best I’ve ever seen her, and I’ve known her since grade school. There’s just something about these downtown occasions that brings out the best in girls. Get out the of house, out of the cooking and cleaning routine, and very possibly I saw her look sideways at Ralph, the plumber. He got married right out of high school and moved to Colorado. I noticed that he came back without a wife, so I don’t know what’s going on with that. Myrna hasn’t told me yet.

I like Maxine. She’s always been a very good and caring person and I hope that she does have a love interest, and more importantly a man who is interested in her. Unrequited love may be good for literature and those torch singers in Austin, but it doesn’t do the average female much good. And Maxine has done her fair share of waiting. In a small town the prospects are limited. And if I remember correctly she always did have a crush on Ralph in high school. Then he moved away and she became a notary public and did her best to move on with life. It must have been hard on her notarizing all those real estate contracts while she was living in that home her daddy left her, there with her little dogs. She always did have excellent taste in pets.

At one point during Sip, Shop & Stroll I saw her leaning in all excited like, talking to her girlfriend. I was too far away to see her left hand and she got away faster than I could saunter by. So, I’ll have to send Myrna around to Luigi’s on Thursday, when everybody in town knows Maxine has lunch with her best friends. They do have a nice wine selection, so I don’t blame her for that.

Well, it’s been good talking with you in this little column they give me. I hope you enjoy the rest of this day. I’m so glad it’s been raining and it’s not a hundred and seventeen degrees yet. There’s time enough for that nonsense in August.

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down...

Some of you may know me from seeing me at Luigi's eating their scrumptious bread and maybe tasting the tiniest little sip of wine from their collection. I may have just made myself hungry there. But anyway, let me tell you that contrary to popular opinion, I do more than sip wine and eat. Just yesterday I was trapping cats with the Elgin Alley Cats ladies and I happened to see one of the most darling little kittens I've ever come across. He was kind of gray and black, with white and with long fur and whiskers as long as my right arm. I swear I think there might have been some blue in that coloring. Unfortunately, that little booger is already a teenager and settled into his emo angst, so there's no threat of him coming home with me.

But, this cute little town is just brimming with things to see. I love just walking around looking at houses and yards and listening to dogs half-strangle themselves trying to get off their leashes when I walk by. I figure they either really want to say hi and love on me, or they want to kill me and tear me to shreds. So, while I do love doggies, I'm not one to get too close to pups that I don't know personally. You go ahead and walk on your side of the street; I’ll walk on mine.

Meanwhile, it's May and everybody is planting flowers and mowing their lawns. I just love seeing all those straight lines in the grass. It's like when I vacuum a carpet, except I didn't have to do the work. This time of year is kind of magic here in Central Texas. Our half-hearted excuse for a winter is past, there is finally no more danger of one last freeze to take out the trees that are putting leaves out, and summer's oppressive heat hasn't kicked in just yet. Everybody's walking around, just as happy as they can be, covered in yellow pollen and sneezing, but no matter because it's just too beautiful to not be outside. Today was especially nice because the temperature dropped into the 70's. When I woke up for lunch I couldn't wait to get outside and just be in it. I didn't have much of anywhere to go, so I thought I'd take a walk downtown.

So yes, you may have seen me at Luigi's enjoying some of their amazing chicken pomodoro. And it's very possible that if you happened to walk by The Owl Wine Bar & Home Good Store later on, you might have seen me looking at their merchandise, dreaming about how to incorporate it into my home. And yes, I most likely had a glass of wine in my hand, but honestly, you're being the tiniest bit judgmental right now.

Anyway, I thought to myself that I needed to stop by that cornerstone of the United States communications—the Post Office. It's so embarrassingly easy to do everything on computers these days that we forget that stamps and lovely people are waiting for us in that building that we've all taken for granted. But, they've been faithful to us. I get coupons and sales circulars every week and it's all thanks to them.

So, I decided to see if they had any interesting stamps. Just my luck they had some with pictures of murals that had been painted inside of post offices around the country in the 1930's and 40's. It just makes me so happy to see these little stamps. I remember when I was a little girl this was how we kept in touch. We'd send a letter off to our Granny and then soon enough a letter would come back to us in the mail. We didn't get chirps all the livelong day from the mobile phone alerting you about people sending you pictures that they had been sent, and that have been making the rounds on the world wide web for months and years without anybody ever even looking at them before sending them to every phone number they've ever come across. When you got a letter, it was something worth getting. You had to wait a good week to get a response, and sometimes it had a dollar bill in it. None of this wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am kind of communication. There was some anticipation built up that made life more interesting.

So, I think I'm going to sit myself down tonight with a glass of wine and some stationery and see if I can't make some friends and family happy by sending them an actual letter. I'll spray some of them with some perfume, that way they'll know it was from me before they even see the front of the envelope.

Okay, I have some letters to write, so I'll talk with you later. Take care of yourself now.