Good Monday Morning... The Robitussin and Beano SALON Editon

Monday again...

Wow... This weekend went by in a flash. Goodness.

And alas, Monday is upon us.

Here in the ATL, we will have 3 days- Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - of SUNSHINE.  That means no rain. It's been raining everyday since May. And I'm not talking about little nice showers. We're talking about rains of monsoon proportions, where one minute it is bright and sunny and the next minute copious amounts of water are falling out the sky.

Don't make no sense at all...

It would've been a great year to have a garden. Yes indeed.

Anyway, I am working half a day today. I have an appointment with my immunologist. This could be good or bad. I could get fussed out, or it all could be okay. I go there every 2 months, so whatever. I just want it over with.  I don't feel like hearing her mouth. I'm a little worn out from all the extra things she has me doing, so I need her to chill out. I am glad to be making the 30 mile drive in a rain-free, sunshiny environment. GLORY!!  (That will give me a little time to get my funky attitude together).

My weekend. I had a very good weekend. Saturday I got up and went to work for all of 5 minutes. I had to tour some Japenese Scientists though our lab and I thought I'd left out a container of ground up fish. And uh, you don't want that sitting out over the weekend. Negroes won't let that mistake go by.

(The Japenese were... interesting. They were nice ladies, but the shortest people I've ever seen. And I was talking slow so as to speak correctly. Ya'll know I'm ebonically inclined. I didn't want to confuse them. We have the same expertise. I went in ready to argue and answer hard questions, but they were a bit, I don't know... docile. They said their names and I was O_o. I don't know WHAT they said. All I could do was say, "And I'm Dr. LadyLee, and I hope you are enjoying your tour thusfar". )

Saturday, I drove Pam the Mazda. I tell you, I am so use to the smoothness and comfort of rolling in Lucy Jr., the Lexus. Goodness. Driving Pam is like rolling in The Fast and The Furious... rough and fast! I felt like I needed on a helmet and some racing gloves. And let's not talk about 4 cylinder versus 8 cylinder. Geez! She's driving well. I have to take her out every now and again and run that engine good. And that's a good thing!

And she needed some gas. Can't have her sitting on "E".

I've been stoked ALL week because a couple of weeks ago, one of my favorite authors these days, Jo Garner, said...

"I'm having a salon in July."

Yeah, something like that. I was stuck on this "salon" word. I was thinking to myself  "What, you gonna get some homegirls together and we're gonna get our hair and nails done?"

You know me. I'm not the most learned person. Now SHE is. Not me. She said something about writers and readers getting together for dinner and reading some of our writing.

*crickets*

I was still stuck on this "salon" idea... Where the heck did she get that word from?

I was also thinking... This Jo... she's a cool chicken. She actually made up a word.  And she said it so smooth like it was an actual word.

Then I thought... This word has to be located somewhere.

And I knew where to look for the definition... on Wikip.edia.

Salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" ("aut delectare aut prodesse est"). Salons, commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries, were carried on until quite recently in urban settings.

Did you know that? Or are you like me: you thought you were going to get your nails and hair done?

Tell the truth.

Yeah. You didn't know. Jo knows, because she is well read. That's a 17th/18th century word.
*crickets*

I don't really read anything that old. Reminds me of high school. I only read that stuff as required reading. 

Jo knows that type of stuff. I bet she can go on Jeopardy and shut it DOWN. Really though. 

Alas, I learned a new word. 

SALON

And I attended one, too. Yes I did.

And I had a GOOD time. Oh yes.

Jo had asked me in an email if I had any special dietary requirements. I said no. I am more of a fruit and veggie gal, but I don't make folks bend to my issues. But I did tell her, "Now if you get the notion to whoop up a pot of chitlins, I can't do that. I'd be sick for days."

That would be one of those occasions where I would be like "I'll have a piece of bread. And a glass of water please.Thank you very much."

Or I'd call an impromptu fast. Amen. *fans self with my Obama church fan*

Anyway, we had a french inspired dinner... A crustless quiche, salad and french bread.

Ooooh weee... that was some good quiche. It had a little chicken sausage from the farmer's market in it. And it was just the right firmness. That was some good stuff.

Man, that quiche tasted like she was a contestant on one of these food competition shows like Top Chef or Food Network Star.  Oh yes indeed.

We had good conversation. She has some FUNNY friends. We also have a friend in common: Tracey, aka, "Chocolate Drop", who inspired this story. I haven't seen her in a few years. It was SO good to see her, and to meet some new folks!

During dinner, one of the guests, we'll just call her "Laura", got a little sick. Her allergies were bothering her.

"Jo, do you have a benadryl?" Laura asked.
"Yes, I do."

*Jo disappears around a corner*

Okay. I don't know if she said "Yes, I do." We were laughing so hard over our dinner.

*Jo reappears*

"I have Robitussin!"

*crickets*

We all had that Scooby Doo look on our faces.

Robitussin?

That caused a whole nother series of jokes and laughter.

Jo continued to look around in cabinets. "I have some Beano, too."

What the world?

Now these folks work at an agency similar to my own. I sat there and wondered... What the heck they got going on over there where they work, where they're mixing Robitussin and Beano together?"

Oh my!

And you know me... I'm trained as an synthetic organic chemist, even though I don't do that type of thing anymore.

But you know, I have residual flashbacks, and interesting things go through my mind...

The chemical compounds in Robitussin...

like CODEINE

That's not good... That can even be addictive.

And some guaifenesin

That's an expectorant. In simpler terms, that helps you hawk up all that phlegm. YUCK!

And then there's pseudephedrine

That's a decongestant... But it's also a starting material for meth.

O_O

And Jo had hollered "I have some Beano, too."

Beano... I don't know the structure of the main ingredient, but I know it is an enzyme, and it breaks down whatever makes us gassy.

And if you mix a enzyme with that Robitussin... no telling what will happen.

Part of me wanted to know. Beano should bust up some of those chemical bonds. Or nothing interesting might have happeneed. Or we might've released some gases and poisoned ourselves. Or we might have come up with a new way to make that meth.

O_o

I thought about all this in a matter of seconds. That's just the nerdy part of me.

But thank goodness I didn't have any liquor in me. They were kicking the white wine, and I was sipping the apple cranberry cider.

Ya'll know how I get when I've been drinking. Sigh.

If I would've been liquored up, poor Laura woulda got straight tackled to the ground. Girl, don't you take that 'Tussin and Beano!"

LOL

Thank goodness Tracey has allergies, and she had a spare benadryl.

And Jo announced that the Robitussin had expired. And the expiration date was 1998.

Wow. This caused another whole layer of joning. Poor Jo. She was just trying to be helpful.

Now, I have a bottle of Zzzquil in the fridge. The plastic cap is all nasty and has residue in it. It's just a hot mess. Jo's bottle of Robitussin was different.

"The cap on that is clean," I said. "You never opened it."

"Yes," Tracey agreed. "Because the cap usually have stuff all on it."

"You clean it off when you're finished," Joe said.

I never thought to do that. I don't think Tracey has either.

Ha! Ha!  More joning. And Jo's homeboy D is a master at picking on her. He does NOT let up.

Jo threw it away before I could take a picture. Because you know I would've.

And I'm glad I didn't have to slap a cup of 'tussin out of the hand of an ailing Laura.

That was good fun. And our Laura felt better after taking a benadryl.

We retired to the living room. Some had tea, some had coffee. I had neither, as each would've kept me awake until the month of August. And we munched on the cookies made by yours truly!

And we continued our "salon". Laura, Jo and I gave some readings of our works in progress.

I read this piece, as I am working around with it right now using some techniques from something said in class.

Jo read from the sequel of Solomon's Blues... I LOVE to hear her read. I guess because I am a stan... and she gave me some 40 pages of a rough draft a couple of weeks ago. (That's like giving me some money, man!)

And Laura read one of her pieces, which was very funny. We encouraged her to develop that more. Because it was that good.

I, of course, got more encouragement to publish. And yes I will do that sometime soon. Yes indeed.

All in all it was a good time. Even the 40 minute drive home was very nice.

So that is it for my Monday Randoms... Expect a full lineup of posts this week.

Oh... I forgot the Song of the Week. Jo was playing the 1950's soul music on Saturday. You know I don't know nothing about that, but I will be finding it. It was good and different. It made me think of the oldest music I have on deck right now. And that's that David Macullum "The Edge", some of his 50-60s' jazz...




Yes, yes, yes. That's good music right there. And Tracey has a fantasy of being a stripper... she can work the pole with that song... on purpose!

Have a good week!