Avid Inkling

“I have sparkling water, fruit and shortbread,” Lynn said as we headed down I-45 on our way to the beltway. We had already stopped by at Michael’s (craft store) assembled two sample bouquets and tentatively put them on hold. “We’ll go down to Harwin and look around down there.”

Second stop after Michael’s, Chinese Floral Silk and Crafts (or something like that). Run by a gaggle of petite Chinese women with at least one bright red article of clothing we navigated our way through a series of narrow shelves crammed full of faux flowers, ivy, filler, foo-foo and other floral accessories. Their faux food selection rivaled the local grocery store’s real selection –and in a lot of cases, it looked much better.

It was there we found the most amazing long-stem cream colored roses. I had originally had my heart set on yellow, but these felt so amazingly cool (and looked pretty awesome) I knew they were the ones I wanted. Then we looked at filler, foo-foo, ivy, and smaller flowers for corsages. Once we’d found a good selection, we kneeled on the floor arranging, rearranging and “visualizing” the bouquets.

“Do you like sparkling water?” She handed me a can, “Beau calls it beer-water.” Lynn pulled out a bag of ice cubes. “Do you mind if I chew on the ice?” She clinked a few into a plastic tumbler. “There is another flower place around here somewhere, my mother’s gay hairdresser and I went there once.”

The next three or four stops are a bit fuzzy. Many of the places carried an impressive quantity of Quinceanera accessories, and the wrong color green ribbon. We were looking for a subtle green, not a sickly Easter-candy color.

Around 1pm we realized it was a good time to think about lunch. We found a Chinese restaurant in the area. Inside was a large table quite full of elderly chinese people, the entire restaurant was quite full, and a mildly irritated looking waitress said “Put them in the room.”

We were taken to “the room,” in the back, with the 10 AC vents, sort of tucked away. Lynn had a few words in Spanish with the person seating us and we were moved to a different table. As we watched more people come in, the waitress directed them to “the room.” Glad we weren’t there, it sounded ominous.

Once we were seated, Spanish became the language to communicate to get things. The busy Chinese waitresses wooshed right past us, but the Mexican help was happy to hear some semblance of their native language. We always had water refills, and when Lynn’s food showed up, and mine didn’t they tracked down a hassled looking waitress and eventually my food appeared.

My fortune and lucky numbers (use them, you might win the lottery):
Rely on long time friends to give you advice.
06 11 18 27 36 - 05
02 03 17 30 31. 1 3 7

After we had lunched, I think we went to another floral shop (I could be wrong), then we drove around through the little trendy parts of Houston –you can tell b/c they have different street lights, and we drove along Westheimer (the other trendy little part of town). Eventually we ended up near Crate & Barrel, so we stopped by there so Lynn could see what we had registered for. It was rather fun, I’d never been in that C&B before.

From C&B we stopped off at the cute little French Bakery. “We’re this far out here, I can’t pass it up,” Lynn said as we navigated the steep grade into the parking lot. I got a cookie and a package of six croissants. We played in Houston traffic for awhile, waited for longer than usual at the light by Clear Lake City Blvd., and then took Highway 3 to Bay Area to get back to Michael’s.

Michael’s, didn’t we start there this morning? Yes, but that was at 10, it was now 4. We picked about 5 of the 20 or so flowers we’d put on hold, and then looked at ribbon, and smaller flowers for the corsages. I also looked at all the bridal stuff I’m not going to have to deal with, it made me quite happy. No unity candles, no foofy white guest book, no flower children. YAY!

Eventually we made it back to my house. Took the flowers in to the oooh-ing and ah-ing of the Parents and the Company that was Over for Tea. Weekend after next we’re going to assemble the flowers for the wedding party, then I can check it off my list as accomplished.