1 July 2002

I'm going to be trying an experiment this month. We'll see how it goes. Here's the plan: Every journal entry in July will contain a photo I've taken recently. (Within the last week, say.) If there's a story to tell, I'll tell it; but I don't want to promise anything. So, without further ado:

In December of '97, I got sent to San Antonio on a business trip. I took an extra few days' vacation while I was there to visit my grandparents. I was five months from my wedding at that point, and I knew my grandmother would want to know all the details of the planning that was only half-done.

My mother had told me, before I went down there, that she thought my grandmother was going to give me her china as a wedding present. I wasn't going to complain, though Mom had also promised me her mother's china.

So I was a little surprised when Grandmom asked what Matt and I wanted for a wedding present. My grandmother is a kind of weird lady sometimes. She'll ask you a question, and if you don't answer correctly, she gets offended.

I didn't answer correctly. I'm still not sure what the right answer would have been, but whatever I said, it was wrong. She didn't say anything, but she gave Matt and I a check for new furniture instead of the china, and I heard from my mom later that the china was going to go to one of my cousins instead.

Well, whatever. I had my other grandmother's china by then, and it was enough.

Last week, I called home to talk to my folks about a couple of things, and Mom said, "You need to come by and pick up your china."

"What china?" I asked.

It turns out that Grandmom had sent my parents six boxes of stuff - and when I say boxes, I mean big boxes, four feet by two by two, packed solid - because she's moving into a smaller apartment and clearing things out. In one of those boxes, Mom told me, was the china.

So Matt and I stopped in to visit my parents this weekend, and we unpacked a box. "Are you sure she meant it for me?" I asked, stacking plates. "She was mad at me for answering wrong, remember?"

But Mom was certain. The china was for me.

It took me over an hour and a lot of very creative shuffling to fit it all into the hutch. I'm still not complaining, even though it's worn and chipped in places, and I don't have matching numbers of anything. (I have six teacups, but eleven saucers, here. Ten fruit bowls, but eight soup bowls. Like that.)

But I have both my grandmothers' china. How cool is that?

We went to see Minority Report last night. I don't want to give anything away if you haven't seen it, but I'm always enthusiastic about a story that actually surprises me. (I'm not talking about things that make me jump; I'm talking about intellectual surprises.)

There were some things that didn't work - the cars were neat, but you won't make me believe that Washington, D.C.'s roads will be revamped that much in only fifty years. Still, what's a sci-fi movie without spiffy futuristic innovations in travel? I suspended my disbelief for some of the gadgetry.

I want to talk about it more. I keep trying, and then erasing again as I realize I'm giving things away. So I'll just say two thumbs up, go see it!

--Liz