What Went Down When the Gal Pal Posse Encountered Best-Selling Author Elizabeth Gilbert…and The Big Wow

Despite appearances, I found author Elizabeth Gilbert‘s Saturday night book reading and Q&A session at the Temple Israel in Miami compelling. The bright blond 40-year-old cutie discussed her journey from the time when she was just a soul-searching divorcee (soon-to-be or actual, I can’t remember) meditating in Bali to the present, when she is married to the man whom readers of her first book Eat, Pray, Love know as Felipe. Her new book is called Committed, and the best that I can gather from her description of it is that it details her and Felipe’s shift from a couple that never intended to marry to the happily-married suburban couple that they are today. This transition was riddled with difficulties because the federal government intervened in their high-flying romance, which entailed a scene, humorously depicted in the book, in which they ended up getting relationship advice from a government official at a Texas airport.

The talk was amusing in and of itself. For example, Gilbert encouraged us to buy as many copies of her book as we possibly could not for selfish reasons, she claimed, but so that we could assist her in knocking the best-selling (and certainly ghost-written, well co-authored) book of a former Republican vice presidential candidate, whose name I refuse to publish in any form of media, out of the top slots of the best-seller non-fiction list. Don’t worry, local people. When Gilbert signed my copy of Committed, I asked her if she poked fun at Fort Lauderdale in this book the way that she did in the last one, and she assured me that she did not. By the way, it should be noted how wildly my eyes rolled when my BF Jess first recommended Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love to me. “No chick lit for this lady” was my solemn vow. Well, I was wrong and Jess was right. What else is new? True, I’m way past the age at which coolness should be discussed in relative terms, but JJ’s dominance in just about all realms of intellect and culture make me constantly aware that she is a step ahead of me and the rest of humanity. Check out her engagement pic if you don’t believe me:

Congrats to the most amazing peeps on blue-green planet! That’s right! JT helped with the proposal backstage in Arizona.

An Interesting Article on What Makes Some of Us Slugs

I think it’s too bad that so many of us, myself included, take our parents’ perspectives on how we live our lives too seriously. What follows are all kinds of unnecessary amendments to our own inclinations and half-hearted attempts at living out our interpretation of how they want for us to live our lives.

One of the memories that I find as jolting as I do funny is that of my mother opening my bedroom door, popping her head in and yelling, “slug!” when as a teenager and, admittedly, in the years following my graduation from college, I could not seem to rise on the dimmer side of noon. Because my mother has a Boston accent, this takes on a whole other level of humor…but that is something that can only be captured on a tape recorder. Anyway, I always love to find interesting little articles such as this guest column by Leon Kreitzman in The New York Times called “Larks, Owls and Hummingbird” that are like a pat on the back and permission to “pass go” for one such as myself whose circadian rythyms do not always agree — except of course in the case of field trips — with the world at large. Thanks for sending the article along, Sweet Bronco, you slug!

If linking to this article and sharing my own difficulties with being sometimes, often, our of synch with the rest of the human population makes you feel at all better about your own challenges, then I have done one good thing today.

Last Monday Eve: Talk on Moving the King-Cromartie House Up the New River

In 1971, the Junior League of Fort Lauderdale put their heads and heels together to move the King-Cromartie House, a historical Fort Lauderdale home built in 1907, up the New River to the site where it now stands behind the New River Inn, located in the historic area behind the Himmarshee Village area. On Monday eve, a few folks including Stan Smoker spoke about what that project entailed. How fortunate for us that the history of Fort Lauderdale is a short one so that we can, if we choose to make ourselves available to the numerous opportunities afforded us, hear first-hand accounts of how the growth of the town came to pass! Yay!

It was quite interesting to hear that the driving force behind the move was a group of young women, especially because there was no equivalent group of concerned young women in the room to hear the story. Though I knew that it was the Junior League of Fort Lauderdale behind putting the home on a barge and moving it along the New River — going through three draw bridges (with only 18 inches on either side when it went through the railroad bridge) — to settle it in at its new location, I did not know how they did it. The story was long and humorous, but my favorite parts were hearing about just how much passion they had for preserving the area’s history and also hearing the story about how the women got dressed up real fancylike when they went out to request favors, such as procuring building materials, from local vendors. What a bunch of vixens! This home was built by Edwin T. King in 1907, and its residents were King’s daughter Louise King and her husband Bloxham Cromartie — Ivy Cromartie (Stranahan)’s brother. I’ve had so much fun recently at events held at Fort Lauderdale’s historical locations such as New River Inn and The Bonnet House. On Monday night, they had a potluck dinner — how cute! — with a wine and beer bar and tons of very friendly locals. While at the lecture on moving the King-Cromartie House, I learned about other upcoming events that the History Center and The Stranahan House are putting on. On May 9th, the Fort Lauderdale History Center will put on the “Old Florida Fish Fry”, in conjunction with Tarpon Bend, right along the banks of the New River in front of the New River Inn. It’s $20 for the event. Also, on April 18th at 6:30 p.m., there will be an event called the Pineapple Jam at The Stranahan House with live music by John Day, who does not appear to have a myspace page.

OMG, I’m So Embarrassed to Admit How Psyched I Am That The Eagles Pandora Playlist Is On

So on right now at Undergrounds Coffeehaus. We’ve got a little Journey action in the works. Oh no they didn’t play REO Speedwagon. Geez. Anyway, having a little afternoon of chilling and blogging and getting excited about which Eagles song is going to come next — hope it’s “Victim of Love” or “I Can’t Tell You Why”. Ah, heck yeah, “Heartache Tonight”!

Coffeeshop owner Aileen is the best pop culture conversationalist in town! She’s the only person besides Sweet Bronco who can talk Gerry Rafferty without a blush. I love this place, where movie nights, art shows and craft classes are every day. While I’m sitting here next to Aileen, who is knitting, listening to Don Henley, I figure why not run through the events calendar. What’s coming up at Undergrounds Coffeehaus:

03-13-09 – Friday – Frank Sinatra Night – Oceans 11, The Tender Trap and a Sinatra biography

03-14-09 – Saturday – Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

03-17-09 – Tuesday – St. Patrick’s Day – music, green cookies, movies Darby O’ Gill & The Little People and Leprechaun

03-18-09 – Classic movies Singing in the Rain (1952) & An American in Paris

03-19-09 – The Rocker and Pineapple Express

The Real Eat, Pray, Love

I know it’s kind of cheesy to read Eat, Pray, Love and drink tea on the couch, but if you’re sick you’re sick, right? A couple years back I heard female ad execs recommending this book to each other and then 6 months later I saw people patting themselves on the back as they gave this book as Christmas and birthday presents to all types of women. Somehow, despite my prejudice, I ended up reading it last year, and I absolutely connected with it and loved it. It just lifted me up (I was reading the Yoga Sutra at the same time) and completely engaged me. I love the honesty of this writer, something I don’t know if I could ever really achieve as a writer. I feel like I can see little gaps and embellishments in the work, but it gives more than it glosses over or pulls out of its ass, which is all that any work really needs to do, right? Anyway, I went to Gilbert’s website tonight, which has pictures of many of the characters from the book. I love it. Gotta be honest, I kinda lost it when I saw the mother and little girl from Bali.