Sourweed and Fried Caviar

I have found a new band. I'm buying their album from iTunes tomorrow. They're called The Afters and they're pretty good. If I don't get any other songs, I want "Beautiful Love". I found them by accident. I was flipping through a magazine and saw a review of their CD. It said "a cross between Smashing Pumpkins and Coldplay" and I said "Where have you been all my life?". I immediately delved into the Internet to find out all I could about them. Then again, another review said they were a cross between Switchfoot and Fountains of Wayne... that was weird. All I know is I like the band.

Anyway, to explain the title, I went home today. Yes, I forsook USC Showcase. I'm glad I did, too. There was just something about standing in my yard in big open space and stretching my arms out wide as I watched the clouds pass by. It calmed me, and I seriously needed it. Spring has come again, and our yard is overtaken by weeds again. You have to understand, our house is sitting on a former wild cotton field, so we don't exactly have grass. We basically keep the weeds cut. Anyway, there are strange yellow flowers everywhere. They're beautiful. They look like little suns. They seem to be our plant infestation for the year. Every year we get infested with something. Dandelions, ladybugs, crickets, mice, "'teradactyl 'skeeters" (yes, that's what we call them), wild cactus, wild onions (which is really a type of garlic, I hear), moths... And one summer was the summer of sourweed.

Sourweed is a stalk with a few leaves and fronds on top which are covered in reddish seeds. It's called sourweed because kids pick them and suck the sour juice from the stem. One year they were everywhere, so my sister and I grabbed our little red wagons and started picking them. We filled up both of them, but by that time, they were all dried out. We learned the hard way it's wrong to hoard sourweed. Those are my memories: rolling up my pant legs and sticking my legs in a bucket of water while watching dragonflies and bees pass by, a stalk of sourweed sticking out my mouth. I used to think that was so cool, having those red fronds stick out of my mouth...

I went to visit my grandma tonight. She's doing pretty well, though she can't do all the things she used to. My aunt Mamie was frying the fish my uncle Mitch had caught that morning. I think it's funny that I have to explain what an iPod is every time I come to visit the fam. The only ones who've ever heard of it are my cousins Jesse and Dominique, who are both graduating high school this year. Anyway, my Aunt Mamie ended up frying the eggs that were still in some of the fish too seperately. I quickly dubbed it "fried caviar", although I didn't have any. I've had normal caviar before, and yuck yuck yuck. Icky.

Today was awesome. I've really missed home, even though I was just here a month ago. I'm such a wimp. I love the city, but sometimes I need country days. Lazy days with open fields and sourweed and fried caviar.