Hello. I stole cakeballs from the reception and Mike and I ate them on the drive following to Montreat. Pop, pop, pop, they go down easy. The cakeballs taste exactly like Hostess Ho Ho's, only better, of course, because they are handmade by none other than The Mighty CDW. I'm thinking CDW needs to send me the recipe so I can post it here, don't ya think? What could possibly be more fun than Pop-In-Your-Mouth Cakeballs, red velvet ones, no less? Unless, of course, that would be my other friend's Health Balls. Health Balls are anything but, they are a delicious concoction of chocolate and I guess coconut and all things yummy and thigh-enhancing. My friend took these to the museum reception for refreshments and this man kept popping them, one, two, three, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one. They were, prior, not called Health Balls, but some other name. This man's wife was giving him the stink eye and said, Don't you think you are over doing it on these cookies? He, of a sharp wit, said, What?, these are Health Balls. And so, now my friend makes Health Balls, and they get top billing at any dainty social gathering.

The wedding was a time of pure joy. I sat with Charlotte, one of my best friends from the time I lived in Burlington, NC. When it was time for the mother of the bride to be escorted down the aisle, Charlotte and Iwere grinning from ear to ear. As she passed us, CDW threw her head back and mouthed, I LOVE YOU! Now, that made us feel kinda extra special, oh yeah. Charlotte is a heavy admirer of CDW, and who isn't? I'm a heavy admirer of both ladies, they are just the best!

The bride was lovely, couldn't be prettier, she looked like an angel. The decorations were stand-out, very colorful bouquets and just loved the swoop of flowers over the trellis where the bride and groom stood. The reception was lavish, starring cakeballs, or course.

And I saw a few people I knew, all bringing back wonderful memories. Later, Mike and I drove around so I could show him all my old haunts. Then we spotted Hursey's Bar-B-Que, which of course we had to stop and eat because the minister had just mentioned that he and the groom both loved Hursey's Bar-B-Que the best.

What it is, is I LOVE Carolina people. They have a gentleness and kindness, charm and sense of fun that is theirs alone (is "theirs" a word?). Get a load of this. I go back and visit every 5 years and last time there was a too cute house for sale on Circle Drive, one of my favo spots in Burlington, oozing postcard perfection. I wanted that house right then and there. AND, it was way cheaper than anything you could get in St. Pete. Well. That house is for sale again, imagine that! Burlington is lookin' good. I used to pine for water when I lived there, but happily, I have discovered that Burlington is a mere 2 hours from Wilmington (where DTD'S aunt and uncle live) and also a mere 2 hours from the mountains, specifically Montreat. Plus, they have added a lake to Burlington. Before (and still) they had the Haw River, which my brother, when he visited, thought was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Also, when we ate at my favo restaurant, The Cutting Board, my brother couldn't believe they didn't serve French fries with the hamburgers. He put on quite a spectacle for the waitress. WHAT! No French fries, that's so totally unAmerican! They served potato salad, it's so SOUTHERN!

And I LOVED my elegant DAR ladies in Burlington, so many frail or passing away by now :( Yes, it was a great time in so many ways, living there. What are your fondest memories of places you lived. What is it about hindsight? It's not exactly real, that's what! I shape the past into my dream memories, that's what.

But what is real is that CDW surprised me with a visit to Montreat, she and her FABULOUS daughter, the one who didn't get married...yet...she's Sweet Sixteen. We had A BALL. The daughter is now known as MAW, my new nickname for her. I couldn't believe MAW appreciated my weirdness. She said, Weird is good, the weirder the better. Which is VERY good because I was so weird that I thought she would pack up her mother in the night and hightail it outta there. But she's a good sport, says normal people are way too boring. They cracked me up because they were so RELIEVED the wedding was over, they did it, the bride loved it, but now they are so happy it's filed in a new memory slot. I think I said this yesterday, but it strikes me as very funny, so I guess I said it again.

In the bookstore/gift shop in Montreat, I saw a long sorta chunky board, very narrow, though (this makes no sense), it's a decoration to hang on the wall, and it quoted Charles Dickens:

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Well. If that doesn't sum it up. I really wanted to buy this beautifully lettered plaque, but it had a dinged corner, and far be it from KEM to buy anything with a dinged corner. This reminds me, I LOVED Charles Dickens, had to read David Copperfield in high school. Need to reread these things, modern books, of course, can't compare, just like modern music can't compare. Well, don't throw spoiled eggs, I am generalizing here, but it's true. Back in the day I guess authors and composers had fewer distractions and depended on their brilliance, focused exclusively on it, no doubt.

Well, I need to consult my cell phone because I can't exactly remember the other things I was going to mention, except that while I was taking a walk in Montreat, soaking up the picturesque cottages along the way, it hit me that I need to go on that diet. Because I thought, after all these cakeballs, I look exactly like Sponge Bob Square Pants, except with square thighs, too. No thin thighs anywhere in sight. Does Sponge Bob have thin legs, what am I thinking? Square pants, that hardly sounds like stick legs, I'd better go Google him right now. Tomorrow I will see what I forget for right now. I always love to find out what I forgot, it's so interesting to me.

July, isn't that a pretty name for a month? The prettiest, I'd say.

KEM