Southern Hospitality Part II and my Birthday Party

We attended our Mobile, AL church on Sunday, the day after the wedding. It's always good to see our church friends again, and Archie looks forward to seeing Dr. Joe in particular. Things were going well until we sat down in our pew and the lady sitting behind us said how good it was to see us, and that, "Jennifer, you're looking plump." PLUMP??? I said something like, "Thanks. Really. Thanks a lot. My husband's going to be throwing that in my face for the next year or so." That's when she realized how insulting she came off and said, "But you wear it so well."

What??? That's supposed to make the comment all better??? She's probably the last person who should call me plump. As I'm writing this, I looked up the word 'plump' at thesaurus.com to see if there was some kind of compliment in there, unknown to me. Here's what it said:

Definition:
fat

Synonyms:
beefy*, burly, butterball, buxom, chubby, chunky*, corpulent, dumpy, filled, fleshy, full, heavy cream, obese, portly, pudgy*, roly-poly, rotund, round, stout, tubby*, well-upholstered, zaftig

Antonyms:
thin

I don't really know how the word 'well-upholstered' applies to me being plump, but somehow I don't think it's a compliment. None of those words seem very complimentary.

After that, I felt ready to get back to the unfriendly north, where people don't speak (because they know that if you don't have anything nice to say, you aren't supposed to say anything at all). If someone's going to call me fat, then I'd rather they didn't talk to me at all. Really. I've been the same weight for two years now. I don't know what's wrong with people...the last time I was in Mobile, someone at church asked me if I had "any news" while looking at my stomach. --See my post entitled "What a wild couple of weeks", posted in July, I think. My Sister-in-law wanted to know what in the heck was wrong with people at my church when I told the story to her. I was wondering the same thing. So, of course, my family has been bringing it up as frequently as possible in jest. Other than that, I enjoyed being at church and it was nice to see most people again.

After church, we went to my in-laws' to help them get ready for Phillip's Granny to move in there. We got lots done in a small amount of time.

My parents, since they weren't going to be with me on my birthday, decided to have my birthday party early. Phillip asked me if that means that he doesn't have to do anything, since I'll already have had my party. Ha! Yeah right.

It was a nice party, complete with Reg E and Sara in attendance. My Mom quilted my quilt I pieced a few months ago and gave it to me. It turned out just beautifully! I'll take a picture of it "on the body", I mean "the bed" and post it soon. I was really excited to see it done! Mom also finished Archie's new pirate quilt and I will get a picture of it as well. It is a really cool quilt!

Dad and Mom got me a patio firepit which I was thrilled about also! I've been trying to talk Phillip into getting me one of those ever since we used the one at Old E's house. But mine is better than Old E's! :-)

I also got some Harvey Birdman episodes on DVD from Regular E. I thought I was the only person who enjoyed Birdman, but apparently other folks do too, since they came out with three volumes on DVD! He also got me a ceiling fan for a tent! How cool is that?? (Literally!) Sara got me a Starbucks certificate for lots of coffees which I love, since I don't often get to Starbucks because I have a hard time with the high price you have to pay for coffee there. But it sure is good! Julie didn't make it to my party, but came by the day before and got me some Burts Bees stuff (also a really nice treat for me) and a shirt. I love Burts Bees products even more since moving up here with all the skin problems I get in the winter time.

It was a really nice day (except for the 'plump' comment, of course) and it was really nice of my folks to have the party so early!