Terrapin Station

The Zoo Conundrum

My sister Nancy used to say:

(Capybaras, from the Animal Embassy)

You know how you go to the zoo, and you get to the Capybara enclosure, and your whole group says, "What in the world is THAT!? Is that a rat? No, it's too big for a rat. Is it a pig? No, it's too hairy to be a pig. Is it a beaver without a tail? No, that can't be right. Wait! Here's the information tag: (reads out info on capybaras)." Then everyone stands around and admires the capybaras, and talks about how cute the babies are, and how they are related to guinea pigs, and you had that guinea pig, remember?......

Then a new group of people come up, and you move aside a little bit, but you are still THERE. You are not done yet. And then the new people say all the same things that you just said. EXACTLY. And you feel scornful of those people, because are they idiots!? Also, those are actually kind of YOUR capybaras now.

That's the Zoo Conundrum. Because you didn't know a thing about capybaras before five minutes ago, but now you do, and you want these people to go away and stop looking at them! Clearly they are annoying the capybaras. And, of course, you.

...

So, I have a doctor, and I go every three months for a checkup. It's in Lewisville, which is not very convenient, and the construction traffic on I-35 is horrible. It is just 20 miles away, but today it took me an hour to get home and longer to get there.

The waiting room is about 11 x 11 and always full. Ugh.

I arrived on time for my appointment and was told it would be about 20 minutes before I was seen. I took a seat in the waiting room and started to read a Time magazine. There were children with balls, which I later learned the doctor had given them. Thanks, Doc.

Two of the women in the waiting room started to talk, and the one seated next to me had one of those voices that you could hear through the wall of a submarine. So loud. SO loud.

They talked about a great many things, including car trips in the US, camping, various states and their terrain, chickens, egg colors, vegan diets, curing your own cancer with vegan diets, child care arrangements, travel in Europe. Then they started talking about how important international travel was, and how EVERYONE HAS TO DO IT! Blah blah blah, Eiffel Tower, blah blah blah.

And I found myself experiencing the Zoo Syndrome in a way. Because I am 300% for the importance of travel; educational travel was my life's work for 23 years. Yet, because of my annoyance, I found myself thinking evil, evil thoughts about it all. Scornful thoughts. "What do THEY know!? If I went to the Eiffel Tower and they were there I'd leave forever!" Etc.

So, I updated my Facebook status:

"Stuck in the waiting room from hell with the most annoying people ever. Help."

And I got so many nice comments from friends, including my favorite from Eileen: "can you write a nice short story about it a la Flannery O'Connor?"

Aw, I wish I could.

But I've never been a fiction writer.

On the way home, though, I thought of how it was kind of like the Zoo Conundrum.

So there's my story. Clearly God is trying to tell me something. Perhaps to take the advice from Cynde's comment, "I've started carrying ear buds with me everywhere. Even if I don't listen to anything, they help."

 

What we are doing today

Ken is ... lighting things on fire:

I went to a photo shoot with 2 gorgeous girls (I didn't plan to have my own picture taken):

photo by Nat Chittamai

Josie is sitting in the sun:

and Boudreaux is yawning:

Tonight: maybe we'll go see Iron Man 3!

Moving

I will be moving offices next week, and I won't be here for it. That's a little weird.

Previous to this, I was in one job and one office for 13 years. My, what a lot of packing when we moved buildings. Then, in late 2009 I moved 2 doors down...again, a lot of sorting, but it was done quickly and over a period of a few days, just toting things down the hall.

Now, after 2 years in this room and this job, I'm moving with my staff to a new building. It's the place where, eventually, our entire division will be moving...but we are the pioneers. We'll start out on the 3rd floor and eventually settle down on the 1st. I'll be out of town on the actual moving day, so I must get all the packing done by Tuesday afternoon (leave early Wednesday).

As more and more of my records are digital, I am realizing how much of the contents of filing cabinets I can actually recycle. I managed to sort through a WHOLE BUNCH of things this morning, packing just the bare minimum to go to the new place.

Some of the things I looked at made me sad; some of them made me laugh loudly. All of them made me realize how little I really refer to all the notes and papers I tend to keep. As a famous keeper, this is a good lesson for me. I've learned from a friend about some of the amazing things that MS One Note can do and am storing more and more there these days.

Now, when it comes to tchochkes...pictures, mugs, sayings...no less of those than I ever had. Some things have to stay the same, after all.

A great day

Grateful at this, the end of an excellent day. 

Good and engaging work, lots accomplished. 

Warm home at lunch with spouse and dogs who were glad to see me (though spouse did not jump up and turn in circles, I could still tell).

Lenten Program this year is a simple meal plus a variety of types of things.  Tonight's was a sing-a-long.  I grew up doing that and it's been a very long time since I got to.  We had two acoustic guitars and a bass and we sang...

As I Went Down in the River to Pray

Let it Be

Pass it On

Teach Your Children Well

Turn, Turn, Turn

and many others.

While this was probably not everyone's idea of a great time, I don't think they could have found a program I liked better. 

Deacon Freda Marie led us in Compline and it was a great day. 

Where Y'at, doll?

* That's how the Yats say it...the folks from deep in the heart of N'Awlins.  One of my best friends in grad school married a fellow from Metairie.  Boy, could he make a fried shrimp po-boy.  He's a very distinguished business professor now.  :)

* It's 9 pm, and I'm cooking a vegetable stew and roasting parsnips.  And oh, how I want to go to sleep.  But you will stay up with me, won't you?

* Cleanse update:  I am very aware of my skin.  It's not really itchy or uncomfortable...but I know it's there.  :)  I was also in a maniacally good mood yesterday and today, despite a low-grade headache.  All to be expected.  Interesting though. 

* I got to Jazzercise today for the first time in forever.  Taking it easy to start with (what's that!?)

and speaking of which,

* Who Dat?!

* Well, since I didn't watch the Super Bowl nor the Puppy Bowl...I guess Dat ain't me. 

* Instead I finished one of the most amazing books I have read in a long time:  What I Thought I Knew, by Alice Eve Cohen.  I insist that you all read this book as soon as possible; but I warn you, it is NOT an easy read.  It has to do with the right to choose, and what happens when your life implodes.  Here's a teaser: 

By turns black comedy, Kafkaesque nightmare, medical mystery, and crisis of faith, What I Thought I Knew is ultimately a love story. Blessed with a witty, unsentimental, utterly human voice, Alice Eve Cohen has taken what might have been a personal catastrophe and turned it into a memoir of astonishing candor.  –Donald Margulies, author of Dinner with Friends, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

* We are having yet another rainstorm, and colder weather is on the way.  Check this out, from Weather.com, referring to what we may expect Thursday night:

WHILE THERE IS
STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE SPEED AND TRACK OF THE EVOLVING
SYSTEM...WHICH COULD SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE THERMAL PROFILE
FAVORABLE FOR SNOW PRODUCTION...OVERALL CONFIDENCE IN THIS STORM
SYSTEM IS INCREASING.

What the fool does that mean?  "Boy, I'm feeling great about that storm system!  I'm feeling better about it all the time!"  The folks around here pining for a snow day might say that, but the weather folks?!

* No, I didn't forget: the parsnips are done.  The kale in that stew is fighting me on being done. 

* Facebook, facebook facebook...I finally got the new look...whatever...

* drinking a protein shake to keep from falling out...thanks for the reminder, Laura!

* Wordscraper...

* What Alice in Wonderland character am I?  The Mad Hatter.

* Aha!  The stew, she is in the fridge.  The me, I am in the bed.  Sweet dreams, peeps!

 

Here is What I Need for a Sinus Infection

I need a little guardian angel person to fly down and remind me, when I am sick, of what works for the different illnesses.  Because I forget, from time to time.  And then I think, DUH!  Why can I not remember?  I don't know.  I suppose it's a fortunate sign:  I'm not sick so very often. 

This sinus thing has been a true misery.  What I did right:

• Mucinex DM
• LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER
• Hot tub
• Hot steamy showers
• NeilMed Sinus Rinse!

What I needed that I did not have/do:

• That awesome Kleenex with the lotion on it
• Hot steamy showers - several a day
• Vaporizer on all the time by the bed
• If my face hurts, take something for pain.  Duh!  this came to me at about 3 am.
• Dr. Christophers' Garlic Stuff

 

What I mean to do now:

• Go to the doctor.  I think it is infected and I have to get rid of it. 

So, this is really a note to myself for the future.  Will I remember to look it up?  Probably not. 

My Lost Friend

I had a friend once, a best friend really.  We met our freshman year of college - she was my next door neighbor in the dorm.  We lived together from the second semester of that year on through three years of graduate school...so seven years in all, plus some. 

We were both English majors (though neither of us began that way).  We liked the same books and music.  We were both liberals at a very, VERY conservative school.  We sat together at undergraduate Commencement, which was actually quite a feat as it was a huge graduating class...but my last name started with Bu and hers with Co.  There was someone who was supposed to sit in between us, but he/she didn't show. 

She moved away to go to grad school, and later moved back and lived with me again briefly while she was finding her own place.  Then she moved back to her hometown after a year. 

During the first time when she lived away, she would sometimes "disappear" - not call or write for weeks.  Her younger sister would also not hear from her.  We'd get very worried and leave many messages on her phone, write all kinds of letters and cards, etc.  One time we actually called the police to go to her house and make sure she wasn't dead.  She was VERY ANGRY about that. 

This was all way before email, Internet, Facebook, Twitter.  And even now, in the heyday of those things, I can't find her that way.   Nor can I find her sister (who I know got married) or her brother.  I do have an idea that she is still alive and still in the same town...but I could be wrong. 

I haven't heard from her now for over 10 years.  It's been at least that long, because I can remember fretting to Ken about it when we were first married.  Letters I sent (including our wedding announcement) never came back, so I think she is still in the same place. 

Finally he looked at me and said, "Forget about her.  If she doesn't want to talk to you, then don't worry about her.  Just forget it." 

But...all those years?   Nothing, not a word?  While we were roommates, her parents both died, and my parents considered her a fifth daughter.  She helped us move my parents to Florida, a perfectly nightmarish experience otherwise known as "The Worst Move Ever."  She was at my sister's wedding, and helped with cleanup and recovery afterward. 

I had another "bestie" in junior hign and in high school, and I have still a different BFF now.  I also have a number of very good, dear, trustworthy people who I am fortunate to call friends of the soul.  I have sisters.  I have DOK sisters.

But there's a hole in my heart shaped like her.  And I can't forget. 

Gospel Brunch!

Hey, some Sunday I want to go to the Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues, Dallas.  It's at 12:30.  Who's in?????

My hub is out of town at motorcycle event.  I am staying home and re-washing horrible towels.  A whole lotta bleachin' goin' on. 

After work I shall stop at the library for my "hold" books and then curl up for the evening with 2 fine pups and a glass of wine. 

Tomorrow is Friday!  Saturday am there's a workshop at church, "Aging Gracefully (Like Fine Wine)."  Afterward I am headed to Corsicana to see my great-nephew play the lead in Oliver!  Excited. 
 

Lucky

You know that Joan Armatrading song, Lucky?

I'm lucky
I'm lucky
I can walk under ladders
Yes I'm so lucky
That I'm as lucky
As me

Been singing that all afternoon. 

I see the most amazing things every day, do you?  Like today I saw my spider friend outside the front door.  She's a great big one, been there at least a week.  Every day I say hello to her. 

Also today I saw a student waaaaay across campus walking a bicycle on which all the metal was shiny green - the frame, the handlebars, the wheel rims.  As she walked and the sun glinted off of it, it looked like something out of the Cirque du Soleil.

Also ladybugs...sometimes red ones with black spots, sometimes black ones with red spots!

And then there are the Bradford pears, the leaves of which turn a particularly amazing sangria color this time of year. 

Public service announcement:  Walking on a college campus can be dangerous and here's why:  distracted walkers.  Yep, they're all walking along texting.  It's complicated by the folks on bikes, some of whom are similarly distracted.  Oh, we'll all end in flames some day! 

Letter to my Teenage Self

Typepad asks: 

If you could travel back in time and meet yourself as a teenager, what three things would you tell yourself?

My dear teenage self,

I would love to tell you (though I am completely certain you will not believe me on any of this, because you must learn it for yourself) that:

1) You are not fat.  No, you are not. 

2) As you grow up, things will matter less.  Everything will not be the end of the world.

3) Yes, you will have friends.  Always. 

Love, Your Grown Up Self