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hobbled by heels 2001-10-03 Yesterday I saw a deer grazing alongside the freeway, on my way home from work. That makes three times I've seen this deer at the same place on the freeway, and I'm worried it will end up getting hit. It's so strange to see a deer next to the freeway, because they're usually more reclusive than that. To be honest, I wonder if I'm just hallucinating it; it's very surreal. Today is San Gerardo's day, according to the calendar I got from my local tienda. I hope he has a good one. This morning Francisco and I got up to go to the gym, but we ended up going for a walk instead. It was nice but I can't get used to it not getting light until 7 or so. After we got back we were sitting around having breakfast with Boy, and he ended up telling us the name of the girl he has a crush on. We were sworn to absolute secrecy, and I will reveal the name to no one, but I wanted to mention that he told us because it meant a lot to me for him to place that trust in us. I had told Boy that he shouldn't be afraid to tell us when he has crushes because A) We won't tease him and 2) I can offer him excellent advice. I told him I'm like the Miss Cleo of advice, and he should call me now for his free readin'. So after he told us the girl's name, he asked me what his free readin' was. I asked him what he hoped to accomplish and he kind of shrugged. I said, "Do you just want the girl to notice you?" And he said yes. So I told him that what I liked about boys in grade school was if they were nice to me (thinking, of course, about Greg and the time the other kids were teasing me about my hair. I related the story--how one kid said my hair made me look like a witch, and Greg said "I think she looks kind of cute." I told Boy if he wanted the girl to notice him he should compliment her, and he said, "But then she'll know I like her!" So I told him he could tell her he liked her shoes, and that wouldn't necessarily make her think he likes her, but it would still be a compliment. He seemed to think that was a decent idea. The thing is, ten years old is Way too young to really Pursue a crush, but having a crush now is probably good practice for when he gets older and wants to actively pursue the objects of his affection. Which I can't imagine, but hopefully we'll have a few more years to get used to the idea. Oy. Francisco sent me a very interesting article yesterday, from the NY Times. It was about the Black Death, and how some scientists think the Black Death was not actually caused by the bubonic plague virus. Some scientists now think it was caused by a virus like the Ebola virus (a filovirus, I guess). If you've read much of my diary you'll know how fascinated I am by Ebola and filoviruses in general, so that article was right up my alley. So to speak. I think the scientists are going to start trying to dig up Black Death victims to see if they can detect what virus killed them (they would be exhuming bodies in Northern Europe, where the cold temperatures have slowed decomposition). I'll be interested to see what they find out. I had planned to do some shopping during lunch today, but I'm wearing my highest-heeled shoes and I had to park Way out in the parking lot. The parking lot I have to use is unpaved, and after hobbling over all that gravel on my way to the office, I decided there was no way I was going to make an extra roundtrip over those rocks in order to shop at lunch. I'll go tomorrow. The impending war situation is really worrying me. I heard an interview on NPR yesterday, of a Pakistani man. He basically said that he is anti-Taliban, but that if the U.S. bombs innocent civilians in Afghanistan, then he will join the Taliban and fight us. I think a lot of people in that part of the world feel that way, and I sure don't blame them. It's not going to do any good for us to kill Afghani citizens who have no ties to Osama bin Laden, and it won't make us "even" for the terrorism inflicted on NY and the Pentagon. What it will do is alienate people who otherwise don't have a problem with our country and then we've got even more people hating us. I love this country and I feel very fortunate to have been born here, but I'm not blind to our flaws. We have done terrible things to innocent people around the world, and denying that we've earned people's hatred is only making people hate us more. Our arrogance will be our downfall. This is my diary and I can say what I think. I'm already hemorrhaging regular readers, so what the hell. Okay then, sugar muffins, talk to you later. Love,
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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