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prev home archive next Momentary Thought Now there will be no sixth book to the trilogy. Damn. Not that the story line could have gone any further. Perhaps another Dirk Gently adventure? High/Low High: Got an A- in my Math class. Which means I can finally submit my tuition reimbursement. Woo! Low: Besides Douglas Adams' death, it's Monday, I feel generally icky, and I have school tonight. Current Obsession Planning my Sabbatical, which is still two years away. I'm impatient, can you tell? Grin Source Willa's okay!!! Singing I just sit here on this mountain thinking to myself You're a fool boy, why don't you go down, find somebody, find somebody else My memory (my memory) Serves me far too well "Waiting For That Day" - George Michael Storyteller Bio Dramatis Personnae Who I Read Recipes |
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another which states that this has already happened." Perhaps Douglas Adams discovered the purpose of the Universe, and disappeared in a puff of logic. It's possible. One things for sure, he now knows the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer (which is, as we all know, 42). Introducing me to Douglas Adams was one of the very few positive aspects I took from my relationship with X(m). He had the Hitchhiker's trilogy (then only four books), and I liked them so much that I bought a set of my own. Which may explain why I now have two of each - including "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" (that title just cracks me up). We bought the books on tape, read by Mr. Adams himself (which is great, because then you get the British inflection *and* accent, and a lot of the humor became clearer to me as he read it). We'd lay in bed at night and listen and laugh at them - one good happy memory out of a slew of bad ones. I'll have to pick them up again, X(m) took them when he moved out. I'm saddened and bitterly disappointed that Douglas Adams is gone. He was only 49, and passed away while exercising. John Scalzi views this as evidence of why "no one should ever do any physical exercise of any sort, ever". (Check out his redesign, by the way. I covet his yard.) I don't know, perhaps the sadness comes from the absence of the mind that created such a fun universe - now that the mind has died, has that universe? I hope not. Not that anybody would do a knock-off of his writing (God, no!). But there's always the comfort when one has a "favorite" author, that more stories could come. Even if the series had been rightfully and successfully concluded (as in THGTTG), you still feel like that world is still living and evolving out there, since its creator is still living. Ah, well, I shall just go on envisioning Douglas out there somewhere, knocking back Gargleblasters and happily throwing himself at the ground and missing. God knows what I'll do if Anne McCaffrey ever passes. Her Pern series got me through my awful marriage and difficult divorce. We become so dependant on our authors, sometimes. ********************* Now, to turn the tone 180 degrees... I think it's been long enough since I've gushed and spouted and generally have been irritatingly descriptive in just how much in love I am. Those of you who tire of that sort of thing may want to go off and write a Storyteller entry or something (and wasn't that a shameless plug?). There are certain little things about my relationship with Calvin that make me think it is quite extraordinarily different from any other relationship that exists. Of course, I haven't had the chance to observe many successful relationships, but from what I have seen, it seems ours is rare. Take today. Calvin was almost happy that he forgot his wallet in my purse, because that meant he had to swing by AcronymCo to get it from me. And then I met him for lunch, which we do as often as we can. I scooted into the booth, and he slid in beside me. Then he slid closer, and pulled my leg up over his knee. He just wanted to be in contact. It leaves me shaking my head sometimes, that I have in reality the kind of relationship that I was always told didn't exist. No, it's not perfect. But the quality of it is intense. I can't emphasize enough the benefits of developing a friendship before a love relationship. Y'all can stop gagging, now. You're just jealous, anyway. ******************** So Michael graduates on the 23rd. It was a looooong struggle, but it seems (knock on wood) that the majority of the battles are over. He goes into the Marines the third week of June. Marie's got two more weeks of school for this year, and that'll be another one down. It's been 10 years since I've had to worry about my own high school schedule, but I'm still living it via the kids. I look forward to graduation/summer vacation just as much as they do. One less complication to have to deal with, at least for a few months. Weird. That's all I can describe it as. Both kids are growing up so fast it's incredible. I've known Marie since she was five, and Michael since he was ten. Marie looks at me at eye-level now, and Michael has been taller than me for ages. They're both at a quasi kid/adult mutation stage where they can be incredibly mature for their age at times, and then at other times revert to something less than their age in a heartbeat. Michael's been drawing away from us steadily, in terms of neediness and interaction, for the past year or so. Which is as it should be, and it's timely for a young man his age. I'm highly curious to see what kind of an adult he develops into, after the Marines are done with him. Marie is developing her social circle on a daily basis - such fact was highlighted when we went over her "list" of friends some 50 people long. (Thank God she chose to have a slumber party instead of a boy/girl end of the year party. I have no idea where I'd put 'em all.) And she and I converse on pretty much a peer-to-peer level. Lectures are becoming erroneous, and communication of expectations is handled on a more adult level. It's an interesting experience to be a "parent". One that I'm not really motivated to start in on again with my own kid, mind you. But the experiences I've had with Michael and Marie have been very valuable. And wonderful, and painful, and eye-opening, and fun, and hard, and tedious, and exciting, and humbling, and embarrassing, and joyful. And not over yet. ******************** And finally. If your grocery store has or is installing those new scan-and-bag-it-yourself check-out lines, avoid them. Avoid them like the plague. Calvin and I tried one out over the weekend. We had fifteen items. The enthusiastic new-checkout-system-promoter-chick lured us over with promises of faster checkout, better organization, and greater convenience. What proceeded to happen did not live up to her promises. Checkout Lady: "Press this button to activate the system." Me: "This one?" boop Checkout Lady: "Excellent! Now, scan your first item." Me: "Okay." waives a can of Ravioli over the glass scan area. nothing happens. Checkout Lady: "No, like this." grabs the can from me and scans it with a weird flippy motion of her wrist, presenting the bar code to the glass on the bottom and the mirror perpendicular to it. "See?" Me: "Okay." i try to mimic the weird flippy wrist thing. Calvin: coming over... "What the hell are you doing?" Me: "Trying out this new self check-out thing." Calvin: "Oh." observes me flipping... "Man. *This* will never last. I give it three months, tops." Me: continuing to flip... "I guess we'll see." screen produces an error message. i look around for the checkout lady, who is enticing another family over to the checkout machines of death. "Excuse me? It won't let me scan this item." Checkout Lady: "Well you must have *moved* one of the items from off the platform. All items have to stay on the platform until you're done. It's a scale, you see." Me: "Oh." i continue to scan items, which are being fitfully acknowledged by the system. Calvin: starts bagging "Laura, don't ever do this again. This sucks." machine produces error again Me: to checkout lady "Um? It's doing it again." Checkout Lady: "Did you *move* anything?" Calvin: "Well, yes, in order to bag it." Checkout Lady: "You're not supposed to pick anything up off the scale." Calvin: "But there's no more room and we still have stuff to scan." Checkout Lady: huffs Wait for the machine to catch up with you. *Don't touch anything.* we wait. nothing happens. Calvin: Two months. Checkout Lady: exasperated sigh Here. I'll do it. Calvin and I exchange glances - we're reminded of the SNL skit for Your Company's Computer Guy. things start booping along. checkout takes another ten minutes as the machine acknowledges some items and errors on others. Checkout Lady: "There. Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Obviously people will have to get used to it." her tone suggests that grocery check-out and bagging is right up there with rocket science. Me: "Obviously." Calvin: "One month." Me: "Not even that." Total elapsed time to check out fifteen items - 20 minutes. Word to the wise. |