10 posts tagged “life”

From Donald wif Lub, originally uploaded by gitagrrl.

A birthday greeting from Donald Duck. =)

My friend Dawn posted a tweet a couple weeks ago about an article in the Arizona Daily Sun. The article's about Personal Locator Beach technology being used for the first time at Grand Canyon National Park. I make note of it because it's of some personal relevance to me.

Seven years ago, my friend Gilad passed away. I don't know the exact date, since a few days passed between when we reported him missing and when he was found, so I just generally remember him at around this time. He was hiking on one of the trails there and collapsed from heat exhaustion; he was 25 years old. He went off by himself, leaving the bottled water sitting in the car, thinking that it was just a little heat and he could handle it. It was the same attitude I had when I moved to Phoenix the year before, so I understood it well. Those of us who relocated to Phoenix from NYC quickly learned that the desert's heat isn't something to be taken lightly, but Gilad was just over for a visit, he didn't know.

Gilad is a beautiful soul. Had this technology been available and in use then, he'd still be here, bobbing his head to The Doors' Light My Fire or The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up and telling me that I just *had* to go have sake with him. But it wasn't, and he's not, and I hope that wherever he is, he's as happy as can be.

Number of unread e-mail messages: 60,000+
Number of unread feeds: 1,000+
Number of URLs waiting to be sorted, tagged, posted to del.icio.us: 3,000+

The look on my face as I compose this post: :-o ... Priceless?

I just got paid. For my first ever MT gig. =)

Most of those of my friends who read about Charlotte understood the spirit in which the anecdote was shared. One, however, lambasted me for my behaviour. Apparently, I tricked Charlotte into thinking she was safe in this house and then proceeded to betray her trust. Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about anthropomorphism, but come on, that's going a bit far. Still, my friend's entitled to her opinion, and anyone who agrees and thinks I acted atrociously will be most pleased by tonight's little story.

I was lying on my bed, talking on the mobile phone, which was plugged into the wall, charging. The wall is not far from the bed, just far enough for the cord to reach. But if I want to be comfy while I'm talking, I basically have to hang my head over the edge of the bed. This gets tiring, and I'd been listening to my friend for like two hours. So every once in a while, I'd shift a bit - a little this way, a little that - to stay comfy.

So I'm lying across the width of the bed, yeh? Now usually, I've got my head on the right and my feet on the left, but just for sh**s and giggles [is it just me? do you find it impossible to swear on Vox too?], I turned around... and saw a big, black thing way over there, on the other side of the room, by the closet, the linen closet, and the bathroom. In other words, by all my stuff. <Insert first shudder of anticipatory revulsion.>

I unplugged the phone, mm-hmm'd and yep'd my friend, and tip-toed closer.

Massive. Creepy. Crawly. <Insert second shudder of revulsion.>

I sneaked out of the room to get, well, you know, the stuff, and as if sensing my malevolence, the thing (and by thing I mean palmetto, the bane of my Floridian existence) turned tail and ran... into my bathroom. Where the bulb's blown. <Insert litany of expletives.>

Of course I followed, but carefully, and I only took a couple steps. I peered around the doorjamb, and there it was, barely visible in the darkness (I think I neglected to mention that it was 2am). Shfffffffffffffffft, bam! I hate using bug spray in the house; the noxious fumes make it difficult to breathe properly. But well, I think I also neglected to mention my phobia of the creepy crawlies. I was all a-tremble, barely able to work the spray can. No way was I getting any closer to that thing than I had to.

So. Mission accomplished, yeh? I only ever see one of these things at a time, and usually not more than once every couple weeks, depending on the season. Obviously not this season. Oy! For the first time ever, another one of the things scurries from the pitch blackness into the charcoal shadows. Ack and squeak and ew and urgh and stuff. <Insert several more shudders of revulsion.> So ya. Reflex, right? I spray and I spray and the bug, which is bigger than the first, flies at me.

Okay so, I got it eventually but.. Sorry, did you catch the phobia bit? Do you get that as far as we New Yorkers are concerned, these things are not supposed to fly??! Can you feel the trauma? *Sigh.* My karma is seriously being affected by all this insecticide.

Right. You lot can stop laughing now. Really.

Several weeks ago, a spider moved into the corner of the ceiling in my kitchen.  She wasn't doing any harm, so I just let her be.  I've no idea whether the spider was a he or a she, but I named it Charlotte and it became a she.  In time, I came to find her presence reassuring. She was the biggest of the few spiders who've made their home in the corners of this house and, well, her name was Charlotte. I mean come on.

Once in a while, I would catch Charlotte wandering out of her corner.  I've no love for creepy crawlies in general, so I wasn't too happy when she did this.  I would stand and blow up at her web 'til she returned to her corner, sedate once more.  A few days ago, I found Charlotte out on an expedition.  She'd traversed nearly half the length of the kitchen ceiling and was directly above my head! Further, she wouldn't behave and go back into her corner, so I did the only thing I could do: grab what I needed and leave.  When I returned to the kitchen next, there she was, back in her corner, as if she'd never strayed. Hmph.

Ah.. the good old days.  Today I found Charlotte all the way on the other side of the house, just outside the study.  She wasn't on the ceiling, she was on the baseboard, just above a floor covered with that awful neutral brown wall-to-wall carpet. Meaning I could be walking barefoot and never see her... *shudder*.

I did what I had to do. Charlotte met her match in my smiley-face, all-purpose bug squasher.  And now, I am sad. Her corner just isn't the same now; somehow, it looks more deserted than any other spot in the house.

I'll miss you, Charlotte. I'm sorry.

Do you believe in ghosts? Follow-up question: What's the most supernatural experience you've ever had? (18 May 2006)

I do indeed. There were three of us living in a flat once, a two-story duplex in the Bronx. Individually and together, we saw what looked like a very well-formed dustbunny, a disembodied shadow.  Ya, it's funny now, but it freaked us out then.

Probably the experience that impacted me the most took place in 1977.  I was a year-n-something old, and I'd gone to India with my parents.  We got to this one place, and Mum put me down in the courtyard, and in spite of the fact that it was my first time there, I knew who everyone was and where everything was.  Creepy-cool.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? (15 May 2006)

A pediatrician. Except I couldn't say the word back then, so it was "baby doctor." Meaning, of course, a babies' doctor, not that I expected a medical degree at the age of three; my grammar wasn't exactly top drawer then. =)

What's the nerdiest thing about you? (From 03 May 2006)

I spend more time organising than doing. I am obsessed with lists. Don't laugh, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yes you do. Yes, you do. Yes. You. Do.

When you were little, what made you irrationally afraid? (From 02 May 2006)

Afraid? Yes. Irrational? Never. I'm more irrational as an adult than I ever was as a child. =)