Random Something

I opened my email the other day, and the subject practically hurled itself off the page: YOU HAVE A POSSIBLE 137 RELATIONS!!!  And I just sighed.  Because the email is likely correct.  Whereas my parents limited themselves to two children, other family members went whole hog on the biblical "Be fruitful and multiply" suggestion.  It's entirely possible that I'm related to most of Illinois and parts of Ohio.  I stopped searching for relatives on Ancestry.com.  Every time I clicked on that green leaf, more cousins, great aunts, and long-lost uncles popped up.  It was starting to be annoying, all these relatives popping up.  Of course, they likely say the same thing about me. 

I overheard one of the teachers telling a custodian about the roach problem in her classroom.  It seems that one of those insects ran up her pant leg.  Not those diminutive German cockroaches. No, this was one of the impossibly large Texas-sized cockroaches.  Kafka-sized. The ones able to move furniture. The ones that haunt my phobia. The very image of such a creature scurrying up my leg filled me with terror, and made me look very closely around my office when I got back.  I have a new found respect for teachers--they need combat pay!

Zane has a new habit, one that he learned in only a single week of school.  He will now approach people and say, "I have a question," and wait for them to ask him about it.  I am so proud of him! Especially when his question is something like "Do gorillas do dishes?" or "Are ghosts real?"  You should see the looks we get!  People are always nice enough, however, and most of them do try to answer Zane's questions honestly, even if the answer is "I don't know."

All summer long, one thing in my life was constant:  a cat wanted out.  Unless they wanted in.  We only have two cats, but it seemed some days as though we had forty.  As soon as I sat down to eat breakfast, Zena was meowing to go outside.  I let her outside, and when I sat down again, she wanted to come back inside.  In and out, in and out, all day long, for no apparent reason other than that there was a door.  It made me seriously consider a cat door.  For a moment, anyway.  I've discussed all the random critters who visit our backyard: possum, raccoons, skunks, rats, and the odd feral cat.  Who knows what I would find in the kitchen each morning, if those creatures could just walk in the door every time they felt like it?

Have you ever sat and just listened to another person type? My friend Anita, who used to have a typing business in grad school, seems to type so fast that the sound of her fingers hitting her keys is constant. I think that I type at a decent speed, with my usual random stops for hitting the wrong key or deciding to use another word.  When I hear her whipping around the keyboard in such a speedy manner, it makes me very self-conscious about my own typing.  I've ended up with a typing complex of some sort.  It's embarrassing.  Does this sort of thing happen to anybody else? 


Go visit Stacy, if you're up to socializing.  She's in the process of moving across country, but I believe that she is almost done.  


Or check out the lovely Shawn and her friend Impulsive Addict and their somewhat regular show.