A Comment, Not a Post

This is really a very lengthy comment to Cardiogirl's post today at www.cardiogirl.net :

Did I really just read my name in your post, Cardiogirl? Even if I'm not a celebrity, I feel like one now. O.K., let me qualify that statement. Physically, I DON'T feel like one. I went downstairs this morning and stood on a small wooden craft stool to reach something high (I'm short - there's a detail for you - only 5'4") and the darned stool broke beneath my weight and I landed on my wrist and tailbone. I was thrilled to discover that I could get up and could walk. I headed upstairs to lie down on the couch nearer to my sons. All day, I have been plagued by thoughts of what would have happened if my head had hit the metal shelves behind me and knocked me unconscious.

Thanks for making me feel special. You asked what shampoo I use? I use whatever shampoo I can get for free at Walgreens. For the moment, that is Garnier Fructis (I've actually gotten three bottles for free in the last two months). My husband hates it. He uses Tresemme.

I have a cheap watch that I keep replacing because I love it and get so many comments on it. I found it at Target and bought it twice. But, the present one, I bought for just $5 at Kohl's. It was $20, marked down to $15, and I had a $10 off any purchase coupon since we just had one open in a neighboring town. What is distinctive about it, is that it matches the shape of my wedding ring (ah, there's another post, because my wedding ring was chosen by my husband's ex-fiance). The top part of the band curves to the left of the face and the bottom part curves to the right.

Now, wedding rings. I keep mine on all the time (except for a few years there, when we were separated and even though back together, I felt my husband hated me, so I couldn't bring myself to wear it). I don't understand it, but my husband takes his off all the time (and loses it, I should say). A few weeks ago, my MS brought it to me and said he found it at the back of the couch.

We always manage to find it, which I'm grateful for, because even though it is a simple band, I had something special engraved inside it. He'll take it off at work to put lotion on his hands and then slip it into his bookbag/briefcase. He'll set it on the table. One time I found it and feigned ignorance when he explained he was looking for it. I don't think I let him stew too long (maybe a day), but he's such a careful guy that this really seems out of character for him. I suppose I'll use that, next time I need him to cut me some slack for getting my foot stuck in my purse strap and almost losing the cash carelessly stuffed into my purse. Ha!

I drive a silver Nissan Quest. It took me a while to get used to it, because I had always driven cars. Unfortunately, I had recently driven my car into a telephone pole on the short trip from our home in DeKalb to the school (two and a half blocks away). My husband picked it out without me, while visiting my in-laws. At first, it felt like a tank. Now, I love the roominess and the ease with which I can get the two little boys into their car seats.

But, I am very much like you, Cardiogirl. I'm curious about little details in people's lives. I love to eavesdrop. I, too, look in people's windows. We had friends who lived around the corner from us in DeKalb and after they moved to a new house, I found myself always looking in the window to see what changes the new owner had made in the front room. When my son went back to DeKalb to visit a friend, he actually went to our old house and looked in the windows to see what changes had been made and he filled me in on all the details.

My husband, is more like Mr. C., in this respect. In fact, I was just telling him yesterday that "people must think I'm such a lazy-bones because I stop at the end of the driveway, open the back hatch, put the two garbage cans in and then drive up the driveway to our garage where I enter halfway and un-load the garbage cans before pulling all the way into the garage." He laughed at me and said "Who in the world could possibly be watching you? And who would want to stop and see what you are doing? And who would care if you ARE a lazy-bones?" He marvelled that I would worry about the thoughts of a passing motorist! I guess I worry because it is the kind of thing I would see and then later think about. Ha!

I love blogs because I get to eavesdrop on other people's lives and learn things about them. I do love the fact that I know lots of little details about you, Cardiogirl, and yet we've never met. I don't know if our personalities would mesh or not, but I love learning all these things about you and hearing what you are thinking about on a daily basis. I love that you have made me your friend, sight-unseen. I love that you wonder about details in my life. I know that you are a kindred soul. Perhaps, because we are both writers.

One of my favorite quotes is one I gleaned from a writing book way back when I was in high school. I used it in the preface to a paper I had written about Charles Dickens. It was taken from Rudolf Flesch and A.H. Lass's book, A New Guide to Better Writing.

"You have to go through the world with your eyes and ears wide open and soak up experiences like a sponge. Day and night, you have to be a reporter on the job, and your mind has to take down in shorthand whatever happens around you. Impossible? No, not quite. There are people like that, men and women who seem to be natural journalists or novelists, born writers whose minds automatically store up what they see and hear."

So, Cardiogirl, it is just the natural journalist in you that makes you crave these details. It is what makes you so good at what you do. Just another reason I like you.