10 Things I Have Seen Lately

1. That only one person has entered the THRILLED photo challenge. Will you join her? (I am among those who have not joined her. I'll get on that.)

2. That my face is super flushed even though I'm feeling better than I have been the last couple of days. Please send healing vibes so I do not head off on my global journey with creeping crud as passenger.

3. An obituary for my great uncle. He was honored by his home state for caring for its land. How cool is that?

4. The grim, silent look on a woman's face when I asked her if she might give me a bag for poop pick up in the park when I ran out. I had two choices, face that look and ask or walk away and face the disgusted one she'd surely throw because I wasn't picking up. How would she know that I was hiking off to find a bag somewhere else and that I'd come back?

5. The bewildered then condescending look that same woman gave me the following day when I saw her on the street, reminded her that I owed her a bag and tried to give her two. She politely refused then revised and asked if I would hold on to it for her for the next time she had an emergency. So, she thinks I'm a nut but at least she thinks I'm a polite nut.

6. The final episodes of the final season of Lost. I didn't hate it as much as everyone else did but I'm willing, nay eager, to hear testimony from either side in the comments.

7. Many episodes of Season 2 of In Treatment. It remains such a well-executed show in all ways. This season, though, deals with parental issues and, I can't lie, it's kicking my ass. Every single episode makes me bawl with one emotion or another. I cannot recommend this series highly enough but I can strongly urge you not to watch it in bleak February. Perhaps June is better. I would also like to know how the Netflix discs can have such an uncanny ability to skip only at the highest emotional points.

8. Some role playing between a mother and two sons on the subway. Each one had an animal figurine. The older boy was Mothra ("No I'm not, I'm a butterfly!), the mom was some kind of dragon ("I wonder where I got this horn.") and the younger boy was Godzilla ("He doesn't talk."). Godzilla did a lot of hitting and biting. The mother used her character for a teaching moment about using your words. She went on and on with all the useful stuff. "He can't talk. He must be very frustrated. Ow, Godzilla. Please stop. I don't like it when you do that. I'm going over here and I'm not going to play with you." She tried to teach him to talk. She tried to model good monster behavior. She included him in their impromptu baseball game. Then she started in on that, "He can't use his words and he seems to be upset. We have to help him use his words and find out what's bothering him." So Godzilla redoubled his efforts and poked her dragon over and over and over again. I kind of dug Godzilla even though he kept kicking me with his big slushy moon boot.

9. A guy who was so concerned about being chivalrous that he leapt back from a doorway so that the woman approaching him could exit unimpeded and stepped on my toe. Twice.

10. Some delicious Chinese pastries, the ones with the sweet dough and the hot dog running through them. Mmmmmm, I should have just seen not eaten. But I did both.