Viewing Category: Encounters
Yesterday I set up Dad's new computer with a special Internet Home Page that lists his favorite news sites. I also added links to the various family member blogs. To my surprise, he read them! Hi Dad!
Today's tidbits about Dad:
Dad is interested in Cuban classical guitar music. He doesn't like Rock, but he likes the latin rhythm. He has a couple of CDs he wants to get.
At home, he owns no less than 5 guitars! 4 of them are made in Taiwan, the other one he got in Mexico (not sure if he actually was there and picked it up). I thought about showing him that bit from Desperado when Antonio Banderas's character is teaching the street kid how to play "like this", but I suppose it wasn't that great a scene. Plus, Dad doesn't like guns.
Dad commented on some interesting flaws in the rental cello, reconstructing its history in fine Holmesian form. "At one point, this cello was probably left in the sun.", he noted, one finger critically tracing the repaired wood. "As you can see, the wood here is wrinkled, and some repairs had to be made with clamps to fix it. The clamps were not well fitted, as you can see the clamp marks here."
Dad came to stay with me for six weeks, starting on Thanksgiving Day! We're having a good time, and I've already found some surprising things that I never knew Dad doesn't like spicy food, because he is slightly allergic to it. Dad is allergic to crustaceans! Dad is into Frank Herbert's "Dune" series and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" series, because he found these books in my room and read them. We're currently collecting them for him to take home. Dad likes the occasional dram of Scotch. He prefers hard liquor to wine and beer, too. Who knew what fun Dad could be! :-)
Dad also brought some fun chinese goodies over, such as this mooncake. Or is it some kind of other cake? I forget. It was still tasty.
We went to rent a cello from Johnson's Strings in Newton on Saturday. As Emily said, it was a cool place. He's been practicing cello only for about a year and a half...apparently, it's something he's wanted to do for quite some time, so now he's doing it. It's awesome.
We had dinner tonight at YouYou's, here in Nashua. It wasn't the best meal I've had there, and it was quite smoky and loud tonight. Dad found the miso soup to be a bit sour, the tea to be a bit heavy on the roasted rice, and the sushi to be prepared with inadequate length, pressure, and wasabi. The vinegar wasn't too good either apparently, "In Japan", he said, "each restaurant makes their own vinegar."
This information was presented in quite a genial way, so it seemed educational rather than critical. In the past, would I have reacted in a less favorable way? Maybe I'm mellowing out too. I'm glad that we're connecting.
So I went to the local Barnes & Noble in Nashua to browse around. As I was skirting the Starbucks cafe, I heard some awkward-sounding intonation from a couple near me. I realize that they're on a first date! How cute! I just heard a bit:
Girl: Do you do any other artistic kind of things? You know, like mumble mumble?
Guy: Mumble Mumble
Girl: Oh (Slightly-disappointed) Mumble Mumble.
Guy: Mumble Mumble Photography Mumble Mumble...
Girl: (Perking up) Mumble mumble! Mumble!
Guy: Mumble (Misses Cue) Mumble Mumble, probably Mumble the Red Sox.
(Awkward Pause)
I was browsing online buddy Tim's blog for the first time, and found this great link to quirkyalone.net: Quirkyalones are romantics who resist the tyranny of coupledom. [...] we are independent-thinking people who would prefer to be open to finding that magical click [...] rather than exist in a stifling or unsatisfying romantic relationship.
It's both serious and silly, which I find automatically appealing. There's a quiz too; I scored a mere 71, which put me in the "quirkytogether" camp. Which didn't seem right, so I took the quiz again with a more by-the-spirit interpretation of the questions. This put me nicely in the high 110s...yes!
Tonally, the site reminds me of goths/punks who, as they start to hit their 30s, cover up the tattoos with long sleeves to engage mainline society. There's even a book, which I promptly added to my Amazon wishlist.
Conceptually, I like the term "quirkyalone" much better than "haplessly single" :)
Today I registered to vote for the first time, heading down to the Nashua City Hall to stand in line. A couple of things struck me... the variety of people you see at City Hall, united in their common goal to have their vehicle registration renewed. I felt a small surge of civic duty as I stood in the City Clerk's Voter Registration Line. It was not unlike the way I felt when waiting to ride the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland; the anticipation was more interesting than the actual experience, which was disappointingly free of drama. I had brought along a small wad of utility bills and other incontrovertible documents to vigorously assert my identity. But no, all they needed was my driver's license. They even printed out the form for me with everything filled in, and I just had to sign it. Absolutely painless...I give the experience an "B+". If I had gotten a free sticker, that might have pushed things into "A" territory.
I had told my eye doctor that I was seeing floating blobs of light, kind of like a lava lamp. Today, I had my pupils dillated for a retinal exam by a specialist. I was a bit nervous at what they'd find. My eyes are my livelihood!
Dr. Riddell was a slightly-built older gentleman with a caring demeanor. The initial exchange of pleasantries was a bit unusual in that he asked, "And how are you doing?" He actually paused to hear my answer, head tilted in a kindly manner. That was a positive beginning. He then proceeded to run me through the examination, with his assistant sitting to the side taking notes. It was pretty cool how he precisely described what he saw, shifting without pause between description and direction while shining various lights into my eyes: there's a cv in the lower quarillant sector nothing unusual with the aqueous di-elephantine crescent and lactating clusters appear nominal look up to the left please the micturating dipolynomial fixative swivels within expected normative range now look down to the right and to the left I don't see any cows here either okay we're done
It was an interesting feeling to be the subject under test, having a feature of my eye's structure observed in such scrupulous scientifc detail. So this is what it's like to be a microorganism, I thought.
And my eyes are "normal for an extremely nearsighted person." The assistant told me on the way out that she saw the blobs too, and had since she was a teenager...and a great weight was lifted from me...I wasn't a crazy person after all! Though I hadn't gone in feeling that I was being scruitinized for my mental stability, this was an unexpected bonus. I will have to celebrate with some Indian food, after my eyes undillate.
