Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

I am wearing green even though I am not Irish. So there!

Friday, Mar. 17, 2006
3:31 p.m.
Yesterday, as I lay reading a science-fiction story about a different kind of aesthetic in the future called �kewIture�, the halogen bulb in the ceiling breathed its proverbial last and I had to finish my ablution in less-than-ideal conditions. This required that I borrow a chair from one of the children�s rooms (my daughter�s had less junk to remove from it) and place it in the bathtub so that I could climb thereupon in order to reach the ceiling as the light is recessed. It also meant pulling off the metal ring that surrounds the implement and being showered with a myriad of dead flies and other assorted defunct insects, namely ladybugs, which had collected therein from the time it was first installed. Luckily they mostly fell into the bathtub itself and thus were easily enough rinsed down the drain, and I was able to rinse the rest out of the ring itself under the tap. But it was still �ber disgusting and kind of creepy, and gave me an idea for a science-fiction story of my own, but that is for another time.

The dance last night was a lot of fun. I wore a beautiful dress my daughter loaned me that she herself had ordered from the internet but never worn, and it showed off my tan rather well (at least I had the white bathingsuit strap lines to show for it, but I wore my hair down in curls so that they weren�t that obvious) and received a zillion compliments on it. Hmmm, I wonder if I can �liberate� it from her. Hubby actually had a great time, playing with Kevin O�s jazz ensemble and dancing with me, hanging out with Kevin and his girlfriend, and was really glad he had gone. I pretended to be angry with him for quite a while, upset that he wouldn�t go to a dance when I, the woman he loves, asked him, but would go to play guitar when Kevin did. After we got home, I revealed the subterfuge that Kevin and I had actually used on him. I don�t think he was upset. My student whom I had taken out for a beer was there with her boyfriend, who is really cute, and introduced me to him as �my singing teacher and my friend.� I was really rather touched by that.

Now, I have a kettle, an electric kettle, which I bought last October, one of these newfangled appliances that sits on a base and has a button which, when depressed, closes the electrical circuit, and then turns off automatically when the appropriate temperature is reached. Every so often the button would not want to stay down, but with a little coaxing it would eventually work as desired. A few days ago, however, no amount of cajoling or threats would induce it to remain in the on position. I finally couldn�t stand it anymore (being reduced to boiling the water for my tea in the microwave oven) and called the 1-800 number provided with the warranty material. I was told to fax a copy of my bill of sale (which I had prudently kept) to the number provided, then call them back after 24 hours and they would send me a new kettle. This morning, the kettle was working again. I do not understand.

Today I lunched with a strange man. I mean, um, I started talking to the man next to me in line at the lunch counter because I requested a mediterranean vegetable sandwich without the eggplant as I am allergic to it, and he wondered how anyone could possibly be allergic to eggplant. Whereupon I informed him that it is a member of the nightshade family (closely related to the potato) and contains the toxin soIanine, apparently in enough quantity to cause a reaction in some people. My mother and my daughter also experience symptoms similar to mine, which have to do with tingling and blisters in the mouth and throat. It turned out that he is the man in charge of Linux at the university and I asked if I might join him, whereupon we had a very pleasant conversation about computers and operating systems and all sorts of things that I would never in a million years dream of having with most of the people I hang out with as we stuffed our faces with cafeteria food. It�s amazing just how flexible one can be.

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