Tonight I ate too much turkey. Gorging myself on tryptophan rich foods does strange things to my mind. I’ll apologize in advance (as I always should) for where this may eventually lead.
Five quick and easy steps to becoming internationally famous!
1.Go to a lake with all kinds of curious scientific equipment and take it out onto the dock.
2. Be fumbling with and quietly swearing at said equipment when approximately two bus loads of tourists descend upon the area – hooting excitedly.
3. Attempt to look busy and confident as you lower your defective equipment using faulty ropes into water of an unknown temperature into depths that you cannot accurately measure. Record the data anyway…
4. When asked if you are a “Scientist” say yes!
5. Pose for pictures. So many pictures.
The relentlessly exciting events of my life unfolded in such a way on Saturday so that I found myself in the Aldergrove Safeway buying a can of cranberries and a carrot cake at 11:30 PM. La vida loca! Occasionally, the “chit-chat” given by the cashier gets on my nerves. Things like :”I can’t believe you don’t have an AirMiles card!” or…. “Hey – how ’bout that weather!” For some reason, it didn’t bother me at all on this occasion, perhaps because some of the statements made were somewhat interesting. Cashier Girl: “Boy – that looks yummy”!
Me: “Huh?”
Cashier Girl: “This!” pointing at the carrot cake. “Yummy!”
Me: “No, actually its pretty bad”. I said it with a straight face too.
At this point she looked at me like I was more than a little nuts. Don’t worry, I’m used to it. It has happened before, it will happen again.
Me: “I was kidding”.
She thought this was funny, thankfully. I don’t know why.
Cashier Girl: “Are you going anywhere for thanksgiving?”
Me: “Actually, I AM somewhere. I’m in Langley visiting my parents.”
Cashier Girl: “Oh. Really, its nowhere. I live here. Trust me, its nowhere.”
Me: “I know. I used to live in Aldergrave… but its not THAT bad”.
Cashier Girl: “Trust me, it is a really awful place. Really”.
I wasn’t going to attempt to dissuade her from her rather steadfast statement, and I didn’t want to know the details that seemed impending. Sure its a crappy place, but its no hell. Besides, I bought carrot cake there, so it can’t be that bad. Right?
Well, it seemed more “yummy” when I was there. Oh well. Blame the tryptophan.
What WAS interesting was my field trip to Mount Seymour. We hiked up there looking at various plant species. This was good. However, what made it interesting was that one of the students (not me this time) nearly killed a bicyclist with the SFU van. Ooops. He (the bike guy) was none too happy, and voiced his displeasure in his near death experience by banging on the side of the van and swearing profusely. Hmmm… maybe I’ll volunteer to drive next time. Why is it that it takes nearly dying to sometimes make people feel alive? He should thank us – but YOU explain that to him.