Birthday Observed
Nov. 20th, 2007 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseDo you ever have those moments when you realize just how strange you are?
Yesterday started out kind of rough. I'll admit it. I'm having a bit of a mid-life crisis. (Okay, I prefer not to think of this as a mid-life crises, since at 40 that would mean I need to check out by 80. I think I'd rather have my mid-life crisis at 60, so I can see the brigher side of 120.) Anyway, my crisis revolves around this peice of horrific math: having a four year old at my age, means I'm TEN TIMES his age. Yesterday, when he woke up at 5:30 AM and I'd just driven those nine and a half-adding-years-to-my-face hours, I thought, "Man, today is going to suck."
I started out birthday observed a bit tense and grumpy (plus, I may be hormonal. I don't keep very good track, so I'm just kind of guessing here.)
So what did I do to cheer myself up? We got a garden slug.
Okay, I'm not so foolish as to have paid for the slug. Mason and I found it while we went for our usual morning walk near Cafe Amore. It was crawling on the sidewalk. Man, it was a big 'un, too. Mason and I picked it up, watched it's eye-stalks poke out and we admired it for several minutes, and then I said, "Let's take it home and give it a nice house."
It, of course, would have been happy in a mason jar, but what I did I do? I went to PetSmart and dropped $30 on a terrarium. The terrarium was originally set up for a lizard, but we put in dirt, leaves, a piece of rotten pumpkin (from the compost), and a couple of live parsley plants rescued from the garden as well (plus some earthworm stow-aways). It looks lovely, actually. We have it set up where Mason can monitor the temperature inside the terrarium, add moisture (there's even a hydrometer), and generally watch the slug.... sit there. It doesn't move a lot. In fact, several times we've thought it was dead. I guess this is where the term "sluggish" comes from. However, it's cool to have a terrarium. As I told Shawn, this way we have a ready-made home for any other outdoor critters we might catch. She seemed less than enthused by this prospect.
It made my day, however.
Happy birthday to me -- me and my slug.
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Date: 2007-11-20 04:45 pm (UTC)(That's one lucky slug.)
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 05:05 pm (UTC)It's funny what a difference context makes - we have so many slugs here in rainy Yorkshire, England, we're constantly having to (carefully!) toss out slugs that have oozed their way in through the crack in the front door!
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-21 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-21 05:01 pm (UTC):)
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Date: 2007-11-20 05:13 pm (UTC)... did you name the slug?
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 05:15 pm (UTC)I am smiling.
I don't think I personally would want to adopt a garden slug, but I can certainly follow the logic of adopting one and then buying it a $30 terrarium *grin*.
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:36 pm (UTC)And I'm glad I made you smile.
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Date: 2007-11-20 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-21 03:37 pm (UTC)Happy birthday to you and your slug!
Date: 2007-11-20 08:40 pm (UTC)I think Mason is lucky to have a parent who can see the beauty, or at least the interest, in slugs. I will have to be intensively trained by my own child before I can reach the point where I care about such things as deeply as I'm sure she will!
Happy birthday,
The Plaid Adder
Re: Happy birthday to you and your slug!
Date: 2007-11-21 03:37 pm (UTC)Although I'm heartened by Rachel's comment that the math will get better as we age.
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Date: 2007-11-20 09:23 pm (UTC)Happy slug! Happy birthday!
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 11:22 pm (UTC)Happy birthday.
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 11:53 pm (UTC)Michael Palin character: I've had a look around the back, and we're fresh out of parrots.
John Cleese character: I see. I see. I get the pictures.
MPC: I've got a slug.
JCC: Pray, does it talk?
MPC: ...no.
JCC: WELL, IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-21 09:05 pm (UTC)40 didn't bother me. 43 was hard for some reason. The other one that was hard was 26 because that was how old my father was when he died. So from then on, I'm older than my father ever was. Funny, being 20 years older than he ever was is easier.
What I have been saying since 40 is, "When you don't care about red sports cars, lost your hair in your 20s, and already have the trophy wife, middle age holds no horrors for you."
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Date: 2007-11-22 05:07 pm (UTC)I hope you had a happy birthday anyway!
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Date: 2007-11-22 06:58 pm (UTC)... I mean really, you got it going ON. Your career and your family life are just going up and up. Celebrate, and KUDOS to you!
I hope I'm as fabulous when I'm 40.
-Mel
Yes you are different
Date: 2007-11-24 01:26 am (UTC)I used to feed the banana slugs cat food on the front porch (I grew up in Washington State which has lots of huge slugs) . I liked seeing them all hanging over the edge of the bowl chowing down. My parents thought I was insane.
So, yanno, I think you rock. ;-)