I was talking with Jay's eldest sister on the phone earlier this evening, and she pointed out that Jay was giving me a red moon, a lunar eclipse, for my birthday. A few minutes ago, I found this note from her in my email:
"... I saw that the next lunar eclipse will occur on Mar 3, 2007. From your birthday to Jay's. How do you think he arranged that?"
I whooped with laughter (scared the cat). That's Jay, all right! It's soooooo cool. Elegant, even. I guess he just needed to make doubly sure we got the connection (although he is off by two days. On the other hand, I always had to fill out the medical forms for him, because he could never remember his birthdate. He always thought it was the third.)
Actually, I was a bit disturbed when she said "a red moon". My ancestors come from mining villages in the valleys of Wales, and blood on the moon was ominous - a sign of impending death, with very good reason. From working in the mines, a lot of people had lung problems. Homes were heated with wood or coal fires, and if there was a fog or atmospheric inversion, the air got very bad in the valleys, causing the moon to appear red. People died because they couldn't breathe when there was blood on the moon. So I was happy to see that the eclipsed moon tonight was not red, but a dusky tangerine, with a bright yellow edge on top.
[Later insert. Flash - late news is on TV - they are saying it was red. Maybe it was red everywhere else, but in MY front yard, it was dusky tangerine at full eclipse.]
During the eclipse, Orion, my constellation, was just rising above the trees below the moon, and the Pleiades, Jay's constellation, was between the two. The Pleiades are in mythology the daughters of Atlas, whom Zeus hid among the stars to save them from the pursuit of Orion. Later, when Orion was courting Diana, the sister of Apollo, Apollo tricked Diana into killing Orion with an arrow. In sadness, Diana placed Orion in the heavens. Tonight, Apollo (the sun), Diana (the moon), the Pleiades (Jay's stars) and Orion (mine) were all in accord.
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I made reservations today for that Hawaiian cruise in August of 2005. They had cabins with private balconies, or with ocean views, or interior cabins. I opted for a balcony cabin. Costs a bit more, but this way I can have a cigarette when I want without smoking in the room, which I prefer not to do. Also, the prices were based on double occupancy, but single occupancy wasn't double the price - so if they don't find me a roommate, it's not too terrible. I'm almost hoping now that they don't.
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I keep hearing and reading about all these, uh, controversial? political ads - but we never get to see any of them here, except little bits as part of newscasts, when they are especially nasty. It seems that the political campaigns don't bother to pay to show them in states that are considered foregone conclusions. I haven't seen a single complete presidential campaign ad. Not one. How dare they consider ME a lost cause? I'm insulted.
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At the tail end of a Mensa party a month or so ago, there were four of us left sitting in the dark on NJKC's porch - we three Musketeers, and a man (a lost hippie) that we have all known for 20 or more years. Someone mentioned a young woman who was a new transfer, who was a bit hard to take. I said that I was annoyed with her because she had a sweet husband whom she treated like dirt. Well, that opened a can of worms. I had not attended the regional gathering, so they told me about how she spent the RG weekend chasing after everything in pants. (Gossip! And I confess I listened!)
I don't remember exactly how the conversation went after that, but I was saying something about how it is possible to be at least discreet, and I gave an example. Now, you need to know that I have a spotless reputation in this group. Or had. I may have blown it that evening.
I told them about the time I was sitting at the lunch table in the main Company cafeteria one day, and I suddenly realized with horror that of the six men chatting happily at the table, I had slept with five of them! One of them was my ex-husband, so of course everyone assumed I had slept with him, but none of the five knew anything about any of the others. I sat there a little bit stunned, because not only did they not know each other well, worked in three different buildings (with their own cafeterias), and had never lunched together before, they represented the sum total of my local Company-connected sexual experience. All at one table, all at once, entirely by chance, and all completely unaware. It was a very strange (and I must confess, powerful) feeling.
I didn't realize what I had said until the silence after I stopped speaking stretched out much tooooooo loooooong. I could almost hear the gears in the other three minds clanking to reevaluate my reputation, and in one of the minds, casting for missed signals and opportunities. Oops.
To explain: #1 had been in 1968, before I married the ex-husband. #2 was the ex-husband, whom I married in 1970. #3 was in about 1982, when #3 and I were friends, we each had no one else, so for a short while we had each other, until he decided he wanted more, and I decided I wanted less. #4 was a single incident in 1990, when I realized I was madly in love with Jay, so bad it was messing up my mind, but we hadn't been together yet and it didn't look like we ever would be, and after so many "dry" years I didn't know whether it was "A MAN" I wanted or Jay himself, so I had to check, and ... #5 was Jay, whom I married in January 1994, a few months after that lunch. Now it doesn't sound so bad, eh?
But so much for discretion. I think I blew it. (Is this an "exception that proves the rule"?)
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