Totally No Recall

I experienced the Twilight Zone. Well, something that seemed equally sci-fi that I just couldn’t wrap my head around. Maybe it was because my mind just didn’t seem to be working. It was a bit frightening actually.

Imagine someone telling you that you did something or that something happened in your life for four days and you couldn’t recall it? Not one bit. It’s really quite freaky. Makes your brain hurt, literally, just trying to remember. Here’s how things went:

Little One and I got into the car to go somewhere (don’t ask me to remember that part either). As we sat in the driveway, I noticed a lot of what looked like critter hair between the front seats.

“That’s weird,” I said.

“What?” replied Little One.

“That looks like dog hair,” I said pointing.

“It is.”

“But, Five Eleven just vacuumed and detailed the car. It was spotless,” I said remembering that I knew she had definitely detailed my car. “When was a dog here?”

“Last week when you drove them to the beach to walk.”

“Who?”

“Jeep Girl and Delilah.”

“They were here?” I asked.

“Umm…for like four nights.”

“Oh.”

At first it felt like a practical joke. Like Little One was teasing with me. Then it momentarily got scary.

“Did I take pictures while they were here?”

“Yea, especially of Delilah’s butt when she was eating ice cream in the car.”

I don't know if I'd recommend eating ice cream like this unless you are a little doggie.

I looked at my phone. Sure enough, there were pictures of a dog’s bun-hole. Oh, and us getting ice cream. I can now totally hear Jeep Girl’s laugh in my head. We were laughing about something. Must have been about Delilah’s (aka the lesbian rat-terrier’s) bun-hole. But, we also laugh about a lot of things when we are together. I looked in my day planner. Days of their visit were marked by a long, continuous arrow.

How could I possibly have forgotten this face? 

Now, my not remembering this should not in any way make you think that Jeep Girl and Delilah are so snoozy that I’d forget about their visit. On the contrary, Jeep Girl is a great, interesting, adventurous, outdoorsy person with the absolute, best laugh. (So, if you are an available, cute, sporty girl in the Central Massachusetts area…she is also available).

Yep. Proof of the puppy on the beach.

It’s now taken me several weeks to piece together more of their visit. Things are coming back. Sometimes those memories are triggered by something that just gets me thinking. At least I can remember their visit perhaps until I stop thinking about it and trying to remember it. Then, it’ll be like much of my current life with post-concussive syndrome…having memory losses.

So, if you come to visit me, make sure that I take lots of pictures on my phone and maybe make me jot things down in my day planner. But, if you don’t come to visit me, please don’t mess with me and tell me that you did.

I so know that you’re thinking about doing that…

@Ybbeige

http://facebook.com/barbarabeige

A Chicky Beach Read

When Leg Hair Takes on a Life of its Own

There I was, sitting on a stool at a friend’s, chatting before our beach walk. First time wearing shorts for the year. Yea, it’s been darned cold in Maine.

I had brushed my hand against my leg when I felt a tickle. It felt like a hair. Funny thing was that I couldn’t brush it off. Then I noticed that there was another one. Couldn’t brush that one off either.

What?! Are those two hairs really attached to the back of my leg?!

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

How can they be there? And, how could they be that friggin’ long? I shave my legs! I shaved them all winter. And, I shaved them all spring, which it technically still is. I do have a girlfriend, you know.

So, I’m trying to be nonchalant and figure out how to deal with those ungodly stragglers while balancing on a bar stool.

Okay, this might be a slight exaggeration of how big those suckers were, but they felt this big.

Nodding pleasantly during the conversation. Not really paying attention, I’m transfixed. Tattooed on the thought of my new appendages. How noticeable are they? Are they dark and thick? Would my friend notice them on our walk? My shorts are on the longer side, but not long enough. Anyone walking in the vicinity would probably see them. I think that anyone using Google Earth at that moment would be able to see them on me.

Again…how did I miss shaving them? They are like their own entities. Do I say something because I must look so uncomfortable and distracted? Do I discuss my sudden desire to braid and bead my leg hair? Maybe turn them into a dreadlock? No, he’s a guy.

“Just let it go, B. Let it go,” I said to myself.

Then I twisted the hairs around my finger and pulled them out. Vowing to never, ever let it happen again.

Have you ever run into a similar situation? How did you handle it? Please share below!

@Ybbeige

http://facebook.com/barbarabeige

It’s a good chick beach read…

Cloudology. Say It Like You Have a Mouth Full of Marbles. It’s Funner That Way.

I often find myself saying, “Today I saw the most amazing sky.” That should denote the best of the best. Like I couldn’t see anything more beautiful. But, I swear I keep seeing an even more amazing sky day after day.



Cloud dove.

I have a fascination with the sky. With clouds in particular. I’m forever oohing and aahing at the sky or taking pictures if some formation catches my eye. Okay, that’s almost every day. To me, and to others (because I think I’ve heard it quoted this way), the sky is like a canvas. It’s a blank canvas that is forever changing…becoming a priceless piece of artwork that we can only fully take in with our eyes and our minds. And, even then, I don’t know how fully it is because there are times when I wish I could hold an image of it and put it into the core of my being forever.

Took this yesterday somewhere between MA and ME.



One of the things I love about the sky is when you add the rising or setting sun in it. With all the colors that are exuded then, mixed with the swaths of clouds, it’s almost more than one can take in at any one time. That must be where the term ‘breath-taking’ came from. My Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend has told me that one of the things she’ll miss when she dies are the sunrises. I’d have to agree with her and add the sunsets in there, too, because I tend to take as many evening walks on the beach as I can. Right now I live close to the ocean and life is too short not to enjoy the natural beauty around us.

  

Sometimes, the sky seems uniformly grey and without definition of clouds. I find that our moods are changed by what we find in the sky. How many people mope around on gloomy days? Lots. When the sky is all grey, we should try not to get down. Instead, we should look at it as a canvas covered with tinted gesso readying itself for another glorious day.

Cameras can capture pieces of the sky and help us to remember the beauty of the clouds and colors before us. But unless you can photograph it 360 degrees around you, it’s hard to see exactly what you can take in like you can with the human eye.

I was joking with my oldest one day about how I thought that I should be a cloudologist. One who studies clouds. I’m sure technically that would really fit under the heading of meteorologist, but cloudologist doesn’t cover all of the weather and it is so much more fun to say. Especially if you say it like Bill Murray’s character, Carl Spackler, in Caddyshack would. (Now, you want to go watch that movie again don’t you? It’s a classic. Trust me.)

Now, if I was really a cloudologist, I’d have to know the names of the clouds. I do have vague recollections in my head of words like cirrus and cumulus and cumulonimbus. I’m sure I could and should go brush up on the names of the many types that I think I once knew. And, with the internet, that’s even easier to do these days. I guess, though, that I’d put myself in the artist-cloudologist category. I appreciate the beauty of the clouds in the sky without having to define them.

I see them and enjoy them. I’m in awe of their beauty. I think of ways I can capture their images. And, when I do, what can I do with them? I don’t need to use my voice to label them; to know the individual names of what I see in the sky. I would use my voice, though, just to say ‘cloudology.’ Because it’s wicked fun to say. Especially like Carl.

http://www.barbarabeige.com/

@Ybbeige
http://facebook.com/barbarabeige