Two Short Lists

Three things which vex me:

People who come hover over me while I'm working on a project and ask what I'm doing. It's the hovering more than the asking that bugs me. Do I know you? Do you know for sure that I like you? If you are not sure, don't invade my personal space.

People who assume that because they are chronologically older than I am, their life experiences and wisdom are automatically superior to mine. I am bright and well-educated. I have lived in another country. I have coped with the death of a parent. I live with a chronic disease. In short, I have plenty of life experiences of my own. Take the time to get to know me, to find out about my life and what wisdom I have learned from it, before lecturing me on my many naivet�s.

People who start conversations by pointing at my calves and ankles and commenting on my terrible case of poison ivy. Aside from the fact that these comments are frequently posed in a condescending 'silly child, don't you know to stay away from three-leaved plants?' tone, I don't have poison ivy. I haven't had poison ivy in years. I do have psoriasis. It is an autoimmune disease. There are both genetic and stress triggers associated with it. It is not contagious. There is no cure. I prefer not to define myself in terms of it. Thank you for not bringing it up.

Three reasons why I love my Maman:

When I am sad, she can find a way to make me laugh.

When I am angry, she can find a way to calm me down.

When everything has hopped in a hell-bound handbasket, she can pull out just the thing to make the journey fun. Today, with the Viking laid off and the Toyota in the shop and the first of the month with the bills due just around the corner, she presented me with a pair of sterling silver tumblers -- meant to be part of my birthday present, she said, but she'd found them a while ago and had put them away and forgotten about them. A practical gift? Not in most definitions of sensible. But bourbon and Co-cola never tastes so good as it does drunk from a silver tumbler.

verso - recto