Dear Katie--April 9, 2005

Dear Katie, April 9, 2005

Hello, how are you? How’s “Ignoring Man” doing? (Not as good a nickname as “Mr. Cheese” but it’s all I’ve got today.) I’m doing good. There were so many different things that happened this week, so I’m going to give these to you with titles.

We Get To See a Movie For FREE
Christina was at a conference in Texas for work, so Nathan asked me if I wanted to go see “Sin City” with him. We meet at the theater and while we’re walking in, I decided that I’d better turn off my phone. I was looking down at my phone when they guy at the cash register said, “How can I hope you gentlemen?”

I look up. “Gentlemen?” I said. Then the poor kid just started apologizing profusely. He was so embarrassed. I told him, “It’s the height. It’s happened to me before.” He was just distraught. I finally reached over the counter and gave him a pat on the arm, “Really, it’s ok.”

Still he kept futzing, and he said, “I don’t know what to do.”

I said, “Free movie?”

And he said, “Ok, what do you want to see.” So, Nathan and I got to see the movie for free.

When we sat down in the theater, Nathan said, “you’re good to have around.”

Moral of the story: Good on the pocket book, Bad for the self-esteem.

Getting things for free continues:
After the movie, I went home to kill some time before the guys came over for board games. I decided that I’d fix our front door. The lock was falling apart bit by bit. I took the doorknob out and took a look at the locking mechanism. If metal could rot (well, faster than it does) than this piece was rotten. I locked the deadbolt and took the broken part to Best Buy. I go to the back of the store and find a worker guy. “Can I guy just this part of a doorknob?” I ask.

“Sure, what kind is it?” he said.

“A broken one.” I said and handed it to him. He looked at my key that opened it and he discovered what kind it was. Then he dug in a box behind the counter and handed me the right part.

“It’s a donated one, so it’s free.”

“It’s free?”

“Yep, so that saved you about seven bucks.”

Some things I wondered about while I was walking home today:
1. How hungry would I have to be to eat that shriveled apple core on the ground?
2. Why does that light post have an address?
a. Does it get pizzas delivered?
b. Does its Maker write it letters?
c. Is it dyslexic because there is a 20 and a 6 on it?
3. When will Ben get back? (I miss him!)
4. If your name were Gordon, why would you use the nickname “Gord”?
a. Why not “Don”?
b. Or every “Gorrey”?
5. How can I control my life, when I can’t even control my hair?

How’s the guy I fancy?
You asked me about that guy I fancied, or as you called him; “Mr. Cheese”. Well, Mr. Cheese is doing very well, enjoying a very happy, prosperous life...just without me in it. (Now the next step is to see if the palm reader was right: if number eight is the ever elusive Mr. Right.) Mr. Cheese and I had some communication problems...i.e. I’d ignore his hints even though I understood them (but if people don’t say things right out, then I’m not going to spend my time guessing and hoping that I got the correct signal), and he attached motives to everything I said and did. The problem there is that I just do a lot of things, I don’t think about why I’m doing it; there’s not always a hidden agenda. (Side note: It’s like Andi said, “If I had to think every time before I spoke, I’d never get to talk again!) Since we couldn’t communicate well it would’ve been a hell of a life!

You know, learning how someone shows love is an extremely important part of any relationship. For example, for me, spending time with me shows me love. It doesn’t have to cost money, it just has to be time together...even if it’s just getting groceries. Another way is if they show they were thinking of me when they didn’t have to. Like how Daniel sends me anything he finds with purple and yellow irises on them because he knows they’re my favorite. Not that he’s buying something for me, but because he knows I love irises and when he sees them, he thinks of me. Someone telling me that I’m beautiful and trying to touch me all of the time (note: the word is ALL, because I do enjoy it some times!) doesn’t really do it for me because I don’t want to be loved for my body. And the guy who shall remain nameless (like Voldemort) only thought people loved him if they spent great deals of money on him. (BTW, he’s not one of the seven the palm reader told me about. He didn’t break my heart–he broke everything else, but by that point there was no love in my heart for him to make me cry about.) So, learning how the person you love accepts love is an important part of being in any relationship. Luckily for me, my friends like Christina, Kylie and Amy are also “time-spenders” so we get along very well in the “do my friends love me” arena of life.



Learning from my Brother My brother, Albert, makes up songs from Hymns. Two of my favorites are:
Count your blessings, one, two, now I’m done.
Count your blessings...wait! What was number one?

And:
Let us oft speak kind words to each other,
For that f’in’ s.o.b. is your brother.

Well, I’ve proved myself as Al’s sister (and as an English major) because I was walking around singing:
Oh we are as the Lord’s dictionary...

Then I stopped and said right out loud, “What did I say?” and then started laughing! Although dictionaries are useful–and Christina knows the joy I experience while just browsing through for unknown words–I doubt that it would be a useful tool to Him.

Ben’s BACK!
Ben Stellmon got home last night! He came to the house and gave me a great big hug. The sad thing is that he’s going to be moving. It’s all so sad. Especially since Ben and I became Insta-friends–seriously, there was none of that getting to know each other stuff, we were just friends! Maybe I should adopt him.

Elizabeth applies for a job
Elizabeth was filling out a questionnaire for a job application for Hastings and it was asking her questions like “Do your moods change from minute to minute?” “Do you ignore people who annoy you?” and, “Do you ever fake being polite?” And she had to answer them according to what she thought the people wanted to hear, but it was hilariously funny to listen to her laugh while she tried to answer them. Especially since Happy Bunny is Elizabeth’s hero. The quote from Happy Bunny that best describes Elizabeth’s attitude is: You can help anyone turn a frown into a smile, just rip off their head and turn it upside down.

Then Elizabeth gave us all dinosaur names. She’s badassasaurus, I’m lameassasaurus, Lucia is narcoleptisaurus, Diana is schizasaurus, and Aubrey is midgetasaurus. She hasn’t thought of a name for Trish yet, but I think she should be the teranadon...because Elizabeth said, “Yep, I’m badassasaurus, I’d say, ‘Hey you, teranadon, what you lookin’ at!’.”


Jeff’s continued quest for cremation
Jeff Beck seems to be under the impression that if he loses a limb, he will save money on his cremation. He thought that if he lost his arm, then he could save some cash. The way I figure it is if he’s dead, he won’t care how much it costs anyway. At least as far as I know, our bills don’t follow us into the next world. Death doesn’t come along with a scythe and a forwarding address label for the Post Office. “Here, just fill this out, then we’ll be on our way.”

Big Brother Really is Watching!
I’ve set my phone to ring like a regular telephone whenever Albert calls me. But, when the phone rings at 7 am, it’s always a little off-putting. I was too late to answer it, but I got the message that Al had got my message. And I had no idea I’d called him. So, I called him back and I said, “I left you a message?”

“Yea, I could hear this back ground noise and then you talking.” He told me what I’d said and I realized that the message was a recording of Christina and I wandering around Walmart. Then Al said, “Yes, I guess it’s true, Big Brother really is watching!”

What Augustus is Learning
Kylie’s little boy, Ted, is the cutest. Ok, the story; Kylie’s mom has two horses, Snickers and Augustus. Last night Kylie said, “Hey, Ted. Tell Maaike what Augustus is doing.”

“He’s in class.” said Ted.

“Really? What’s he learning?”

“He’s learning to speak...English.” Ted answered.

I looked up at Kylie and smiled. She said, “Actually, he’s being broken.” We both started laughing. I love the way Ted looks at life.


Phone calls
I’m over in the lab, using the computer, when my phone rings. I look at it and it’s Elizabeth in the fish bowl of the lab. She called me to tell me there was an emergency in the lab and I needed to come back. I tell her I’ll be there in a few minutes. Then Aubrey calls me...from the fish bowl, she’s sitting right next to Elizabeth. She said that there really is an emergency and I need to come to the office. Since it is encased in glass, I can see that the only emergency is that they’re bored enough to keep calling me on my phone. So, just like Stephen Wright’s East German Shepard, I just ignored them and kept on typing. Soon my phone rings again. It’s Aubrey. There really was an emergency. Elizabeth had Aubrey’s letter opener and was being a menace. I went back to work.

Maaike Learns the Hard Way–Again.
I was on my lunch hour and walking furiously fast trying to get to the post office and back before Andi had to leave to go to class. In front of me, there was a girl walking with long brown hair and a yellow rain jacket on. She had such an aura of sadness about her that I decided that if she looked up I would smile and say “Hi.” We got closer and closer and I could feel her sadness, but she never looked up. When she got right by me, we just passed each other and I didn’t say a thing. But when she passed I felt her sadness just tug at my heart.

She was gone and I had the impression to turn around and talk to her. But then I thought, “What am I going to say? I don’t know her.” So, I just kept walking.

Well, I’ve regretted it ever since. She was so sad. I should have said something. If I’d said “Hi” it would have forced her to look up. What if no one around that day tried to make a difference in her life? When I got home I prayed for the opportunity to meet her again, or if I couldn’t have that chance, that just someone would listen better than I did.

I should have taken the time to do my best Irish accent and say to her, “God loves ya.” a la Monica on “Touched By An Angel”. I should have told her that God is aware of her and her sadness and that He loves her. Instead I hurried to the post office.

All I got was an advertisement for Jiffy Lube.

Promise me that no matter how much of a hurry you’re in from now on, that you’ll always stop to cheer up any stranger that passes by you. I promise to do the same and never let the opportunity pass me by ever again.

I love you!

Love,
Maaike