Saturday, September 4, 2010

Love languages

It smelled like fall tonight--like woodsmoke, but more than that. The air is beginning to change. The leaves are beginning to dry.

Today I had lunch and coffee with a friend from high school, Andrew. It was nice. It was sort of an island of sanity or a breath of air in the midst of a day of drowning. I was a bit of a wreck in the morning, and I was a lot of a wreck in the afternoon over David. Of course. I felt like I was falling asleep after I came home and I went to bed, but just lay awake and stared, or daydreamed, or cried. When my mom came home she found me dozing on he sofa, and put on The Secret Garden and made dinner, and we spent some time together before she had to go back out to work. Just as she left my dad came home, and he and I talked a while--first about the retreat, which led to David and thus was supremely unhelpful. I get so that, if I move, I will break things. So that I'm worried about holding glasses in my hands, because when I do I am overtaken with the almost irrepressible urge to smash them against the wall, floor, cabinet, or countertop. He saw me sitting very carefully still, arms crossed, and asked me what I was thinking about. That was: picking up the stool that was under my feet, and using it to destroy the room, beginning with Miley's dog cage. After that he changed the subject and asked me about the book he'd asked me to read, which led to a discussion of teaching methods and literature, which was wonderful. He and I haven't really talked in a long time.

I took Miley on a long walk and cleaned the kitchen up a little, and shortly thereafter my mother came home, and we set to work literally combing Miley for fleas with all of the old lice combs we could find. I don't even want to talk about how many there were--she was covered. She's picked up still more in the hour or so since we stopped. I gave her a flea bath two days ago!


So much quality time with my parents tonight was really nice. It's a rarity lately, and I've missed them. We may go to the farmer's market in the morning, but that isn't firmly decided yet. We'll see.

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you got to spend real time with your parents. Sometimes when you're around people or live with them, it's hard to remember that they're awesome people to hang out with too.

    Be careful about the flea treatments.. it might be a bit neurotic of me, but I've just been reading horror stories about certain brands of over the counter flea treatments. >< It can be really scary stuff.. I think "Sargent's" brand was one of those mentioned, I can't remember the rest.

    The smell of fall gives me goosebumps!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh gosh, about the flea treatments--we know. This is why Miley still has fleas: we are reluctant to coat her in some hormonally based poison that fucks up a lot more than just fleas. The flea bath I gave her was with handmade anti-bug soap I got from a booth at the Highland County Maple Festival, and we've just been combing her with lice combs, and putting the fleas in water that's got dish soap or maybe Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day soap in it. Don't you know us better than that? haha. Anyway yeah that stuff is terrible.

    You are so right about parents/roommates.

    I love it. So much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hahaha yeah I didnt *think* you were using one of the ones I read about, but still, i'm gunshy now and I hadnt had a chance to tell you about the story (it was really really sad, but 100% preventable to the point of negligence.. ugh).

    Apparently adding lavender to their bathwater or making a spray of boiled, steeped lemon water that you spray on them will also help prevent fleas.

    we use revolution on aiden and smithfield.. bad b/c of the chemicals, but it's a heck of a lot more regulated than the stuff people buy at the pet stores, =/.

    ReplyDelete