A stringent code of ethics

"Excuse me, miss, could you spare me a penny?"

I don't normally stop to give money to beggars on the street. Food, yes. Charity donations, yes. But not money. Don't ask me why, it's a warped principle thing.

But yesterday, I had a few coins jangling in my pocket, and I was feeling at one with the love of life, so before I knew it, I had stopped.

"Excuse me, miss, do you have a penny to spare?"

I fished in my pocket and pulled out a quarter. Usually, I quarters are sacrosanct. They are our means to do laundry. But yesterday, all rules were off. I proferred the quarter to the man sitting on the sidewalk, huddling inside a sleeping bag.

"Here you go!"
He looked at the coin. Turned it over. And then returned it.
"No, miss, I only need a penny."
I gawked. I gaped. I gasped. Essentially, I had no idea how to react.
"Erm, okay, let's see here..."
I fished in my pocket and pulled out the next coin my fingers grasped. Handed him the dime. "Will this do?"
"Only if you don't have a penny, ma'am. All I need is a penny. You see, I just need something to scratch this scratchcard with."
"Oh!" I fished about some more. Found a penny, handed it over.
"Thank you, ma'am. Now I can scratch this card and hopefully get some money."

I couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud. He did too, I guess we both saw the humour in it at the same time.
"Good luck, man!" I said, as I headed off. Sincerely wishing he did win the lottery.

Galapagos

How do you capture, in mere words, one of the last frontiers of life on Earth.

Suffice to say, it took the words clean out of our mouths.

A gratuitous compliment

Like I mentioned in my previous post, during my evening in Seattle with my Cos, I accompanied her to her weekly session where she volunteers as a mentor. My Cos' mentee is a young girl in sixth grade, and I took to her immediately.

"What's for homework today?" my Cos asked her.

"I have to draw a person and write a clue about them and you have to guess who I'm talking about," her mentee said.

"Okay go ahead."

The child had her head bent over her notebook for a few moments, assiduously drawing and describing her subject. "Okay ready!" she said and passed her notebook over to my Cos.

Here's what was on her notebook:

"I don't know her very well but she seems very nice and is very pretty"

My Cos pretended to scratch her head for a while and think about it. Finally she ventured a guess. "Erm, are you talking about Ficali here?"

Her mentee nodded, brimming over with pride at her drawing.

I glanced at the picture. "Hey, why are my arms and legs so skinny!" I said teasingly. But can you imagine how touched I felt?!

Later that evening when I called Delta, I relayed the incident to him. "Just remember, I'm very nice and very pretty," I mused, still thrilled to bits by the little girl's gesture.

A Quick Seattle Fyb-by

A summary of my last three weeks: went to Ecuador, the Galapagos, and Seattle.

Let's start with Seattle, while we're still trying to filter our 500+ Ecuador pictures down to a socially acceptable handful.

The day after we arrived back in the big apple from Ecuador, I had to fly out to Seattle on business. As you can imagine, this brought on quite a mood of disgruntlement. Another long flight? And that too for work?

But then I got onto the flight and realised they had DirectTV on the plane, so it afforded me the opportunity to whip out my new noice cancellation headphones and watch six hours of Law and Order episodes back to back, undisturbed. It's amazing (albeit appalling) what that can do to lift the mood.

Something about Seattle that I find remark-worthy: no one jay walks! I'd be standing there at a perfectly empty intersection, and the pedestrians around me would all wait patiently for the lights to change. Because you can get ticketed for jay walking. So there I would be at the intersection, standing behind a bunch of Seattle-ians, hopping from one foot to another in my impatience to elbow everyone out the way and just crossed the darned empty road in front of us. Wasting - well, seconds (!!) - of our lives. Tsk tsk.

I was just about to proceed to my next sociological observation about the Seattle peoples, when my Cos dropped by to pick me up. I was going to spend the evening with the Cos and her family before catching the red-eye back to New York. We exchanged long, fond hugs when we saw each other, and suddenly I realised all over again how lucky I was that my work kept allowing me to go to Seattle. We drove to her home so I could meet her Hubbie and their little animal farm.

I was just trying to give her hubby a hug, when I was accosted from all side by the exuberant 'children'. Ol' Macko (still my favourite, after all this time) gently sniffing me up and down with typical feline delicacy. Stella bouncing off the walls and off all of us, not knowing what was happening but choosing to be excited anyway. Leroy, new to my presence, skulking in the background and then every once in a while headbutting me for a renewed petting. It was like heaven!

An absolutely perfect evening - accompanying my Cos to her volunteering session as a mentor, and then really catching up with the two of them over dinner. Same Thai restaurant we always go to, of course. Why fix something that ain't broken?! Her hubby did suggest we go to a new one next time, just to shake things up a bit, but the more I think about it I find I might have to put my assertive foot down (I guess my Assertive Foot being the one I dont' Put in my Mouth all the time) and insist on tradition.

Such a perfect evening in fact, that on the way back, replete with happiness and emotional satisfaction, I couldn't even stay awake to watch that Law and Order marathon I'd been looking forward to.

An active start to the year

Gosh, this 2008! It's been abuzz with activity already, and I can just barely keep up. How am I ever going to make it through the rest of the year!

We had barely recovered from the aftermath of New Year's Eve events when Ilajna announced that she and Benny would be holding a combined birthday party this weekend. And so it came to be, that with inevitable delirium and decorum, we headed out to Pescatore for dinner and then the nearby Manchester Pub "for fun and plenty of dancing!" (per the evite).

And today, despite my body rather hoping I'd do otherwise, I forced myself to a frenzied level of activity, what with all the chores that needed to get completed before we leave for the Galapagos. There were arms to be waxed, toenails to be painted, money to be withdrawn, scopolomine patches to be collected from the pharmacy - the list seemed dauntingly limitless at first, but I chipped away at it with admirable tenacity, until by the end of the day when Bobbis and I went to get dinner, everything was all but checked off.

Finally, I ended the evening with mending Delta's pants. Just as we had started packing our bags yesterday, Delta held out a pair of pants and shouted out in horror. "Look!! They have a hole in them!" I glanced up, and there it was, an unmistakable hole below his front pocket.
"What am I going to do?!" he implored in distressed alarm.
"Oh that's so easy to just sew up!"
"You know how to sew?!"
And that's how I ended up with the task of mending Delta's pants. I can't say it looks professional. Or stylish even. But hey, I'm guessing the penguins and sea lions won't be too perturbed.

Which brings us to where we are right now.
Two bags full of cameras, wetsuits, cargo pants, t-shirts, shorts and swimwear.
About to fly out to Ecuador tomorrow.
Ready to embark on one of the biggest adventures of our lives.

The ticking clock

The new year is all about turning new corners and building new memories. Right? All about cleaning the slate and starting afresh. The beauty of new resolutions and promising beginnings.

The situation has all the poignancy of life itself. Now all it needs is a moment of drunken revelry with which to embrace it.

So Delta and I were much relieved when Kate and Gus decided to host New Year's at their place. A beautiful apartment just a stone's throw from home, a bottomless well of hors d'oeuvres and wine, a spectacular music mix, an evening with close friends, what better way to start yet another year.