Unbagging the Cats 1

Unbagging the Cats 1

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Beside Myself

It is with heavy heart that I report the sullying of one of my Mother's Day gifts. This is why Val can't have nice things.

Genius gave me a little spiral notebook, 5" x 7", turquoise in color, with some fancy-schmancy modern-art-looking oval trees on the cover. And a label which I find questionable in his choice of gift for his tender, loving mother. Sasquatch: leave nothing but tracks. Like the top one in this picture I found by Googling.



Normally, I'm a saver. I keep things until I'm good and ready to use them. Just knowing that I have them is a comfort. It's like a gift all over again when I put them to use. Unfortunately, this tactic sometimes backfires.

Way back in the Middle Ages when Val was knee-high to a grasshopper, she was a member of her high school team that won 2nd Place in the Missouri State Volleyball Tournament. That was a big deal. Bigger, even, to most people, than Val's major accomplishment of attaining valedictorian status. A part of Val's uniform was a pair of knee-high tube socks with alternating bands of red and blue, the school colors. Each player had two pairs of such socks. Val chose to wear only one pair throughout the season. She was not one of those freaky people who never washed her socks and attributed victories to the funk. No, Val was saving her other pair. For her glory days. A reminder of the good feeling of that season of her life.

Imagine Val's disappointment when she took out her brand-new old team tube socks several years later, and found that the elastic had aged, and her socks were as floppy as those of Pistol Pete Maravich.

Recalling my troubling tube-sock faux pas, I grabbed my notebook this morning as I headed off to school. It's the last week, you know. I had some free time today between finals and incentive day. I filled four pages of my new notebook. It felt right. I love notebooks. This one even has a little pocket on the inside of the front cover. And it has double-wire spirals!

Tonight, I laid it on my butcher-block-pattern countertop corner desk, and commenced to typin'. I even put the lights on! And a few minutes ago, I took a brief break, and picked up my new notebook for admiration purposes.

THE BACK WAS SOAKING WET!

It seems that my water cup had burped up a bubble as I poured a new cup of ice into it. And my notebook got scooted onto the puddle. Now he is warped, my turquoise Sasquatch! The last three of his eighty pages are damp. I'm hoping that he can recover.

Lucky I have three more of various designs.

5 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

The "Sasquatch" bit...Is that because of your freakish hairiness, your elusiveness or your gigantic feet?

stephen Hayes said...

Bummer. Too bad this happened to your gift.

Linda O'Connell said...

Aww shucks, just give Sasquatch a blow... er..hair dryer job. My son gave me a beautiful journal which I have never used. Saving it for the write time.

Leenie said...

The water bottle was so excited to see your new notebook that she wet her pants! Hopefully the notebook won't glue his pages together over this faux pas.

Val said...

Sioux,
I'll never tell!

All right. We know THAT's never gonna happen. I confess. It's my elusiveness. But I must share with you that today I saw a woman with the world's longest big toe. I think there's a story there. Though I'm not quite sure which Chicken Soup book it would fit into.

*************
Stephen,
Don't you worry your pretty little head about it--I have three more. And one is a DREAMSICLE instead of a SASQUATCH.

*************
Linda,
I won't be messin' with Sasquatch. Now I feel greedy for using my new notebook so soon.

*************
Leenie,
Dang! My inanimate companions lead quite a risque life.