Winter Is Coming

2010.11.19
Days Remaining: 191

1. My mom's birthday was this past Wednesday the 17th. Last week I couldn't mention these matters for reasons of secrecy. Now, however, I can post about all of this freely. My dad and sister, Selena, worked since July to organize a surprise party for my mom. My dad is not...adept...at keeping secrets, but he did this beautifully. Last Saturday I woke up at 430am and left New Aldwych at exactly 6am to drive to Delaware. There I met with my other sisters, my brother Decius and his wife and her parents (all friends of the family), and we drove together to the Wilmington-Western Railroad Station off of Kirkwood Highway. There we met with various other friends of the family. My mom had been invited to a train ride by my niece, Iunia, and so she thought it was going to be a nice afternoon with dad and my sister's family. When she arrived and we (all waiting in the caboose, which was reserved for the party) all yelled "Surprise," she was genuinely surprised. Even more enjoyable was that, due to the spatial layout of the caboose, she didn't see everyone at once, so she continued to be surprised for the next several minutes as she saw who was there. The train ride itself was lovely, and I enjoyed talking to my parents' friends and finally meeting Decius' in-laws, Lulula and Bubulus. After the train ride we returned to Selena's house, and then eventually went to my parents' favorite Italian restaurant in Wilmington, then returned to Selena's. I fell asleep during the hubbub, though I can't recall if it was between the train ride and dinner, or after dinner.

2. Sunday we went to breakfast and then hung out. My sister Agrippina brought her lovely dog, Lucy, to the house, and I got to hang out with her for a while. She's very charming and affectionate. Then I went to visit Iuno and Romulus (who is recovering from ankle surgery and is basically chair-bound for the next several weeks). Then back to Selena's house, where I had a very nice time talking with my those siblings and siblings-in-law present. We watched The Amazing Race together (it was striking how much of the watching was commenting on and critiquing the contestants), then eventually all went to bed. Monday morning we got up, Selena went to work, my mom came over and we all took Iunia to her kindergarten. Then I headed north, although I stopped at the local Jiffy Lube to get an oil change before actually getting on the road proper.

3. Some random observations from the weekend:
a. That day and start-time worked beautifully for getting to Delaware from New Aldwych. It took me almost exactly 4 hours, the travel time I've been saying for years is all the trip should take. In fact, I was tired and a little enervated when I actually got to Wilmington, so I stopped at a local Borders to stretch and walk around before going to Selena and Iunius' house. The trip back took much longer due to the fact that there was a lot of traffic, but thankfully no completely-motionless jams.
b. I have, for years, been buying toy animals whose purpose is to be played with by visiting nieces and nephews (when I was a kid I loved toy animals even before I loved Star Wars figures). Euander, especially, has developed a strong liking for toy animals. Though I have not lived in places where visiting is easy, the first time he came to visit I got the toy box out, and he made an animal parade all around the room, and for a couple of days after the visit was over I would find random animals throughout the apartment. I loved it; it's just what I wanted to happen. One of the big companies that produces these types of toys is Safarai, Ltd., and while I was in Delaware it occurred to me that their 2011 line might be advertised soon. So I got online and found a bunch of pictures of the various new animals (dinosaurs, dragons, mammals, etc.) and called him over. He was very excited, particularly by the three-headed fire-breathing dragon on the list. He asked about it several times, and Selena said that he had already asked Santa Claus for a fire-breathing dragon for Christmas this year. I was careful to point out that the pictures we saw wouldn't be available until after Christmas. Hopefully he'll remember.
c. Iuno and Romulus have two dogs, Kita and Libby. I'm allergic to Kita (though the severity of the allergies seems to fluctuate somewhat), and so when I visit them I have to avoid Kita, who is miserable being excluded from the room (though if she comes in and lays down far away from me it's usually okay - I feel very badly about all of this, she's a sweetheart, and my allergies are not her fault). I'm not allergic to Libby, however, and on Sunday afternoon/evening she came over and sat with me on the couch (sometimes next to me, sometimes on my lap). It was very, very soothing.

4. So, building off of those various observations, some general remarks. The new Safari, Ltd. figures are all pretty neat looking, from the dinosaurs to the modern mammals to the dragons. I have often observed, mostly when talking to Belisarius or Octavian or Iunius, that the animal toys nowadays are far superior (in terms of phyiological accuracy, detail, and variety) than those available when we were kids. This is also true of Star Wars figures, which are now much more detailed and more highly articulated (in terms of movement). I sometimes come across images (or even actual physical examples) of those figures, and I can't believe how much progress has been made.

5. For years I expected that, when the day came, I would be a cat owner. I loved dogs when I was a kid, and have had a fairly positive history with them, but my allergies were always a major conceptual barrier. But for several years now my allergies have either moderated (lessened) or modulated (no longer so consistent), and I've had good, directly-interactive, relationships with a series of other people's dogs, eventually culminating in my partial adoption of my ex-wife's dog, Herman. Belisarius has a lovely Basset Hound, Rosie, who will come and sit with me whenever I visit them, and Iuno/Romulus' dog Libby reminded me of her this weekend. My sister's dog, Lucy, is a total sweetheart, and my parents' neighbor's recently deceased (and greatly missed) dog, Chrissy, was also lovely. I miss Herman a great deal, and am still sorry that he and I got separated in the divorce. But in the long-run, some day, I think that I'll definitely be a dog owner again.

6. Update on the perpetual disaster that is the divorce process. I asked my ex-wife last week if the divorce papers had been served yet, as I hadn't heard from her about it, and she said no. The servicing-fee check I had sent, though, had been cashed. Then, I found the papers back in my mailbox, with a note saying "address not in our county." Back in September I had called the Tulsa Sheriff's Office to get the information I would need to send them the papers, and was informed that my ex-wife's address was in Wagoner County. So I called the Wagoner County Sheriff's office, the telephone representative of which confirmed that the address was in Wagoner. Thus began the ongoing back-and-forth of sending and returning papers. This time, it turns out that the address is in Tulsa County, but after speaking with Wagoner County Sheriff folks for about an hour on Wednesday, it became clear that they had no idea where exactly the county line was. In fact, even better, the Wagoner County Sheriff rep. with whom I spoke called around to other county's to see if they knew which county this address was in. There were multiple answers, but eventually we got consensus that it was in Tulsa. The downside is that, not counting Thanksgiving holiday, the Tulsa Sheriff's office has a 10-work days turn around time for processing papers. So the Wagoner County Sheriff's representative with whom I'd been speaking offered to take care of it, personally. I'm sending the papers back to the Wagoner County Sheriff, and they are going to call my ex-wife, who will have to drive (she agreed to this) a quarter mile into Wagoner County, where a Sheriff's Deputy will meet her and serve the papers. This should have been done and finished in October, mind you.

7. Classes are done for me until after Thanksgiving. When I planned this semester I had intended to attend the annual Society for Biblical Literature conference, which is always the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. However, as the semester progressed I decided to skip it this year due to time and money constraints, but I had already canceled classes for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so my students get a day off. I'll be heading to Delaware on Monday, where I'll stay through the following Sunday or Monday.

8. I just received my copy of Leslie Marmon Silko's Turquoise Ledge, and I'll be reading it over this weekend and into Delaware. I also heard an interview (on my still-beloved NPR - Republican criticisms be damned, and Juan Williams' dismissal being a real mistake on their part) with Salman Rushdie about his newest book, Luka and the Fire of Life, which is a sort of sequel to (or shares a world with) the wonderful Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It sound either banal or silly, but I love books. I love reading and I love stories. One of the least enjoyable parts of my current apartment is that, due to its very small size, there isn't actually a good place here to read (unless I'm reading from my desktop computer screen). Nonetheless, Silko is one of my favorite authors, and I've been waiting for the Turquoise Ledge for a month, so I'll make do.

9. And that's about it.