A minor relief.

[ritaxis]

Remember how I had found two references to my personal storage space on google? They were on dead pages, but the display clearly showed the path to the file. I thought I had hit error messages when I asked google to remove them.

Today I received notification that they had been removed. Yay!


Marcelina's nothing like her mother.

Marcelina's mother is a tall, willowy blonde, and she likes salty foods and gets away with it. She's gregarious and efficient. She's warm. Marcelina is a little distant.

Her daughter is always undergoing tremendous changes. She's almost unrecognizable from one day to the next. She interacts, but never takes the initiative in social situations. Some people mistrust her for this.

Marcelina is contemplating having a child. She goes to her mother for advice. "What advice can I give you?" Marcelina's mother asks. "Everything is different now. Anything I said would probably be useless at best."

Marcelina says, "Mami, you know how you always say that? And every time, when it comes to the facts, you always do have something to say that makes it better."

"What could be better?" Marcelina's mother asks, patting the cushion next to her.

"Well, there's an example right there, inviting me to sit with to you on that couch. I would never think of that."

"So come sit next to me," Marcelina's mother says. And Marcelina does. This is a matter of some adjustment, as Marcelina is not designed for furniture.

"What kind of a child would you like to have?" Marcelina's mother asks.

"I don't know . . . one like me?" Marcelina says. "One I can play with."

"You know there are no guarantees," Marcelina's mother says. "You can plan all you want to, but you never know how it will come out."

"Yes, I know that," Marcelina says. "Like me. You didn't plan for me."

"Exactly. I had no idea you would be the way you are. I could never have imagined it."

"Are you disappointed?"

"Honestly, if you had told me beforehand that my child would be like you, I might have been. But I'm not. I couldn't possibly be prouder of you than I am."

"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No, absolutely not. Remember, Marcelina, you are the best thing that ever happened to me."

Marcelina's mother squints at her and asks, "Are you melancholy?"

Marcelina compares her emotion to what she knows of melancholy. "No," she says at last. "I am wistful, though."

Marcelina's mother knows why, but she asks anyway.

Marcelina demonstrates. "Look at me," she says. "There is nobody in the world like me."

"Oh, that, " Marcelina's mother says. "That's true for everybody. But somewhere, there's somebody who is made just to like you."

"That's not true," Marcelina says. "I'm the only one."

Now Marcelina's mother grins. "Did you know that tomorrow is the anniversary of your conception?"

"No, and why would that make a difference?"

"Come back tomorrow," Marcelina's mother says. "I have a project which will be finished then. But it's a surprise."

Marcelina shimmers all over. She knows what that has to mean.

But when she stops shimmering, she asks "Does this mean I should not have a child? I mean, if you're going to -- "

Marcelina's mother laughs. "Of course not, darling, there's always room for one more, and anyway, remember I said you never know exactly how it will turn out."






The thing about these is that while there's a story each day, it's not a finished piece, it's just a draft. I try to get them all to a conclusion, though.

On another front, I spent a couple hours calling for my man Bruce last night. Mostly nobody's home. Where do they go on Sunday evening? The restaurants are, by and large, closed, since the tourists have gone home.

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

There aren't enough people living there to keep the restaurants open?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

well, it's tourist economy, largely, so there are a lot more restaurants than the locals can support. So restaurants tend to close Sunday and Monday (sometimes other weekday nights, but in nthe middle of the week they're more likely to have "Locals Night" specials).

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Oh, we have year-round tourists, even in the snow. People like battlegrounds no matter the weather.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

We have year-round tourists too, but after Labor Day our tourists are usually weekend ones. An exception might be the giant wave surf contest at Mavericks, which can happen whenever the waves get big enough, some time in the winter.