1:23 a.m. - 2003-01-23
Change!
I had a brief dream about falcons and hawks the other night. They were circling overhead. I seemed to be the head falconer during the middle ages. I had a group of people standing about me in a broad meadow. I was teaching them how best to care for their birds; showing them how to remove or put on the hoods and jesses with the least disturbance to their hunters. Their horses were tethered in the trees some distance away. Some of the men were very arrogant. Being accomplished horsemen, they thought that dealing with birds would be child's play. They don't know raptors. The nobleman I work for wants to take his guests hunting, but I think also he has chosen this activity for political purposes too. He knows by watching each, while they learn a new skill, he will have their measure in any negotiations or any battle. He is a wise man.
It has extremely cold the past few days and I have been out and about in it. On Monday, I walked to the grocery store. There had been a big fire in the clothing store - the Saan - in the mall the day before. The building was obviously badly damaged and it is being said that most of the stock is ruined. It's my favorite store for me and my guys. Same fabric, construction, and quality as downtown, but a quarter of the price. It also carries labels for women not found in the core, sort of a western/asian synthesis of styling. I like the clothes - they are feminine with plain classic cuts both affordable and comfortable. The fire department is investigating it as an arson. There have been a number of similar fires lately, but they have been in unoccupied buildings. Two people were injured in this one. Kind of a disturbing trip.
Walking outside - properly dressed - was comfortable on Monday but not today. Even though the thermometer read about the same, with the wind chill factor today it was deemed to be the equivalent of -35 C at times - exposed flesh freezes in minutes. Even the teenagers had all their winter gear on and fastened. You know it's cold when they don't care about how they look. I was going downtown to see my chiropractor - all the coughing last week really messed me up and it felt like I had jammed up my collarbone (clavicle) somehow. I haven't had to dress in so many layers for quite a while and I've lost the knack of a quick change. It took me about an hour to pull everything on and into place. Between the thick, heavy tights plus socks, two layers of mittens, neck scarf and dickie, extra camisole - purple if you please - in addition to regular clothing I probably looked like an ebony version of frosty the snowman, but at least I didn't freeze. Why dark clothes? It's easier to be seen in a "white out".
When my guys were small I could change and be ready to go in any type of circumstance in a couple of minutes. Part of it was self defense, in that keeping all six boys corralled together and presentable for longer than five minutes was a major challenge, unless we were walking out the door within that time. Part of it was self preservation. If I wanted to be certain that there were no grape juice or spaghetti stains - yes even in the morning - on my outfit I would literally have the wash cloth, or ten, by the front door, swipe all my guys' hands and faces, then pull my dress on just before opening the door to go out.
One day I even managed to impress the other Moms I was scheduled to work with all day and they were all "professional guerilla manoeuvers" organizers too. I had volunteered to participate in or assist with three very different type of events that had all been scheduled independently of each other by the organizers. It wasn't until the week of that I realized that they were ALL on the same day and all across town from each other with about an hour and a half for travel and preparation time in between.
First event: We went on an all day wilderness field trip with the grade three classes. Purpose - to study insect populations in different microclimates within a one mile radius. Of course, the heavens opened and it poured all day - even the bugs had enough sense to stay inside. But good mommy volunteers that we were, we gamely trotted our charges around to the different study areas on our maps and went through the exercises listed. I'm not certain if it demonstrates that you love your child very much or that you're crazy, but one of the tasks was to find an ant hill and "poot" (the park warden's term)up ants to study. Looked an awful lot like we were sucking them out of their hill with straws to me, but of course I am not a certified biologist so what would I know. Anyway, the field trip ended at 2:30 pm so the kids could be back at school for their regular hometime.
Another Mom had brought her car as our designated "emergency vehicle" - I guess in case any of us inhaled too many ants at once or fell in the creek during one of the other exercises where we were instructed to hang off the bridge with our ten or so charges and scoop up water insects with our home made "collection vessels" that looked very much like cut up milk cartons. She managed to drive crosstown in early rush hour in 45 minutes - those policemen's wives know the best short cuts. I ran in the house, tore off my sodden jeans and sweatshirt, jumped into the shower so I could repair the damage to my hair - blow dried later in the car, pulled on my classic black dress and pumps, added mascara (the mask? - there was a purpose) and was back in her car in under 10 minutes. She drove me to the train station and I was on the train and arriving at the far end of downtown by 3:55 PM.
Event two: I had asked to be a citizen presenter during the debate the was raging Canada-wide on federal constitutional reform, and it just happened that the all party committee carrying out the public hearings on the matter were only going to be in town that one day. I was the first up, so I pulled the sodden wad of notes I had made, in between poots, out of my coat pocket sat down and said my piece. Speaking in public usually scares the begeebers out of me, but I was still trying to get that last ant out of my teeth, so I was too pre-occupied to care. Finished my presentation, answered a slew of questions from the panel, then hopped back on the train at 4:30 PM. One train, one bus later it was 5:15 when I walked in my door.
Marshalled my guys into their second change of clothes, threw on my third costume of the day, and then transformed myself into my evening persona by transforming the partial mask from event two into full psychedelic splendour for event three. La voila "Madame Seer". We arrived at the elementary school at 5:45. I helped my young men purchase their suppers - hot dogs, pop, and chips(only the healthiest of food for my babies) and their share of tickets for the evening.
Event three: Our elementary school's parent council ran a carnival every year, with a maze of games and prizes to raise funds for library books and sports equipment. I was the designated gypsy palm reader. Why? Because I loved telling the kids that they would become unbelievably happy, have the career they always dreamed of, and become rich and famous if only they stayed in school and got good marks - hey you get your propaganda in when you can. Besides that, we had tried someone else out the year before and she scared all the students, and their parents, silly with her dire predictions of their untimely and horrible demises - you save that for when they are teens. Read hands from 6:00 to 9 pm then worked the clean up crew with my guys until 10.
Last change? Crawled into my jammies after tucking some very wired young men - and their catches and treasures of the evening - into bed. Quick change artist extrodinaire then, dedicated Mom to solid Citizen to Mystic Maven to wife within the blink of an eye. Now it takes me an hour to do one transformation. Oh well.
�
�
