abigail414's diaryland diary
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Random Questions and Observations
"A sobering thought: what if, at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?" - Jane Wagner
Why would anyone answer an e:mail from 'Spurious Woodcock' with the message title re:your medtcitations?
What is it about tin foil that evokes craziness? Like,�better get out your tin foil hats�. When my dad was really depressed, he had his own room with tin foil covered windows. Later, when he was over his depression, he told me �if you ever run across someone with tin foil on their windows, they need medication�. This week my car got a tin foil sunshade - does that mean I'm crazy? Or just living in the desert.
Why does the local grocery store have an entire shelf devoted to canning jars and supplies - it is over 100 degrees and no one grows anything around here - and they don't sell ice cube trays?
What if life is not a cosmic accident but the essential reality at the very heart of the elegant machinery of the universe? What if Darwin�s principle of natural selection was a tiny fractal embodiment of a universal life-giving principle that drives the evolution of stars, galaxies, and the cosmos itself? And, what if the big bang theory is just one fragment of a much larger universe in which big bangs go off all the time? - Ray Kurzweil
What are the characteristics of a dry drunk?
-Inability to admit mistakes or make amends
-Need to control events and people
-Intense fear of failure
-Sense of omnipotence
And who does the above remind you of? (Hint: this question was asked in an article about our president). Personally, it reminds me of my 2nd ex-husband. Except in our marriage he was initially a dry drunk, then a wet drunk, then an AA recovering drunk and he acted like this the whole time.
_______R-E-S-P-E-C-T____________________
Last week I heard an interview on the radio with Sigmund Freud�s granddaughter, who has spent a lot of her life debunking his theories (which she describes as having been developed based on his own personal opinion). She especially disagrees with his ideas about women and his belief that sex is the driving force behind everything. She said that sex was definitely not the female driving force, and that in general she thought that �respect� was more universal. For example, some cultures advocate suicide if respect is lost, take serious offense if respect is not given, and Aretha had a great song about it. Makes a lot more sense than Freud - I certainly didn't go to vet school for sex, nor move to Palm Springs for sex (even though it is a very sexy area). I remember a survey that showed veterinarians are among the top 4 respected professions, and yes, it feels good to be one. There are no surveys regarding which profession gets the most sex.
_______Should I Buy a House?___________
I am renting for the first time in 20 years, and like the idea of being able to move easily (there are vet jobs everywhere). However, I don�t like the idea of paying our government so much in taxes, nor do I like having no control over whether my bugs get exterminated, and living with tacky vertical blinds and a terrible dishwasher. This tax thing is especially hard to take because I haven�t made much money in 6 years due to school but had tax writeoffs, and now I have a decent income and no writeoffs. I did talk with a client who sets up corporations for tax purposes, so maybe I need to do something fancy like that.
The obvious solution is to buy a house. Yes, this area has a surreal beauty at times. The picture below (which doesn't do it justice) is sunrise from my back patio in the morning, when there was a gentle breeze from the east that can only be described as feeling like baby powder caressing the skin. I had a very visceral dream last year that felt similar and now, here I am, wondering if this is where I want to be.
The main drawback is that a huge consumptive lifestyle is the dominant culture(think fancy cars, big houses, designer clothes, plastic surgery, excess jewelry, everything outsized �southern california� and then some), and most of the decent-looking men under 60 are gay. Yes, the former makes it easy to make a living in my business, but the latter is hard on the psyche of a middle-aged newly-single woman.
Then I think � hmmn, perhaps I should look at where I would really like to live and just get a house there while renting here. I�ve known a couple people who did that, and they eventually moved where they wanted to be. That would mean Sonoma or Napa county, especially Sebastopol. It feels very much like home to me, and is so fertile and lush that you could just spit on the ground and re-grow yourself. Or maybe a summer residence there and winter residence here - one can dream.
_______Veterinary News____________________
I�m becoming the car euthanasia specialist. No, not euthanizing cars, but animals in cars because the owners want their pet�s last moments spent in a familiar environment. The most recent one was a paralyzed greyhound with three daddies, one who flew down from San Francisco to be present at the event. Alicia the dog was in the back of a Lexus SUV, and her daddies piled in around her. It went smoothly, considering I was in a parking lot in 100 degrees. Afterwards I looked at the three men � sobbing bald guys and their sweet dead dog � it was so incredibly intimate. Just amazing. I wanted a camera in my forehead to capture the moment. I wonder if people would like a polaroid with their animal before they are put down? I know, macabre.
Other less dire news. I treated an emmy-award winning actress� dog this week � knocked George out and removed a weed from his ear canal. Hopefully got it all, if not, I�ll be doing it again in a week or so. Her fianc�e, who brought George in, was very cute btw. And, a famous pop star�s dog continues to come in for arthritis treatment. Famous people and 'their people' are fairly common here. Fun in a shallow �People� magazine kind of way.
The exhausting case of the week was a cocker spaniel with pancreatitis and kidney failure that would not improve with five days of intensive care. The owner eventually agreed to an ultrasound, which showed it had pancreatic cancer (incurable - so is now dead). In the interim, there were multiple long discussions with the owner while her 1 � year old child screamed and threw crackers at me. I offered to put her daughter in a kennel so we could talk, but the owner thought I was joking.
_______Fun and Men________________________
Sunday afternoon was spent with Oola at El Paseo, an upscale shopping district in Palm Desert modeled after Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. We lunched en route, looked at things we couldn�t afford, I cancelled an order from a store, and obtained much-needed hair care products. We were in one store and I had to leave for fear of silicone poisoning � I think we had the only four �real� breasts in there. We ended the day with margaritas and pina coladas on the balcony of Tommy Bahama�s listening to steel drum music. Yep, doesn�t get much more California than that.
Oola has a plethora of men vying for her attention. During our afternoon she got three calls, one from her local bohemian boyfriend, one from her midwestern married wealthy boyfriend, and one from her estranged east coast psychiatrist husband. All friendly, all saying hi. Some would say 'tsk tsk' and others would say she has an 'embarrassment of riches'. She explains it as having been raised by a grandmother who loved men and knew how to handle them, so she does too. I think it may also have to do with her giggle and curvaceousness. Whatever it is, it may be contagious.
This week, a flirty male client sent me a metal horse sculpture after I worked on his cat - I suspect this was a courtship gesture, but will wait and see before drawing conclusions. And, last night, I struck up a conversation with the cop in line ahead of me at a Chinese takeout. It evolved into a discussion about german shepherds, of which we both love, and I couldn�t get him to stop talking to me (after I figured out he was a Georgia redneck, I really wanted to go).
_______I've Been Googled________________
Not to scare anybody, but I have a vague notion of who reads this journal. Your �url� is left behind � not your name or e:mail but some weird computer code that I'm not geek enough to understand. Some urls are regular so I assume it is someone I know, and some are strange and sporadic. On the strange ones, I can hit a �referrer� list and find out how they found me � and I�m having a few visitors from a google search for �angry veterinary client�, which was embedded in an earlier entry. So, if I say 'totally naked women�, will I join the thousands of entries on google? Let�s see.
11:53 a.m. - 2006-05-24
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