I’ve started reading H.G. Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ again. I say again, but I really don’t remember reading it the first time – it was ages ago, part of Mom’s required reading list for my home-schooling curriculum. I read so many books that I don’t remember too many details from them. At least, though, I still remember the lessons and ‘morals of the story’, which is the important bit, right?
But anyway, I’ve been enjoying it thus far. Particularly a quote I just read earlier this evening, which I posted as tonight’s blog title because it seemed so fitting in regard to the events of this week. It was in a passage referring to the hero in ‘The Time Machine’, in which the narrator was explaining how the Time Traveller – as he is known – is a man who, despite his genius, is not always so easily trusted by others. Why? Because he’s too much of a genius, and makes everything look too easy. Surprisingly, that made sense to me, despite the fact that it’s past three in the morning, I didn’t get much sleep last night, and my sleeping pill kicked in too early.
Anyway. Why is it fitting? I’ve noticed lots of people I know make things look too easy. Take for instance good ole’ Doctor Dahl, my crazy Army accupuncturist. I saw Doctor Dahl on Wednesday for the first time in the past month or so. He’s just a little too cheerful and free with those needles of his, and yet he can dart them into just the right spot with seemingly little to no effort whatsoever. As always, however, he was certainly entertaining. As he was getting ready to start putting the needles in place, he told me that he was going to try out a few new nerve points to see if they’d help with my headaches. Most of these new points were in my knee, so I pulled up my hospital gown so he could start poking around for the sore nerves.
There was only one problem with this. You see, I’d been having a terrible time remembering when my appointment was exactly – I had lost the note he’d written with the appointment time. But what’s worse than that, I forgot to call his office to find out about the appointment time that I forgot. So I was doubly forgetful. To remedy this situation, I decided I needed to write myself a big note reminding me to call his office and leave it in a place where I wouldn’t forget it. I was hunting around my desk for a piece of paper the other night when I was struck by a revelation – the only time I ever wear shorts is when I sleep. I needed to remember to call in the morning, when I woke up. I needed to write a note in a location where I wouldn’t lose it. Where better than on my thigh? The odds of me losing my leg some time during the night were rather slim, so I wrote a gigantic note on my left leg, “CALL DOCTOR DAHL.”
Well. When I pulled up the hospital gown a bit, I’m afraid my temporary reminder tattoo was visible. He looked up at me right before he stuck the first needle in, smiled, and said, “I saw that!” Slightly embarassed, I explained why I’d written his name on my leg. But he simply laughed and said, “Don’t worry – I have a grocery list on my thigh at the moment.”
After he was finished messing with my legs, he turned to my head and told me that he had prepared a little surprise for me. Normally surprises that people set up for me don’t tend to involve 7 needles in the top of my head and a funny gadget that would be hooked up to them and send electric currents into my scalp. But Dr. Dahl is weird. Good, but weird. Sure enough, that’s what he did. It certainly wasn’t any fun and was rather painful. But thankfully, he was kind enough to distract me from the pain by telling me funny stories about his two daughters, aged 7 and 5. He said that on Tuesday night, his five-year-old crawled up into his lap, put her arms around his neck and said, “Daddy, I have a dream!” He said, “Oh really? Tell me about it.” “When I grow up,” she said, “I’m going to get married, and I will have children, and then… I will put them in daycare!”
He said he was completely puzzled – he hadn’t been expecting that to come out of her mouth. So he said he looked at her lovingly and said, “Now, honey, what did we talk about?” She sighed, “Fine. When I grow up, I’ll go to college, I’ll get married when I meet the right person, I can work for a while if I want to, and then I’ll have children. Is that what I’m supposed to say, Daddy?”
In other exciting news, Neil has been offered a job, possibly a second offer will be coming in this weekend as well. I think I failed to mention that we’ve been ruling the roost since Monday – my parents went off to San Francisco to visit my brother Tim, his wife, and their darling baby. I’ve been taking over the Mommy role, and I must say, I’ve been doing a pretty dang good job of it. I’ve done laundry, I’ve been managing the three boys under my care with great ease, we’ve all been doing our chores, and yet we still have loads of time to play. Earlier today, I took the boys to the new Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, then came home to watch ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, and capped the night off by going to Sweetwater for dinner. It’s been great fun! We haven’t even been slacking off or anything, I swear. Although, our sleep schedules are just a wee bit haywire at the moment. But oh well.
Okay, even though it’s late, I have a website to work on. I have so much more to tell, but alas, this blog entry has gotten horrendously long again. Sorry about that, but I feel all chatty, despite the overwhelming sleepiness. 🙂