Unrelated Items

The topics I’m going to mention have nothing to do with each other, so don’t try to figure out the link between them. Think of them as unrelated jetsam floating around in my teeny brain (apparently, your brain shrinks while you’re pregnant).

1. This past summer, Nate and I were at a nearby gas station in the Casa Linda Plaza. We were getting gas or air for the tires, I don’t remember which. Nate was taking care of business and I think I was just standing outside, keeping him company and chatting. There was a long line of cars waiting for the light to change at Garland and Buckner. While all the cars were stopped, we noticed a woman get out of a truck. She began running through the traffic toward the gas station. She was wearing a pink tank top, black capris, and flip-flops. As she ran, her pants (they had an elastic waist) began to fall and I saw her thong. She hiked them back up. As she got closer, I could hear that she was making these funny hitching, hiccupping noises. At first I thought she was breathing funny from the heat and the running, then I thought she was laughing. Nate and I were both watching her and we both realized at roughly the same time that she was afraid. After she got to the gas station, she began to walk toward the store portion, but kept looking over her shoulder. She was still making those odd noises. What we concluded was that either she had a fight in the truck with the guy she’d been with, or he’d threatened her or something, and she took off running when she got the chance. We debated going to see if she was all right, but we the truck screeched away when the light changed, the woman was inside talking to the clerk, and she seemed OK. Just one of those odd big-city moments, I suppose. For some reason, that scene has stuck with me since then.

2. This morning, Nate was walking the dogs and I was drying off after my shower. I heard the phone ringing and picked up as the answering machine was beginning to record. (I know. How ’80s, an answering machine. Anyway …) It was one of our Visa cards, calling to confirm some recent transactions. Since we have been using that card primarily to buy our Xmas presents this year, (with the plan to send one big check to them at the end), I assumed it was our various charges they were checking on. Nate and I went to listen to the message again and it wasn’t there. Weird. Lost in the nether world of answering machines, I guess. But when Nate talked to the customer service person, he discovered that in addition to our gifts, someone tried to pay for two different hotel rooms (one in Florida) and charged a nice trip to Macy’s. We have no idea how they got the number, and when he asked the person what she thought, if it was possibly through some of the online purchases we’d made, she said they could have gotten it “one of a million ways.” Comforting.

3. Two of my friends gave birth to baby girls last week, one in Austin and one in Dallas. I’m having lunch with one of them today (the Dallas friend, obviously). Another of my friends is due in February in Chicago. The cool thing about all this is I am getting great tips and advice from all these ladies who have walked the gauntlet before me.

4. Some of Nate's photos. Included: his new Element, the wall he just finished, and our Xmas soap stocking stuffers.