Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Now that my test is over, I’m living the lush life.

Thanks, DefMo, for the technical skill and artistry.

I woke up thinking about that scene at the end of The Wizard of Oz when the Wizard finally “grants” powers to the three companions, particularly the part with the Scarecrow. He’s given a diploma, and he holds it to his temple, then says something that sounds smart, but kind of isn’t. From a pretty early age, I noticed that he got the Pythagorean Theorem wrong, because the squared hypotenuse is equal to the SQUARED sum of the opposite sides, not the “square root of any two sides”. And it pertains to RIGHT triangles, not isosceles triangles! Silly Scarecrow.

Let’s just hope my knowledge demonstration today is correct and not just correct-ish.

A few on the way out photos:

This time tomorrow, I will be done! Your thoughts: Put me in them! Cross various appendages.

I learned some new things about myself when my mom was visiting.

I started walking at 7 months. Apparently, the first time I cruised (you know, held on to a table to walk), I just kept going and didn’t fall down. And then that same month, I started climbing. My mom says that she found me in my room (right after I started walking), and I’d pulled out all of my dresser drawers to form a set of stairs and had climbed halfway up. She apparently came on this scene just as my weight was causing the dresser to tip.

Mom also said that she always knew I was into something when it got quiet. Apparently, even before I could speak, I babbled constantly, and if the babbling stopped, it usually meant I was climbing up something, like up on to the top of the fridge to the cookie jar, or out of my crib.

Naps were bad, too. She’d put me in my crib and leave. I’d climb right out, walk down the hall and say, “I’m done with my nap now.”

When I was really young, she’d try to get me to sleep, and I’d lie in my crib, kicking my feet and wiggling my arms. The only way she could get me to sleep at night was to swaddle me completely, so I couldn’t move. Then I’d fall right asleep.

I was always really fearless and independent and not too cuddly. My mom hated that last part! To this day, I’m only really cuddly with significant others.

Mom has said many times: “You know that book ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’? Well, I read that book, and you just weren’t what I was expecting! We had to learn to parent the child we had rather than follow the advice in those books.”

This thing happened yesterday that made me grin broadly. I mean, I’m a pretty happy person, so smiling isn’t a unique event, but I smiled so much that the hairs on my arms stood up. It yanked some little bit of nostalgia – for what, I don’t know.

I was at the gym, and I’d just spent about half an hour on the elliptical machine. I went into the room where they usually hold exercise classes. When it’s empty, it’s a great place to stretch. It has these gorgeous hardwood floors with tons of light streaming in.

I was over in the corner doing my little yoga stretches, and another woman (probably around 50ish) came in to stretch. After a few minutes, I noticed she was wearing character shoes (at least what the theatre/opera people call them). I asked her if she was going to be dancing. She said she was. We chatted a little more as we stretched.

A younger latino man came in, they chatted, and then the dancing lesson began (I offered to leave, but they said I was welcome to stay). It turned out that he was her dancing instructor. They had a brief discussion of what they would do in that lesson, and he said he really felt like she needed more waltz work. She agreed. He headed over to the stereo and cued up a song I know well. It’s in three. If you’d asked me to think of a perfect song for a waltz, I could have never come up with this, but something about it was just so joyful to me. I hadn’t heard the song in years.

I loitered, did more stretches than I had planned, did some ab exercises I hadn’t planned to do, just so I could stay through the song.

It was one of those little moments I would just hate to forget.