My two piece bathing suit came. I look good. So take that anyone who says chubby girls shouldn’t wear two pieces.

I bought a two piece bathing suit today that shows my stomach.

Is my stomach flat? No.

Is my stomach toned? No.

Have I magically gotten rid of my thigh cellulite? No.

Has my fat stopped jiggling a bit while I walk? No.

Fuck it. My whole life other people told me I’d look shitty in a bikini. You know what? I don’t fucking care what other people think anymore.

(source: Huffington post)

I am trying to grow more potatoes from a potato. I’m at the point where my potato plant is in the pot, with dirt, and green leaves growing up above the dirt. Watering it yesterday, I decided to smell it (don’t know why – just did). It smelled like a potato and I was all excited to tell Geoff, but then, I realised, what else should a potato plant smell like? Chocolate? Things that grow potatoes likely smell like potatoes.

So then I just felt dumb.

I volunteer with Tesfa’s Spark group. Last week we did the write a story where everyone in the group says a sentence and then moves on to the next person. If you’ve ever been to anything involving children (camp, school, etc.), you’ve likely played this game. I had a group of girls who love princesses. I mean, really LOVE princesses. Obviously, our story had to be about a princess wearing a big puffy pink dress.

Ugggggggghhhhhh.

Then there was a dragon and the princess was frightened.

Uggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.

Then the princess wanted the prince to come save her.

Ugggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Why does the princess need the prince? Can’t she do it herself? I asked.

There was a long pause as four little faces gave me a confused look.

She does have a sword hidden in her dress one of the little girls finally said.

The princess killed the dragon with the sword she had in her dress and saved herself I wrote.

Another long pause as four little faces gave me a confused look.

Then the fire department came one of the girls said.

Yeah! said another. They turned on the water and used the hose.

Our collaborative story degenerated a fair deal after that.

I don’t want to look at that. Let’s look at this instead:

Some number between one and five weeks ago (I have completely lost any ability to track time), I had to go to the pharmacy for a prescription. There are two dueling pharmacies in town, one across the road from the other. I go to the Guardian rather than Jean Coutu for prescriptions because I generally park on the Guardian’s side of the road.

But I also live in a town (really a province) with many senior citizens who have far more complicated drug regimes than I do, and so, depending on when one hits the Guardian, there may be a wait. So I grabbed my tiny kobo and shoved it in my tiny purse. The cover was in the bedroom and laziness prevented me from going up the four stairs and down the short hall and across the room, picking up the case, stuffing the kobo inside, and then reversing my steps back downstairs. So I didn’t. And I threw my keys in my purse too.

I did have to wait at the pharmacy. They have chairs, those cheap ones with the chrome frame and two vinyl, plasticky squares, one for the seat and one for the back. Where do chairs like that come from? I’ve never seen any for sale, yet these chairs seem to exist in every pharmacy waiting area, church basement, and legion hall in existence. Is there a warehouse of them that only businesses have access too?

I pulled out my kobo and my keys must have scratched the surface, down near the bottom, but not in the margins, still up enough to where words on the screen come up. Because there is a mark. I scratch it and lick my finger and rub it but it won’t come off. It’s under the screen, like some of the e-ink pouches burst.

Stupid kobo, I think. Not even a year old. Books don’t get ruined by being put in bags with keys.

But also my bag is too small for most books I read. So I wouldn’t have had anything to read but boxes of cough syrup if it weren’t for my kobo.

The mark is small, not even half a centimeter high, even thinner than it is tall. But if you look really hard, you can make out what it is.

A tiny giraffe.

The silhouette of a tiny giraffe.

I have the start of a safari on, literally, my kobo.

Tesfa has taken to writing us notes because she seems to think that having a paper trail of things we tell her will serve her well.

Text (translated to standard English): When can I have my dragon? I mean, what day? Write the day when my dragon is here.

So I told her Blunsday is the day of the week when she’ll get her dragon. She hasn’t sent me any notes since.

I’m pretty sure there’s a Dr Seuss story with a similar plot, but I think I’ll write Tesfa a story/poem about Blunsday and all the things she has to wait until Blunsday to get.

In the traditional Ethiopian calendar, New Year’s is in September. Perhaps there’s a bit of Abesha in my heart, because September always feels like New Year’s to me too. The school year starts, and with a child in school and married to an academic, the beginning of leaves falling always feels like a new chance. Contrast that with January. It’s still cold. We’re in the let-down after Christmas. How is that a good place to put the new year? Ethiopians have it right.

So, since this is my new year, I made my resolution. I am stepping back from social media. Sort of. In that I’ll still be there but not constantly. Checking my email/facebook/twitter every five minutes just to see nothing there, this is not good for mental health. So now I check in the morning and if I have something to say/post/write then I do again, but really, I’ve got very little to say/post/write.

So I won’t be around much online for the next little while. Probably good so I can read and review the sixteen books I have from netgalley.

Because of the abysmal science education in the lower grades here (Tesfa planted a seed. As far as I can tell, there has been no other mention of science her entire kindergarten year), we told Tesfa that she was going to start asking questions and we’d find the answers, roughly one question a day for the past few weeks, in the hopes of encouraging interest in the natural world, or at least trick her into developing an inquiring mind. The questions are so Tesfa – dinosaur questions and animal questions mainly. Here they are:

1. How many bones in a baby chicken?
2. How many eggs does a goldfish lay?
3. Why is a platypus a mammal that lays eggs?
4. Why do dragons fly?
5. Why does the earth spin round?
6. Which sea animals that lived with the dinosaurs are still alive today?
7. Why did the dinosaurs die before humans evolved?
8. Why do birds fly?
9. Why is seven called “seven”?
10. Why are owls active at night?
11. Where does the word “bleachers” come from?
12. Why are icicles shiny?
13. What is paper made out of?
14. Why do snakes slither?
15. Why is “is” a tricky word?
16. Are angelfishes vegetarian?
17. What type of jellyfish do angelfish eat?
18. Why do the numbers never stop?
19. How do spiders lay their eggs? Wouldn’t the eggs stick to their webs?
20. Are pigs vegetarian?
21. Are there stars bigger than the sun?
22. Why do fish swim?
23. How do walruses eat? Do their tusks get in the way?
24. Where does the word “antenna” come from?
25. Why is a giraffe’s neck so long?
26. How can owls turn their necks and heads all around?
27. Why do flowers grow?
28. Are monsters real?
29. What makes rocketships go fast?
30. Why don’t penguins fly?
31. Why can some squirrels fly?
32. Why can turtles swim but tortoises can’t?
33. Why does popcorn start out as a seed?
34. Why do volcanoes explode?
35. What is the fastest butterfly?
36. Why can you see your face in the mirror?
37. How do electric drills work?
38. What is wood made out of?
39. What bird is the strongest?
40. Why are cats soft?
41. Why are grown-up shows not like kids’ shows?
42. What are planets made out of?
43. Where does the word “chipmunk” come from?
44. Why do kangaroos hop?
45. Why is fire hot?
46. Why do horses eat oats?
47. What is the longest-necked dinosaur?
48. What do worms eat?
49. Why are non-fiction books real?
50. Why are bees small?
51. Why is Pluto not a planet?

I need that “The More You Know” ding to end this post.

I may have finally committed to our move to New Brunswick: I made a dental appointment with the dentist in town.

This is big news. I’ve had the same dentist (in Ottawa) since I was seven. I sort of just thought that every six months, I’d fly back to Ottawa and keep visiting him, the way I did through undergrad and graduate school and the Calgary wilderness years (that still feels very much like it didn’t actually happen). Then, when I was living in Ottawa again, it made sense. Now, when Tesfa hadn’t seen a dentist in eighteen months, it made less sense.

So now I have a dentist in town. I have committed to this little corner of New Brunswick. Off to try and commit to my stories to fix them up now.