Hits & Misses

When I was in the fourth grade, a lot of my clothes came from the Mustard Seed, a basement thrift shop in an Episcopal Church near my house. It was only open on Fridays and Saturdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I became a snob in the fifth grade, so I stopped shopping for clothes and became drawn to the books and the women's vintage clothing for potential Halloween costumes. My mom and I could walk there, and she would go looking for things she has always collected: china made in England, vases, creamers, and egg cups. Before we walked in the door she would sometimes say, "you know, this is either going to be a hit or miss." When we left: "well, that was a miss" or "that was a hit!"

Hits or misses can happen at thrift stores, sure. This past Friday reminded me that I can experience both at the same time, though not so much with second-hand things, but with people. I was listening to author Connie May Fowler speak last Friday, and she signed a couple of books for me. I was so full of glee when she mentioned she is in contact with author Dorothy Allison (a favorite of mine) during her talk that I couldn't think of anything else all day. But when I got back to work, as this was a "professional" outing, I learned that my favorite displaced Hurricane Katrina student - who since moved back to New Orleans - was in town for the weekend and came in to visit me. Blast! Dual hit and miss.

Another simultaneous hit and miss: I used to tutor adults in GED areas and ESOL. An ESOL student invited me to meet her Buddhist monk and have lunch with him and others. I gladly obliged. When I returned from that fun afternoon, I learned that a past student of mine who had taken the GED had passed the test and came to give me the good news in person, but I wasn't there to learn of it. This was a student who was handed off to me with these words: "she'd like to think she could get her GED, but we won't tell her otherwise." Blast! Another dual hit and miss.

That was all going through my head on Friday. The weekend had me in West Palm Beach - it was 47 degrees on Saturday night! Brrrr. The weather was perfect - I played with a '79 Pentax manual SLR/35 mm camera, but it goes without saying: I'm not very good at "manual" things. It is affirmative: I am a Nikon snob and I'm glad Steve is mechanical. He wrote the book on mechanical. There was a fair/carnival going on in the parking lot at a Baptist church down the street from his house. I'm sharing one picture taken from his car, with my digital camera, as evidence that Catholics are cheapos - we never had carnivals like this when I was growing up - we were lucky if the bean bags we were tossing in the cardboard Mr. Potato Head weren't leaking. Also, a picture of D. Sergei and I, cuddling:

Wait! Blogger is being a jerk! I can't upload my pictures...I've been trying for a few hours!