I love these four little words in this obituary in today’s N&O:
| DOROTHY HELEN ENBERG, 83, died Feb. 22, 2006. Services at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Garner, NC, Mar. 25, 2006 1:00 p.m. Attire: Colors, no black. |
“That is if you can call a color a tire.” [A deep thought from Brother-Boy.]
Class was interesting this afternoon. We started “Part III” of the class, which is called, “The Mobile Internet.” Parts I and II were, respectively: “Cyberspace and Computer Interfaces,” and “The Internet as a Social Environment: Space, Body, Identity.”
It’s absolutely amazing how behind the rest of the world, well mostly Japan, that the U.S. is in terms of cell phone usage — not so much in how much they are used, but in terms of for what they are used.
After class today, I met Kathryn (my CSI: Neighbor) at Arby’s where we had dinner before heading over to the annual homeowner’s meeting of the townhouse community in which we live.
At the meeting, I nominated Kathryn to fill a 1-year term vacancy on the board.
Normally, no one volunteers to be on the board, but tonight two other people nominated themselves to be on the board — Mitch and Nick.
Our present board consists of about eight people, only one of which is a woman. I took advantage of that fact to lobby for my candidate when they asked, “Any discussion before we vote?”
I raised my hand, and said, “Ms. Buck? I was just wondering if you’d give your perspective about gender diversity on the board — its importance.” I thought I’d at least guilt all the women voters in the crowd to vote for my candidate.”
Of course, Ms. Buck gave the perfect answer, followed by the politically correct one: “Well, of course, I’d love to see another woman on the board,” and then after a few minutes, “And it’s not just women, we’d value all kinds of diversity on the board, the more diverse, the better.”
I resisted retorting, “How ’bout having a big ole homo on the board? Would you value that, too?” A homo homeowner as it were, or homowner, for short.
Nick ended up “winning,” and he’s the one I would have voted for had Kathryn not wanted the slot. He lives in “the other section” of our townhouse community, and no one currently on the board lives in that section, so he’ll be good representation for them.
Mitch was a beautiful man, but I went with my gut feel that that wasn’t a good reason to elect someone to the board.
During the Owner Forum agenda item, the discussion was, of course, around the renters in our community — the trash and the parties, mostly. Oh yeah, and the huge skateboard ramp recently erected over in Nick’s section. Welcome to the board, Nick.
Ms. Buck and my CSI: Neighbor, Kathryn, could have been twins separated at birth.
The girl sitting to the right of me mentioned her address and Kathryn said, “Oh you’re the one with the Xterra.”
Not long after that, Ms. Buck is relating a story about one of the residents who, because of how big his truck is and the angle in which he has to park, drives over the lawn every morning pulling out.
“Yes, he’s out there every morning precisely between 6:30 and 6:45. First he backs up… then he…” She knew his routine to the minute.
Kathryn and I were just listening with our mouths open, and when she was done with the blow-by-blow, Kathryn squeals to me, “I like her!”
I generally despise those annual meetings, but tonight it was fun with Kathryn. Yay!
Dancing was fairly festive tonight for a change.
There was a new couple there, and after the lesson, and seeing them sort of practicing the two-step together, I walked over and introduced myself to them: Sean (Shawn?) and Todd. Sean is fairly new to the area, and Todd has been here for eight years.
I assured them that we’re a nice bunch of guys even though we all stand over there by the pool table and no one else had come to introduce themselves to them. “I have to stay in front of the fan all night, myself,” I said.
I also encouraged them to two-step if they knew how, explaining that we normally do do some two-stepping between line dances, but the people who knew how to “follow” weren’t there tonight. There had actually been no two-step dancing up until that point, and that didn’t change the rest of the night.
Before they left, they came over and thanked me for introducing myself to them, and I told them I hoped they’d come back next week.
About ten minutes after that, I went to the bar to get a drink, and a nice, older guy sitting there, who I didn’t know, said, “That was real nice of you to introduce yourself to those guys — real southern hospitality.”
“Thanks,” I said, “And I’m from up north, originally, anyway.”
I left at about 11:40, just when Alan and Joey left. I checked with Adam to make sure he and Van didn’t need a ride home.
His answer was, “No, we have our car tonight.” I’m not so sure that was the answer to the question I was asking, but I left it alone.