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Hoppy toad
Wednesday, 4:08 pm
By Kate
Aug
16
2006
Last night I sat in the country club parking lot again, waiting for the lad to get out of work. Just me and a little brown hoppy toad. I’d been sitting in the car for only a few minutes when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A little toad, about two inches long, hopped into the street lamp’s circle of light, right beside my car. I watched him for the longest time. He never moved. He sat absolutely motionless for a good fifteen minutes. I wondered what in the world he was doing.
And then...a tiny white moth landed on the pavement just a couple of inches in front of the hoppy toad’s mouth. I could instantly tell that he saw it. His entire body went rigid. Suddenly his back legs began quivering. Violently. Like a cat quivers before a pounce. He leaped and snapped the moth up. It was gone in a flash. The moth never saw it coming.
Hoppy toad went motionless again and stayed that way until the lad came out. I’d wondered what hoppy toad was doing and it was all explained in an instant. He was hunting. Somehow he’d discovered that the circle of light under the street lamp drew bugs. All he had to do was sit in it and wait.
Communal wallowing
Wednesday, 11:26 am
By Kate
Aug
16
2006
The lad’s best friend’s mother called me a little while ago. She’s having a cookout tonight to ‘celebrate’ her son’s departure for college tomorrow. He’s going to Colorado. He is the youngest of three so he is the last to leave home.
I asked her how she was doing and she burst into tears. And then I burst into tears. And we both blubbered together for several minutes. Well, that was refreshing. At least I know that I’m not the only one thinking the world is ending. She said she’s been trying to keep a stiff upper lip, but it’s no longer happening. She’s giving in to it and doesn’t care if everyone else thinks she’s crazy or if she drives everyone else crazy. She feels like the world just came to an end. It hit her broadside a couple of days ago and took her completely by surprise. Her baby is taking off for the ends of the earth and the minute he is out of her sight tomorrow, she’s going to lay down and simply die. No one ever told her that it would be like this. We need to write a survival manual for other unsuspecting mothers. That’s what she said.
Oddly, that makes me feel a whole lot better. Misery does like company and we’re going to sit there tonight with our tissue boxes and purge ourselves with syrupy reminiscing and lots and lots of tears. The guys can go do...whatever. We’re going to wallow with mawkish abandon together tonight.
What we want to know is if Dads suffer in silence or it’s really different for them. She said she asked her husband if he wasn’t the least upset and he said, “Not really. He’s just going to college. It’s not like we’ll never see him again. They always manage to find their way home and run up the electric bill.” To which she replied, “I think I hate you.”
You have to admit, it is kind of funny. Maybe it’s the Mars-Venus thing?
Second try
Wednesday, 12:44 am
By Kate
Aug
16
2006
Back to the doctor in the morning. The sinus infection has reasserted itself and I am in agony. This is absurb. I want powerful drugs this time. I want drugs powerful enough to knock out power plants. I’ll gladly live on yogurt for the next couple of weeks if it’ll help me get rid of this hideous pain. I am so sick of hurting. My right EYE is swollen tonight. OMG, I’m not happy.