This is one of our deer friends. This fellow came for dinner in the back yard and merely looked up when he heard the door open. Just after the pic was taken (hesitate to use the word "shot") he gave the deer equivilent of a shrug and resumed his meal. He and his family are clearly more interested in our foliage than us - much to the enduring detriment to our garden. Another planting season is coming, though, and he'd better be ready for a much more aggressive game on my part than last year. I will have vegetables, damn it. I will.


I had two amusing interactions today with adults younger than myself. I find myself in an interesting position these days having recently turned 35 and coming to understand that while am not "old" I am really no longer a "young woman," either. My young cousins see me as impossibly grown up what with having a mortgage and all, while my older aunts and uncles don't quite understand how I came to have kid(s) of my own. Sort of between the kids table and the grown-ups table, you know?


Anyway, I went to buy a new CD-RW today at a well known national office supplies store. The young woman checking me out asked me when my due date was and, upon hearing that it's so close, was astonished that "they're making you go out and buy this stuff!" Who's making me go out? My boss, of course! I sort of giggled and responded that I am the boss and that I was just trying to make efficient use of the day. Her eyes got wide and she responded, "Cool! It would be great to be in charge of something for once." I told her that she could be, if she really wanted to and got lucky as well. She smiled as I left. Is it very egotistical for me to hope that I gave her something to think about?


The other episode followed shortly thereafter when I stopped by the bank to sign some papers. The young rep serving me looked to be about 24 or so - certainly not long out of college. As I was reading the fine print, the baby did an in utero gymnastics move. I scacely noticed but I looked up to ask a question and saw him regarding me with the same horror that one might reserve for, say, the first Alien movie. "What's the matter," I asked. "Your stomach! It moved!"


It only took me a minute to reassure him that it's all perfectly normal and, actually, quite nice. Babies aren't static creatures - they move and squirm even before they're born, I told him. "Wow," he said, "I had no idea. It doesn't hurt?" I had to fight a kind of maternal instinct to invite him to put a hand on my belly to feel the next kick, as I do with my son. Luckily, common sense prevailed and I refrained.


I'd like to think that these exchanges will remain in the memories of those who participated with me. I recognize it's possible, though, that the universe arranged these for me as a reminder that my life - as mundane and workaday as it seems to me most of the time - is really quite good and full of mystery and surprise. I'd do well to remember that more often.