Monday, July 30, 2007

Conversation

"I have a gnat problem." I began with the pest control people finally answered the phone.

"Oh, we don't have anything to treat for gnats. When we sprayed, it would have covered most bugs, but not gnats."

"Right. The gnats appeared after you sprayed."

"Oh, well, our spray wouldn't attracts gnats! It isn't our fault you have gnats."

"But the spiders all died."

"Right. The spiders die. That has nothing to do with gnats."

"Well, what if the spiders controlled the gnat population by catching them in webs? So once their natural predator was removed, I arrived in gnat hell!"

"Oh. Well, we can come spray again tomorrow."

"To kill more of the spiders that I need to catch the gnats?"

"Yes."

"No."

*****

Me to Mom (morning phone call): "Goodness, it's hot out."

Me to Colleague (walk to lunch across campus): "It's a long walk to be taking when it's so hot out."

Me to Friend (mid-day email): "Very hot."

Favorite of temperature exchanges?
Ken to Me (after I returned from lunch): "How are you?"
Me: "I'm hot."
Ken: "Darn right you are!"

I looked at him, confused, until he winked at me. Then I blushed and said, "awww..." Flustered, I fluttered my hands and said, "No. Well, I am, but not in that way. But you're sweet." I shrugged and sat down, flattered and not knowing what to do with myself. Ken grinned and shook his head at me.

*****

"Aunt Katie? Where are my Care Bears?"

"Which ones, sweetheart? I heard you couldn't find Birthday Bear. But Grandma and Grandpa got you a Cheer Bear."

"Birthday Bear disappeared!"

"He disappeared? Well, maybe he'll turn up later." I found myself smiling widely by this point. Little One's babble continued and I lost track of the conversation. I must not have been doing well with my part of the exchange because the next thing I understood was, "Love you. Bye."

"She was done talking with you." Mom explained when she picked up the phone.

"I figured."

*****

Bored last night, I copied and pasted my novel into a large Word file. Nearly 200 pages of 11 pt Arial text currently exist. From the very beginning though, there's a lot of descriptive paragraphs. So I'm deleting them and adding dialogue. Lots of conversation to illustrate feelings and points and important events.

There's little you can't explain in conversation, I'm finding. The trick, I think, is finding enough people that I like and trust enough to share my thoughts and secrets and stories. Until I do, we're likely to get back to lots of descriptive paragraphs here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh, i like the new header! also, i would be SO frustrated with those pest people. you would think they would know stuff about bugs and you know, natural predators.

also, i have a question!!! (it's late, sorry) what ever happened with the laser hair removal?

Anonymous said...

Argh. I guess that's the one good thing about renting...not dealing with people like bug people.

post-doc said...

Thanks! I like it too.

I'm still doing the laser hair removal - at least 2 appointments left. So the most recent appointment was the only time I've forgotten to take Advil beforehand. It matters - there was definitely more pain this last time. But they increase the power so try to get more aggressive. It is working, but slowly. So I'm not completely convinced I'll be completely hair-free. But I have hope.

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