Sunday, December 3, 2006
On most Sundays, Yuoo visits a home for the elderly and plays music. Today, he played Christmas music.
Yuoo told me that he has discovered something about himself. He has a problem of taking it too personally when someone has a different opinion than his own. Yuoo spoke with Abbot Rains today, and the tall badger told him, "I see this as a recurring theme in your life, Yuoo. You see conflict as a threat to you, perhaps because you fear that they might be right and you might be wrong. In life you'll meet people with many different ideas. Some people's ideas are silly and unreasonable. Other people's ideas are more reasonable than your own because they might be more informed than you. However, you must learn to treat each person with dignity, entitling them to their own opinions."
Yuoo will be applying this to his life, but sometimes it isn't easy. At least now, he has more resolve to tackle this.
Yesterday, Yuoo bought some Christmas presents for his family, and he made a gift for his mother. He asked me to not yet tell you what it is, though.
Monday, December 4, 2006
Today, Yuoo's medicine arrived in the mail.
Yuoo went out with his friends to eat at a pizzaria called the Mellow Mushroom. The pizza was very tastey, and the restaurant was decorated with art from the 1960's, with pictures of musicians such as Jimmy Hamsterix, Bob Marlin, McJagguar, and the Grateful Possums. It was very groovy!
Wednesday, December 6, 2006 -Today at the Etheratory (his workplace), Yuoo had his window cleaned. Yuoo has a nice view outside his window at work, but side windows rarely get cleaned, so there are always spots in the way. (The view is still nice though, especially the sunsets.) Well, at lunchtime Yuoo met a group from Rocky's Window-Cleaning, scrubbing the front glass wall of the Etheratory. He spoke with them for a few minutes, and they were nice enough clean the window in front of Yuoo's office.
Christmas is coming. There is a Christmas tree in the lobby of the Etheratory, and it's decorated with traditional and not-so-traditional ornaments. For instance, there are unpowered Levitation Runes hanging on the branches! (A Levitation Rune is a large copper disk with a precise pattern of holes, notches, and channels cut into it.) Yuoo is looking forward to seeing his family in a few weeks.
Yuoo went to Mortar Abbey this evening to eat, study, and meditate with his friends there. Yuoo usually doesn't go on Wednesday nights because he doesn't care for the noise and excitement. The mealtime and the study were so-so. However, the meditation made him feel really good!
Right now, Yuoo is inhaling mint-flavored steam as a treatement for his sinuses.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 -For the past few week's, Yuoo's workplace has been collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program, which is hosted by the Otter Corp. The donations have been piling up steadily, and today a group of soldiers from the Otter Corp arrived in a bus and collected the toys. This is sure to bring some joy to many cubs, kits, welps, fledglings, and pups this Christmas.
Also, yesterday Yuoo bought himself a new computer game called Oblivion. This is a medieval fantasy game that takes place in a world filled with imaginary creatures such as elves, orcs, and humans. ;-) One of the main voice actors in this game also played as "Captain Picard" on Star Trek.
Sunday, December 17, 2006 - On Thursday, there was a Christmas party at Yuoo's workplace. Yuoo ate lots of quiche, perhaps a little too much, because his stomach felt weird that day. He also received a "Think Safety" tee-shirt, a mug, and other "gifts" bearing corporate logos. (Hey, if it's functional, why not?) One of Yuoo's co-workers received a hat with the letters ISOF on front. The thing was, nobody could figure out what ISOF stands for, so they spent much of the afternoon making up silly acronyms for what sort of organization ISOF might be.
On Saturday, Yuoo went to the post office, trying to see how he could mail a package of orange drink-mix powder to soldiers overseas. This turned out to be a lot more complicated than it seems, and Yuoo wasn't successful. As he was driving home, he listened to the news on the radio, and they spoke of terrible tragedies happening in a place called Darfur. Yuoo felt very sad and prayed, "What can I do? What can we do? What can I do?"
Just as Yuoo finishing speaking the last "can I do," he immediately noticed a car directly ahead of him that was stalled in the middle of the road. There were two creatures there, a female harvest-mouse in the driver's seat and a male harvest-mouse behind the car, pushing it. Yuoo hit the brake and came to a quick stop. Yuoo drove his car to a nearby parking lot, and he got out to help push. [Note Yuoo's parents: as for safety, this took place around 10:00 AM near a fairly busy intersection.] Yuoo and the harvest-mouse started pushing the car slowly toward a gas station.
Someone in a truck saw them and decided to help too. He was a palominto horse wearing a John Deer hat. He parked his truck and walked up to the pair of pushers, asking, "How 'bout some three-horsepower?" The three of them pushed the car to the fueling station, and then the horse left them. The two harvest-mice looked like they were poor, so Yuoo offered to purchase a half-tank of fuel for them, which they gratefully accepted. In hindsight, Yuoo isn't quite sure if he should have done this. The female harvest-mouse had a pack of cigarettes, and Yuoo saw her buy a lottery ticket at the convenience store counter, so he knew they must have some amount of money. Still, it seemed like the generous, helpful thing to do. Yuoo does not know if this was an answer to his prayer, but perhaps it was.
Today, Yuoo went to the assisted-living home to play the piano. At this place, they have a housecat, a non-talking cat, that is. (Usually when I write these diary entries, all of the animals mentioned are really people. However, in this case the cat is just a regular cat.) As Yuoo was playing the piano, the housecat jumped up on the keyboard and started walking on the keys! It was a really funny duet!