Valentine for My Romany -

Well, I lied a little bit in yesterday's statistics - I did give myself a sick day from teaching at Sarah Lawrence this week. I hadn't heard back from the other instructors last night and I did take all my gear today just in case me not being there was going to cause a big problem, but as it was everybody was just fine with me taking the night off, and I did so with relief. I enjoy going up & teaching so much, but as I said in a comment on yesterday, pool nights are a guarantee that I'm going to work very hard, get very cold, eat very badly and get to bed very late. So I skipped that & am aiming for an early bedtime.

Before I turn in though I thought I'd just put up something over here that I did yesterday as a quick post for a Buzznet "assignment" - the guys who run that site have come up with a fun noncompetitive game where they'll throw out a theme & then see what folks come up with based on that theme. Yesterday being St. V's, the assignment was a simple "What do you love"? Me being me, and the assignment specifically allowing any variety of "love" you wanted to, I naturally couldn't resist the following paean to my own "perfect partner" (sure hope they can see the wink I just winked a-way over yonder there in Kuching) - and at some level, all the other boats that have been a part of my life, too, I guess. Had a little fun with this one, got a little mushy - hey, it was St. Valentine's Day, why not? Enough preamble though:

I Love My Kayak!

I think that to a person who loves boats, a boat, especially and particularly one's own boat, but also any boat with which one has gotten anything of a history, is more than just a boat.

It's all the places you've been in the boat, and all the places you dream of going in the boat -

It's all the things you've learned in the boat, and all the friends you've made because of the boat (er, and possibly some you've lost track of because of the boat, wince - love sometimes means taking the bad with the good, though, right?)

It's all the time you've spent fixing the boat, cleaning the boat, hauling the boat around, wishing you could be out in the boat instead of wherever you are, talking to your boaty friends about the boat, trying to explain to your nonboaty friends about the boat...I could go on all night.

Even the littlest boat has room in the hatches for a rich, rare cargo of memories and dreams - all that's needed is a person to put them there.

I know, I know, Jack Sparrow said it better with that business about
"...what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom.". Heck, if I had handsomely-paid professional screenwriters coming up with my dialogue I might be able to compete with that, but considering the only person writing for me is a sort of junior-level finance analyst who's had the flu for the last three days, my version's not TOO bad, is it?