Back after a break!

So by now you all know, the giraffe is still not a new mom.  I feel for her having once gone 2 weeks past my due date ~ yes, they use to let you do that ~ and then spent 10 days in the hospital for it.  (so you know, I actually started this post LAST week…a whole ‘nother week has passed without that dang giraffe baby)

The good news here is that it is Spring, really.  It says so on the calendar and everything.  My kitchen is about two thirds done with only the counter tops and a few screws that remain loose.  In the cabinets people…not in my head.

I love the cabinets.  And I love the new appliances.  I LOVE the crushed ice that comes out with a press of the button.  It really takes very little to make me happy, I tell that to everyone.  I am about shopped out, although I am considering a new crockpot.  I have donated two boxes of kitchen and miscellaneous stuff to charity and have a third box collecting items that I know someone will need, just not me. I am somewhat appalled by my excess…I have a lot of stuff I don’t need.

That brings me to knowing what it is that I DO need.  I am discovering what I don’t need, and getting rid of it as I go.  But, the big question, at my age, is "what do I need?".  I sometimes wish I was 45 or 50 years old and I would quickly answer “hot tub”.  I wish I was 40 and I would answer “tummy tuck”.   Now, at 62, I just want my home finished and to be able to go out into the yard to do some landscaping.

I find I don’t really care about stuff like I use to.  Part of aging I guess.  Part of spending way too much money over the years on “stuff”.  Part of going through other people’s stuff and realizing they kept way too much.  I think we all get to this place, if we have someone that is going to be taking care of what we leave behind, that we are leaving way too much behind.  Cause you know, you can’t take it with you.

I have written before of my childhood and the lack of memorabilia from then…no ornaments, no school papers to speak of, no age-old dishes or furniture.  We just didn’t have the room in the little mobile home we were raised in.  I have an attic full of items, a basement with even more and all the knickknack things that must be out where I can see them, every day.  Since so many of my things have been packed up for lots and lots of days and weeks, I am finding I need a whole lot less of those things than I thought.  Look for me on “Offered Up” or “Let Go” … you might need my stuff. 

This year's blue dress white dress?

Okay, you giraffe you, you had me going.  I thought you were going to give birth three weeks ago because the experts told me that “while they couldn’t predict” the time, you would be going in to labor.  No doubt.

I feel a little duped.  I talked this over with a few people over the last few days and some also feel duped, and some not so much.  I mean, she is a pregnant giraffe, and she will give birth, but why the rush to view? It’s right here that the question hangs heavy. 

To raise awareness? To raise money? I’m a cynic in so many ways and to raise money hit me like a ton of bricks after the first night, when the camera feed mysteriously went down based on claims of inappropriate content for a matter of hours and reappeared “at the request of so many” of the viewers with a “donate now” button added.  Maybe like some of you, I became immediately suspect.  “That giraffe ain’t close to birthing no baby” was my initial thought, and told my husband there was something up and it wasn’t daisies.

  

Followed by sanctioned and licensed t-shirts, emoji apps, disclaimers and email flooding.  I became a bit angry, a little disappointed and a lot embarrassed that I watched that dang video for a couple hours the first night, and came THIS close to getting wrapped up in the hype.  I stopped watching and did a check-in every other day or so for the next week, did not watch at all week two and now, into week three, heading in to week four, I really don’t care so much.  I mean, I love giraffes, but, I don’t need to see it, you know?  No baby, but gee, here’s the cute zoo keeper with his daily check-in.  I was near outraged at his “Hey, people, there’s no predicting when this might happen but in the meantime, here is another way you can contribute”.  Now, to his credit, and he did claim to be totally transparent, it’s a for profit facility.  While he was hawking goods for the giraffe for the zoo he was also correcting information and educating us on n’ere-do-wells making a profit from unlicensed products.  He didn’t want us to be duped, after all, but make no mistake, the zoo operates to make money.

   

So, as we head in to week four, we now know that there were no signs on that first night (or the next twenty nights) that the giraffe was about to give birth – in fact, no signs at all, except what was shared with us about how big she is.  Well, yeah, she’s a giraffe, she’s HUGE generally.  The fact there are now features added to the live feed, such as the donate button or the opportunity to link to their store to purchase a licensed t-shirt, a REAL t-shirt mind you, or a coffee mug is certainly not a crime. 

I was miffed, I really was, for a hot second.  I didn’t like, as I never like, feeling manipulated.  When I tune in, and I admit, I do…there’s part of me that wants to see that baby giraffe poke it’s feet out…I watch without comments or goofy emoji faces floating by me which usually means going right to the zoo’s camera feed.  But, the other night I landed on the Facebook page instead, on one of the TV channels camera feed and got a bit caught up reading a couple of the comments.  A story from a nurse, working midnights, with a patient having trouble getting to sleep and how the giraffe story eased her anxiety.  The story of the man taking care of his dying mother, and how the giraffe gave them something to talk about, to distract his breaking heart.  The young mom, home from work with a sick baby…

I forgive you, zoo, for manipulating the facts a little bit, and for not being as transparent in the beginning as you should have been.  You knew that giraffe wasn’t ready to give birth…the whole ‘waxy nipple” alone tells us she wasn’t ready yet. However, people want to purchase t-shirts or pay for an emoji app or to donate directly because the story has brought us joy, distraction, commonality, but, most of all hope, for a brighter day.  

Reflections.

The mirror of my dreams has been in the Pottery Barn catalog for years.  I’m sure in their stores, too, but I don’t have one all that close so have not seen it in person.   I have wanted that mirror for so long.  However, the mirror is huge, as is much of their inventory. Big, gigantic…huge and way, way too big for my little home. 

I was thrilled a couple years ago when they released a smaller, half-size version of this mirror – only I had nowhere to put it.  But, I still dreamed of that mirror.  As soon as we started talking renovating the house, and adding a fireplace, I had a place for the mirror. Immediately, almost, the mirror went on sale, they had free shipping and I ordered the mirror of my dreams…dark frame surrounding beveled glass panes.  Sold, I said to myself.  It's still expensive but I want that mirror.  

The mirror arrived weeks ago.  Weeks.  We have moved the box from one side of the space to the other.  It’s a big box.  I was nervous as it was leaned first against one wall, then another.  Hubs declared he didn’t want to hang it so nothing would happen to it during the finishing of the fireplace or the ripping out of cabinets.  I was convinced it should be hung, rather than leaned here and there, among tools and buckets of drywall mud.  But, I wasn't going to be able to hang it myself so I just watched it as it made it's rounds through the construction mess.  

This week, we started to do a little bit of the final touches, like hang a picture, hang the clock.  Oh, we are not close to being done, but, the appliances and the cabinets are coming next week.  I am agonizing over counter stools currently and browsing a gazillion websites and stores looking for just the right ones.  But, still, hubs was not sure the mirror should go up because we still need to put the stone on the fireplace, and it has some sort of remote control issue that needs to be resolved, and we still aren't sure about a mantel.  

HOWEVER...da ta da daaaahhhhh.   

We reached compromise this week and I give you, the mirror.