  May 1, 1999 Harold Pistachio and the Magnolia Window  Now here's something I never expected--I've become part of an English final at Minnesota State University-Mankato. A couple of students have written to me telling me that as part of their final they were given my url and told to "write a 1-page response on it". Now that is highly surreal and really very neat. I think their teacher must be the woman who's writing the book on women's journals in the northern Midwest states--we've been writing back and forth a bit and I might actually get mentioned in her book (which would be so incredibly cool). I have some essay questions of my own to answer for her.  This will probably sound a bit bizarre, but I'm all excited because after more months than I can remember now, I've finally started menstruating again (yesterday). Which means my body fat percentage has finally inched back up high enough for my body to be doing its usual thing, and I can stop worrying about that aspect of my health. Happy! As much as I like not having periods, I'm much happier knowing that everything's working the way it should be. Mel came up today to game with Mark and they've been playing that new Civilization. I didn't dare go look at it--if they had associations for recovering Civilization addicts, that's where I'd probably be once a week--or at least would have been back in my Civ days. I'd have exhausting dreams about nursing civilizations and worlds through prehistory and into the space age, and I'd lose sleep staying up playing it, getting nothing else done. I remember Bill would uninstall it and ask people to hide his Civ disks when he had a book deadline. The game is hideously addictive, and I cower in fear of becoming addicted to a new version. Mark says the interface sucks, though, and it's done by a different company, so I'm probably not missing much anyway.  Anyway, we all went out to Chili's for lunch (split Mombo Combos and had a raspberry margarita) and then I went back out on the deck and parked myself with a book. And reading outside on a warm, sunny day is even more addictive than playing Civilization. I might not get anything done til it rains again. Later.... Well, I got restless and went inside to work on the computer for a bit and met a rather handsome fellow perched on my window sill. I heard this pecking sound at my window and looked, and there was a little bird perching on the outside window sill. He just sat there and looked at me while I crept forward to look at him, then when I rushed for the camera, he flew into the magnolia tree.  I only meant to mess around in here for a short bit and then go back out to read, but the little guy keeps coming back and tempting me. I've taken scads of pictures of him in the tree now, and am hoping I'll be fast enough sometime to get a picture of him sitting on the little window ledge (is it a ledge is it's less than an inch wide?). He shows every sign of liking it here and settling in for a long stay, so I've decided to be optimistic and name him, like my own pet bird. I think I'll call him Harold Pistachio. Harold because I like that name and it seems to fit him, and Pistachio because his beak is sort of a blend between orange and that wild fuchsia color they dye pistachios. Plus it's a cute name, and he is awfully cute when he comes to perch at my window, pecking at it as if he was knocking to come in. What a fine little bird you are, Harold!  Let's see now then, a fine little fellow like this needs a children's story written about him. Something like "Harold Pistachio and the Magnolia Window". What would the plot be like? Maybe he's discovered an enchanted castle... he's flying around the magnolia trees and as he explores one he discovers a tall window set into a high stone wall behind his favorite magnolia tree. He settles into that magnolia tree to make it his home and to spend his days enjoying the spring weather and watching through what he thinks of as "his magnolia window". As time goes on, he sees large creatures walking around inside, and he sees these creatures cuddling furry creatures and doing mysterious and fascinating things. As time goes on, he grows bolder and decides to satisfy his curiosity and try to make some new friends. He flies to perch right on the window and peck at it with his beak when he sees one of the Big Creatures inside. And then everyone makes friends and everyone lives happily ever after, with life occasionally punctuated by little adventures that all the friends take part in, each lending some special talent and character quirks to their adventures. But for now, I have no clue what Harold's personality is like, except that he seems friendly and cheerful, and maybe a bit curious. I'll probably never write his story, but he certainly ought to have one.  
 thinking about evening sunlight
a small bird knocks.
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