Belly Better

Kitten now decidedly prefers my belly to my lap. Whenever she finds me sitting still long enough, she will approach the wonky beach ball that is now my belly, knead it to her liking, and curl up happily upon it.

Iron Toenails

These are my toes, after about seven weeks of high-iron bathing.

Face Blindness

I think I may have some mild form of 'prosopagnosia', or 'face blindness'.  That is, a difficulty or inability to recognize and distinguish faces.

Over the years in New York City, particularly as a contract and freelance worker, I met a lot of new people, in groups.  I'd go onsite with a new client and start interacting regularly with twenty or thirty new people, all at once.  This never posed much of a problem for me.  Partially because of physical spaces - I would tend to encounter the same people in specific departments, offices, at the same work stations or in the same meeting rooms.  And, in retrospect, I have always relied heavily on space, geography.  But most of all, in New York, there was almost always an enormous diversity of people, particularly in my work environments.  By ethnicity, age, expressiveness, size, gender, dress, hair, everything.  I can easily recognize and differentiate people whose appearances span the human spectrum.

However, here in Appalachia, I have met maybe a hundred (?) new people by name over the last six months.  And I often have trouble recognizing them next time I see them.  I have no idea I met them before.  Especially if I am meeting them in a different physical space.  And unfortunately, I have seemed rude several times, I know, or at least puzzlingly suddenly less friendly.  It's no coincidence that most of these people are medium-build, white, middle-aged to older folks, with generally similar dress, expressiveness, and traditional/conservative hair.  If they tell me their name or remind me of something we previously mentioned in conversation, I can place them.  It's here that I first realized the extent to which I have always relied on physical spaces to suggest who a person is.  For instance, when I met the bank manager, who I very well knew, in a store, I looked right past him and fell silent through several minutes of a conversation in which I more naturally should have joined.

I'm not completely insensible to recognizing any given person in future.  I can eventually suss out anyone's relatively distinguishing features and recognize them forever after.  But if they are very similar demographically and in style to most folks around, I need a lot of time to look at them, and be comfortable looking at them. 

The first time I really encountered my face blindness was in college.  I had attended an all-girl's school the previous six years.  And when I got to college, I could not tell most boys apart.  If the kid had an unusual hairstyle or build or something like that, then I could recognize him.  Or if he always sat in approximately the same seat in a classroom.  But otherwise, or if I passed him walking across campus, I was lost.  It didn't help that there seemed to be so many kids named Dan or, ugh, Dave.

Blonde

My arm fluff turned blonde for the summer, long ago. There were years, living in New York City, when that never happened at all.

Diseased

My first days here, my one leg had been bitten all up by a mosquito. My acne was florescing from my chest all up my neck. A monster preventative summer maintenance, pre-departure session of weeding in New Jersey, plus days of driving with my seat forward and legs folded up like I like, plus a couple nights balled up, too cold, in fetal positions, in motels: all had knitted my back up tight, stabbing the knitting needles in one special spot in my left scapular area for safekeeping, and, most severe, shortened my hamstrings at least four inches a piece.

I was spotted with sores, obviously limping, and moving slowly. I looked diseased. Disease would have been any reasonable person's explanation.

Just when I was meeting new people every day, making tons of first impressions, and needing people to trust me right away. Even though I talk funny, don't know the social/conversational etiquette here, don't have kids and am not married (or divorced), and don't have family or a job drawing me here. These last deficiencies perplex people at best. Some even seem wary.

Cold

My body was so cold in the wee, still dark hours of this morning that I cooled a hot bath like an ice cube.  Even after minutes of immersion, my knees were still cold to the touch.

Penny

I pooped a penny today.

First White Hair

Found my first white hair this morning. I want to save it, but don't want to pull it out. Wonder if I am to go straight from blondish brown to white, no grey.