The Perfect Day

Every now and then, generally when we need them the most, perfect days materialize out of thin air and surprise us with their persistant delightfulness. Today was one such day.

First, today's news: the elimination diet has been unsuccessful, as I was sort of anticipating it would be. Fortunately, we have another lead to follow on the illness front, and not being allergic to foods I love is, while diagnostically unhelpful, not the worst news I could get. That means that I get to start reintroducing foods into my diet, starting TODAY! To celebrate, I tried a bit of the (soy-laden) chocolates I got for Owl as a thank you gift for her patience in dealing with a sick and grumpy me. So far, so good.

Today Owl and I were able to sleep in, which was an absolute blessing for me, as I've been sleeping terribly all week. Insomnia is super fun, kids! Owl was planning on taking the kids she nannies for to the zoo yesterday, and I was jealous because the zoo is wonderful. She did not end up taking the kids, but today, she and I went to the zoo together, and it was every bit as wonderful as I was hoping it would be.

The local zoo is free and subsists mostly off of donations, so it is understandably small. However, for a free zoo in a small city, it is still rather impressive. It is home to a fully grown Amur tiger who is constantly pacing his domain and stopping occasionally to stare down small children, two giraffes who always try desperately to reach the leaves of the trees just outside of their enclosure, a small pool of harbor seals, two delightful capybaras, an orangutan who likes to use the small plastic pool in his enclosure as a shield so that he can hide when he gets too shy, and a whole host of other creatures. We spent several hours there enjoying the gorgeous spring weather (and the sunshine!) and OwL let me drag her back to the tiger enclosure at the end of the day because big cats are basically my favorite thing ever.

The area around the zoo is one of the most interesting parts of our city. It's in one of the nicer neighborhoods, so some of the stuff there is out of our price range, but that doesn't make browsing around any less fun. We stopped by an oilery, which dealt in olive oils and vinegars, so we could window shop for some tasty fusion oils to taste when I add olive oil back in to my diet. (Soon!) After that we poked around through some of the more ecclectic shops on the street, including a gift shop full of African art run by a sweet older British woman, and an artsy shop next door that specilized in recycled materials, where we picked up some going-away cards for Crow, who is moving soon, but still hasn't read any of this blog so won't have the surprise spoiled. (He says he's waiting to read the blog until he moves, so he has a backlog of our writing to remind him of us, or something equally saccharine. If you're reading this from the future, Crow, we miss you!)

Next we visited my very favorite comic book shop. Our city has several, and I am fond of them all, but this partiuclar shop I like more than any other I've frequented, and I've found comic shops in dozens of cities on two continents and counting, so that is pretty high praise. It's one of those hole-in-the-wall comic shops, which tend to be the best, by my estimation. The owner is an older gentlemen who is incredibly friendly and helpful, and, I'm convinced, knows everything about everything. He knows all the big Marvel and DC comics, of course, but can also talk at length not only about indie comics and obscure manga, but also about video games, TV shows, history, religion, and art. And those are just the topics that have come up whilst discussing the newest issues of our favorite comics. Owl bought a Daredevil comic and a gift for a friend of ours who we haven't seen in several years, and I picked up the first volume of a Mouse Guard anthology, along with a Deadpool pin for my backpack. We chatted with the owner about our comics, he recommended several more, and he handed us each a piece of wrapped candy that he says he has become addicted to. Apparently it's pomegranate and mint flavored, and very refreshing. He's an incredibly nice guy, and his shop is one of the reasons I almost never buy comics online or at big chain retailers. There's not much I can do to stop the inevitable march of progress that will eventually deal the killing blow, first to small comic book shops like his and, in all probability, ultimatley to print comics as a whole, but I intend to do what I can to keep them around for as long as possible.

Owl had to work tonight, but we had time to sit down in the mall for awhile and read our comics. We got coffee from the small stand in the mall, from the friendly guy who works there bascially every day. He recognized me, since I come there often to get coffee for Owl during her shift, and recommended that I try the strawberry bubble tea next time I was there, which, diet allowing, I intend to! I often have trouble talking to strangers, since a combination of my speech impediment and general awkwardness leave me fumbling over my words when I get shy or flustered, but days like today make me grateful that I have encouraged myself to become more outgoing. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly fast-paced and dependent on technology, and human interaction is becoming less a necessity and more an inconvenience day by day. There was a time when I would have given anything to never have to talk to a stranger, even to order coffee, but increasingly, I have come to enjoy the small, simple conversations with store clerks, baristas, people waiting with me for the bus, and folks I would never have had the courage to so much as make eye contact with when I was younger.

After I dropped Owl off at work I went to the Barnes and Noble outside the mall, where I was stopped short by a display on the end of the science fiction and fantasy section. "A Lifetime Remembered", read the plaque, and on the display were a dozen Terry Pratchett books. A Blink of the Screen, a collection of his short fiction, was featured prominantly, and below it, The Folklore of Discworld, the series he cowrote with Stephen Baxter, Carpe Jugulum, Small Gods, The Night Watch, The Truth, and several other of my favorite books. I am not easily driven to tears, but standing there looking at the display I could feel my eyes welling up, not out of sadness, but out of this simple and yet touching memorial to an incredible life. I picked up The Folklore of Discworld, which I have been wanting for a while, and a copy of Good Omens, which despite being one of my very favorite books, I somehow don't own. On a whim I paid a visit to the children's section, the only place in this particular store that I have never yet been, and found a small selection of Pratchett's children's books. I picked up The Carpet People, his very first novel (which he started at seventeen), and have been sitting in the cafe reading it all night.

Soon I will go pay Owl a visit at the store, as Friday nights in a toy store tend to be fairly quiet. But I couldn't bring myself to leave without sharing a part of this perfect day with you, dear friends. Forgive me if I was poetic, or sentimental, but it has been a fairly rough week (or perhaps month, or perhaps even year) for me, and a day like today was exactly what I needed. It has been easy to fall into the habit of feeling badly, pitying myself, bemoaning all the things that are going wrong. But really, I am extraordinarily fortunate. I have an amazing family (I would be remiss if I didn't mention the phone call from my mother, which, even though it was about doctor appointments and medications, brightened my day like it always does), a wonderful and patient partner, a beautiful city to explore, and of course, all of you reading this now.

If you frequent this blog chances are I am terribly fond of you (if you're visiting this because you're a friend of Owl's or because you somehow found it in the recesses of the Internet and don't actually know either of us, that's okay, I'd probably like you too if I knew you) and am grateful to have you in my life. There. I said it! It's sappy and silly and I'm not taking it back. Thank you for reading. I promise I'll go back to talking about anthropology and food allergies and webcomics soon. (The combination of those three caters to a very niche audience, doesn't it?)

-Raven