morning musings

An update on the mother, this time. It's 6 am and I'm fighting a headache. I think thunderstorms etc give me headaches. We've had storms threatening but not manifesting for a few days. Usually ibuprofen solves the problem, but the one I took a few minutes ago isn't working yet and I feel a little unsettled in my stomach. This makes me feel a certain dread -- oh no, am I getting a migraine?? But it's not the right "time" for one. It's unfair that a migraine hangs over you like a threat, stressing you even when you don't have it. It's probably like that Murphy's Photocopier Law or whatever: the more you need it to work, the more you have to do, the more likely it is that the paper jams or the copier breaks. Nature's way of slowing you down - ha. This would be one of the worst times for me to get a migraine. At work I've got a severe case of the deadlines, and at home I've got lots to do to get ready for my big European trip - leaving on Tuesday!

I went to the mall last night, hoping to stumble upon an appropriate gift for a friend. All I stumbled upon -- actually it hit me in the face -- was rampant materialism and waste. It added insult to injury that I couldn't find anything amidst all this stuff that was special to this part of the world, that came from here and was unique. Everything on sale at the mall, apparently, is something you could get in any Western city anyway. What's the point of bringing a gift to Europe that you could get over there just as easily? So I realized I need to go out of my way to the local stores that aren't open in the late evening when it's convenient for me to shop. We have one or two of them I think. I need to find them and remember to go to them first. I shop so seldom, I don't have these things figured out. And if a store doesn't stay in business for decades, I might not get around to visiting it more than once! I guess I'm kind of the anti-consumer. Not a perfect one, still a hypocrite occasionally, but I really don't buy much. My husband buys even less - except books. He buys tons of books, but mostly used, so that reduces his impact on the planet. What will happen to business when we anti-consumers take over the earth? I want to teach my daughter (or at least lecture her on the topic) how to live without plastic. It's a petroleum product. It's not always going to be cheap and ubiquitous. (is that the right word?) Speaking of plastic, what would a computer keyboard be made of if it wasn't plastic? Wood? If we turned all our plastic stuff into wood we'd deplete the planet in a different way! This is not an easy issue. Anyway, the plastic baby monitor is whining at me, time to go.