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The Power of YO

Before we went to Michigan we had a booth at the Poke Salat celebration in town. I was in the process of getting a terrible sunburn, and eating too much homemade ice cream (sugar makes me crabby) and when I saw this kid looking eerily like Kiefer Sutherland playing Ace Merrill in Stand By Me holding on to this young girl’s arm and not letting go, I got REALLY PISSED. He was about 17, and she was maybe 8 (okay, 14) and she was trying hard to get him to let go while her idiot friend stood by giggling nervously.

Picture me, 5′1″, silly flowered shorts-and-shirt outfit on, face bright red with sunburn. He was 6′.

Just as I do when Paul is doing something he needs to stop right now, I clapped my hands to get Ace’s attention and shouted,

YO!

All the kids froze. “She wants you to let go of her arm, let go!”

Ace was so startled that he did let her arm go.

Idiot friend sneered at me, “She likes it! They’re playing a game!”

Little girl ran off.

And the moral of the story is, sometimes it does work to treat an intimidating 17 year old boy like a 2 year old…

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Sometimes it’s not a good thing when taking an extremely hot bath comforts you even more than eating pesto. Especially when you’ve just gotten the worst sunburn of your life. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think I gave myself heatstroke and Todd says I was truly a scary-monster burgandy color for hours and hours after the bath. Not good.

***

For ten years now, Todd and I have lived a life covered with cat hair. We didn’t even see it anymore. Years ago before returning an RV we’d rented we cleaned it extensively. We thought it was perfect. The RV people charged us an extra $80 for the two days they spent getting all the cat hair out.

After having no cat hair in Michigan, and liking it, I’ve gotten vigilant about getting Shelly off my office desk. She is horrified anew every time. We need to go into Kitty Therapy.

Shelly I feel so betrayed! So hurt!

Sage If you didn’t shed hair all over my scanner -

Shelly How could you do this to me! Woe, woe, woe…

Therapist Shelly, Sage is telling you that she needs boundaries.

Sage Right, and for you not to lie on my power cord and unplug my computer -

Therapist Maybe we can come up with a solution everyone can agree with.

Sage Yeah, you stay off my desk, and I won’t sit in your litter box.

Shelly What if I crept on your desk while you weren’t looking and hid behind the window blinds, pretending that I’m lying on the windowsill, but actually with half my body on your desk? How about that?

Sage I can work with that.