Modern mating rituals

SUMMARY: Well – – really locations rather rather than than rituals

Backfill: May 17, 2025: my comment in response to a poll on Tumblr

The original poll and results from Tumblr.

This is an interesting question because of the poll’s possible answers. First of all, there was no Internet, so no online or websites or anything like that. I met my ex… At a Christmas caroling party, thrown annually by a friend I knew from school, who invited her coworkers from work. We were not a barhopping/clubbing kind of group, so it feels weird to include “party“ in that same category. I mean, I already knew probably 30 of the 35 people who attended, And there might have been beer available and probably some alcoholic Christmas wassail. No one was There to get drunk.

My friend said to this guy, “hi, thanks for coming, introduce yourself around“ and then dashed off to do something else. He went to the refreshments table and stood there nibbling and I thought, he doesn’t know anybody else! And I was right (no one else from their work showed up). I introduced myself just to be polite. And somehow we kept chatting and then I introduced him to my closer friends in the room. And then – –

22 years later, when we divorced,  I couldn’t help rethinking that decision, or really all relationship decisions made During those years. As one does. We had a lot of good times though. 

Blue bedrooms... and purple sometimes...

SUMMARY: History of my bedroom colors

Source: Comment on a friend's FB page about repainting their deep red bedroom (a color someone else picked) to light blue.

I said: 

My bedroom in my parents' house I painted a fairly saturated somewhat lighter blue. I loved it. In the intervening decades, I painted one bedroom white, a later one I actually wallpapered (loved it!), a later one I left the wallpaper that was already there and it wouldn't have been my choice but mostly peaceful and matched my other things. This is the first time i've painted my bedroom blue again--this time just the wall behind the headboard is a rich almost navy blue and I feel peaceful just walking in and seeing it! I think your light blue sounds like it will be perfect.

But: I know you want details and photos! (Photos might take longer)

My bedrooms:

• Basement room in my parents' house. Until then, I had almost always shared one of the upstairs bedrooms with one or more of my sisters. My recollection is that we painted it pale blue. Mom made me a bedspread of some sort of blue and purple fabric. This lasted only a few months--I was in 6th grade--and then we moved away.  No pictures exist that I can recall.

• Bedroom in my parents' new house. Five bedrooms, seven people. The three oldest of us kids got our own rooms and dad had the builders paint each room in our favorite colors. Mine was a somewhat sickly pale greenish blue. When I could, I and my friends painted it that fairly saturated somewhat lighter blue, and I painted my furniture blue and purple! [photos exist]

  

  Oh, I forgot about the very inexpensive blue shag carpet! (Not wall to wall, just a large rug.)
  The color of the drawers behind me was the color of the walls.  PS I made the big cushion.

  
  

• Dorms at college. Some students did paint their rooms; I wasn't so ambitious, although I did paint a mural on the wall outside the room! [pictures exist]
  
  

  

  I copied this from about a 2-square-inch image cut from a magazine ad somewhere.
  
  

  
  

  

  First dorm. My side has the blue (?) cover--I don't even remember it!
  But I still have most of the wall art

  
  

  

  Second dorm, my side.

  
  

  

  Third dorm. Same blue cover, same blue cushion,
   lots of the same wall art mostly not visible in this crappy scanned photo.

• Bedrooms in two successive rented apartments covering about a year and a half. I didn't even put up pictures nor  nuthin'. [might be a photo of 2nd one but not sure]

• My own private townhouse! Didn't paint the room (it was white) but I bought a gorgeous matching set of bedspread and drapes: Fuzzy and huge stripes of various shades  of blue. Something I had been coveting from the Sears catalogs, which were things that I pored over for years for home supplies and decor. [not sure whether photos exist]

• First shared  house with husband: I wallpapered it! All by myself! I did a great job and I loved it, although I don't exactly recall the pattern. Probably small delicate blue & white? [not sure whether photos exist]

• Second shared house: It was white. It stayed that way. It was airy and open and had trees outside the second story windows and it just seemed right. [photos exist]

• My own private next house: Came with wallpaper. Not what I would have chosen, but three of the walls matched my general decor (flowers of various colors) and so I left it. [photos exist]

  

  Notice 2 types of wallpaper. The one on the left covered 3 walls; the one on the right was only that wall. I had a lot of flower decor and sheets and so it worked--kinda--

  
  

• My now current house: The aforementioned navy blue! [photos exist]

And there you have it!

What's wrong with my dog's face?Or body? Bones and wasps, too

SUMMARY: Ancient history: Amber frothing at the mouth

Source: Friend Cathy's FB post about her dog rubbing and pawing at her face, and she found a stick that required a vet visit.

This medical emergency with my first dog, Amber, sticks in my mind and makes my heart jump even half a century later. 

She was about 2, and we went camping with friends. She was off-leash in the group campground and suddenly I noticed that she was frothing at the mouth, pawing at her face, rubbing her face on the ground--the frothing terrified me: What kind of poisonous thing had she  ingested?! Because what else could it be? As an inexperienced dog owner, I initially didn't know what to do, but eventually put my fingers into her mouth and found some small piece of bone that she had found and it had become wedged in her upper jaw, between the left and right side. 

Fortunately I was able to gradually work it out and there was no permanent damage. But I still remember that moment of horror and terror when I first saw her. Yes, as a relatively new dog owner, every little thing  that went wrong became traumatic for my poor heart.

I'm skipping over the part where, when she was about 3-4 months old, I looked out into the back yard and she was standing listlessly, head and tail drooping, taking slow, unsteady steps, and drooling. Human Mom rushed out to her and she did respond a bit. I managed to get her into the house and, in the process of setting her down, noticed that little bumps covered her stomach. Exploring: Her whole body. Hives?! I figured it was an allergic reaction to something. Fortunately was able to get her to the vet right away, and she was already feeling a little better by the time we got there. I don't recall their treatment, maybe a shot of prednisone or something? They thought maybe a bee or wasp sting. 

Fortunately I never saw that reaction again. And, for the 7 years I lived in a house whose yard border was covered with shrubs with those red hairy flowers that attract bees, she would stand out there for hours, trying to catch the bees (and sometimes succeeding).

Apparently I'm not skipping that part.

That's all  there is for now...

Amber,  at about the age of the allergic reaction.