24 June 2014
Is it wrong that, in the middle of Target, I started singing and chasing my 15 year old son? I mean every mother does that, right? Especially when you have the fun relationship my son and I have, you wouldn't expect the absolute look of horror cross his face as he sprinted into the men's bathroom...as if I wouldn't just stand outside and wait for him. He doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does! But alas, I gave him a break and we just shopped. I bought nothing except that the nothing I bought cost over 60 dollars! WTF! HOW does a bunch of odds and ends up costing nearly one hundred dollars? I can't even tell you what it was that I purchased, besides Pepsi, I need caffeine for my get-up-at-the-ass-crack-of-dawn job...2:30am should be when I GO TO BED, not when I have to get up! However, getting out of work at 12:30? Nice. So I can come home, put on WILL AND GRACE reruns and fall asleep and neglect the son I had so much FUN humiliating in Target! YAY! Life? It has it's moments.
07 January 2014
Call of the Wild
http://www.quickmeme.com/p/3vredm
The above link takes you to a story from a photographer about when he "met" a female lion in the wild and it reminded me of a story of my own.
In Wisconsin there's this wild life park called Wildwood...here's a link to their site, if you're ever up there you have to check it out.
http://www.wildwoodwildlifepark.com/
So I was married and our son was only about 5 years old, we went up to my parent's cottage in Minocqua, Wisconsin and there's this lovely place called Wildwood. It's a place you go where deer and goats roam free and they have other animals in cages like a sort of zoo. Anyway my favourite land animals are the big cats, especially tigers. There was one regular tiger and a white tiger in a cage together. I went by myself (my son had his daddy over by the swamp looking for frogs and snakes and stuff so ick) to check out the tigers. There's a bench a few yards away so I sat there. I kept thinking how beautiful they were, how glorious, how they should be out in the wild and free but then I thought they're both so beautiful it would be a shame if they were in the wild and they got shot which, these days, is likelier than them not being shot, and how horrible that would be. I kept thinking the white one looked so much like my cat Thomas, who's all white and beautiful. I was thinking all of this for about five minutes or so when all of a sudden the white one got up and came over to the bars of the cage. If you got up to the enclosure you'd definitely be able to put your hand through and pet the tigers, or get your hand bitten off, one of the two. So the white cat is looking straight at me, I'm the ONLY PERSON AROUND, the only one on the bench, the only one in the entire vicinity so he was definitely looking at me. I waved to him and told him how beautiful he was, he started rubbing his face up against the bars of the enclosure in that way all cats of every size do and then he'd look back at me. I kept telling him he's so magnificent, that he should be running free and not caged and he kept rubbing up against the bars. Then he went over to his cagemate, he looked at me as if he were making sure I was watching which of course I was then he pounced on the poor sleeping tiger. I laughed 'cos it was like a cartoon come to life in it's silliness. Of course the sleeping tiger was less than amused so he swatted at the white tiger. The white tiger and he wrestled a bit, playing, the white tiger threw his head back and ROARED...now until that moment I had never heard a tiger or any big cat actually ROAR in person, I could feel the roar in my very bones. They wrestled a bit more and when they stopped the white tiger looked back over at me, again it seemed to be because he wanted to make sure I was watching which of course I was so again he pounced on his friend. I couldn't help but laugh because he was being such a clown! They rolled around, they roared ROARED and ROARED and slapped at each other. The golden tiger got thrown into their pool by my white tiger and when that happened I swear the white tiger looked straight at me and grinned. I saw fang. And then he came back over to the cage bars and rubbed up against them. I told him he's so beautiful and fierce and truly the king of the world, apparently he liked the sound of that 'cos he rolled over onto his back and "pawed" the bars whilst looking at me. This went on for about 20 minutes from beginning to end, he'd play with his friend (ie: torment him) and then he'd come over and look at me with his beautiful blue eyes and brush up against the bars or roll over and "paw" the air or bars. He was definitely not performing for me in the sense of he's not a circus animal ( I loathe the circus and never, ever go nor do I allow my son to go) but he was communicating with me. I felt it in my soul. We bonded, there was a definite bond between us, puny human totally in love with a fierce, beautiful, proud male white tiger. He was truly breath-taking and for 20 minutes, he was MINE and I was HIS. This was 10 years ago now but every single time I think about him and those 20 minutes it makes me so happy inside, so glad that I experienced that and so thrilled that it was just him and I. After that 20 minutes were over another family came over and started being noisy and pointing at the tigers, my white tiger gave me one last look and went back to his friend, laid down and went to sleep. Whatever bond we shared was broken, the moment was over and I was fine with that.
Funny thing? Nobody seemed to have heard the roaring and it was so loud I'd have thought people here in Chicago could have heard it.
I will never forget those tigers, my beautiful boy, and I wish I could get back up there but my parents have sold the cottage and it's a 6.5 hour ride....lol Anyway I carry that experience with me, in my heart and soul, and I will for the rest of my life. I consider those 20 minutes to be among the very best of my entire life.
The above link takes you to a story from a photographer about when he "met" a female lion in the wild and it reminded me of a story of my own.
In Wisconsin there's this wild life park called Wildwood...here's a link to their site, if you're ever up there you have to check it out.
http://www.wildwoodwildlifepark.com/
So I was married and our son was only about 5 years old, we went up to my parent's cottage in Minocqua, Wisconsin and there's this lovely place called Wildwood. It's a place you go where deer and goats roam free and they have other animals in cages like a sort of zoo. Anyway my favourite land animals are the big cats, especially tigers. There was one regular tiger and a white tiger in a cage together. I went by myself (my son had his daddy over by the swamp looking for frogs and snakes and stuff so ick) to check out the tigers. There's a bench a few yards away so I sat there. I kept thinking how beautiful they were, how glorious, how they should be out in the wild and free but then I thought they're both so beautiful it would be a shame if they were in the wild and they got shot which, these days, is likelier than them not being shot, and how horrible that would be. I kept thinking the white one looked so much like my cat Thomas, who's all white and beautiful. I was thinking all of this for about five minutes or so when all of a sudden the white one got up and came over to the bars of the cage. If you got up to the enclosure you'd definitely be able to put your hand through and pet the tigers, or get your hand bitten off, one of the two. So the white cat is looking straight at me, I'm the ONLY PERSON AROUND, the only one on the bench, the only one in the entire vicinity so he was definitely looking at me. I waved to him and told him how beautiful he was, he started rubbing his face up against the bars of the enclosure in that way all cats of every size do and then he'd look back at me. I kept telling him he's so magnificent, that he should be running free and not caged and he kept rubbing up against the bars. Then he went over to his cagemate, he looked at me as if he were making sure I was watching which of course I was then he pounced on the poor sleeping tiger. I laughed 'cos it was like a cartoon come to life in it's silliness. Of course the sleeping tiger was less than amused so he swatted at the white tiger. The white tiger and he wrestled a bit, playing, the white tiger threw his head back and ROARED...now until that moment I had never heard a tiger or any big cat actually ROAR in person, I could feel the roar in my very bones. They wrestled a bit more and when they stopped the white tiger looked back over at me, again it seemed to be because he wanted to make sure I was watching which of course I was so again he pounced on his friend. I couldn't help but laugh because he was being such a clown! They rolled around, they roared ROARED and ROARED and slapped at each other. The golden tiger got thrown into their pool by my white tiger and when that happened I swear the white tiger looked straight at me and grinned. I saw fang. And then he came back over to the cage bars and rubbed up against them. I told him he's so beautiful and fierce and truly the king of the world, apparently he liked the sound of that 'cos he rolled over onto his back and "pawed" the bars whilst looking at me. This went on for about 20 minutes from beginning to end, he'd play with his friend (ie: torment him) and then he'd come over and look at me with his beautiful blue eyes and brush up against the bars or roll over and "paw" the air or bars. He was definitely not performing for me in the sense of he's not a circus animal ( I loathe the circus and never, ever go nor do I allow my son to go) but he was communicating with me. I felt it in my soul. We bonded, there was a definite bond between us, puny human totally in love with a fierce, beautiful, proud male white tiger. He was truly breath-taking and for 20 minutes, he was MINE and I was HIS. This was 10 years ago now but every single time I think about him and those 20 minutes it makes me so happy inside, so glad that I experienced that and so thrilled that it was just him and I. After that 20 minutes were over another family came over and started being noisy and pointing at the tigers, my white tiger gave me one last look and went back to his friend, laid down and went to sleep. Whatever bond we shared was broken, the moment was over and I was fine with that.
Funny thing? Nobody seemed to have heard the roaring and it was so loud I'd have thought people here in Chicago could have heard it.
I will never forget those tigers, my beautiful boy, and I wish I could get back up there but my parents have sold the cottage and it's a 6.5 hour ride....lol Anyway I carry that experience with me, in my heart and soul, and I will for the rest of my life. I consider those 20 minutes to be among the very best of my entire life.
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