Spring fever

Alison and I sat outside in the sun doing what girls do when left to their own devices: compare sex notes and racy stories... Yes boys, believe it or not we do talk about these things and in fact I think we can be more hard-core than even you. Sometimes. Of course the conversation can lazily roll around to how last night's dinner party went and whether one can believe one is a mother (one can, but other titles are harder to assume and not for lack of trying). Perhaps it is the hyper-sexualized atmosphere of a large university campus in the spring time, the twitching asses in short skirts, the semi-naked Adonnis-like cruisers, cutting in and out of the crowds on their wheeled boards, but today was particularly exciting. No, no, don't get me wrong, nothing _that_ exciting, just a little midday titilation to keeps the brain bristling with ideas and clear enough to return to greek philosophers (not geek philosphers, that will have to be later). Which reminds me. Michael Jackson should have been an ancient greek (maybe he was?), his personal predilections would not only have been condoned but lauded. Last week we were discussing the fact that Oedipus' whole stained existence stemmed from his father's fornicating with a consenting adult man, which apparently was a horrific thought for these fellas. So who says sex is a natural act? Not me. Of course, come to think of it, why didn't we get to read the "good" version in school? More marginal mores being shoved down the throat of white middle-class suburbia?

But all is not well in who-ville tonight, spring fever manifesting itself in somewhat less pleasant tones in a little person, who stayed home from school, and failed to eat anything, and lays listlessly by my side as I write, without so much as a weak protest or demand for my attention, despite the glassy eyes that roll in my direction. Her fever was high enough that the rosy pink of her cheeks seemed unnatural, speckled with fever spots and she clung to me, more like a baby chimpanzee than anything else. Why she had been given no fever reducer is a mystery, but her spirits seem to be lifting just a bit now that she received the low dose pain killer for her headache. Of course you know it is bad when she agrees to go to the doctor on first suggestion, almost as out of place as a dog or cat that happily goes to his cage with the knowledge that it means a trip to the vet with an anal probe at least.

Today's lesson was about vocabulary to describe nature and the environment, and I covered María José's class too, so I got a double shot at inculcating my environmentalist propaganda. What causes contamination? What can we do about it? What are some programs that governments have in place. Do you understand the word "infraestructura"... "sobrepoblación"? What are the reasons for pollution in the country-side? Pesticides, slash and burn agriculture... Very useful knowledge, undoubtedly for the death of our beautifully moribund planet. Read a fabulous story that envisions a world of future misery... and what is tragedy for if not to make us feel better? Alas, the rest will have to wait for the moonlight, like the highwayman...