We are still struggling today and feeling rather down. It feels like we are carrying some heavy baggage. Maybe it’s the whole idea of groups and how much they trigger us, how much they make us think of the past. No wonder we hurt. However, one of the best things for what ails us is the company of a good friend. Yesterday we had coffee with a friend and she’s a really good storyteller. She had us captured. And by the end of our visit with her we felt much better.
Today we are going to visit Lance, and probably see Graham as well because he and Lance are roommates. Visiting Lance always helps us when we are feeling down. Always. He’s our best buddy. And today with the weather being sunny we are bound to go for a nice walk together. Connecting with others always seems to help us humans. We are such social beings. Most of us anyhow.
Though not long ago the terms “introvert” and “extrovert” were in the air. One description of them we really liked was an extrovert needs to be with other people in order to be alone and introverts need to be alone in order to be with other people. There is even a questionnaire online to find out which you are. We took it and ended up in the middle, which was kind of funny. However, at times we feel more of an introvert than an extrovert.
We have a friend we have known for a long time and we think that those two terms really define a gap in the relationship. She’s very family and socially oriented. Life seems to be about being with other people for her, sharing and doing things together. But for us it’s sort of the opposite. While we love to do things with other people, we cherish our time alone. Well, it isn’t really time alone is it. It’s a very crowded sort of time alone but even so it’s not like being with other people, with Outsiders. Anyway, we don’t think our friend really understands our need to be alone and that we often prefer it. And that’s okay. We’re just different, that’s all.
Even as a child, there were times that friends wanted to play and we preferred to play by ourself. We loved to get involved with our dolls. One of our favourites was our Barbie and Ken and Skipper dolls. We pretended they were a poor family. We would empty out our bookcase and use each shelf as if it was a floor in their house. We had furniture for them too or made stuff for them. We also had two puppets who were supposed to be Skipper’s brothers. We played with those dolls for hours.
Sometimes we pretended they were gypsies, always on the move. We would take a footstool, turn it upside down, put a little doll mattress on it and some blankets and it would be some sort of vehicle. Like the family in Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Travelling and looking for work. When our cousin of the same age came to live with us, when we were both 10, she had a Barbie, Ken and Skipper too and we would play with the dolls together. It was so much fun.
And now, at the age of 58, we still have Barbies. Notice that was plural? Let’s see ... we have ... one, two, three ... nine Barbie-like dolls. Some are genuine Barbies, the others aren’t. The two in the picture above are called Meghan (with the longer hair) and her twin Melissa (with the ponytail sticking up). Each has a daughter sitting in their lap. Meghan’s daughter is called Kelly (as in a Kelly doll) and the other is Oona who was adopted by Melissa. That’s just the start.
Okay you’re probably thinking isn’t she a little old to be playing with dolls? Absolutely not is our answer. Years ago Daffodil (4) asked Lance and Graham for a Barbie doll for Christmas. Once she got one we started looking for companions for Barbie and it just grew from there. Now we can use the excuse of being multiple – oh these dolls belong to kids Inside. But we’ve got friends who are into stuffed animals too and we tend to like those people a lot. We figure they are of very healthy mind.
Lance has a chairful of stuffed animals on Galiano. Many from us. It’s become a bit of a tradition to give him one every Christmas and often for his birthday as well. Then he’s got a little group here in the city. Actually they are on a sleepover right now. This is them.
The rabbits are called Henry and Camille and the bear is called Otis. We gave Henry to Lance just last year either at his birthday or at Easter, we can’t remember which. Then Epiphany (4) said she wanted a rabbit like Henry so we bought her a girl rabbit, who she called Camille. But Epiphany was very generous and unselfish. She figured that Henry and Camille really needed to be together so she let Camille stay at Lance’s home. The two rabbits are now pretty inseparable. And the stories Lance tells about them are full of adventure and curiosity. He should have a blog on them. They get into all sorts of things like clocks and cellophane. We gave Otis to Lance this past Christmas. Not sure what he made of the rabbits at first but now they are three good buddies.
So you see we are not the only ones.
We just met someone in the group not long ago who had a little finger puppet in the pocket of his jacket. Well right away we knew we had to get to know him and the puppet of course. We figured anyone who carries around a little creature in their jacket has to be someone we would like.
Oh the Barbies - well we don’t refer to them as Barbies. They are the Mongolian Girls and they live in Mongolia. They have quite a setup here. They all sit around and chat and drink wine, never take down their Christmas tree (yes they have a tree) and just generally like to have a good time. We’ll tell you more about them sometime probably but just writing about them has cheered us up somewhat.
So that’s our story today. Say hi to the Mongolian Girls and Henry and Camille and Otis. They are all a part of our world and we love it.
That feels much better.
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