three things.

1 - we had a deaf/mute girl come to the library the other day to teach sign language to the kids. she started by showing them different signs for animals (i can say "wild animal" in sign language!) and then she let them ask her questions. they were fascinated by the whole thing - by her voice, by the fact that she couldn't hear us, by the way she was talking to them with her hands. they also couldn't figure out why she wouldn't respond when the called her name. i kept saying "she can't hear you!" and explaining how she read lips. "she's really deaf?" they kept asking. one of them, after figuring out how to say "i love school" and "i hate football", finally turned to me and said "being deaf is cool!"

i'm not sure that "cool" is the word that our presenter would have chosen, but it did remind me that kids are fascinated by differences - and that it doesn't have to be a bad thing. it's when you're ashamed of something that kids learn it's something to be ashamed of.

2 - i was sitting in starbucks on thursday night, waiting for my book club to begin, when i noticed a man hovering over me. "do you speak french?" he asked. turns out, i do. he and his family were looking for stamps and some directions so i did the best i could. he said they were very pleased with how friendly new yorkers had been - that it couldn't compare with how parisians usually treat people. who knew my french would be needed so randomly? and that i would still remember it despite not having anyone to speak it with for so long?

3 - on friday afternoon, i called a dating service. now before you get all excited and start sputtering at me while pointing to mike (which is what one of my friends did last night when i told her this story), let me explain. my co-worker won a free membership for a month in this particular dating service's website (one that we had never heard of) and we decided to check it out on the internet. while there were lots of glossy pictures (as glossy as they can be on the internet), and FAQs and all that, they never mentioned how much the service would cost after the free month was up. they did, however, list a phone number. so while my co-worker stood by, a little surprised by my audacity in this particular research project, i called the service to ask.

they wouldn't tell me. they gave me the run-around, they tried to get me to tell them my name and number, they wanted to set me up for a preliminary interview - all that. but they wouldn't even tell me a range or anything.

we speculated that maybe they met you, decided how date-able you were, and charged you accordingly. it's probably a good thing, in this case, that i'm already married. i don't think i could afford the whole internet thing.