I’m part of a committee at work that has a member at one of our branch campuses. The meetings are usually held on the main campus, but today we were heading to the branch campus by bus. The note I got was that the bus would be “at the circle”. Except, there are a lot of circles on campus where a bus might be. I found out later that there was another email with clarification that I missed – and I picked the wrong circle. Well, actually wrong circles – I went back and forth between three nearby ones. 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave I had pretty much given up and was about to head back to work when my cell phone rang. It was the crew wondering where I was. Turns out the bus was at pretty much the opposite end of the campus. Embarrassed that I had made everyone late, I took off across campus on foot at a dead run and in a few moments I was on the bus and off we went. Given where I was and how quickly I made it to the bus, I think I impressed a few folks – but I was still pretty embarrassed. The bus ride was uneventful and the meeting went okay – and I learned a lesson about following up for more info if things aren’t clear.
Yesterday, I swam my usual mile in the pool and afterwards I went to the locker room – and totally blanked on my combination.
Now, I’ve used this lock for years and I’ve run the combination hundreds of times. But, I was blank. I guessed a few times before the “I’m wearing a speedo and everything else is in this secured locker” set in.
I took a deep breath and tried again and it mostly came back to me. Close enough that the lock opened. Now that the panic was gone, the combination manta came back in my head and I was fine. But for a moment there… well… it would have been bad.
Finally, I’ve noticed a behavior about my cat – he likes to headbutt me. Sometimes he’ll do it when I lean into him and sometimes he’ll go out of his way to give me a little headbutt. It seemed like a nice thing on his part, but I didn’t really understand it.
So, I asked Mr. Google and found an article where a few veterinarians explained that it’s a form of pheromone marking. Ummm.. yea? But instead of just marking ownership or territory, it’s also about marking safety and trust. He’s sort of saying, in his own way, that this particular biped is safe and can be trusted.
Which is pretty sweet. Weird, maybe, but sweet.