Misery Loves Company: Coping Mechanism

A couple of things have happened recently, which have really made me think. And laugh!

Firstly, my Dad posted this dedication to my sister Pet on Facebook this weekend:

Pet has arachnophobia. I would call it an ‘unnecessary’ fear to have in Germany, since the only really dangerous spiders we actually get here are the ones that hitch a ride the banana ship from South Africa (true story! This has actually happened!). However, since I myself also have a fear, my fear is of rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs… let’s just say rodents in general (oh yes, and ghosts! Shut up!), I sort of understand Pet’s pain. So, when I saw Dad’s dedication on facebook, my first thought was that Pet will never sleep again! I could just imagine my poor sister desperately trying to remember the last time she threw a shoe at a spider, and just how many spiders could possibly be lurking under her bed “remembering” the shoe incident! I am surprised she did not pick up the phone screaming: “Dad, there are spiders under my bed! I am going to die!” The story continued to play out in my head, with Dad, the hero, arriving in his army gear complete with grenades and black face paint, and ending with his taking the mini vacuum cleaner and sucking the bastard spider colony up. Then, once all is calm and Pet is able to set foot inside her room again, I would mention to her the fact that spiders are known to survive the vacuum! That of course would set off the entire frantic “I’m going to die!” phone call to dad again. Total random train of thought, but there it is. Since I am not shipping these days, I am using other coping mechanisms!

Other thing that happened. I was sitting at work, working (really!), when I heard this squeaking noise coming from the next desk over. It actually sounded like the squeaking of a door hinge. But, there is no door near that desk, nor is there anything else that could possibly have made that sound (or so I thought!). I considered the possibility of some weird sound throwing/travelling on the wind scientific stuff happening, and was glaring at the open door on the other side of the office when I heard the noise again. Squeakity-squeak-squeak. The door had not moved, the noise was definitely coming from the next desk over. So I turned to the guy sitting at the desk and was about to ask him if he heard the noise when he reached up and rubbed his eye and it squeaked! Seriously, the squeakity-squeak-squeak was my colleague ‘R’ rubbing his eye! I mentioned to him that this might not be normal and he may want to go to the doctor and have that checked out. Please. Before his eyeball popped out and rolled across the office! Ok, now this is the unbelievable part. I think I am going to have to google this, cos R has a tendency to spin a yarn. But anyway, his response to my concern (and I was concerned, remember – eyeball popping, rolling, squishy.....) was to tell me that he actually just came from the optometrist where they greased his eyes! Seriously! They greased his eyes! Um... so they roll around easier in the socket! Really! Ok, I agree, let’s google this one. However, the only thing I could think to tell R was that he needs more oil, he’s still squeaking!

He then told me that I now have 349 days till my 40^th birthday!

Anyway, since this is supposed to be a shipping blog, I have decided to post about a ship I am not sure we have mentioned before, but seems to be quite popular (statement based on a single google search!) Barney and Robin from How I Met Your Mother! Yeah, I like ‘em too! Actually, I like both characters, whether or not they are in a relationship with each other, or with someone else, or not at all.