Thursday, August 16, 2007
Odd Avocations
I've always like the word "avocation" as a synonym for "hobby." I'm goofy that way. It's probably one of the reasons that people hate talking to me. One of many.
There's a woman I work with, whom I'll call Bertha. Bertha is a large woman. Not so much fat (though she could stand to lose weight) as large. She's in her 50s, close to 6 feet tall, and built like a brick shithouse. (Which are built quite solidly in case you didn't know.) She's a frightening woman. If this were a movie, she'd be the evil head of an orphanage. In fact, she probably narrowly lost out on the role of the Penguin in The Blues Brothers. She's the type of woman that you avoid pissing off and when you hear her say, "Fuck!" you get the hell out of her way. She's scary.
However, she has quite an odd avocation. She rides horses. In competitions. Or rather, she used to. Now she helps train them. Her daughter (of a similar stature) actually rides them now. For one thing, I can't imagine this woman being a mother. "Doting" isn't an adjective that usually pops into my mind when I think about Bertha. But I really can't imagine her training horses and being part of the "horse" culture. When I think of people who ride/train horses, I think of the Kennedy's. The cultural (and financial) elite. This woman doesn't seem to be either.
To make matters even more flabbergasting (it's a word), she trains the horses in ALABAMA! Um, what? Don't you live in Chicago? Yes she does. So every few weeks, she flies down to Alabama to be with the horses. Uh huh. I can't even make it to my family's cabin in Wisconsin that often, and it's just a 2.5 hour drive.
And that's what baffles me most. Fine, you like horses. You even like training and riding them. You own several of them. Wouldn't you want them, oh, I don't know, within 1000 miles of you? Could it possibly be cheaper to board the horses in Alabama and fly back every few weeks than it would be to board them in Chicago? Barrington has plenty of nice horse farms. Or maybe, you move a little closer to where the horses are.
It's just an odd choice of how to spend your time, which is what bothers me most. It's like someone from South Dakota being an avid sailor. Or someone in Florida who loves to snowmobile. That's fine if that's where your personal interests lie. But maybe you should move to where the action is. You know, so you can actually enjoy your avocation a little more frequently and with greater ease. I don't know. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the crazy one.
There's a woman I work with, whom I'll call Bertha. Bertha is a large woman. Not so much fat (though she could stand to lose weight) as large. She's in her 50s, close to 6 feet tall, and built like a brick shithouse. (Which are built quite solidly in case you didn't know.) She's a frightening woman. If this were a movie, she'd be the evil head of an orphanage. In fact, she probably narrowly lost out on the role of the Penguin in The Blues Brothers. She's the type of woman that you avoid pissing off and when you hear her say, "Fuck!" you get the hell out of her way. She's scary.
However, she has quite an odd avocation. She rides horses. In competitions. Or rather, she used to. Now she helps train them. Her daughter (of a similar stature) actually rides them now. For one thing, I can't imagine this woman being a mother. "Doting" isn't an adjective that usually pops into my mind when I think about Bertha. But I really can't imagine her training horses and being part of the "horse" culture. When I think of people who ride/train horses, I think of the Kennedy's. The cultural (and financial) elite. This woman doesn't seem to be either.
To make matters even more flabbergasting (it's a word), she trains the horses in ALABAMA! Um, what? Don't you live in Chicago? Yes she does. So every few weeks, she flies down to Alabama to be with the horses. Uh huh. I can't even make it to my family's cabin in Wisconsin that often, and it's just a 2.5 hour drive.
And that's what baffles me most. Fine, you like horses. You even like training and riding them. You own several of them. Wouldn't you want them, oh, I don't know, within 1000 miles of you? Could it possibly be cheaper to board the horses in Alabama and fly back every few weeks than it would be to board them in Chicago? Barrington has plenty of nice horse farms. Or maybe, you move a little closer to where the horses are.
It's just an odd choice of how to spend your time, which is what bothers me most. It's like someone from South Dakota being an avid sailor. Or someone in Florida who loves to snowmobile. That's fine if that's where your personal interests lie. But maybe you should move to where the action is. You know, so you can actually enjoy your avocation a little more frequently and with greater ease. I don't know. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the crazy one.
