aimee epitome of incomprehensibility Earlier in the month, I met someone at a craft gathering in the Plateau and it turns out, by an odd coincidence, that she lives a block away from me. You have to go far to meet people close by. "I know hardly anyone in the neighbourhood who's my age," she said. I'm three years older - close enough. The Saturday before last, we went for a walk, the dog accompanying us, or rather pulling me around. Shiloh was quite chaotic at first, and I feared my temporary lack of control over his motion and mine made me look silly. I also feared that Aimee would think me immature for still living with my parents here while she and her boyfriend have their own place, part of which they've converted into a studio for music lessons. Silly fears; things went well, she was chatty, and we talked about art and music and having to avoid or not avoid exes. But then a week later, when I texted her three things at once - the first two links to things we talked about, the last just "Have a good [whatever it was...evening, weekend, appendectomy]" - she didn't answer, so I'm left fearing I made some faux pas. Maybe it wasn't the texting etiquette at all. Maybe she saw me afterwards doing something made me seem unworthy of replying to. Picking up cans on the ground as if I were poor? ...but not on that street; picking my nose? ...from the bathroom window?; putting a semicolon after a question mark; semicolon; semicolon; semicolon. Waking_with_worries, small worries, even when you tell yourself don't_lose_sleep_over_that. 250925 ... e_o_i ...leaving out the word "that" - that's the problem. 250925 ... e_o_i My fears were silly. I mean, I feel like my texting style *was* too informational, and when things are like that, the other person might not know how to respond if they don't care about that information...but anyway, she said she looked up the orchestra stuff but then forgot to answer because things were busy. How do I know? I saw her in person. When I texted her about going for a walk this past Saturday, she answered pretty quickly and things were arranged. Unlike two weeks ago, the walk had three people and zero dogs. Well, very temporarily one dog. Aimee brought her partner along - a quieter person, but happy to talk about his music a little; Mom and Dad were just coming back from walking Shiloh, and when they handed him to me, he refused to walk much more, so I brought him back. So yes, they got to meet my parents, and then Aimee made a standing offer to stop in and take the dog for a walk if our house's inhabitants were away. This was a problem with the Maxville Highland Games in August; we couldn't stay long because the dog was waiting alone at home, but at least Dad swapped cars with his friend so we didn't have to stop to charge. I Sing the Body Non-Electric, I glory in the joy of gasoline... Anyway, we talked about good and bad ways that music conductors corrected mistakes. And then good and bad ways editors could edit writing. Things that apply to both: -offer options -don't be pushy -don't be mean in your corrections, or you'll give people a bad feeling about the enterprise in general Sensible humans! And they have a cat. 250929 what's it to you? who go blather from