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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Another reason for my husband to look at me askance

I found a random note in one of the travel guides my husband checked out of the library for our trip.

"Apologies for the delay, Kirsten, your email got a little lost in all the
others!!

Where to go:
Jacobite steam railway (Harry Potter)
Jacobite Cruises on Loch Ness (can book those from here)
Glen Coe
Culloden
Mallaig
And more places that you can shake a stick at.

If you are into geology and stuff like that then Natural Treasures in
Corpach near here is a good place to spend a little time
Mountain biking on the hills and trails
Quad bikes at Fersit
Ice Wall at Kinloch Leven

Hows that for starters?"

(I typed that verbatim, do not pester me with spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.)

These sorts of things mystify, bother, and entertain me all at once. Who wrote it? Why? What's the story? Did it all work out in the end?? Did Kirsten have a good time? Or she still wandering the mountains around Scotland? Did the writer really mean that Kirsten can shake a stick at these sights or is that a typo? I envision Kirsten, a little old woman with a cane, who loves Harry Potter, climbing the mountains around Glencoe so she can shake her stick at the sheep.

I can amuse myself for hours on end filling in the blanks and then because it's only fun if you can share these ideas, I babble at my husband, who would much rather find somewhere to live while he's in Holland for a semester abroad (he leaves in two weeks and may have to sleep in the car if he doesn't find something soon) than listen to me spin yarns about people I don't know and will never meet. (Note: normally he loves to listen to me yammer, but he's a little stressed, you know.)

Anyone else find these notes and wonder about who wrote them? I'm particularly fond of things written inside the covers of used books. Things like: "Dear Bitty, Thanks for all the peaches!" Who the heck is Bitty? Peaches?? Why would you write that in a book?

Then there was the death notice in the Ærø newspaper. Translated from Danish it reads:

"Our dear Annette has suddenly died."

That's it. No dates. Nothing. Some names of whoever placed the obit came after, but no last names and no relationships mentioned. For all I know, Annette was the beloved family fish!

Ah, it doesn't take much to entertain me, does it?


4 comments:

  1. There was one in our local paper that said: '(so and so) has AT LAST found peace and died on (such and such day)thanks to all of those who cared about (so and so) Med Venlig Hilsen (another so and so).

    Odd.

    I blabber too, it's so I cannot hear my inner stillness.

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  2. Just the other day my mom found a boarding pass in the book she borrowed from the library, so we wondered about where she went and why. It's fun.

    Where will your hubby be studying? I used to date a guy who was getting his PhD at Delft University, so I spent considerable time in Delft, Amsterdam, The Hague....

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  3. Your life is SO much more exciting than mine...I never find books with notes in them, not even a single underlined sentence or a scrawl. But yeah, I love little leads that can make my imagination go wild.
    I think the note in your book was put there by a lonely person with no friends, he probably likes to sit in his cold room reading about places he will never go to ( it is always a he and 32 years old) He put in the note during his weekly exciting trip to the library. He hopes someone will get curious about kirsten, since there is no address for kirsten, they will try to trace him through the library records of who last borrowed the book. And that is how he will meet the love of his life. But there is no kristen, so he will go back on the internet, try to find a girl named kristen to make friends with so he can introduce her to you as his friend

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  4. Okay, this post made me miss you so damn much I almost exploded. And I just moved into a new clean house and I don't know who would clean up that mess.

    You and I must, MUST, MUST set up a skype date.

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Keep it clean, don't be mean....