Curious and curiouser
Jul. 4th, 2011 05:00 pmI haven't forgotten that I need to write about my Texas trip and Friday's Taste of Chicago/Loretta Lynn funtime, but first I have a more mundane event that I've been feeling the need to analyze.
Last Tuesday, I took a vacation day, primarily because I wanted some time to rest and recover from my travel adventures, but also because I needed to bring Weevil to the vet. He had an ingrown claw that needed to be tended to, and I didn't feel up to the task of clipping and cleaning this myself.
As I think I've mentioned on here before, capturing Weevil is a two-person job. With this in mind, I called my sister for a little help. Our joint effort took about ten minutes of chasing him around the house, but eventually she cornered him under my bed, I held the carrier open, and presto! Emo kitty was bagged and ready for delivery.
There was a short wait when we arrived at the vet's office, during which the vet techs and the receptionist made chit chat with us, and admired my sister's baby, Billy, who she had brought along for the ride.
One of the ladies asked for permission to interact with Baby Billy, and when my sister gave the go-ahead she knelt down to makes faces at him and squeeze his chubby legs.
"He's such a gorgeous boy!" she exclaimed.
My sister thanked her and said. "He's entered in a contest for Chicago's most huggable baby. If you visit the website for WLIT you can vote for him!"
She then proceeded to grab a tissue from the communal box that was available, and wrote down the contest URL and Billy's name as it appeared on his entry. She handed it to the lady. "Here's the website. Voting only takes like two minutes. And if he wins he gets $1000!"
I found this whole exchange really interesting, because it was a textbook example of the contrast between my and my sister's personality.
Whereas I would have felt self-conscious about self-promoting or requesting assistance from a total stranger, my sister didn't think twice about it. For her it was a matter of course that this lady would agree to help.
And I'm not saying there was anything wrong or bad in her approach. It was just so different from how I engage with the world. She's always been really good at getting people to do things for her. I've always taken great pride in my self-reliance (with the exception of matters related to the emo kitty!).
I dunno, I guess I'm just trying to figure out how it works out that way. We share DNA and the same upbringing, and yet you'd never know from observing us that we're related. I suppose birth order and being from different generations have something to do with it....
Last Tuesday, I took a vacation day, primarily because I wanted some time to rest and recover from my travel adventures, but also because I needed to bring Weevil to the vet. He had an ingrown claw that needed to be tended to, and I didn't feel up to the task of clipping and cleaning this myself.
As I think I've mentioned on here before, capturing Weevil is a two-person job. With this in mind, I called my sister for a little help. Our joint effort took about ten minutes of chasing him around the house, but eventually she cornered him under my bed, I held the carrier open, and presto! Emo kitty was bagged and ready for delivery.
There was a short wait when we arrived at the vet's office, during which the vet techs and the receptionist made chit chat with us, and admired my sister's baby, Billy, who she had brought along for the ride.
One of the ladies asked for permission to interact with Baby Billy, and when my sister gave the go-ahead she knelt down to makes faces at him and squeeze his chubby legs.
"He's such a gorgeous boy!" she exclaimed.
My sister thanked her and said. "He's entered in a contest for Chicago's most huggable baby. If you visit the website for WLIT you can vote for him!"
She then proceeded to grab a tissue from the communal box that was available, and wrote down the contest URL and Billy's name as it appeared on his entry. She handed it to the lady. "Here's the website. Voting only takes like two minutes. And if he wins he gets $1000!"
I found this whole exchange really interesting, because it was a textbook example of the contrast between my and my sister's personality.
Whereas I would have felt self-conscious about self-promoting or requesting assistance from a total stranger, my sister didn't think twice about it. For her it was a matter of course that this lady would agree to help.
And I'm not saying there was anything wrong or bad in her approach. It was just so different from how I engage with the world. She's always been really good at getting people to do things for her. I've always taken great pride in my self-reliance (with the exception of matters related to the emo kitty!).
I dunno, I guess I'm just trying to figure out how it works out that way. We share DNA and the same upbringing, and yet you'd never know from observing us that we're related. I suppose birth order and being from different generations have something to do with it....