Seasons are Different

I have a couple little anecdotes about seasons for your reading enjoyment. Both take place with the fabulous people I work with in the clinic.

Autumn:
We got a new computer in our office! Now we can chart information and sum receipts and print-out signs... lots of good things. During the first days of the new computer, I glanced up and literally gasped out loud when I saw that the desktop background was a picture of autumn in the United States. It's that picture that comes with Windows, you know, the one with the bright red maple leaves overhanging a rustic-looking lane with a wooden fence? Anyway, about a week later the background picture was changed to something else, which made me a little bit sad. I said, "What happened to the picture of autumn?" and one of the girls said, "Oh we can find it again!" She promptly put up a picture of a spring tree with new green leaves. "Autumn, right?" I said, "No... springtime." Next, she put up a picture of yellow tulips. "Autumn?" "No, spring again." At this point I was chuckling and said I could find the picture. I quickly did, and when it was up on the desktop again, she said, "Oh no, that's a picture of a tree with all red blossoms like we have here in the summer." Hahaha. An attempt to explain color-changing leaves and bare winter branches ensued. She couldn't believe that the trees had nothing on them in winter, and I think she mostly chalked up what I was saying to lack of Spanish skills and lunacy. Oh, well - I thought it was pretty funny.

Winter:
We broke out the office Christmas decorations last week. We now have a reindeer in a sweater and holding a pair of skis sitting on the reception desk. There's also purple and gold garlands hung everywhere that remind me more of Mardi Gras than Christmas, but they're festive nonetheless. One slow morning this week, I decided to do my own decoration contribution by cutting a couple snowflakes out of white paper. This has inspired a craze, and now I'm teaching snowflake-cutting to people right and left. Everyone is so pleased when they make a few triangular cuts and out comes a beautifully lacy piece of paper - you gotta admit, that moment of opening a freshly-cut snowflake is pretty thrilling. At the beginning, I took the opportunity to explain that we make these for winter, not necessarily for Christmas, because they represent snow. I went on to say that no two snowflakes are identical, and neither are the ones we make out of paper. Etc. Etc. But then people, and most often the nurse, started asking me why I make them out of white paper, which doesn't contrast enough with the white walls. I reiterated my snow explanation, but after several days of having basically the same conversation I gave up. The nurse wants me to make several extra-big snowflakes out of bright green and red paper and then string them up from their centers and hang them from the ceiling. I think this will have more of a jungle effect than a snow effect... but that's fine! I think I'll call it the Jungle Pointsettia look...

So the moral of the story is: Seasons are different in different parts of the world. I'm having a wonderful time working and learning in a tropical Fall and Christmas season. But please step on a crunchy leaf and eat a falling snowflake for me! xo!