Last night I was in a particularly prickly mood - end of work week, tired, discouraged, tired, etc. - and Capt. SO was feeling similarly inspired with life so after dinner we each went our separate ways in the condo. He retreated to comfy furniture in the lower level and his favorite cable channel, AMC. His and my tastes in television programs are polar opposites, and that is as opposite as one can get with another so I remained upstairs and retreated to my office sanctuary. Being toasty and warm, surrounded by my favorite and familiar belongings, my stress began to dissipate and my creative juices and natural curiosity returned. After accomplishing some routine office tasks that needed completion, I turned my attention to anything on my desk that smelled even remotely 'fun'. My eye fell to a recent copy of a magazine whose content reflects a certain age level and up. Several days ago, while flipping through the pages, I had discovered its crossword puzzle page and had folded the magazine to mark that page.
With number one across filled in successfully, I was hooked and I knew I'd be working on it until either the cows came home, I had completed the entire puzzle or I took my last breath. One of the three possibilities.....it was just too early in the evening to know which one. I muddled through all that I could fill in without thinking and then went back to those 'clues' that would require a bit more thought, when one caught my eye: Number 18 down......divagation. Now I know what a diva is. In fact, a direct descendant of mine is a diva so I thought I had this one down. To me, this was a no-brainer, as they say. Of course, the answer would have to have something to do with the action or actions of a female. There were six spaces given and I knew that the first letter was a 'd' (I peeked) so I began thinking of a six-letter word having to do with female performing personalities that began with a 'd'. Try as I might, I could not come up with an answer and subsequent words filled in did little to help. As a last resort, I turned to.....you guessed it.....my Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the word divagate has nothing to do with divas. Divagate means to wander, detour (the word the puzzle was looking for), diverge or digress (Something I am very good at, I must confess.).
I found myself with a burst bubble. I thought, for sure, when my direct descendant behaved as a diva, that I would be able to say to her, "Are you going to divagate, right here, right now?" or, "Can you save your divagation for later?" I realize that neither of these comments would serve any real, constructive purpose but they would have been fun to utter and might have, at least, elicited a look of curiosity from her.
For now, I must be content knowing that I have not divagated from my practice of blogging about nothing in particular and all things trivial. Before I close, I must ask one pressing question: Is it possible to divagate from divagation?
Ancora imparo
