Drug talk

"You have to drug them," I explained to my friend "I" last evening when she and her husband were over for dinner.  "My G-d, you're a pharmacist, you should know about drugs!"  We both laughed.  We were talking about my potted flowers on the patio. 

"What do you use on yours?" I asked.  "Just dirt," she replied.  Oh forget that, I explained, "You have to use Miracle Grow Starter when you plant them, then regular Miracle Grow every two weeks and your flowers will be as gorgeous as mine."  And I have to confess, they are gorgeous.  Having hardened off, thanks to brutal, unpredictable and callous Calgarian conditions, they are  defiantly starting to bloom away.  Here are a few snaps:

 

 



This last one is the field of wild Prairie grasses we enjoy behind our house -- where the coyotes play. 

"I" and I also kicked the latest HRT theories around the living room.  Having been on the patch for 17 years, I have consistently ignored one study after another, telling women HRT is harmful, not harmful, beneficial, cancer-causing, toxic..........you name it, I ignored them all.  Her professional opinion?  Stay on the patch.  Things have again come full circle. 

These friends are Nigerian and I asked her about the Trayvon (sp?) Martin case and Obama's statements about race.  "The black culture in the US is completely different from ours," she said.  "We don't relate at all."  And Nigerians don't.  "Why would he say he could connect with a black man in an elevator who causes a white woman to clutch her purse more tightly?" she asked.  "He's the president of the United States, not some guy from 'the hood'," she added.  I completely agreed with her.  I think our friends feel embarrassed to be racially-linked to American blacks protesting a legal verdict in the public thoroughfare.

Born in Nigeria, but raised in the United States, she told me the culture she most identified with was Nigerian.  "But I am a Canadian first, even though I also identify as Nigerian."  When I look at my friend, I do not see "colour" and feel comfortable asking her black questions, cultural questions and racial questions -- something I would not dare ask an American black.  As to my own cultural identity?  "The Ottawa Valley all the way."  Nonetheless, we are both now proud Calgarians.