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November 06, 2006
Supi Loco
It has been a long time since we've made new friends. Our time in Baltimore was great, in part, because of the people we met. You've read about the Westbrooks. Their qualifications as excellent people have been firmly established.
A few weeks ago we spent a very nice day with another good friend from Baltimore, Susan Marie Repko. I'm telling you her Christian name that you might know what to call her if you see her on the street. Now that she, Robbi, and I are good friends, we call her by another name. Supi Loco. Has a nice ring to it, huh?
Here' she is:
If curious, you may read about Susan's professional responsibilities here.
In addition to being smart, sassy, sexy, and easily startled, Susan travels in the company of a very fine cat named Scooter. Scooter has a reverse harelip (his bottom lip is missing), but Susan loves him anyway. Here's Scooter.
No, Scooter is not a Hasidic Jew. He just dressed up like one for Halloween this year. According to Susan, Scooter was a fairly good sport about it. Apparently, he was less sanguine about having to wear a Santa hat and matching sweater last Christmas.
In case any of you guys out there are wondering, Susan is available. But, being so incredibly desirable, is very picky. Those wishing to take her out on dates should submit a thoughtful five paragraph theme to me for review. I'll forward worthy candidates along to Scooter, who will make the final selection.
A few weeks ago, Susan came to visit our barn and see Chestertown. We had a pretty low-key day that involved sitting, eating, talking, and some walking. We took a walk in the local park and showed Susan the statue erected to Lucile, the beloved Chestertown goose who died earlier this year. The mayor presided over a funeral for Lucy and dedicated a sculpture to her memory. I'll take a picture and post it here at some point.
After a very fine lunch of pizza and salad from Proccolino's, we drove out to Eastern Neck Island, a nature preserve outside of Rock Hall, a town to the west of us on the Chesapeake Bay. There is a wooden boardwalk that leads across the wetlands to a small wooded island with a viewing platform.
I think the idea is that from the platform one should be able to view great flocks of birds. We've been there several times and have yet to see more than a few rather bored-looking birds. Nevertheless, Robbi and Susan did their best to view. The angle of the light was pleasing and we were not disappointed in spite of the lack of waterfowl.
After the non-viewing, we drove to another part of Eastern Neck and walked out on the long docks along the waterfront. We came upon a couple trying to catch crabs by dipping chicken necks on the end of ropes into the water along the pilings. They weren't having much luck, but seemed to be enjoying the glorious late afternoon as much as we were.
I tried to interest Iggy in the dock, but she was wary. She was more interested in standing on solid ground. She seemed agitated, like she had business to attend to elsewhere.
It sure was beautiful.
At one point, Susan thought she saw a ship full of pirates. She's awfully fond of pirates and is always hoping to see some.
What she thought was pirates turned out to be only Iggy.
Taking a dump.
So undignified. It's how she remains humble in spite of her noble bearing.
On the way home, Iggy contemplated the concurrent curses and blessings of being a dog.
When the sun fell, Susan headed home to Baltimore, promising to return again soon. Though she lives in the big city, Susan is drawn to the peacefulness of small town life. We've let her know that the couch in the barn is seldom occupied by anyone other than cats, which can be easily tossed aside in a pinch.
Why do we call her Supi Loco, you ask? Such is our fondness for Susan that we were anxious to demonstrate the depths of friendship by moving to the "nickname stage", the state of easy familiarity that usually takes years of struggle to achieve. These nicknames usually evolve from years of shared experience, banter, misunderstandings, hurt feelings, forgiveness, laughter, jealousy, screaming fits, deception, tearful reconciliations, etc. Having come late to our friendship with Susan, we are not willing to wade through all of this emotional flotsam just to arrive upon an organic nickname. We're ready to embrace the intimacy now. And so we set out to cultivate a proper moniker. What would we call her had we known her 15 years, we asked ourselves?
First we came up with Soup, an obvious derivative of Susan. Robbi and I debated its merits, found it adequate, and presented it to Susan for review. She was not entirely pleased, thinking the single syllable somewhat cursory and too likely to conjure images of Cambell's food products. The "y" was added to soften the clipped plosive of "Soup," but the problem of unwelcome eating associations were still a problem. It was Robbi who, in a fit of genius, decided to add the "Loco" and change the spelling of "Soupy" to "Supi." Though homonyms, the two words have very different implications when spelled out. We presented the revised version and Susan accepted. We haven't had the opportunity to use the new nickname in person yet, so the litmus of a live trial has yet to transpire. But I'm hopeful.
As for my nickhame? Susan calls me "Niles" due to my resemblance, so she claims, to the younger Doctor Crane on TV's Frasier.
I'm not sure that I see it, but the importance of a nickname is what it means to he who bestows it. Plus, given Susan's cheerful acceptance of Supi Loco, it would be unseemly of me to complain. Further, my resemblance to Niles, as far as Susan sees it, has more to do with my overall twitchiness. And my anal retentive, draconian management style. Most of Susan's experience with me was as a fellow manager at NCSDO, where I was known as an unyielding tyrant.
And to Susan, Robbi is Kato, which is her middle name and her Mother's maiden name. I'm not sure if there is greater significance in the Kato as far as Supi is concerned. I'll have to ask her.
Posted by bogenamp at November 6, 2006 10:33 AM