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I saw Tracey at the library yesterday. She’s our local checkout chick who is doing a part-time PhD in performing arts (online). I was a bit surprised. Usually on her days off she likes to chill out shopping at the shopping centre where she works. She explained that she was looking for the book they are all talking about, about the bonking historian. I said I didn’t know she was interested in history. She said she isn’t really but she thought the bits about him and his research assistants in the stacks could be useful in her academic career.
Her mum was with her, she’s the one with Alzheimer’s. She seemed to be a bit on edge while Tracey was trying to find the book which, by the way, she couldn’t because it’s been so popular and she had to place a reservation. Tracey said that Nic and Hugh and Cate and Andrew and Baz are planning to turn it into a musical.
I asked if she was taking her mum shopping and Tracey said no. She (the old lady) was excited because she was going blogging.
It seems that sometimes Tracey reserves a computer at the library for the old lady then drops her off to blog for an hour or two while she (Tracey) goes shopping. Although the maximum time you can reserve one for “research” is an hour, after the old lady has been on it for a while no-one is too keen to take over the computer before the trainee librarians dry it off and sponge the swivel chair – so Tracey doesn’t have to hurry back to pick up her up. That’s why they use the library, Tracey said.
The kids won’t let the old lady use their computers at home because the drool clogs the keyboards, makes their mice stick and does funny things to their chips. The library doesn’t seem to notice. It’s a very caring sort of place, Tracey says.
Before she leaves Tracey is always careful to log her mum onto the blog site she particularly likes. If she doesn’t she said odd things can happen when the old lady goes surfing. One day she forgot and when she came back she found her mum in an adult chat room making plans to run away from home with a Tibetan lesbian from Launceston. They were planning to move to Mykonos. I said that I was surprised the old lady could spell Mykonos and Tracey said she’s a dab with the spellchecker.
Anyway, I said that I was also surprised that the old lady was interested in blogging. Tracey said that she’s very good at it. The blogging site had a funny name and Tracey said that she was one of its stars. Tracey told me the name that her mum uses to blog with but I’ve forgotten what it was though it had a vaguely familiar ring to it. I’m sure I’ve heard it before. I said that I was extra surprised that someone with Alzheimer’s was blogging but Tracey said they all do it. Which, when you think about it, explains a lot.
I asked after her partner Bruce but Tracey seemed a bit vague. I wonder if anything has happened.
More Tracey:
Australiaphobia – the movie not by Baz Luhrmann
