November 2007 Archives

so this afternoon when i came home from a crap load of grading at the office (still not done), we decided to take the dogs on a walk.

we now have two dogs... one is ours, the other is my aunt and uncle's dog... a pent up cocker spaniel.  the walk lasted a good 40 minutes and was at a fast pace.  there was one problem... i lost my keys in the process.  so i doubled back to look for them.  no sign of my keys.

i do not lose my keys.  ever.  so this is terribly frustrating to me.  you have no idea what we had to go through to get back into the house.  it involved four different households.  so this week, i am making about a bagillion copies of our house key... want one?

since i am complaining about thanksgiving, i thought i would share a story that has nothing to do with thanksgiving.  just because.

a few weeks ago in class, we (my students and i) were discussing a poem.  for prep, the students needed to come up with the qualities of a lamb based on preconceived notions.  so, while the students are doing this in groups, i do the same thing.  it is only fair that i participate.

they start compiling a list of qualities, naive, innocent, sweet, young, soft, white, etc.  they did really well.  but deep down inside, i was slightly disappointed that no one came up with delicious.  le sigh.  they all shook their heads when i made this suggestion.  they take poetry way too seriously.

so i don't get thanksgiving.  i am probably more unamerican than t because he loves it more than most.  it's the food, not the thanks.

i did not really grow up in a big thanksgiving family.  most of my memories were not of this big elaborate meal that had hundreds of people.  it was not this big fun/stressful/awesome family gathering, it was just a turkey, stuffing, and a bunch of other things i hate eating.

that's right.  i said it.  i hate eating that crap.  i don't like turkey (except my mom's and even then i am on a limited turkey diet), sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce.  the other stuff, well, it's salad and dessert and appetizers.  what the hell? 

so here is my ideal thanksgiving menu: a pig roast, with cornbread pudding, egg noodles, salad, deviled eggs, potato salad (mustard based not mayo-based), dips and chips, asparagus, an assortment of cheeses, etc.  but you see... do you see the problem?  what i just described?  that isn't thanksgiving, that's the 4th of july!

(looking at a quarter of washington state)

him:  whatcha looking at?

me: a quarter i haven't seen yet.

him: let me see.

(he takes quarter from my hand and inspects it)

him:  look at the dolphin.

me: eyebrows raised.  or a salmon?

him:  it looks like a dolphin.

me: eyebrows still raised.  or a salmon?

him:  i guess dolphins would be in florida.

me:  yes, yes they would.  and salmon would be in washington.

for the record, it does not look like a dolphin.

we went to the movies this evening to see gone baby gone.  this movie has been recommended to me by quite a few people.  now, you know this is an excellent movie if i refuse to get up to go pee half way through the thing.  i'm just saying.  i held it until the end.

i think the thing that pleased me about this movie was the perspective on truth.  normally i am all about character development in a movie but in this case, it is about perspective and how so many people can be right at the same time.  this ethical dilemma certainly gets me going and makes me realize why i agreed with so many different characters at the same time.

i will take a stand on one thing, i think you should go see the movie.

two things happened this evening.

1.  we went to the postsecret talk on campus this evening.  this site has certainly been a guilty pleasure of mine, every sunday morning for a while now.  not to mention, i look at it throughout the week to think about the things that compel people to a) keep that a secret and b) confess.  i find some of them interesting since i can't relate to them.  some break my heart.  some bring tears to my eyes.  and yet, others make me smile or laugh.  and i will even admit it, a lot of them make me feel good about myself because i realize how good i have it.

2.  apparently, buying two lightbulbs over the weekend for what i thought was $14 turned out to be a $459 experience unbeknownst to me.  can you say JESUS!?!?!  at the moment, i am still shaken because i don't like it when money comes out of my acct and i didn't benefit from it.  i can justify a car payment, mortgage, bills, coffee, maid, etc, because i get something out of those withdrawals.  but $459 for two lightbulbs?!?!?!  um, am i missing something?  like, a lot of lumber, new carpeting, and an inflatable santa to put across the street on our ghetto neighbors lawn...  say it with me JESUS!?!?!?!

i love voting.  i am not really sure why i love it as much as i do but voting tuesday is the best.  and hopefully i backed a winner.

but i wonder if you do the same thing i do, which is check my ballot a 1000 times because i am paranoid that i cast a vote for the other person.  i do.  i say the name over and over again and double check it, and then check it again.  i think it would be so sad to vote for someone i didn't mean to by accident.  shudder.

i have recently been looking and reading all of my favorite blogs through google reader. this is a new thing for me and keeps me from typing all the addresses in from memory. amazingly, i could do it quite efficiently, but this annoyed my uber-efficient german husband since a better way exists.

one of the things that i love reading is spoilers. for me, the art of a tv show (i only read spoilers for tv shows) is not in its ability to surprise me, but in its clever way of getting to a twist within the plot. it is the dialogue, it is the character development, etc. this may explain why i like pushing daisies so much, since it has a narrator.

i bet you are wondering what my first paragraph has to do with my second, aren't you?

well, today, the two converged and made me giggle in fits: