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 |  My American Notebooks |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** When Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing, he kept a series of journals, The American Notebooks. They were part daily journal, part diary, but mostly a place for him to jot down and try out bits of writing he hadn't a full venue for yet. He kept character sketches, odd bits of conversation, and observances he wanted to remember for future writings in his notebooks. This, then, is my place for odd bits I want to remember. When you read this, keep in mind, you are rummaging through my mental storehouse. Check out:
And don't forget to vote for your favorite blogger each month. 
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| Early spring is both my favorite and my least favorite time of year. I love it because we are coming out of winter (which, while I love it and moved to Montana for the snow and cold, I am usually ready for warmer weather). I also hate it because springtime in the Rocky Mountains is so unpredictable. On Tuesday and Wednesday I opened up my house, we shut off the heat (we thought for the year  ) and I wore shorts and went barefoot. Yesterday it snowed over a foot. No, I'm not kidding. I've got on snowboots right now. And my winter coat. ~sigh~ We turned the heat back on because it's supposed to be like this until next week sometime.Before it started snowing again, it rained. Alot. So I've decided one way to head off those springtime blues is to hold a blog contest.  That's right folks. Dust off those brains! GP's up for grabs. Possibly even Merit Badges. Big prizes for all comers. The rules? Write a story at least 300 words long that begins al la Snoopy with the dreaded sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night." That should also be the title of your story. Link it here in the comments section of this entry as a {bitem:}. Have fun. And above all, ENTERTAIN ME! I'm depressed from the weather!  I almost forgot. The deadline for the entries is May 2 at midnight. |
| Hi, Teresa. I'm here to confess my latest addiction.  It started out innocently enough. There I was shopping in WalMart, browsing the aisles. I've confessed before that WalMart is one of my Happy Places. When I'm feeling down I go there and browse. Just walking up and down the aisles makes me feel good for some reason. Calms me. (I don't know why it works, it just does. And no, other places don't work for me, just WalMart. ~shrug~ I'd bottle it if I could.) Anyway...There I was in the computer games when I felt it calling out to me. I'd ignored it's siren call before, but this time, I pulled it down from the shelf and looked at it, really looked. I read the blurbs. I read the whole package. And then I did the unthinkable. I put it in my cart. I told myself it was only $20 and my birthday is coming up. It could be my gift to myself. "Who knows, you probably won't like it." The lie to myself came easily. Once I got it home I almost didn't open it. Then I checked out the website. Lots of patches and updates. Hmmm. This would take a long time to load. "School's almost out," I told myself. "You aren't taking summer school. You'll have lots of down time this summer. You can play then." Now I was up to bargaining with myself. Addiction is a slippery slope, indeed. I loaded it (with help from a tech friend from school. ) Then I was off and running. Oh the joy! The soaring high from it. I WALLOWED in it, like any good addict. Even now, as I type this, I want to hurry and finish so that I can click on that little circled "W" icon and go play. I have quests to finish. I have skills to perfect. I have herbs to gather. I have beasts to kill. I have friends to make. My name is Teresa. I am addicted to World of Warcrack, er, Warcraft. Find me on there, I'm a level 12 Druid Night Elf. My name in the game is Rynale. Though I hope to level up again tonight.  I gotta go. This addict needs her fix. |
| Sixteen years ago, before Hubby and I met, Hubby had a one night stand with a girl he knew slightly. He didn't see her again, until...nine months later, she contacted him and asked him to take a paternity test and then sign their daughter over for adoption. Hey, it happens. And yes, I knew about it. We had full disclosure on our first date. He got to tiptoe through all my baggage; I got a good look at all his. (Yeah, and he still married me. Go figure! )Anyhoo....back to my story. The adoption was an open adoption. He has stayed in touch with his daughter's mother over the years so that if his daughter ever wanted to, she could contact him. Last week she contacted him. Her adoptive parents live in England and she has been in touch with her biological mother her whole life. (Who is from Colorado, I'm not sure where she lives now.) So, the upshot of my little story is that last night, we broke the news to Monilad that she technically isn't an only child. She has a sort-of sister (we haven't figured out the relationship yet) who is sort-of British. What she DOESN'T know, and I suppose it's about time to tell her, is that she has sisters from her biological father, too. Yeah...try drawing my child's family tree. By the time you get through the half siblings and adoptions, you get totally lost. I do anyway.I suppose no child is an island. She seems to be taking it well for now. We'll see what happens when Lina (that's what I've decided to call her in here, but it's not her real name any more than Monilad is my daughter's real name) comes for a visit. Yeah...that's already in the works. Monilad is just over a year older than her. Crazy, huh? I love life's curveballs. |
| I have Chemistry at 10 am and Biology at noon. In between, I sometimes go to the library, get coffee and study or read or just goof around on the internet (today it's the internet). When I came into the library, I noticed a sign for a guest speaker at noon. It's Montana poet laureate Greg Pape. So, instead of going to Biology (which is a boring TA guest lecturer anyway), I think I'm going to sit and listen to some poetry. I'll edit this after the reading with my general feel for his poetry. I've never been to a poetry reading before. I love expanding my horizons. Here is the official state website for him: http://art.mt.gov/resources/resources_poetlaureate.asp ~~~~~~~~ Apparently it's National Poetry Month. Did not know that.  I love Montana. Greg is dressed in faded jeans and a white button down shirt. The first poem was about childhood, it was titled, "Blood and Perfection." It was a prose poem. It was a story about an odd happening in his childhood. The second was titled "Lunch in Lima." It seems there is only one place in Lima, MT, to have lunch, Jan's Cafe. It was a little dark, about life in a small depressed Montana town. About the wind and the winter. The third was, "The Spell of the Bitterroot." It was a political poem about river access. Greg is a proponent of free access and the poem reflects that. The next was a character sketch titled "Lar and Deer." It was not my favorite. "Not like a dream of freedom" was a poem about a women's prison where he taught poetry. "Peaches" was about working in a peach orchard in Fresno in the late sixties/early seventies. "Party Time" was about partying. I wasn't a fan. The final poem was about "Aunt Godiva." It was a modern interpretation of the story of Lady Godiva. I enjoyed the poetry, but he isn't my new favorite author. I found his work interesting, but not transcendent. It was all very commonplace. Most of it was prose poetry and as a rule, I'm not a fan of that style. I'm not insistent on rhyming and couplets, but I do like a little more structure to my poetry. Oh, well, to each their own. I am, however, glad I stayed and listened. This was infinitely preferable to listening to that TA say "Uh, um." fifteen times a minute. |
I always get a little cabin fever-ish this time of year. Stupid freaking spring snow storms.  It's snowed around a foot here. (No hyperbole for story tension. It's snowed an actual measurable foot here today.  ) Luckily the ground is warmed up enough that it is melting a little from the bottom and the roads are keeping clear for the most part. Just a big ole wet spring snow storm. Nothing to see here folks...move along. It's just that the birds and trees start teasing me in late March and April. I put away the snow brushes, heavy coat, winter gloves and nifty tasseled hat and Mother Nature giggles at me and sends something like this. So this morning I had to dig all that crap back out. Cursing and running late to class. This year instead of planning a garden, we are planning long term weed kill strategies. Every year, I plant a pretty wildflower garden on the east side of my backyard. Every year, the thistle that already live there take the damn thing over. Well, not this year! Nope. This year, I'm not bothering with the damn garden. Instead, with all the seriousness of planning land war strategies, Hubby and I are discussing how to take out the Canadian Thistle that has massed for a major offensive in our backyard. Today I discussed it with my Biology Lab TA (he is getting his Master's in Ecology). My TA explained that just like aspens, Canadian Thistle is a rhisome that forms a huge colony of roots underground. Pulling it up plant by plant doesn't kill it. You have to have a strategy to kill the whole plant. Hmmm. We don't want to use commercial herbicides because of Bear. (And Sofie, too!) We also don't think that it's safe to put heavy duty chemicals into the ground water table like that. My TA explained that there are "safe" herbicides to use. So safe the reps who sell them will even drink them.  I think that's creepy. Yum! Have a tall glass of plant poison!I'm going to have to research it some more. One sure fire way to kill anything, though, is to smother it. Our neighbor just replaced her carpet and has all the old carpet rolled up in her garage. I think we are going to ask her if we can have some of it to lay out on the larger areas of infestation. Grow through a couple of layers of Harvest Gold shag, you stupid thistle!!But, until this damn snow stops, we are still in the drawing board stage. |
| OK, I did like I promised. Here is the Vegas album: Invalid Photo #1019555 I wrote stuff on most of the pics, so I'm not going to blog it. The movie last night was good, but I'm still not sure what the takeway message was. Hubby and I debated about it for the rest of the night. I'd recommmend it, though. |
I think it's finally Spring here in the frozen north.  All but one persistent pile of snow out by my north facing front door is gone. (Except in the mountains--the ski areas are still open.) It was beautiful today for Monilad's first trackmeet. A lovely spring day for her to be running along in second place of her heat of the 300m hurdles and then trip on the last hurdle and sprain her ankle and miss all her other races for the day. She is her mother's child. On the good news side, we don't THINK it's broken. We'll know more after some of the swelling has gone down. Right now it's the prettiest shades of purple and blue and about the size of a softball. I'll bet by tomorrow we'll have some of those yellows and greens that are sooooo attractive. Tonight I have a hot date with Hubby. We are going out to see that new Nicholas Cage movie "Knowing." It looks pretty good. We both like SciFi/Adventure. Afterward we are headed off to the newly refurbished Bozeman Hot Springs. (I think I blogged about the fire they had there last year.) This marks the second weekend since they re-opened. I got the good news that I was approved for loans for college today. Whew! I was sweating it out. It's time to register for the fall, but I didn't want to until we had the money secured. It's so FREAKING expensive to go nowadays. Oh, well. The only catch is I have to go full time. I'm worried about that. I'm going eleven hours now, so I guess twelve wouldn't be that different, but, honestly? Eleven is kind of kicking my ass. I know I keep promising to put up Vegas photos, but...well, truthfully? I suck. I have them all downloaded onto my computer now, so maybe I'll do it later tonight or tomorrow. I don't have any homework this weekend. OK. I'll be good and do it tomorrow. Tonight I have that hot date. And hey, who knows...later I might get lucky!  |
| I'm never flying again. And not because the flights were bad. (They were fine, except for the landing in Bozeman. ) It's because every time I sit on an airplane, I get the seat next to Typhoid Mary. Here's a thought, folks. If you are sick, STAY THE HELL HOME. Don't travel and share your germs with a plane load of captive people who have no choice but to breathe your recycled air for several hours. We got home on Saturday evening. Sunday night I was sick with the flu. By Thursday I was sick with bronchitis, a sinus infection AND a double ear infection. REALLY?!?! Was that some kind of sick punishment for me going to Vegas and enjoying myself? If so, that's just mean. I had a Chemistry test this Tuesday, but I had missed several classes and didn't understand any of the material. I was, sadly enough, happy with the 48 I got on the test. I went back and re-read the syllabus and I remembered correctly. If I do better on the Final, he'll replace our worst grade with the grade we get on the Final. Yea! Surely I can get better than a 48 on the Final. ~fingers crossed~I haven't downloaded any of my pics off my camera yet. I've been in bed for almost two weeks. Today is the first day since we got back that I don't feel like crap. I have two papers due next week and a Biology test on Monday, so I probably won't get to it this weekend. Or maybe I will. I might need a break from boring scientific writing and studying. (There aren't any action verbs in scientific writing.  )We did have lots of fun while we were there. Hubby did really well at the poker tables, I won over $150 at the penny slots and we saw Ka (another Cirque du Soliel show) as well as the other shows. Lots of fun. We walked the strip Friday. (I think that's one of the reasons I got so sick, I wore myself out! We probably walked 5 miles in the heat. I'm not used to that kind of exhertion.) We plan on going back as soon as we can. Who knows? Maybe this weekend is the weekend I hit the Powerball. Then you guys can come, too. |
| Ah. It's clear, sunny and a fabulous 75 plus out by the pool here at the MGM. A far cry from the ten degrees we were having in Montana last week. Hubby is up at the poker tables and I'm holding my own at the penny slots. The buffet this morning was yummy. Crisp bacon, made to order omlette, fresh fruits, melt in your mouth little Belgian waffles with delectible blueberry topping, creamy cheese blintzes. We ate WAY too much. Last night we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We've never seen one before, but have heard of them. It was too bad Monilad wasn't with us, she'd have loved it. It was like having dinner in the middle of the jungle. There were animatronic animals all around the room that moved and made noises randomly. An elephant that would stamp his foot, swish his ears and move his trunk while trumpteting. A leopard who would swish his tail and swipe his paw as he growled at you. There were several waterfalls placed around the room, too. The bar area was a giant mushroom. Water dripped like raindrops off the edges of the mushroom into a little trough that ringed it. If you sat at the bar, the barstools were shaped like animals so that it looked like you were riding an animal. Lions, zebras, parrots, elephants, tigers. It was so creative and colorful. As we entered, there was a giant dual aquariam. It was two huge cylinders I'd guess that were about ten feet tall and six feet across that were connected overhead by a long half cylinder that had water in it that the fish could swim through also, like a bridge between the tanks. I didn't have my camera with me last night, but I want us to go back when I do. They were salt water tanks and the fish were huge and colorful. We waited about fifteen minutes in line for a table, but didn't mind because there were so many things to look at. While we are here we are going to see Phantom of the Opera on Thursday. (That's for Hubby -- he loves opera. I like it, too, but he really likes it.) On Tuesday, we are going to see Cirque du Soleil's Mystere'. (That's for me. I LOVE Cirque du Soleil shows. I try to watch them anytime they are on TV.) On Wednesday, we are going on a day long tour of Hoover Dam. That's for both of us. (Mostly Hubby. ) We MIGHT go see Ka another Cirque du Soliel show here at the MGM, if Hubby likes Mystere' because we can get a really good deal on the tickets because we are staying in the hotel, but we'll have to see how he does at the tables. The only other things I want to do here are have dinner at Emeril and the Mesa Grill. Emeril will be easy because it's here in the hotel, but I have to find out where the Mesa Grill is. It's Bobby Flay's restaurant. I love watching him on the Food Network. Oh, one other thing we are going to do is go downtown one night. I want to see Freemont street at night, I hear that is really fun. We always say we are going to go downtown when we are here, but we aren't ever here long enough or we forget. I think this time we are doing it Wednesday night. Hubby wanted to gamble at Binyon's, too, just to say he did. Hubby made lots of fun of me because I packed half a suitcase full of books and told him most of what I wanted to do here was sit by the pool and read. I just REALLY want to soak in the sun. And when I get sunburned, I want to soak in being outdoors. I'm just starting to feel like a potato at the bottom of the root cellar at home. It's the midwinter blahs. This trip was what I needed to get through the rest of the semester.Good news, though. We had a Biology test on Monday last week and the class average was a 67. It took me 10 minutes to take the test. That includes bubbling my name in on the little scan sheet. (What can I say, I'm a fast reader. ) My grade? A 92. Woot! That was 1/4 of my grade!!I may not be back on 'til Thursday. They charge for internet service here. Hubby had to get on for work, so I kited along to take up some of the time. It's $15 for 24 hours of use. I'll probably check back in tomorrow morning. We have it until about 3 pm tomorrow afternoon.  to you all. I'll take pics and try to post them, but not til I get home or have free access. |
| As a writer and voracious reader of mystery and fantasy/sci fi, I worry sometimes about my prodigious vocabulary. Specifically in the area of ways to kill someone or in which to die. It makes reading or listening to the regular news a bit startling sometimes because I know what the big words mean. And usually my writer's mind comes up with awful mental scenes to go with the word. Words like exsanguinated, immolated and defenestrated really conjure up icky mental pictures when I know they happened in real life. In books or my writing, they don't bother me, but when I know it really happened, it creeps me out. I suppose it's a little like people who like bondage sex. As long as it's all fun and games, a little tie-me-up works, but restrain someone for real and it freaks them out. It's what our police count on. Be good or we put you in handcuffs and make you go where we want you to. Back to the immolation. There was a woman in one of the buildings that exploded. What an awful way to go. And here's a little bit of weird. The next day, over in Whitehall (it's a little town near Bozeman) the EXACT same thing happened in their downtown. A gaspipe ruptured and started a big fire downtown.  They think that the Whitehall fire was caused by a 4.2 quake that happened near there.Too crazy. |
This happened at 8:15 this morning. http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/03/05/news/00downtownexplosion.tx... The crazy thing is even though it leveled four businesses, and I'm not exaggerating--it literally leveled them down to rubble, there is only one person unaccounted for at this time. Anywhere else in downtown America and hundreds would have been hurt. But not in Downtown Bozeman. At 8:15 in the morning, it's not populated; the businesses don't open until 9 or 10. It's mostly bars, boutiques and delis. If it had happened at midnight on a Friday night, hundreds WOULD have been hurt. Two of the business taken out were the American Legion and a very popular bar. Old buildings and old gas lines. Who'da thunk it? |
If you haven't yet, read Nada  's entry "Invalid Entry"  . It's from today. Go ahead. I'll wait here.Back? Nada makes some profound points there. As women, we are taught not to value ourselves as we are growing up. When I was in junior high, I was an ugly duckling. I look back at pictures of myself and groan. (Don't we all?)But when I got to high school, I underwent a series of transformative realizations about myself. My freshman year, I tried out for cheerleader. Back then, as now, only the prettiest girls were cheerleaders. I was selected. (It wasn't much of a contest...I could do more acrobatics than the other girls, I see that now.) I thanked them and turned them down. I told them I just wanted them to understand I COULD have been a cheerleader if I wanted to. It was the first time that had ever happened. No one had ever turned them down. But, I realized that I was good enough and pretty enough to be a cheerleader if I wanted to be one.My sophmore year, a girlfriend wanted to take modelling classes. She wanted company, so I agreed to go with her. She was a blond, perfect cheerleader. I was always intimidated by her looks. After a few weeks in the class, she instructor selected me over my friend for a modelling job. My friend quit the class. The instructor told me that if I was about three inches taller I'd have been a perfect runway model. That's a hell of a confidence booster.I was also asked to prom my freshman year, my sophmore year, twice my junior year (I went to another school's prom, too) and my senior year I went stud with another girl because I didn't want to just dance with one guy. None of my girlfriends got to go to prom our freshman or sophmore years. After I had my daughter, on the first outing I went on (one month after), I had a woman approach me in the bathroom of the bar we went to and hand me her card. She wanted to represent me. I asked as what. She told me I was beautiful and had a stunning figure, I would make thousands a week as an exotic dancer. Now when I meet people here on campus and conversation turns to family and I bring up my daughter who turns sixteen in two weeks, they gasp in astonishment. They all think I must have had her when I was very young. I was 22 when I had her. No one believes me when I tell them I'm 38. What am I saying? That it's still a giant confidence boost to have that guy check me out in the cafeteria today. He smiled at me and handed me a straw and lid to my soda. Then he glanced at my hand and saw my wedding ring and nodded and walked away as I thanked him. Yeah...it's nice to still have it. Especially when I got up having a crap day. |
| Hubby sent me a funny to help with my Chemistry test tonight. I'm going to have to give it to my Chem prof and tell him that with this knowledge, I'm good in Chemistry. I don't need to know anything else. Laboratories have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years; It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. |
| Special Kay had a challenge in her blog yesterday. As it was Theodore Seuss Geisel's birthday (Dr. Seuss), she challenged everyone to write a Suess entry. I have long been a Seuss fan. I did a paper on the man in high school. Did you know that before he wrote children's books, he was an animator of adult GI films during WWII? An overriding theme of his works, however, seems to be "celebrate life." Ironic perhaps considering that his first wife commited suicide. I've noticed a sad tendency in my blog lately to just bitch about my problems and concerns. So for the month of March, I've decided to follow a Seuss approach to my writing. Celebrating life will be my overriding theme as well. I'm going to take a break from my problems and instead focus on what is right in my life. On what is joyous. I have a lot of happy, wonderful things to celebrate. It's high time I acknowledged them. Today? Today I'm celebrating the fact that I'm back in school. Yes, it's not always easy, but easy isn't what it's about. Opportunity is what it's about. I have an incredible opportunity to better myself. It's what I wanted, and I'm getting it. My husband and daughter are supporting me. It's up to me not to blow it. Yes, the math is hard. The hard work will make me appreciate it even more. Spring is coming. My aspen trees are starting to bud. We may get more snow, but winter is loosening it's grip. Soon crocuses will begin to appear. The sun is out, the birds are chirping. It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood. Celebrate life. |
| I'm so upset right now. I've been crying off and on all day. I lost the stone out of my engagement ring.  I almost threw up when I discovered it, it made me so sick. I was sitting in Algebra class this afternoon and I scraped my hand on something and looked and it was on the empty setting. One of the posts must have been loose. There are five fresh inches of snow on the ground today, and I could have lost it literally anywhere on campus. I know I had it this morning because I have a funny little routine I go through putting my rings on. I had a quiz in Algebra, but I honestly have no idea what I answered for some of the questions, I was that upset. Rory, the kid who teaches the class, is probably rolling his eyes at the crazy things I answered. I cried when I called Hubby and told him, but he just laughed at me. He told me he thought something was really wrong. He said not to worry about that little stone, I still have the ring and the ring is just a symbol anyway. Our love is what makes our marriage, not rings or diamonds. That's why I love him.Hubby and I started dating in August of 1995 and that Christmas, he bought me the ring. He bought it as a promise ring, and when he proposed, he told me we'd go pick out my engagement ring. I said, no, that the promise ring would work as my engagement ring, because back then, we were stone broke. I mean, we couldn't afford dirt. We lived with his parents and everything. It was pathetic.He told me he was planning on upgrading the ring soon anyway. Getting me a bigger diamond, etc. I told him I don't want a bigger diamond. I want to remember that we didn't have much back then. But, we had each other and we had a promise. A promise and each other. That stone wasn't worth much monetarily, but it's real worth is priceless to me. |
| I've noticed my stress levels have a cyclical frequency. They seem to really ramp up right before a Chemistry test and then I'm ok for a week. Then as the next Chemistry test approaches, I start stressing out again. I've got another test next Tues. I feel better about this one than the last one because there isn't nearly the math on it. But the week following, I have a Biology test and an Algebra test. This semester is killing me. ~sigh~ I think that if things weren't so stressful at work it would be better; but with the economy the way it is, work is no garden party. We are trying to get our website live next week. (I'll post a link here so y'all can stalk me. ) Do y'all know all the miniscule decisions that go into getting a website up and running? GAH!! I don't know how SM and SMS do it. I leave work every day wanting to pull my hair out. Last Tuesday I went to five different meetings. (And they weren't nice short meetings either.) Logistics seem to be the worst of it. Deciding who will do what and how they will do it. And then providing them the infrastructure to do it. If I hear the words "work flow" one more time, I'll bludgeon someone. Sixteen days til Vegas. That's what's keeping me going right now.  |
| I only have one girlfriend I stay in touch with from my high school days. Others could track me down, if they wanted, and vice-versa, but she is the only person who has my current contact information. One person out of my graduating class of 36. Yeah, I'm from a teeny tiny little town in Texas. (Say that five times fast.) This year marks 20 years since we graduated. I've been in touch with her asking about whether or not we were going to have a 20th class reunion. Looks like we are. She kept telling me I needed to get on Facebook because the whole gang was on it. So, I finally sucumbed to the pressure and signed up. I know that sometimes my blog is a little inane...okay sometimes it's a LOT inane, but holy crap. Facebook is one giant website of "what the hell?" "John Smith is going running and then doing laundry." "Jane Doe is picking up Munchkin from soccer practice and then making dinner." Like I give a rat's ass. I haven't talked to many of these people in ten plus years. Now I remember why. They are dolts. I did get in touch with one or two that actually mattered to me, so maybe it evens out. Whatever. Maybe Montana wasn't far enough away to move from them. |
| My daughter came up with the perfect name for my new computer. Dolores. I'm thinking I'll go with Dolores Valentino. Two funny things happened today. The first was an insert in the school newspaper. Every week there is a sack lunch meeting. It's basically a luncheon lecture series given by rotating guest lecturers. This week's topic? Eating disorders. That's right. Bring your own sack lunch to hear a lecture about eating disorders. The second was an anecdote told by my Chemistry professor. He has two daughters, one twelve and one eight. This weekend he was having dinner with his family and was having a discussion with his older daughter about something. She disagreed with him about the subject. He defended his position by saying, "Well, I was just trying to think outside the box." The little one mumbled under her breath, "Yeah, outside the litter box." I have days like that, too. |
| It turns out I'm not just spoiled, I'm spoiled rotten. For Valentine's Day, Hubby got me a new laptop of my own. (He got tired of me using his!) We have a desktop, but I can't carry to school with me. It gets a little heavy in my backpack. So I've been mooning over the new Dell's. (Sorry Nada, the budget didn't run to a new Mac. ) So, this blog is brought to you by my new laptop.I've noticed over in partyof5 's blog that everybody is naming their computer. So I'm taking suggestions for a name for my new guy/gal. I've always been partial to the name Freida. (My daughter feels she dodged a bullet there. )I also like Eloise. Ron (It's an Inspiron.) Fred. Eugene. Bernard. Eunice. Howard. The classic, Hal. It runs Vista, so maybe something alliterive. Valda Vista. Vivian Vista. Irene Inspiron. It's Blue, so perhaps something more in a superhero line, the Blue Wonder. Or literary, Blue Beauty. Or silly, I'll call it Farmer. The Farmer who's a Dell. As you can see I need help here. GP's to whoever's name I choose. |
| In the last few days, three different blogs I read have dealt some lofty concepts that have got me thinking. In "Invalid Entry" , PlannerDan discusses the enormity of the numbers one billion and one trillion. In "Invalid Entry" , Special Kay discusses the concept of illusion vs reality.In "Invalid Entry" , Problematic Content discusses the difference between reality and imagination.(I read a broad spectrum of blogs. )Today in Algebra, we were finding the domain of numbers and many of the answers were: from negative infinity to positive infinity, all real numbers. All real numbers. An infinite number of numbers. My mind can't grasp that concept. Sometimes at night I lie awake and think about the enormity of the universe and my place in it. Go ahead, close your eyes. Think about yourself on the earth. Think about the relative size of the earth to the sun. Now, while holding the picture of your size in relation to the Earth, think about the relative size of our solar system to the universe. The infinite universe. The mind boggles. Sometimes when a small problem at work or school is getting me down, I do the me/earth/universe conversion thing in my head. It helps to shrink whatever problem I might be having down to a more managable size. The idea of infinity grows even MORE mind boggling when you throw in all of the imaginary things in the world. Like, imaginary numbers, or imaginary worries about "what if the car breaks down before the end of the year?", or "what if that mole on the back of my leg is really cancer?" The universe is an infinite kind of place full of infinite possibilities. You can't worry about all of them. Heck, you can't even worry about most of them. To make it with any semblance of sanity, you have to develop a Zen rock-in-the-stream approach to life. You sit in the stream of life and deal with whatever flows your way. That's my take anyway. But I could be imagining it. |
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