In light of the events of this week in both Boston and West, Texas, and after our school district closed schools for the second consecutive day due to the massive flooding the entire area of Chicago has been dealing with (but of course mainly due to some of our hyper-local roads, which are still impassable), I decided that today would be a good day to take J out to lunch so we can count our blessings together. This conversation just happened and is very typical when it comes to deciding on stupidly simple things like where to go for lunch: Me: “Where do you want to go for lunch?” J:…
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I Will Do Anything For Health, But I Won’t Do That
My sister has had a raging cold for about three weeks now. She’s been coughing her poor head off, and generally feeling icky, though this week she definitely shows solid signs of being on the mend. Jim got it last weekend. The speed with which he was slammed with the cold and accompanying cough was staggering. Saturday he was fine. Saturday night he felt ill. Sunday he declared that he had never felt that bad in his life. Monday he went to the doctor and was given antibiotics and a warning that if he didn’t feel better by Wednesday, he should come back so they could look for pneumonia. I…
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You’ve Got The Look
This is an actual conversation that happened earlier tonight, when I brought a friend as my guest to the health club where I take Zumba classes. The guy in the membership department was leading us to his desk so he could get her information for the system, and as we were walking he said to me, “Are you Greek?” I laughed a little bit (I’ll tell you why in a minute) and said, “Nope!” He said, “You’re NOT Greek?” I repeated, “Nope! Why?” “Because you look Greek.” My face must have suddenly displayed some kind of weird expression because he said, “Would that be so bad?” “No!” I said. Backstory:…
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Bags.
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Stupid Autocorrect. Or Is It?
Yesterday we took J up to the college that D attends, as a part of his own college search. When we arrived on campus, I decided to check in on Facebook. Along with the check-in I added a description: College tour with the sob who isn’t currently a student here. Um, yeah. I added a comment below: and of course i meant SON. Stupid auto-correct. #embarrassing This kind of thing has happened before. I know I should, as a good friend advised, adjust a setting so that whatever I type isn’t changed into something that provides tons of embarrassment and/or hysterics, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Does…
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Making Change
I ran out to the store today to pick up a new air filter for our furnace. I saw a report on The Today Show once that said you shouldn’t spend lots of money on the expensive air filters that are really tightly woven to block allergens, that it’s better to get the cheap, generic ones and change them out more often for better air quality in the house. (This post is not about air filters but I thought you might enjoy learning something here today.) ANYWAY. I only had the one item so I walked over to the Self Check Out registers and scanned the code. My total? $4.32.…
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To The Best Of My Knowledge, Justin Timberlake Is Not Jewish.
Most of us blogging types get a kick out of/laugh at/love to see/are occasionally creeped out by the searches that lead people to our websites. Like everyone else, I imagine, I have some search terms that pop up regularly, driving a pretty decent amount of traffic to my blog. They usually make sense to me. People who are trying to figure out the best gift to buy for an Eagle Scout find their way here, as do people who are wrestling with the decision over whether to get–or sadly, get rid of–a dog. Hands down though, the search that is most puzzling to me and brings people here a few…
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Restricted?
I have a little rant to share with you this evening, so please indulge me for just a few minutes of your time. This afternoon, Jim and I went to see “The Hangover: Part II” with my sister and my mom. The movie is rated R, and yet there were still two couples there who brought their small children. How small? One of them was four or five, and one of them was a baby, drinking a bottle. The “R” rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) doesn’t prohibit children from attending a movie with an adult, though: the definition of the rating is R-Restricted Under 17…
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D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T
I was chatting with Kate the other day, when she told me of a recent frustration of hers. She is the director of a program that trains a certain genre of professionals (which I won’t give away here for several reasons) who are highly degreed. As she was teaching one of the classes, she had to reprimand some of the class participants–again, degreed professionals–for texting and checking Facebook during class. The “professionals” she reprimanded were highly agitated, saying that they could do what they wanted to do. Is this what it’s come to, people? I understand the temptation of today’s technology; in fact, I will be writing about that topic…
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Analyze This: The Doors and Windows Question
One of the things I’ve learned over the past six weeks in regards to myself as a “photographer” (I have to put that in quotes; I’m not sure why.) is that I really, really enjoy taking photographs of doors and windows. Open or closed, it doesn’t matter. Plain or decorated, it doesn’t matter. What does that say about me as a person? I’m certain that there is some special meaning hidden somewhere; it probably tells something about my personality. Hey Holger, what are you doing there? An “expert” might say that I like to look for other ways of doing things. Or that I am the type of person who…