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Wednesday, August 20, 2008
little things part deux
Apparently all I can post these days is these little randomy snippetish posts. Ah well. Better than nothing? Maybe. Wait, don't answer that.
- Tonight I had an in-class session for my Interpersonal Communications class. While the textbook looks as though it's going to annoy me beyond measure (it's full of touchy-feely stuff AND meaningless pretentious words for stuff that could be described much more simply by using straightforward terms like "body language" and "talking" and the like), the class tonight was actually... kind of fun. Kind of Quest-ish (OK, so people who didn't go to my high school may or may not know what Quest was, but I'm too lazy to explain. Was it a broadly-used curriculum, or just something we did in our schools, I wonder?), but not too bad. However. HOW-EVER. We did this one exercise where we each wrote something on an index card that people wouldn't know by looking at us, and then the cards were redistributed and we had to guess who went with which fact. One person's fact was "I have been married for 23 years", and some barely-post-pubescent little college student with no crow's feet and a 7-inch waist guessed that I HAD SAID THAT. No, I am sorry, we do not live in Saudi Arabia; people in the United States generally don't get married when they are TEN YEARS OLD which is where I KNOW you made your mistake, little person, right? Because obviously you couldn't have estimated that I was at least ten years older than I am. Because if you thought that I might have to go, I dunno, buy some Oil of Olay or something. Or obsess over how hag-ish I must look. One of the two.
- Speaking of school, it's time for me to get down to business and start planning our homeschool year. I am freaking out (not in an "I can't do this" way, but in a "holy bejeebers, where on earth did the time go" way) about the fact that I have a seventh grader this year. Seventh grade is... old. For a child, I mean. He's doing beginning algebra this year, which I'm actually kind of looking forward to teaching. I love algebra.
- I drove through Raymond today. To many local people, Raymond is this near-mythical place because you are always coming upon signs that point to it, but most people have never been there. Raymond makes my town look like a bustling metropolis on a major thoroughfare. Raymond is still charming and quiet and the general store there is trapped in several different time warps: the inside hasn't changed since I used to go there with my grandpa on the way to the feed store in Madera when I was small; the solitary gas pump outside is frozen in time at $1.89 a gallon; most of the building still looks pretty much exactly like it did when it was built in the nineteenth century. Raymond feels like my own personal little secret even though I know it's really not. I hadn't been there in years, but I had to go to Madera today to pick up some Charger parts for T, so I took the scenic route. There was an old couple sitting in the little café inside the store who reminded me very much of my grandparents the way they were when I was a child, and it actually caused this wave of something between intense nostalgia and vertiginous déjà vu to sweep over me: for a split second I stood there looking at them and thinking: Am I thirty-three? Is thirty-three a dream and I'm really ten? (I think I've been watching too many Twilight Zone episodes.)
- One of the blogs I read a lot has a cats vs. dogs debate going on -- you know, the old "dogs are loyal and cats are useless" vs. "you don't understand cats because you don't love cats like I do" thing. Personally? I prefer cats. Yes, dogs are more useful. Yes, cats act like their owners are their personal slaves. But none of my cats has ever dragged anyone's dirty underwear into the front room and chewed it affectionately and energetically to shreds, and that clinches it for me right there. It's not that I can't like a dog; I'm pretty fond of Scout, and when I was a kid I had several different dogs at different times that I loved a lot. But dogs in general are not something I'm ever excited about. (Really, the best description of dogs I have ever read is in Watership Down, chapter 41. Read This Now; This Means You. When the kids were plaguing me to get a dog, I agreed to do it only if we could name him Rowsby Woof. Or the Fairy Wogdog. Or (her) Queen Dripslobber. It was a narrow escape for Scout, and I still call her Postwiddle or Sniffbottom when she annoys me.)
- Lastly, a few things you already know if you follow me on twitter (or, um, facebook, I guess): We still don't have our car back. I'm in the community chorus again (for this semester, at least). Fair baking proceeds apace. And most importantly of all: Chick-Fil-A, which, as far as I knew, only existed in places far, far away from California, has expanded to a city that is a mere 75-minute drive from my house. Oh, my, am I going to get fat. (Actually, it kind of balances out, because as far as I can tell they're moving into the building that used to house the Krispy Kreme until it shut down.)
And thatisall. Dang, look at the TIME. I'd forgotten how much school nights throw off my internal clock, what with the getting-home-after-ten thing. I still have transcribing to do. This will require extra Diet Coke, for sure.
Comments
Definitely better than nothing!
1) Oh I am jealous. Not of that particular class, but of SCHOOL. If all goes the way I'm hoping, maybe I'll be joining you (well, not at your actual school, but you know) next semester... And no, you do not possibly look old enough to have been married for 23 years. So what WAS your fact?
2) Also jealous of the algebra.
3) Wait, do they actually charge $1.89? Or is it not a working gas pump?
Posted by: Kat with a K at August 20, 2008 06:17 AM
I prefer cats. This is from the woman who has three dogs and just one cat. Give me cats every time.
Yes, school has come round really quickly. Thank goodness I don't have to do the lesson plans though! I never 'got' algebra.
Posted by: Carol at August 20, 2008 09:28 AM
Kat, my fact was, "I like to knit but I'm not very good at it." I hated having to come up with a simple yet interesting fact about myself, because it made me realize how boring I am. Hi, there is NOTHING interesting about me! Should have put that as my fact. :)
And no, they don't charge $1.89, hee! That's just the last price they charged for gas. (Which means it was probably $1.60 in the rest of CA and $1.40 most other places... those out-of-the-way places usually charge more.)
Posted by: Rachel at August 20, 2008 09:58 AM
Both cats and dogs are pretty horrible. Dogs bite people and sometimes kill them, though, so I like cats better by default. Cats just stink.
Raymond sounds all sorts of awesome.
Posted by: Beck at August 20, 2008 10:02 AM
Beck: But cats will dine on their dead owners if they're stuck in the house with the body. A wash? Maybe.
For me, it's mostly the mess-noise factor. Dogs make noise doing EVERYTHING -- my dog just woke up the neighbors getting a big sloppy drink of water, for example, and they can't walk quietly either, and of course they bark -- and their messes are legendary. Cats only get into the garbage if they're starving; dogs do it recreationally and as often as they can. Cats use their equivalent of a *toilet*, for pete's sake, from the time they're weeny-teeny kittens, while everyone's proud of a dog when it learns to wait to poop until it's on your lawn. It's no contest, really.
However, to be fair, my dog has never clawed the fabric off my couch. (She just chews on the board that the cats exposed.) And she faithfully and loyally comes into my room and lies next to me whenever I take a nap or study. She's a cozy and friendly animal to have around, imperfections and all, I guess. Kind of like me. :)
Posted by: Rachel at August 20, 2008 10:12 AM
Carol: It's like this summer didn't even happen. Fastest summer *ever*. Remember when you were a kid and summer break seemed to stretch out on and on? Sigh.
Posted by: Rachel at August 20, 2008 10:21 AM
*Obviously* she's one of those people who have no concept of age-- or she's too young to have formed one, yet. She probably can't tell the difference between thirty and fifty, poor thing. ;o)
You're more than welcome to the algebra. (g) Have fun!
As a child, I was a cat person to the core. Somehow I morphed into a dog person. However, if we're talking "stranger animals" (not mine or the pet of someone I know and see regularly) I prefer cats, as they're more likely to snub than attack.
Posted by: Michael at August 20, 2008 10:31 AM
This was a summer vacation that flew by like no other I can remember. Did we really even have a July? I am ready for the kids to start school, but they are sad that summer is ending. LOL.
Posted by: debi at August 20, 2008 12:31 PM
Your post on Raymond brought tears to my eyes. I miss taking that drive listening to Steve Earle and squealing with delight as we caught air going over the hills.
As for the touchy-feely thing: Quit pretending you to be so hard. Really people, I've known this woman for twenty years and she's a lot softer than she lets on.
As for cats and dogs - I can never decide which one I like better. Personally I love all animals more than most people.
Posted by: jennifer at August 20, 2008 03:54 PM
Oops...Quit pretenting *to* be so hard.
Posted by: jennifer at August 20, 2008 03:55 PM
I suspect Michael is right. I remember when I was in my first apartment, and the neighbor's 6 year old was insanely jealous that I got to live on my own. It turned out he thought I was about 13 (also off by ten years, but in the other direction). (Of course, most people are a bit better at that by college age, for cripe's sake.) One fun thing about living in Asia is that no one can tell how old I am and I have seen jaws literally drop when I've said that I've been married fifteen years.
Posted by: dichroic at August 20, 2008 10:39 PM
By the way, is Randomy Snippetish any relation to Lemony Snicket?
Posted by: dichroic at August 26, 2008 02:00 AM
