I sometimes think that perhaps it's unusual that I participate in 7 Quick Takes since it's hosted by a Catholic blogger and most of the people who link up are Catholic. I'm not Catholic. I like Catholics, and I'm pretty sure Catholics would like me. I mean, that Martin Luther business happened a long time ago, right? Water under the faith built bridge. Anyway...I just had to mention it. Because it's Friday.
: 1 :
As of earlier this afternoon, I get to embark on 24 hours of solitude. Well, not real solitude. I'm blogging, after all. And I still have my iPhone at my side. But I'm without children or spouse. Jason went up to Seattle for a soccer clinic, and I thought it was a good time to let the girls stay overnight with his parents.
I had planned to spend all my kid-free time grading papers, but I haven't tackled it yet because of some other projects that needed to be finished tonight. Even though grading papers isn't fun, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. It's pretty much the opposite of surfing the Internet. Fun, but two hours later you're like "WHAT AM I DOING?!"
: 2 :
Yesterday was Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday. Hooray for everyone's favorite pioneering half-pint! If you are familiar with the books (or the tv show), you might remember that Laura's sister Mary went blind because of scarlet fever. But guess what? It's not true! You don't go blind from scarlet fever.
Turns out she probably had meningoencephalitis. They suspect that Laura or her editors just said it was scarlet fever because people were familiar with the disease, and it has a certain literary quality to it that meningoencephalitis doesn't.
Because let's be honest, meningoencephalitis doesn't exactly trip off your tongue the way scarlet fever does.
: 3 :
I caught that snippet of information about Mary Ingalls during the 3 minutes I listened to NPR yesterday before quickly turning the station. Normally, I'm an NPR junkie, but our local NPR station's pledge drive is this week.
Ironically, I'll listen to just about any other station this week in order to avoid the pledge drive pep talk.
I know it has to be done. But oy. It's painful.
: 4 :
Jason may (or may not) correct me on my previous use of the word "ironically." Now that he teaches English, he has a pretty good grasp of literary terms and how they are often used incorrectly. I don't really care about how the word ironic is used. In fact, the farther I get from teaching English the more I start to rebel against the rules. Not too much, of course. You won't find me saying "I literally lost my head" because, although I love using hyperbole as much as the next girl, no. I did not literally lose my head. On the other hand, I will squint my eyes and resist rolling them if I hear someone enforce the difference between can and may. That rule has got to go. I understand teaching kids the difference in elementary school, but when I hear a little kid ask, "Can I use the bathroom?" and the teacher says, "I don't know. Can you?" I want to scream. Literally, in this case.
Can I end this rant now? Yes, I can.
: 5 :
Jason had jury duty Monday and Tuesday. Even though both of us were on jury duty in Salem, neither one of us ever got on a trial. This time, though, Jason was selected to be on an actual 12-person jury. The trial was about a domestic altercation, and at the end of the trial they found the husband (or maybe now ex-husband?) guilty of some of the charges. Jason thought it was quite interesting, but he was glad he didn't get selected to be on a media-heavy trial that lasted all week. That one was about child abuse, and ugh. I'm sure it was awful to sit through.
One thing we discovered about the local jury duty process is that you are active for an entire week (unless you serve on a trial during your week). It's seems kind of inconvenient that you have to put off plans for an entire week. When we lived in Salem, you only had to report for one day. I think that kind of one-day-only service is unusual though. I've heard of places where you have to set aside a whole month to be available for jury duty.
: 6 :
Lent starts next Wednesday. As I already mentioned, I'm not Catholic, so I don't really have a mandate to practice Lent. I would say I'm as close to being non-liturgical as a church goer gets. Even so, I do practice and observe Easter, and Lent has helped me with that. I would say a fair amount of Christians don't have Easter on their mental calendar. It's kinda like, "What? Easter is next week? Oh. Cool."
So, I do Lent to stave off the Easter surprise.
I asked the girls if they wanted to give up anything. I told them they might not want to give up candy since that would mean they wouldn't get Valentine's Day treats.
Sydney is giving up drawing. Not school required drawing, just after school artistic endeavors.
Jules is still thinking about. "I could give up my stuffies," she said, alluding to her current obsession with having no less than 40 stuffed animals in bed with her at night. "Or maybe just one stuffy?"
I said it was up to her because when it comes to stuffies it all counts.
: 7 :
A couple weeks ago, BFF Megan treated me to an afternoon at a Portland spa for my birthday. It was fabulousness. We both got one hour massages, and afterwards I could hardly even remember my name I was so relaxed.
While I was waiting for Megan's massage to finish up, I hung out in the lounge. Two other women were in there, presumably waiting to be called back for their massages. I was half-heartedly looking through a magazine, but mostly just eavesdropping on their conversation. I figured out that they both had just had facials, and were wondering about the effectiveness of expensive facial creams.
"I've tried those expensive creams," one woman remarked, "and they work at first. But then eventually they stop working." She paused. "Or maybe it's just because I keep getting older."
I outed myself as an eavesdropper because I couldn't help but giggle.
*
And that's a wrap on this week's quick takes.
I hope you have a wrinkle free weekend!
{More Quick Takes are here.}
