Things that Annoy Part Eleventy-two
The things that are spoken:
“Nnu-nnu-nnu-nnu-nnu-nnu-nnu-nnu-no” (A coworker who believes the best way to disagree with anyone (on the phone, in person, in her mind) is to repeat the ‘n’ at the beginning of the word ‘no’ a few dozen times.)
The things that are written:
“Please bring your deserts to [location withheld] tomorrow at 10:15 AM, where the desert judging will occur. The winners will be announced during the lunch celebration. Don’t forget to bring your deserts. Prizes for 1st and 2nd place.” (How many times can you use the misspelled word in one email? They’ve been sending out notices and posting fliers all around about this event since the end of July and have yet to correct the typo. I suppose I should just bring a pale of sand or possibly a cactus.)
Read MoreSummer Fun is Almost Gone
Look how much fun we had…
Jud goes back to normal (read: non-online, in-person, not as much work, much better for the brain and the social life) classes on Monday. We’ll try to keep up the fun quotient.
Read Moreone more time to kill the pain…
Like many people, my late teens and early twenties have shared a commonality based upon a substance. While that substance can vary between common people groups and demographics, it became clear to me during the month of July that I am a complete caffeine junky. It was at the point where it didn’t matter which soda/pop/whathaveyou tasted like, its value was simply centered around its caffeine content. What became a two dollar a week habit spun into 5-6 and I felt like there would be no end to the madness. However suddenly I decided that I would stop wasting my money on two liters of soda and start receiving my caffeine supplements from another source. Any dentist will tell you that the worst thing for tooth enamel is soda and even thought this is something that Dr. Wetzel told me long ago, I continue on my destructive path, a swig here a swig there. Anyway, after discovering that the only positive thing about living south of the Mason Dixon line is the presence of sweet tea, I decided to see what the good folks at Nestea had to offer. So after years of addiction to soda I have now transitioned to tea, a habit in which probably more caffeine is ingested while less sugar becomes the trade off. I tell you all this to say that last night I relapsed…. We had a get-together for our SF group at the seminary and it called for us to buy soda for the group. So after 5 weeks of staying away from soda and refusing to let it have its reign in my life, I tied one on. Somewhere around 2:30 in the morning in the 86 degree temperatures of a Texas night, I came to a deeper realization of just how lame pop addiction is. While I had been drinking sweet tea instead of soda I had evidently been weaning myself off of caffeine, so when I drank two to three glasses of Waco, Texas’ finest, Dr Pepper I was lit like a roman candle and I couldn’t settle down for anything. So maybe after reading this you might too consider options other than soda? Maybe…but probably not and that’s fine.
Read MoreDooms Day aka The Day in which you click on these Links
We’ve been anticipating this day for a few reasons:
1. Iran is crazy.
2. I’ve been working where I work for one whole entire year.
3. Jud is being officially reviewed for his one year anniversary of working from home.
4. My parents will board a plane back to reality later today from here.
5. Hello? Iran is CRAZY!
Preachy Strangers and People I Used to Know
On Sunday, we sort of cheated on our church. We went to Sunday school, because Sunday school is importante and because we love our class and because we do not want them to think we are cheating on them [They don’t know about this little blawg, so it is safe to talk about the cheating here, but don’t tell on us, Internets!]. We loved being there with all of them, especially the part where one of the new babies got all squeaky – he is so tiny! so squeaky! But I don’t know them well enough to hold him and so I just look and smile and hope to one day be friends with his mother.
J & R were trying out a different church, not far from our church and so we made a mad dash over to the other place for the worship service. It was a pretty large and in charge, beautiful people kind of crowd. We’re not the typical super-poor seminary students (although once the lab bills all roll in, we may be joining their ranks. If your results come back positive for deadly things, don’t you think they should cut you some slack? Shouldn’t there be a “we’re sorry we told you that you have cancer clause?” Yeah, I think so too.) Anyway, we aren’t poor, but, baby, we were not rich enough for that crowd. I’m not even sure we were white enough.
After the service was over the guy who I’d been sitting next to struck up a conversation with us. He’s a sem student too, although he’s been taking classes for three years and has the same amount of credits as Jud (Jud=fast track, Stranger Man=may have to retake classes because they only give you seven years to get the job done). He asked what the hardest part of seminary has been so far and without hesitating Jud said, “SF has been the most painful”, which Stranger Man interpreted as “We’ve been so challenged and it’s totally rocking our world. Awesomely pain-filled!” It was not said in that context. It was said in the literal “Oh, please make this stop! I will chew my own arm off if it will make this go away forever!” context.
Once the confusion was cleared up, he kept suggesting we get in touch with people at the sem to tell them about our experience. We told him a few times that we’d explained the negativity to them without much concern on their behalf and much more of a “God will teach something from this terrible thing we are forcing upon your life” response. And we are learning. We are learning how to persevere and how to keep from strangling leaders who have infinitesimal amounts of leadership skills. We told Stranger Man that but he.would.not.let.it.drop. He kept.repeating.the.same.parental.advice. I imagined my head exploding and then finally Jud wrapped up the conversation with a “Well, have a good day.” Thank you, Stranger Man, for you bizarro-world advice.
On a completely positive note, our SF people are coming over for dinner tonight. We hope to add one more notch in our perseverance belt, but just in case we do not bear up under the awkwardness, you might want to watch the news tonight.
Apart from fixating on supper tonight’s pain, I have also been thinking quite a bit about an old friend from the college days who recently moved down here to the Dallas area, significantly north of where we live in the heart of the city, but still in the metroplex. She’s been married about five years now, if my memory is correct. I was telling Jud and Jeremy and Rachel that her wedding was by far the most beautiful wedding I’d ever attended, including my own (you’re not supposed to say things like that, are you? Aren’t you supposed to believe that your child is the most beautiful one in the whole world? Isn’t your wedding kind of your baby until you actually have one? At least for a couple of years? I loved our wedding and it was very pretty, but hers had moments where I was sure we were being photographed for a magazine).
We didn’t talk all that much after her wedding. I don’t think I even invited her to mine (didn’t know her address/didn’t think about it at the time/didn’t want to take the time to track down the people of which I’d already lost track/typical military brat mentality). We had coffee once the year after she got married and it was good, but not familiar like it used to be. She’d graduated into a different world of husbands and responsibilities and I’d stayed in the old country with the question marks about life and love. The distance was too great.
Now we are in the same place and I want to reach out to her and share a coffee again, but I don’t have her address now either. I’ll have to do some investigative work to track her down, and I feel as if I am taking a risk to do those things (Is there a stalker vibe to contacting her? Will she think it is nice or possibly psychotic? Why do I stress myself out over having coffee with an old friend? Why am I such a loon?!).
So, Internets, if you notice me stalking you, do not be alarmed. I am merely attempting to be your friend.
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