Standing Up Then Sitting Down

It's well past time for a lady update. So, I believe we left off with me and Monica hitting it off. And we did. For about a month we mutually said we were dating. During this time, while we were becoming better friends I noticed that she was clearly either not digging me or not ready for a relationship. Being a good person she is a very busy person constantly working with children either at school or through her youth group. It became clear a balance would be needed if she were to maintain a relationship with me, and that was something she was unwilling to do because a balance with me would mean taking time away from her kids. So for now we remain friends and chat a bunch but we aren't dating. Actually we met up this past Friday.

Since then for a little while I was exchanging messages with a girl who lived about 4 hours away. This was actually going very well. It was the first time, in probably two years I've been doing this, where I messaged someone completely random first and got a real response back. Once before I managed to get a 'lol' but that was all. Here I actually got some meaningful feedback. So that was good, but theneone day she just stopped writing back. Not sure what happened there. I don't think I said anything crazy or creepy but she simply stopped.

More recently I received a message saying I had the best profile ever. Funny how two people in the same week said as much. But one lived on the other side of the country so that wouldn't work. But the other is here where I live. After a small number of messages we decided to meet up for burgers at 6:00 last Thursday.

When Thursday rolled around, I ran some errands and then arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early and decided to sit in the car and wait to till she arrived. A half hour later around quarter to seven I decided to look in the restaurant and see if somehow she escaped me. But I didn't see her so I left to go to the library. I checked the original e-mail and then I groaned. Notice I said I went in at quarter to seven, meaning I arrived at 6:20. I thought we were supposed to meet at 6:30 and stood her up! So I e-mailed her apologizing profusely and she, having a smart phone, promptly wrote me back saying she was rather embarassed but accidents happen. So I told her that if she wanted maybe we could try meeting another time, or if she was still in the area maybe we could still meet as I was only 5 minutes from the restaurant. She said she was going to a bar to chat with some friends who were there but that I could meet her there and we could walk to the restuarant. So I did that, and met all her friends being the guy who just stood up their friend. They were nice about it. Then we went to grab dinner. I asked if she was hungry and she said she already ate while she was waiting. Groan. We went in and the waitress came over, and said to her, "You were just here!" Then she looked at me and said, "I saw you come in here and walk out!" So I was glad someone saw me come in. Apparently when I had, she was still there but I had somehow missed her and she didn't see me.

Oh well. After all that fiasco she's still talking to me. We actually met last night too. Although I think in this case I've found another friend rather than a new relationship. Hard to say for sure, but we have some rather large differences. Plus she may be going off to Princeton. It's either Princeton or Stanford, but I think it's Princeton. She's getting her Ph.D in political science.

Meaty Dispensation

Tomorrow is March 25th. That's 9 months before Christmas. And so tomorrow is the Annunciation of Jesus, the day we remember Gabriel's visit to Mary and what happened. This day is considered a solemnity. Solemnities are solemn if you didn't know. And that means they are meant to be gravely serious. But being serious doesn't necessarily mean being somber. Solemn is definitely a sad sounding word. It isn't like some words that sound much happier, like twinkle. Twinkle is a very happy sounding word. Solemn is depressive just listening to it, and so that's probably why so many of us automatically assume that solemn occasions are meant to be mirthless. But it also means awe-inspiring and holy. Like that sunrise was a solemn beauty. Not like, I was at the grocery store looking at cereal when a solemn beauty walked by.

So solemnities can mean sad and some can mean glad depending on the situation. Well that's great, tomorrow is a solemnity on a positive note, which means it's really a day to be serious about celebrating. There are other days like it too. Christmas and Easter are two that spring to mind. I suppose they don't have to be religious based, but saying something like Flag Day is a solemnity doesn't sound quite right. It's like when I get a five line piece of code working and I say "that's awesome" and my co-worker says "You've done what any half competent ninth grader can do, atta-boy, but forgive me for not dropping to my knees in awe at its magnificence." I sort of just ruined the word 'awesome'. Likewise marking other days, like Opposite Day, as solemnities might start taking away from it's powerful meaning.

But there's a small problem. This particular solemnity happens to fall on a Friday in Lent this year. So some of us aren't allowed to eat meat. In fact for some, Friday's tend to be rather miserable every time of the year. A lot of people don't eat meat on any Friday, and perform other small sacrifices as well, out of remembrance of Good Friday, which we could call a bitter-sweet solemnity. But it's hard to go to a party as a good guest while saying "I'm here, but I'm not going to partake in the celebration cause it happens to be a sad day of the week in history." A few centuries ago, Christmas happened to fall on a Friday. And some friars at a monastery weren't quite sure what to do. Friday's were days of fast and penance, not frivolity, but it was Christmas. So they went to their head brother, and one of them, Brother Morico, asked their head brother, Francis, if they were obliged to abstain from meat since it was Friday. St. Francis responded, "On a day like this I want even the walls to eat meat, and if they can't at least let their surfaces be smeared with it." Here was a man who was serious about having a good time.

Not in the Money

When Monday morning rolls around, stumbling out of bed to get ready for a brand new week of work isn't too difficult since I am fortunate enough to like my job. However, I am unfortunate enough to have to go to work. This past weekend I was hoping to change that by winning big at a casino, but instead I wound up with more reason than ever to have to go to work.

Kelly and I went. The last time we went, was on our mini-roadtrip. That time we basically just kept to the slot machines, except for my very brief and expensive trip to the poker tables. This time we spent a little more time at the other games. We played craps and that was probably my favorite. I can actually figure out the probability of dice rolls so at least with that game I get the impression I have a chance at winning. Although if I was any better at math I could probably figure out that ultimately I have very little chance at winning.

Roulette was particularly interesting. I saw very unique choices being put on the table. One well dressed lady came over and plopped a $100 chip on the chance that the ball would fall into a red slot. It didn't. A short while later a well dressed man came over and made the same bet, and again the ball fell into a black slot. I watched him walk away and saw that he joined the well dressed woman. They were together, which meant they had just spent $200 on the hope that little ball would fall into a red slot! Another guy had what must have been $100 in one dollar chips. He came over and practically just threw fists of chips onto the table. There was more reason to the madness than that, like it appeared he was drawing weird symbols with odd numbers of chips stacked on each other, but he lost every time. When he left I asked the older players if they had ever saw anything like that and they said they hadn't. That guy came back again a little later, and didn't do any better. I saw him later while I was on the slot machine. By that point Kelly and I were surprised he was still there, betting as he was. You'd never guess the economy is in a bad sort right now.

In other news last night I made oatmeal cookies. Apparently I hadn't lost enough at the casino because I decided to buy the fancy oats that come into those coffee like containers and are imported from Ireland. I realize that oats are probably oats but I am attracted to pretty packaging and couldn't resist. When I brought them home my Mom called up returning a call I had made. I wanted to know if I should use dark brown or light brown sugar. She said she usually uses light for oatmeal cookies. Then I told her about my oats and she gasped. The oats I bought were steel cut oats. They aren't like the ones with that Quaker on that tube. These ones are oddly shaped and take 30 minutes to cook! That's what pretty packaging gets you. But I decided to make the cookies anyway rather than return the oats. And they came out amazing. They taste right but have a slightly different feel to them than standard oatmeal cookies. In one of the batches I threw in half a banana. Those taste good too, but keep in mind that a little banana goes a long way in terms of its taste.

New Experiences with Food

Meijer has had a lot of sales lately on some of there more interesting products. For example, Ben and Jerry's 'Peanut Brittle' was on clearance. Well I love ice-cream, and I enjoy peanut brittle so I had to try it. In the past I have found that these sorts of combinations are not always winners. For example, bacon dipped in chocolate is terrible. No matter how much you like both, I'd avoid that temptation if I were you. But the ice-cream was very good. Well it was just fine in that little dixie cup. I don't know how I'd feel about a half-gallon of it. I'm not a toppings person. Some people love to load on the toppings. Such seen in the piggie trough. But I tend to be a just a plain vanilla person.

Another thing on sale was their peanut butter not made from peanuts. This stuff always fascinates me because it's like $7.00 or more for a jar. For that price I expect it to be made from the endangered nuts of trees from Amazon Rain Forests. But instead it's made from things like soybeans and sunflower seeds. So with it on sale to be the low discounted price of only very expensive I had to pick one of those up. I chose the one made with sunflower seeds and flax. Mmmmh.

Next I was looking at juice. I was looking a jar of Papaya juice when this guy comes up with his family and pulls two jars of Coconut/Pineapple Juice off the shelf and excitedly told the rest of his family they were in for a treat. Now I am very particular about the colors of my liquids. When it comes to white colors the only liquid I want to consume is 2% milk. That's it. Not skim milk, not some weird other animal than cow like badger milk, just ordinary moo-moo milk. This product is made with coconuts, and so right away I was put off by the white color of it, but I talked to guy about it and he said it really is good so I picked one up.

When I brought it home I poured a very small swallow in a glass, closed my eyes and tried it. It really isn't too bad. I still can't drink it with my eyes open, but it tastes alright.

Sun and Water

Raising a child requires a good deal of effort and care. When they first start off, they are helpless and depend on us for everything. And they are rather fragile. So if you make a small mistake like dropping the child once he could die or be permanently messed up. That's sort of a tall order. You carry children for a year or two before they can start ambling around for themselves. So for an entire two years you can't drop the child once. I couldn't prevent dropping my laptop after less than a year. True I likely wouldn't throw a small child up into the air over a concrete slab and hope I'd catch him but still we drop things all the time.

But that's just the first two years. Then they can start walking around and you have to make sure they don't walk into or off of anything. Plus they may simply fall down standing still like a drunk.

In their teenage years, things get worse. Now they are pretty good at walking, but they are driving. And new dangers include getting shot, drug overdoses, or contracting some hellish STD.

Now that's just keeping them safe. You've still got to feed, water, clothe, and shelter them. And that doesn't really ever end either. Sure they can start feeding themselves at some point, but for a few years you're still the one that has to provide them all the materials.

All of this care worries me some, and that's because I have not yet successfully managed to keep a plant alive. They all die. I've managed to kill three cacti. The only plant I still have that's alive is one that you simply have to put in a glass of water and keep sunned. And even that one halfway died before I learned you cannot simply keep it in the bathroom indefinitely as a nice display.

My most recent killing spree involved a once beautiful clematis. I bought it over the summer at a local nursery. After spending a very large deal of time looking them all over, the one I chose had many big blooms just getting ready to burst into brilliant purple flowers. It was well shaped, and looked very healthy.

Clemy was put outside on my balcony for the rest of the summer, and I was able to keep it alive. A few days after I bought it, she bloomed and looked amazing for about two or three weeks. Right before the frost came I brought her in for the winter, and put her in the best spot I could to ensure she still got sun.

And the weeks went on. I would water her once a week, and didn't mind as she turned brown. It was winter now, and I figured she was going to re-grow during spring. Well yesterday I took a look at her, and I could tell things didn't look good. She is completely brown, and when I touched her stems they snapped off being all dried out. But maybe there is hope. Maybe her roots lived and come spring she'll be good as new. Still though, I can't help thinking if I can't do something as simple as water and sun a plant, raising a child may be beyond me.

Before winter came, I took some glamour shots of Clemy. Here is one of her looking particularly well.

Slap Happy

The past few weeks have had a flurry of activity for some us and a few congratulations are in order. First we need to congratulate Gurney's younger sister who has been admitted to Brown's top notch theatrics program. With the program costing a little over a hundred thousand dollars, I am sure she will be a starving artist in no time. Next we need to recognize Sarge's accomplishment of winning a major Chili Cooking Competition. Well done to both of you!

And finally we have one more congratulations to get to, and it happens to be focus of today's subject, hockey. Hockey is a fun sport. You get to ride around on skates which is always a blast. Growing up I only really got to play in gym class. And we usually played in shoes, but occasionally those of us spoiled kids who had skates, by that point roller blades, got to play a little with them on if we brought them in. Gym class is about my only experience with the sport. In fact I often have to think twice about whether or not there is an 'e' in the word 'hockey.' So I guess you could say I am fond of the sport, but never really set aside the time to pursue it or watch it.

Until this weekend, when I got to go to my first game. Kelly, my road-trip buddy, is in a league, and her last game was this weekend. I had been wanting to go to a game since October, so this was my last chance. The rink reminded me of a boxing club like the kind you see 'Rocky'. Where everything is functional, but no one puts on airs so things are dirty, covered in sweat stains, and smells. I remember gagging at one point as I accidentally breathed through my mouth and got the smell on my tongue so it was like I was tasting it.



Hockey rinks are cold if you didn't already know. I suppose that makes sense, but as I was sitting there watching the game it hit home as I saw my breath floating away. The game itself was pretty incredible. Kelly is the goalie for her team, and she did a remarkable job. I was squealing a lot every time it looked like the opposing team was going to score. But she did really good, and one time she caught the puck right out of the air. And in the end her team won 4 - 3.




After this we went out to celebrate and I got to meet her friends. They are all over the age spectrum. One is a junior in college, while another is 62! One of her friends, who wasn't on the team, made me laugh. Kelly introduced us, she said "hello", then looked at Kelly and all matter of factly said, "He's cute", then she looked right at me and said, "You're cute." I think she thought Kelly and I were dating.

So congratulations to Gurney's sister, Sarge, and Kelly!

Blue Jeans

Being in a place of high fashion, I couldn't help myself and bought a pair of skinny jeans. No not like these

Maybe more like this

And this isn't to say it didn't take some convincing. Two out of two ladies agreed they look great. And ultimately if two ladies say I need to do something, like get these jeans, then I'm probably going to. But I was still conflicted about them. The problem is that they are very dark. I thought they were black until one of the ladies put them under brighter lights. And the problem with that is finding things to go with them.

One thing that I know works is white t-shirts. However, in order to pull off this style, one ought not have the body type of a twelve year old boy. Another problem is shoes. Now boots would be great. Like these

Nothing says you're a man quite like wearing alligator skin. However, I am not a dragon slayer who carries a double edged axe. I am a nerd who sits in a cubicle. So these would probably not be for me. That and they go for $425.

Finally I would like to comment on the difficulty of writing this post. I bought one single item of denim. However, while one might say, "I bought a shirt", no one says, "I bought a blue jean." Everyone says, "I bought a pair of blue jeans." So even though I bought one item, I want to refer to it in the plural. I am not the only one to wonder about this. As one poster indicates scissors are another problem. No one says, "please pass me the scissor." One could say that maybe it's because there are the two distinct legs to them, like how jeans have two legs. But this doesn't translate to bras. No one ever says, "I bought a pair of bras," and means just one. What a curious language the English language is.