September 2006 Archives

Cecilia is a little quirky, as I've talked about previously. She has a fairly regimented bedtime routine. She gets a fresh diaper, changes into her pajamas. From here, she'll take some vitamins, get a calcium chew and then brush her teeth. Afterwards she'll choose a book and come and read it with me. After the story, she'll go with her mother to go rock in a rocking chair for a few minutes before lying down.

The key to this routine is what happens while rocking. She gets to choose out some songs for her mother to sing to/with her. It came to my attention recently that one of her favorites upon which she insists each night is "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Sure, there are other songs she likes to sing as well, but I just found this one song selection funny and wanted to share.

Parents didn't belong at school. They're not allowed to go to Parent-Teacher Conferences or to the Open House. Kramer (of Seinfeld origin) was one messed up character, but of his many bits of wisdom, I couldn't agree more with his theory about "colliding worlds" (Episode #118 - The Pool Guy). The point is, there are two separate worlds in which most of us live. During elementary-high school, there is the school world, and the home world. They both generally serve as the sanctuary from the other. When the two worlds come in contact - it's "gunna be trouble."

You're childish. That's just how it is. I could come up with a bunch of reasons why I would draw/write on myself:

• I couldn't find any paper
• I got bored
• It was accidental at first, but then I just kept going
• I like to do it
• Etc…

It seemed that the explanation wouldn't matter as far as my mother was concerned. She'd just give me one of those looks like, "You know what I want to say, but I don't need to say it because you can see this essentially evil and fairly intimidating look I'm giving you."

In some circles the look is called "The Hairy Eyeball". The look probably deserves its own entry, and could be so extensive and have so many authors as to take up several pages.

I digress. The point is, that even now as an adult I can't bring myself to write on myself. If I do write on myself, I feel some sort of obligation to get to the nearest sink and try to wash it off. The only thing I can think while it's still on there is, "That's just really childish." What if I still want to be child? Can't I write on myself, wet my pants, and smear food all over myself – then just wait for somebody else to clean me up? Although the convenience of one of those sounds enticing, I must admit that my views have probably shifted to be more in line with my mother's. I'll look for the smallest piece of paper on which to write before I resort to memorizing whatever it is. But write on myself? Now, now… that's just childish.

On the smallest of side notes, I'd like to congratulate myself on my 200th entry on this blog. There's plenty more where that came from.

In the 5th grade I got in a fight with a kid named Chris Powers. I won't go into the details of our friendship obviously gone wrong. For whatever dumb reason, lately I've been thinking about a comment he made after the fight.

"You got me in my weak spot!"

"Well duh, that's why I won, and you lost."

I understand that we as a nation are overweight. I know they've made movies about it that can make you sick as you watch. The Atkins craze was enough to make me want to hit somebody. The Special K diet is out there and available to all you cereal junkies (a serving size has never looked so small… let me assure you). The Triplets of Bellville portray all Americans as walking balloons - and not the kind used to make poodles and swords (it's a great movie, by the way).

Hewlett Packard, in case they didn't have enough to worry about, has now endorsed obesity in our culture by adding a slimming effect to digital cameras, so you can just click a couple buttons, and the camera will automatically adjust the photos to make the people in your photos skinnier. Although I can agree that it would behoove quite a few of us (me included) to lose a pound or two, endorsing doctored photos to make people feel less self-conscious about their weight is ridiculous. Afterall, Katie Couric did it, why can't we?

I haven't given an update on Cecilia in a while, and there are quite a few things I should mention. To let you in on what I'm going to talk about…

• Her speach development is moving right along
• She's a quirky little girl
• She body slams me in order to get me to tickle her

Overall there is quite a bit to talk about. I'll discuss the items in that order, so read/skip what you do/don't want to read.

A month or so ago I re-took a personality test for work. They like to use these things to fit us into different groups and so they can “know” how to better work with us. The test that my employer prefers is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®. It's the second time I've taken this same test. The officiators claim that it isn't likely to change very drastically between tests. Although the results weren't anything astounding to me, one of the most intriguing items was that it pegged me as an introvert.