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Saturday, 23 April 2011

Today, while Owen and I were wandering around Target, we approached one of those tables where they give out samples. Judging from the items on the table, the lady was giving out iced tea, so I thought, “Heck yeah!”

As we drew closer, the lady asked if I’d like to try the new blah blah blah brand Iced Tea. I said sure. So then, instead of pouring me a one-inch deep aliquot in a plastic shot glass, she hands me a full size cup, complete with ice, a lid, and a straw. “This is the sample?” I said. She affirmed my suspicion, and then told me something or other about a sale price.

So Owen and I got to enjoy 16 ounces of iced tea as we walked around the store (Jennifer was buying some stuff for Easter – and we didn’t want Owen to see what she was buying, so my only job was to aimlessly wander until Jennifer called me saying she was done). Owen insisted on saving the last sip for Mama, but, still, wow…how cool was that? I mean, especially considering there’s a Starbuck’s right in the Target there where I could’ve spent $3 for practically the same thing.

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Today was Easter, the one day of the year when rabbits lay eggs.

First, Jennifer took some pictures of our kids all dressed up in fancy Easter clothes. (Why were they dressed up? I don’t know.) Second, we met up with my sister and her husband at a restaurant in Eagan where we partook in an all-you-can-stuff-in-your-disgusting-face buffet. The waiter was kind enough to not charge us for Owen (he hasn’t learned how to be a glutton yet), and we got free mimosas. So, you know, I left the guy a good tip.

Third, we drove to Jennifer’s Uncle and Aunt’s place where about a dozen members of her family were present. I hid some plastic eggs around the yard (there was candy inside them – that’s some of the stuff that Jennifer bought yesterday) and then Owen and his cousin (the five year old, not the 8 month old) went hunting for the treasures.

On the way home, we had to pull the car over twice to let Owen puke. Yeah, that was nice. On the bright side, he appears to have reached that threshold where he can anticipate vomit and alert us that he needs to get somewhere where he can expel the contents of his stomach. This is good because, man, I hate cleaning up throw up, so the ditch next to the highway is a great spot.

Monday, 25 April 2011

My sick son, who threw up three times today (for a total of five times within 30 hours) stayed home from school today. What we initially took for overeating of sweets has now, probably, become the flu.

This evening, Jennifer and Isla walked to the co-op (which is how hip urbanites say “grocery store”), and I stayed home with Owen. He slept on the couch for about 98% of the time, just turning over once to smile at me and mumble something about Star Wars. This was a very easy form of parenting, and I think I could used to it rather quickly.

Anyway, Owen’s class has a field trip to the planetarium on Friday. If there’s one day I always wanted to make sure I attended school, it was on the days we went to field trips. And I think Owen will like the planetarium better than the last few field trips his class has gone on. So, I hope he’s better by Friday. Jennifer and I don’t want to remind him that the field trip is coming up, because then he’ll just get stressed out that he might miss it…but I’m rooting for his steady improvement by the end of the week.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Guess what? By a 2-to-1 margin, writing numbers in ascending sequence is more interesting than discussing Edgar Allen Poe. Yeah, it’s true. For while I demonstrated my continuing nerdiness and ability to portray myself as teacher’s pet, the student sitting to my left, and the student sitting directly in front of her, both decided to just start writing numbers.

So, about a half hour into class, I looked over at the guy one-up and one-over from me. He had been writing nonstop for over ten minutes and, I’m sorry, but no one takes notes that well. I looked at his paper, and I saw it was just a solid block of text – no bullet points, no paragraphs, nothing – just twenty or more lines of complete text. Upon further inspection, I saw that the top row of his paper looked like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Okay, you get the idea.

He was already in the 200s by the time I identified this, and he showed no indication of abating. I figured he was just bored and this was his way of filling the time.

However, about 40 minutes later, I looked to the lady sitting to my left. She never participates, and appears to complete her homework in the five minutes prior to each class. So, it was kind of funny to notice that she was taking notes. Only, she wasn’t taking notes. She was, like our classmate, just writing numbers.

This reminds me of the time I sat down on the bus to go home from school one day (in junior high school), and the guy I sat next to was writing numbers. When I inquired as to his purpose, he told me he planned to write every number from one to one million. I took the notebook from him and paged through it. I couldn’t believe it. Of course, he was no where near a million yet, but he was in the hundred thousands, and he had filled several pages. In fact, the notebook was dedicated to this purpose.

Anyway, I’m just wondering. I’m a nerd. I love math. And numbers. And lists. And yet, I have never done what these three people were doing. Am I missing something? Is this like twiddling thumbs or doodling – the kind of activity lots of people do when they’re bored? Or were the two students in my class working on some inexplicable assignment for another class? Who knows?

Either way, weird.