Baby, it's cold outside!

According to the weather channel at 10:05 AM, it was a balmy 18 degrees outside. And with the wind, it feels like 3. That's Fahrenheit! That's the same as -16 degrees Celsius! Cold!

Invisible (No I'm Not!)

It's funny how easily it is to ignore others. It's funny how easily it is to pretend someone is invisible when they're sitting right next to you. I think this happens far to frequently with the elderly, mentally handicapped, and children.

Take, for example, my grandparents. We were all over at their place on New Years Eve just sitting around visiting. We started talking about how Grandma has/hasn't progressed physically on certain things, and how she likes this but doesn't like that, and on and on and on. BUT SHE WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE! We were talking as if she wasn't! How can we do that so easily? I'm sure she's thinking (if she can hear us very well, which is an entirely different issue), Why don't they just ASK me? I'm sitting right here!

It goes like this: someone asks Grandma about something. She either can't hear and just gives a vague answer or answers something that isn't true. (Like she says she wants to eat a pig-in-a-blanket when we all know she can't physically and she'd hate it anyway) So then Mom or Grandpa changes her answer to the correct one. Then someone asks Mom or Grandpa something related to the topic at hand. A conversation has begun. Mom or Grandpa talk a little softer so Grandma doesn't hear them talking about her when she's right there. Anyone would do that. But then after a few sentences, the conversation level gets back up to regular talking volume, and we're all talking about someone who is sitting right next to us.

How are we able to do this so swiftly and unknowingly? Maybe we think, "oh, it's just a kid. They won't know what I'm talking about." Or maybe, "Grandma can't hear that well anyway, so it's OK." Or maybe, "Their mind just isn't able to understand what I'm saying." But how can we know any of that is true? Doesn't everyone know that kids are like sponges and soak up everything they hear and see? If Grandma can't communicate very well in her old age, how do we know what she can and can't hear? Maybe she just can't tell us very well what she can and can't hear.

I have mixed feelings about all this. It is necessary to talk about Grandma's issues, but not in front of her...right? But it would look equally strange if we all suddenly got up and left to go talk in the other room, leaving her all alone for a bit! And her hearing really is pretty terrible, so she probably can't hear us anyway. But does that make it OK? How would I like it if someone was talking about me when I was right there? Not very well. I'd want to get in on the conversation. Unless, of course, I didn't know or understand what they were saying.

...and round and round we go...

Infamy

It was said that today, December 7, would live in infamy. Looking back through US history, this may be true. But there has been a lot that has happened on this day throughout the years. Here are a few of them, according to Wikipedia, The History Channel, and The New York Times:

1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1796 - Electors chose John Adams to be the second President of the United States.
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1941 – World War II: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.
1965 - Chevrolet produces its 3 millionth car.
1970 – Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist, dies (b. 1883)
1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1988 – Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
1993 – The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
1999 – The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.
2002 - Iraq denied it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the United Nations.
2004 - Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.

words from my mouth

It has recently occurred to me that there are several words and phrases that I say, perhaps, too frequently. These include bummer, sweet, that's hilarious, son of a biscuit, and awesome. I'm not sure why I say these things as often as I do. I suppose everyone has catch-phrases or expressions that they say regularly, but maybe we just don't notice them.

What do you think? Do you say something a little too often?

words from my head

Life is good right about now. So good, in fact, that I'm seriously considering going running as soon as I finish this post. (I haven't been running in months)

To answer your obvious first question, things with Kelley are going swimmingly. It's like each day is the best day, but then the next day is better. She's pretty awesome. My favorite part of our relationship is how often we can see each other. It's usually not planned, either. Like, I'll post on Twitter and Facebook about doing Campus Cam for CollegeLife one morning, and she'll come sit with me after her class. Or when she forgot about Daylight Savings two weeks ago and showed up to church an hour before she needed to be there, we went out for breakfast at Whataburger. All around greatness.

My CFL team is killing. I captain the Hurricanes, and we are holding first place at 7-1. I suppose technically we're tied for first, but we have more overall points and a higher point differential than the other team. Many more. And much higher. My team is great. We usually have just enough players to play the two games each Saturday morning, and I am physically hurting each Sun-Tues. But we play very well as a team. We spread the ball around so well that I'm pretty sure everyone has scored at least one touchdown. Everyone does their job on defense so well that most everyone who's played off the line has gotten at least one interception. Whether we have everyone there or hardly anyone there, we all play hard and play hard together. I love it.

My grandma is in Texas. There has been a lot of family drama over the last few weeks, but I think it's beginning to come to an end. It has resulted in Grandma moving from Missouri to Texas into an assisted living center within walking distance from my parents' house. I'm going over tonight to help move some furniture items out of a moving truck. The only bad part of that story is that Grandpa is still in a hospital in Missouri. We're not entirely sure what's going to happen to him over the next few weeks, so please pray for his mental and physical health. I haven't ever lived in the same city as my grandparents, so this should be pretty neat!

We interns had our monthly Supperfest last night. In July, we manterns wanted to show the femterns how much we appreciated them (as they are compensated in no way whatsoever for their service to CollegeLife), so we had them all over for dinner and games. They wanted to cook for us the next month, but we said, "No! That defeats the whole point of what we were doing! We wanted to treat you!" But they would have none of it. They cooked for us in August, we played more games, and Supperfest was born. Every month, we've been trading off who hosts whom. Last night we played no games, and instead just talked. It was nice. I don't see most of the girls on a regular basis, so it's good to reconnect each Supperfest. We have a great group of interns this year. Really great.

My housemates are the best, too. Taylor and I have been sharing the big room ever since LoPresti moved down from Virginia. Taylor is a lot like my brother Daniel, actually. Scientific, technical, similar sense of humor, same age, similar personality and character. It's a little creepy. Either way, we get along pretty well. All the guys do, really. It's pretty swell. I'm glad for each of them being here.

Man, that was much longer than I anticipated. Sorry about that. I'll leave you with my three most favorite classical pieces of all time:

• The Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky
• Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
• Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major by Johann Sebastian Bach