Monday, October 27, 2008

Public School Geography Lessons/What a Weekend/Sharing a Blogstory

Heard on The Amazing Race

Frat Boy 1: Where the hell is Cambodia?

Frat Boy 2: In Asia - didn't you learn that in school?

Frat Boy 1: No, I didn't go to fancy private school like you.

I mean, this conversation really speaks for itself. Seriously? Your lack of private school education is the explanation for your ignorance and lack of geographical knowledge? I know I am a geography whore - put a map in front of me and I can name probably a majority of the world's countries (I do get fuzzy with the former Soviet republics, I admit - must be because I went to public school til college lol) - but I don't expect other people to necessarily be able to do that. The fact that Frat Boy 1 (and Tony, for that matter) didn't even have an idea of the continent upon which Cambodia is located is disturbing. I wonder if Phil ever watches the show's edits and just shakes his head.

Anyways. It's Monday. Which is a relief in comparison to the weekend, something which I wouldn't normally say, but this weekend had me running around a bit like a chicken with its head cut off.

Friday was good. I went to see my grandparents. I hadn't seen them in about 6 weeks and missed them, so I parked my car on the Red Line, for probably the last time as long as I take the commuter rail because parking is going up to $7 a day, and made plans to see them after work. We had a nice long visit, though Grandma was feeling under the weather, as she has felt for months now. I went home and checked in with the parentals who were heading out and with Ame, and we made plans for dinner. We went out to one of our favorite area restaurants and had some "Pan-Asian Cuisine!" Then came the mistake of the night for me - we hit up Friendly's for dessert. In about a ten minute period I scarfed an entire peanut butter cup "Friend-z" 900+ calories of frosty goodness on the way down......pure torture on the way back up. Yep, I spent most of the night hunched over the toilet, barfing up my dinner....well actually barfing up everything I ate that day, which unfortunately was quite a lot. ew. there was even a reprise an hour and a half later, so violent that it woke my father who was dozing downstairs on his recliner. I ended up passing out on the bathroom floor til 4am and then crawled to bed.

The next day my mom coaxed me out to help her choose a doorknob for our new front door. Honestly I did not want to go anywhere except my bed, but she was all "you're up early, let's go" We found the perfect doorknob/handle combination and headed home - only to see the ambulance pulling out of our street. Great. Since our new front door was being installed that morning by a man who had an incredibly large circular saw, I told my mom to speed up - I could still see the fire truck parked in front of our house. Luckily as we pulled up we saw my neighbor Lou (who just turned 85, and though the picture of health, we worried that maybe he had had an accident) and our contractor Chris, happily sawing bits of moulding. Lou informed us that our across-the-street neighbor was being taken back to the hospital after spending the night there. He and his wife had been in a car accident the night before and while released from the hospital hours later, the next morning he was still in pain. Thankfully, he turned out to be ok. Needless to say the rest of the day was spent laying low and resting up, trying to keep food down, etc. Oh I did visit storage to put away the 120 jam jar led lights I inherited from a friend's wedding. She and her husband are living in the UK, so transporting jam jar lanterns is kind of out of the question.

Sunday was more of a fun day - it started out vomit and hospital free. Amy and I went to the Patriots game and witnessed a hard-earned win. We saw the cheerleaders prancing around in their costumes. Here is a sampling of what they were dressed as: Ho-Pocahontas, Convicted Felon-Ho, Officer Ho, a policewoman, Gladiatrix, Bare-Midriff Kitty, Beer Wench. It was very special, and despite their racy outfits and the sexist and foul comments from the male population in attendance, I do give those ladies mad props for doing their routines in heels, since most days I can barely walk around the block in heels. The rest of the afternoon was filled with beer breath and meat farts, very very eventful. Ok, I shouldn't sound like I didn't enjoy the game because I SO DID - I mean what is more American than football? The crisp fall air, the balding men warbling the National Anthem with their hats fervently covering their hearts, the smell of fried things, paying $7,50 for a beer - I mean if that doesn't scream "Patriotism" in both the country and team sense I don't know what does.

On the way home, my father called to tell us my Grandma was in the hospital. It was a long ride because no one knew what was going on with her. Five hours later my parents came home and told us that it was most likely a kidney stone because one of her kidneys was backed up with urine. Poor woman - she's going to be fine, but she gave us all a scare. Also, my sister has a badly infected toe.

Plus Jamaal's car was broken into this week and quite badly damaged.

I was telling my coworker this and got the distinct feeling that my other coworker, R, who tends to be my buddy, really didn't like that I was telling L about it. She can SUCK IT!!

I am sort of taking all this stuff in stride and while I'm glad the weekend is over, I'm not like, wallowing in the misery or anything. I barfed but recovered, my neighbor and grandma went to the hospital and are ok, Jamaal's car will get fixed. Crap is going to work out fine. Amy and I are taking a vacation together to New Hampshire soon and it will be welcome respite to life drama.

Also, a very big silver lining. I have been obsessed with this blog since the summer, which is kind of funny because the author and her family are so different from me in so many ways, I suppose politics and religion being the two big ways. If you know me at all, you know I'm really liberal in both my politics and religion and that that ideal is pretty important. Whatever our differences, I couldn't stop reading this lovely blog filled with anecdotes about motherhood and staying home with your kids, eating healthy, being all domestic. It was truly wonderful and heartfelt. The author and her husband and a flight instructor were in a plane crash this August. The flight instructor died as a result of his injuries, the author's husband was badly burned, and the author herself was severely burned - over 85% of her body. Needless to say, she's been in a drug-induced coma since. Her sister has been keeping the blog world up to date, and this weekend she reported the latest extraordinary progress made by Nie. Their whole story really puts life into perspective and it's a good way for me to remind myself to suck it up and also to have faith. It is also a show of how different people with different values and beliefs can come together for a common cause and goal. Things have a miraculous way of working out sometimes.

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