Mouse brain

When I get busy at work my brain turns into a little mouse brain the minute I get in my car to drive home. Sometimes the mouse brain causes small problems, like when it takes a week to process that the dvd on the passenger seat needs to be returned. Other times the mouse brain does silly things, like ignoring an entire page of problems in a GRE practice test for a class. The mouse brain is generally benign, but it pulled a stunt last week that had the potential to be pretty mortifying.

I was making dinner on Tuesday night and bent over to pull something out of a cabinet when I heard a loud riiipp! The jeans I was wearing had some small holes near the back pockets so I patted around but didn't feel anything unusual. The mouse brain immediately forgot about the noise. Two days later I was at the cat shelter changing from my work skirt to a t-shirt and jeans when I discovered the source of the ripping noise. (I've marked the end and beginning of the rip in the picture - not exactly something you can fix with a safety pin.)

I had nothing else to wear so I put on the jeans and got ready to scoop some cat litter. It wasn't too bad since I was working in the back with one other person rather than in front with 7 or 8 other people but cleaning cages involves a lot of bending over and kneeling on the floor - prime butt exposing activities.

Luckily, work has slowed somewhat so my real brain can function in the evenings. The mouse brain is really looking forward to taking over all non-academic work once I start grad school.

Today's Lesson

The proper eyewear is essential to a job well done.

This Week

Listening to: Andrew Bird's new cd. I got this on Monday afternoon and haven't taken it out of my car cd player since. Love, love it. I saw him a few years ago in San Francisco when he was opening for Nickel Creek. I had never heard of him before the concert so I didn't know what to expect. I think my mouth dropped open when he began playing - his recorded music is good but nowhere near as good as it is live. You all know that I am not a concert person, but I would see him again in a heartbeat. Unfortunately there are no nearby shows on his current tour. Boo.

Reading: The Boleyn Inheritance. I borrowed this from my officemate a long time ago and just got into it this week. It's much better than I was anticipating and it makes me wish I knew more about the time period. After about 30 pages I was scouring through the history sections of British Literature textbooks from college to figure out the order of Henry VIII's wives.

Waiting: for these shoes to arrive. They are for this dress for a summer wedding (and the rehearsal of a different wedding). I have undertaken the potentially disastrous task of making a matching bag. I'll post some pictures if it turns out well.

Working: on scanning old pictures. I bought a scanner on sale at Target last week and I spent the weekend going through old photos and selecting ones to scan. I'll post some good ones and tell some stories as soon as I get them moved to a different computer.

Horseballs!

Last year at the Octoberfest in Ohio we were introduced to what might be the greatest game ever.

I decided to make a set for Jeff's birthday this year and we put it to use a couple weeks ago when Allan and G were in town. The bars are a little wider and the balls are bigger but it works pretty well (except for when the whole side fell off).

Good times. Hopefully we will be able to bring it out more this summer.

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

11. Between the fourth and fifth grades my family moved from Kentucky to Indiana. We had bought a house but it needed so much painting done (maybe there were other issues, but this is what I remember) that we couldn't move in. Meanwhile, the school year was starting and our parents wanted to get my sister and me into school at the beginning of the year. There were no residential hotels in Evansville at the time and it was impractical to rent an apartment for a month, so we moved into the Holiday Inn the night before school started.

We had adjoining rooms at the end of the hallway on the second floor. Our parents' room was outfitted with a small refrigerator and a microwave, but other than that these were two small, typical hotel rooms. Our mom would drive us to the bus stop every day and pick us up again after school. On Fridays we would drive straight from the bus stop to our old house in Kentucky and spend the weekend there. We would exchange dirty clothes for clean ones, eat dinner at Grandma's, and see soon-to-be old friends before heading back to Indiana on Sunday night.

There are lots of inconveniences about traveling and staying in hotels that are small and almost fun novelties until you experience them every day for a month. We ate out every night - fun at first but not so exciting when you end up at a stinky Bob Evans because you've eaten everywhere else in town. Sure, you can eat cereal every day for breakfast but what happens when you want a frozen waffle and don't have a toaster? Soggy, lukewarm waffles is what happens.

For an eleven year old trying to make friends in a new school, living in a hotel does have its perks. "Come over and swim!" It sounds glamorous and exciting to a fifth-grader: room service! never having to make the bed! leaving towels on the floor! People, this was a Holiday Inn near the middle of town, not a penthouse suite. No one was ever impressed by the frequent fire alarms or trucks rumbling down the nearby expressway.

We eventually moved in to our new house and started eating dinner at the kitchen table rather than in a booth somewhere. The trips home slowed and we settled into our new neighborhood. Looking back, that month seems impossibly long, like we lived in transition for much longer than four weeks.

Three things

I have been overcome with an uncontrollable urge to get a dog. This is completely ridiculous for so many reasons but I can't stop looking on petfinder.com. I need a good kick in the head (or maybe I could do it myself*).

I survived the three-city bachelorette EXTRAVAGANZA (I say it like that in my head.) this past weekend. I will post some appropriate pictures as soon as I get around to it. It was so much fun and now I am super-excited about the wedding. The parties just never end around here because I have another bachelorette party this weekend.

I don't think I've ever had a nicer looking bracket. 14 of the sweet 16, 6 of the elite 8, and 3 of the final four (damn you, Georgetown). My mom, dad, and I all picked the same final game (FL over OSU - sorry, Allan) so our family pool is finished (guess who won!).

*Do you read Josh's site? My family used to discuss the Morgan family members (as in Rex Morgan, MD) and their trials like they were people we knew.

Biggest Dork Ever

(I have a less-blurry picture but the mirror is covered in toothpaste splatters. I figure bad photography is a lesser sin than living in filth.)

How much do I love this shirt? I got it a while ago but didn't post anything about it because I got my sister one too and wanted to surprise her. For those who don't get it, let me explain. The standardized tests given in Indiana schools had a memorization section. When you came to this section your teacher would read aloud nonsense-sounding words and definitions while you followed along on the page. Then you would take some other section of the test. You then came back to the memorization section and had to choose the right definition for each word. The list of words never changed from year to year, either in content or order. "A baloo is a bear. Sculch is junk. A yonker is a young man. To wuzzle is to mix." The Black Table talks about it in their "Six Things You Don't Know About Indiana."

If any researcher ever wonders why one testing room in one high school had excellent memorization scores in the late 1990s, I've got your answer right here. My sophomore or junior year in high school (the last time you had to take the test) we had a substitute teacher on one of the testing days. When we came to the memorization section, someone in our testing room was trying to be a smartass and asked if we could use our scratch paper. The sub flipped through the directions, thought about it, and said that she couldn't think of a reason why not. Our mouths must have dropped open, but she started the section and began to read the words and definitions. Meanwhile, we are all furiously scribbling down the answers. When it came time to answer the memorization questions we all brought out our scratch paper and looked up the answers. Awesome.