Fusion

You can click on the following letter to make it bigger if you like. It is Rebekah's acceptance letter (last name and address redacted to protect the innocent) to the Academy of Science, a public high school that requires an extensive application, essays, etc. Many are called; few are chosen. Aubrey goes there too.






We jumped around and hollered and celebrated at IHOP. She is very happy, see?:

Aubrey got her driver's permit. She begs to drive all the time. She drives us everywhere. I have to sit in the back seat for the first time ever in my own car. Here she is outside the DMV before we went in to get said permit. Note her extreme reluctance to have her picture taken. While in the DMV she repeatedly pointed out that we would be one place further ahead in line if I hadn't insisted on taking the picture for posterity.

Here is where we hid the eggs this year: in my hair.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Rebekah announced her chorus's performance for the crowd. Look very closely; that is her in front of the piano.

And here is the cake Rebekah made and gleefully wrecked in the process. It is for no occasion whatsoever except that she felt like it. She even bought these black polkadotted and striped candles for herself so she could blow them out. It was darn tasty.

X

**SPOILERS for all X-Files episodes in the video. So REBEKAH don't watch this video!!**

• I am out of my gourd excited about the new X-files movie coming out 25 July. You don't understand. You have no idea. The fam and I (especially Rebekah and I) are watching all nine seasons in a row. We are halfway through the first season. Today I saw the top-secret trailer that has not yet been publicly released, but it has just been removed from YouTube due to copyright infringement. So I can't infringe on copyright here either. And the clip on other sites is too shaky and blurry. But here is the super secret retrospective that makes me gurgle.

Dwight Hurst

I am sad and surprised to hear that Dwight Hurst died. He was 61. He was one of just a few adults who, when I was a teenager/young adult, treated me like a person and not "just a kid". He had the rare humility to not look down on me just because I was young. I was a sober, serious, sensitive sort of girl on the whole, and his respect for my accomplishments was very validating to me. Dwight was the primary pianist when I, at age 18, had my first foray into primary as chorister. I had never done such a thing, but he knew I had the musical background for it, and he really helped me without condescension as I fumbled through it. He played these hilarious editorial piano ditties throughout our various primary activities, and added in all sorts of curlicues and embellishments that made me laugh. He made everyone laugh. What a paradox: he was a lawyer and an accountant, yet he wrote painfully pun-packed play scripts that various amateur acting groups produced. My family and I are speaking fondly of him, as he was a bright spot in our lives. In October at Eila's 70th birthday party I asked Iris Young about him (she said he was fine as far as she knew) and told her to tell him hi for me. I hope she did. I am waiting to hear more details since the obituary was sadly lacking. I'm sure his family and the entire church in Albuquerque are missing him sorely while celebrating his life.

They Got the Mustard Out

• Yesterday I sipped avocado cream soup. I had never heard of such a thing. It wasn't as bad as you would think, but there is a reason people just don't go around sipping avocado soup all day. I won't be sipping it again.



• Someone showed this to me ages ago, and I just rediscovered it:

• Real Quidditch pic with article:

Muggle Quidditch, a game based loosely on the magical Quidditch found in J. K.
Rowling's Harry Potter series, has been gaining ground inschools. So much so, in
fact, that as one Middlebury student put it, “It dominates campus –now it’s just
cool, not nerdy.” There are over 60 differentcollegeMuggle Quidditch teams
within the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association,according to the article by IDS
News. To help further spread the sport tomore collegecampuses across the United
States, 25 Middlebury students will travel acrossthecountry from March 22 to
March 30 to play scrimmages and/or matches atAmherst,Bard, Columbia, Dartmouth,
University ofPennsylvania, Princeton,Vassar, andWesleyan. MTV plans to be
presentfor the University of Pennsylvania match and,potentially, the Princeton
match as well, recording footage for a special about"alternative spring break
excursions".“I am really excited for them to come,"said Alexander Benepe, a
Middlebury College junior, "but it definitely puts pressure on us to deliver an
incredibly awesome spectacle."

• Here is one of my new favorite things, Minuscule (or Miniscule in English):

For my own clarification, I looked up some definitions. I share now. By the way, which of the below definitions fits this sentence: "The differences among these definitions are clear as mud"?

• Allegory: A story that has a deeper or more general meaning in addition to its surface meaning. Allegories are composed of several symbols or metaphors. For example, in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, the character named Christian struggles to escape from a bog or swamp. The story of his difficulty is a symbol of the difficulty of leading a good life in the “bog” of this world. The “bog” is a metaphor or symbol of life's hardships and distractions. Similarly, when Christian loses a heavy pack that he has been carrying on his back, this symbolizes his freedom from the weight of sin that he has been carrying


• Metaphor: a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity


• Analogy: A comparison of two different things that are alike in some way (see metaphor and simile). An analogy attributed to Samuel Johnson is: “Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.”


• Simile: A common figure of speech that explicitly compares two things usually considered different. Most similes are introduced by like or as: “The realization hit me like a bucket of cold water.”


• Symbol: A conventional, printed or written figure used to represent an operation, element, quantity, relation, unit of measurement, phenomenon, or descriptor. Also called sign.

And finally a clip from one of my favorite TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Smattering

• The above is the "use positive affirmations to trick yourself into thinking things don't stink," running song of the day.
  


• So I read the 55-page criminal complaint against the leaders of the prostitution ring with which Governor Spitzer was involved. I could not put it down, it was so fascinating. With actual quotations from phone calls, emails, and text messages, I could see the inner workings of high-cost prostitute "transactions" if you will. Thoughts, feelings, problems that the people dealt with. How to launder money. And the details of an FBI sting operation, wow. A psychology and anthropology enthusiast's smorgasbord.
  
  


• And now a word from our sponsor Purpose Soap. I think I remember using this stuff when I was little. Probably, since my mom worked for a dermatologist and we used every good skin product at one point. We use this stuff now, and it is lovely in every way: the smell, the non-soapness, and the hypoallergenicness most of all.

• Please note the widget I have added permanently to my blog: Big Red Number. Please click the button to do your part to improve this number world-wide. Please, please, save the Big Red Number.



• This is my sister April.

• I am out of my mind excited for the as-yet-unnamed X-files 2 movie coming out 25 July. I plan to watch every episode of the first seven seasons in a row before then. Again. The old obsession is rising like a fire-breathing dragon in search of something to destroy. I am such the unlikely sci-fi nerd. I find myself liking science fiction shows more than most other genres. Here is one of the first (official, non-leaked) promo pictures. I won't include here all of the spoilers I have read. ["Thank you, Kimberly."]

• I think I am getting arthritis a little bit in one of my fingers, but only when (yes, when) that finger is attached to my hand.


• Last week there was an arts festival for the high school and all of the schools that feed into it. Before singing, Rebekah was the one who announced her chorus's repertoire for the evening to the crowd. And Aubrey had several pieces of art on display. The teacher took a few of the kids' artworks and made them into prints, then sold them. Aubrey's all sold as far as I could tell. Here are the three that sold. They are postcard sized.

Metaphor phor....

• Boring street names are so boring. Riverpoint Parkway. Belmont Ridge. Main. King Street. I do like some street names around here though: Frying Pan, Catoctin, Hay. If I were naming streets I would make them equally memorable: XYZ, Industrial Waste, Big Rich Houses Street, Public Display, Lollipop Road, White Truffle Circle, Bigotry Boulevard, Really Dangerous Road, Yellow Brick, Stinky Square.


• Dig this metaphor. When I was younger I wanted curly hair. So I permed my hair and then put it in hot rollers every day. It was only when I stopped trying to make my hair curly that I discovered I have curly hair naturally (most of it anyway). Now I don't know what this is a metaphor phor, but it's still a good metaphor.


• I wanted to put in a very funny video here, but it was blasphemous. I hate it when blasphemous stuff is funny. Here is a different one. Note the beautiful coloring of the clip border. I astound myself with my technical prowess.

My Limerick

• When I was in sixth grade I wrote a limerick of which I was very proud at first. I fully expected my teacher to go into raptures over it. But she passed over it without comment. I was hurt and confused. That began a series of questions for me: I guess my limerick really wasn't good? Is my whole world view askew? My judgment was juvenile and useless? Would I ever amount to a hill of beans? Well, I am happy to say that decades of self-analysis have led me to believe that, not only am I fully equal in value to a hill of beans, but my limerick was indeed good no matter what. Maybe it was OTHERS' world views that were askew after all, but I really don't care. Now I have recovered from that passive attack on me and have written many a limerick since then. But today I reach back to my sixth grade self and say, "Girl, your limerick rocks, and though you may write many more limericks categorized as fair to good, you will never write its equal." And here, ladies and gentlemen, is that limerick.

I once met a dog whose hair was so flowing

That I really had no way of knowing

which end was his head

once stopped me and said,

"Please, sir, am I coming or going?"

• Disclaimer: There has been a rash of haiku-writing lately, but I swear I conceived of the limerick blog-subject well before said rash.
• So far I am digging New Amsterdam. The best part is the main actor's ability to use every accent to English known in the present world, rapid fire. To state again, one accent after the other, quickly, if you will. I've never heard anything like it.
• Quotation of the day: "Mom, should I wear these shorts to school today?" (I stare blankly in this pause) "Not really, Mom. I'm too morally correct." ---Rebekah H.

2 Mexicans in Finland

• Today I bought round trip tickets to Finland for Jerry and Rebekah. If you know how to buy 2 tickets from a nearby airport to Finland using only one airline and one stop and whose flight time is less than 11 hours each way for less than $2500, please keep it to yourself. The next challenge is getting passports. Hopefully they won't notice that Rebekah's birth certificate says that both her parents were born in Mexico. Rebekah is our resident Mexican, fo sho'. Ya, I gotta get that fixed one day. It's been on my planner task list every day for 13 years. I give it a priority "D1" every day. *winks at Christa*
• TV shows with which I have been obsessed at one point:
  

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Doctor Who

Remington Steele

the first few seasons of Alias

X-files until Mulder left

Robin Hood

House

Bones

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

• Shows that did not quite make the "obsessed" cut but came close:
  

Angel

Veronica Mars

Firefly

Moonlight

Lost

Moonlighting

Sesame Street

Mr. Rogers

The Office

Scrubs

Monk

I am tempted to put New Amsterdam on this list too, but I guess I'd better be safe and not do it, as the premiere is tomorrow.

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

On the radio yesterday they had a three way call with a man and a woman who had just gone on their first date. The man said he never wanted to go out with her again. The reason: she pooped in his apartment. And it was even in the toilet. Nevertheless, it was a deal breaker for him. You can imagine the calls that came in to the radio station. Quite a thought provoking drive in to work for me, what? It was also informative, for they pointed out that had the woman known about Take a Whiff or Just a Drop, they might have been soul mates. After I try out these products I would give you a report on their efficacy, but that would be such a crude topic on which to blog. Please note that you can buy Just a Drop by the case. They would make the perfect party favors.