For example:

This morning I noted one distinct advantage to teaching at 8am every morning: if I go to use the restroom before class, the toilet seats are still up. Now as a woman, my natural instinct is to be annoyed by this, but it's different at 8am in a public facility. They're still up because no one has used them since they were last cleaned.

And that makes me smile.

Back to blogging!

Why, you ask, would I suddenly take up blogging again after nearly a year-long hiatus?

I blame Facebook. It has changed my life, or at least the way I experience my life.

In short, it has made me start thinking in simple sentences beginning with my own name. Several times a day I think something like, "Jenna is making herself a coffee." Sometimes I get all fancy about it, too: "Jenna has just enjoyed a delightful cup of French press coffee."

It's sad, I know.

Even worse is the whole line of thinking that ensues each time I observe something remotely interesting (to me) about myself, my current state or my current surroundings:

1) Can this observation be condensed into one concise sentence starting with "Jenna Mason Grem"?
2) Am I within reasonable distance of an online connection so that I can update my status with said observation?
3) Is the observation Facebook-worthy in terms of accuracy, importance and wit?
4) Would anybody possibly care to know this piece of information?
5) Would posting this status entertain my friends, or would it give them the impression that I am a perpetual navel-gazer who thinks even the most trivial thoughts should be shared in real time with everyone else I know?

Generally, I hit a "No" somewhere in that series of questions, which is why I often leave the previous status for days after it has ceased to be true, or I just clear my status altogether until I think of something that meets my stringent (haha) criteria.

So, in response to the original question (why blog again?), the answer is that too often some invaluable epiphany occurs in my life that does not meet requirement #1: brevity.

And, what's the difference between Facebook and blogging? Facebook demands brevity, and blogging does not.

So be warned, dear readers (if there are any left): when reading this blog you do hereby assume responsibility for any and all personal risk related to exposure to my long-winded, often inaccurate, unimportant but hopefully still witty, navel-gazing observations about myself and occasionally something else.

cheers.
-jmg

Mommy-dō: My Way of Life

for making

for growing

for baking

for knowing

for preparing

for practicing

for creating

for relaxing

for sweetening things up

for cleaning things up

for heating things up

for beating things up

I guess that just about sums it up.

jmg

March for Babies!

[Some of you may have gotten this message via email (or Facebook, or Myspace...), but I am posting it here because it's important to me that as many people read it as possible. Thanks for understanding!]

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the March of Dimes organization, which sponsors research to help eliminate birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. This year they have changed the name to "March for Babies" so that everyone will know exactly what the March is about. Also this year, I'm participating for the first time.

As you know, last year we were blessed to have our little William after a pregnancy and delivery completely free of complications. Sadly, I have known several women who have had difficult complications or miscarriages, and two of our close friends lost their babies last year just one month before they were due.

I am participating in the March for Babies this year to honor these friends who have suffered such profound losses. If you are able, please consider donating to the March for Babies to support lifesaving research, services, education and advocacy that help babies get a healthy start.

To donate any amount online, please go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/jennagrem. You can also donate by giving me cash or a check in person.

Even if you are unable to donate, there are other ways to participate in this worthy cause:

1) Forward this email to anyone you think will be interested in participating or donating. Be sure to include the above website in your email.

2) Join a team. I am the team captain of the American Blackbelt Academy team, and everyone is invited to join our team! Just go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/# and search for "American Blackbelt Academy" to join. By joining a team, you can create your own sponsor page where your friends can donate online.

3) Walk! Go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/# to find the time and date of the March for Babies walk nearest you. William and I will be walking at Bishop Park in Athens, Saturday May 3rd at 10am.

Thank you in advance for considering this cause. Feel free to email me with any questions.

Love,
Jenna

April is...

National Poetry Month?

Apparently so--I just got the promotional email from Amazon telling me so. Does that seem ironic to anyone else?*

So anyway, I've been thinking about poetry lately, and how I used to "write poetry," and how so often that has seemed to me like a 14-year-old who wants to be in a band so he can, like, be a rock star, dude.

And I've also been thinking about writing in general, as in, hmmm, maybe I should just sit and write down all the things that go through my head everyday that make me think, "hmmm, I should write that down." Honestly, the only writing I've been doing lately has been reminders to myself about things to do and reminders to students about things to do, like "Please use spell-check" or "Where is your thesis?"

Okay, and I'll admit to being the real writer behind Will's blog, only because it would be a little repetitive if I were to transcribe his actual commentary: "Dat, dat, dog, dat, bear, duck, duck, dat, book, book, book, book, dat." But you see how often I manage to sit down and do that--he has even written about his awesome trip to the beach yet!

So anyway, in an effort to start writing again, I'm going to try to write something everyday. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use this particular medium to do so, since half the reason I never really write is because I'm so self-conscious about it. I might even go old-school and write in a journal...we'll see.

As for today, I can now officially say I have met my goal. I wrote this.

And on a completely different topic: Happy Birthday to Chris / Uncle Best / Crawdaddy Long-Legs!

~jmg


*that is, to anyone else who has read The Wasteland?

Update

so i figured it was time to give a little update, though i'm not sure anyone even bothers to check my blog anymore since i haven't posted in ages...

as is to be expected, the most interesting things in our lives now all seem to revolve around one particularly cute little boy. since my last post in november, Will has completely mastered sitting up one his own, which we all know is just another way to avoid tummy time! no crawling yet, probably because that would involve being on his tummy for at least a few seconds, which seems to be completely out of the question for the little guy.

he has also gotten sick for the first time--ear infection--and is in the process of getting his first tooth (finally). i'm a little surprised that it's taking so long to come in after it broke through his gums almost a week and a half ago, but what do i know about baby teeth? overall, he's handled the ear infection and teething very well; sometimes he's just a little more clingy & tired than usual.

since he's finally getting teeth and because he sits up so well now, he's started learning to eat finger foods like toast, cheese, and little bits of banana, smashed veggies, etc. needless to say, it's messy but so darn cute! he's also learning to drink from a cup, though his favorite thing to do right now is turn the sippy cup upside down in his lap when i'm not looking & soak his pants with milk. he's a little trickster for sure.

the best news, though, is that he already said his first word! not mama or dada, though. that's way too typical for our little man. nope, his first word was "Cocoa"--the name of the little dachshund at Grandma Deb's house. Of course, for a while he was calling Feral Cat "Cocoa," too, but now he tends to say "ca" when he sees her.

he also seems to understand a lot of what we tell him, like "no," "shake," and "jump." okay, so shaking things and jumping are probably his favorite things to do anyway, but he seems to respond when we tell him to do them, too.

okay, let's see if i can think of anything to say that isn't about how cute & awesome Will is....

well, the semester has started, but i'm still undecided on how i like my new schedule. i teach everyday from 8am to either 9:55 or 10:45, then have office hours & tutoring appointments after that on Mondays and Wednesdays. compared to other teachers, who have to be at school at 6:45 am everyday, then teach all day, then have meetings until 5pm, i know this doesn't sound like a lot. but i am still adjusting to having to plan essentially 4 different preps, since my Tuesday/Thursday classes have different pacing than my Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes, and i teach one section of each level each day. it's taking a lot of planning and organization to stay on top of things, but so far i'm doing okay with it. it actually feels good to be a little 'on top of things,' for a change, even if it's because i couldn't get by any other way!

okay, so writing that much about my schedule is even boring me, so let's move on.

...

well, not much else i can think of. i am currently finishing up a little toy dragon that i made for Will. i personally think he looks kind of silly & not at all like the picture, but darren thinks he's cute. i'm not too worried about Will liking it--he's not very picky as long as he can chew on it!

here's a couple pictures of the-still-unnamed dragon:

i still need to put a face on him:

and i have to hold him up like this because...

apparently he's a water-dragon? that's the only explanation i have for his poor posture. doesn't he look like he's trying to swim?

he is machine washable, so maybe someday he'll be able to live out his dream & take a swim in our washing machine.

and that, dear friends, is where i will leave you. for more info on our vacation & Will's amazing feats, check out his blog www.willymiles.blogspot.com.

Happy New Year!!!

So this elephant walks into a bar...

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=284021&GT1=7703&mpc=1

In keeping with my recent trend

of simply posting a link rather than an actual blog entry, i pose this question:

what happens if he wins?

My day is like this...sans música

No remembro the last time I laughed so hard.

One semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song.

Thanks, Jack, for making my Friday un poco más divertido.

i just couldn't resist

will's smiles are pretty persuasive, you know.

http://www.willymiles.blogspot.com/

enjoy!

the evolution of test day

yep. test days take on a whole new glory when you're the instructor and not the student.

now, you all know that i am a nerd, so i never really minded test days when i was in school. but now...now i absolutely LOVE them.

sure, there's the whole aftermath of test days: all the shell-shocked student expressions, all the grading, all the responding to emails claiming "i don't think we covered #4 in class"* or "i think my answer to #7 should be counted correct".**

but the day itself is blissful. no standing on your feet all day. no repeating yourself six times because various students weren't listening. no answering questions to which they should already know the answers. no having to assume your students understand a point despite their bewildered faces because they refuse to answer a simple yes or no question ("do you understand?").

and no lesson planning. which is how i am able to write this blog post at all.***

now comes the disappointing part: after having dwelled too long on my feelings toward test day and the circumstances that have facilitated this post...i find i don't really have anything else to say.

so here's a list of things that have happened since my last post:

-i earned my blue belt in karate, so i'm no longer considered a beginner. kiaiiiii!
-will is rolling over somewhat consistently from his tummy to his back.
-will is chowing down on the rice cereal. he's a hungry little boy!
-darren and i have flip-flopped our work / Will-watching hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays so i can go to a women's morning Bible study on tuesdays and a mommy playdate on thursdays. may sound silly, but i am pumped!
-i can fit back into almost all of my pre-maternity clothes, which means i might actually have enough clothes to teach in this semester!
-and, finally, i can finally do plenty of push-ups and sit-ups again! well, to be honest, i could never do push-ups before i started taking karate, so now i actually get excited about them (sad, i know). but i used to be able to do sit-ups all day long (okay, not literally), and i was really frustrated that i couldn't even do one after having Will. again, i know it sounds silly, but just the fact that i CAN do them makes me actually makes me WANT to do them. so hopefully that will help me get back into the rest of my clothes....

and, now, i must go give a test. weeeee!



*response: "attendance and note-taking do matter"
**response: "why, because your three weeks of experience with Spanish Literature is more credible than my MA in the subject?", followed by "attendance and note-taking do matter"
***now don't you love test day, too?

what's going on

time for the bi-monthly not-too-terribly-interesting-but-at-least-somewhat-informative blog post!

as you probably know, fall semester started last week, which meant back-to-work-for-real for darren and me. or just me, really, since darren has been working steadily on his dissertation all summer. he's a trooper, that one.

so here's what the crazy schedule looks like so far:

MWF: (that's uga-speak for monday/wednesday/friday)

i teach from 8am until about 1:30pm, so Darren (a.k.a., SuperDad) is in charge of dropping off Will (a.k.a., Mr. Snuggles) at the sitter's (a.k.a., Awesome "Grandma Debbie's") before he teaches from 10am to 12:30pm. i do a little planning after classes, then pick up the little guy around 4:30. we have one glorious hour of playtime and snuggling before i hand him off to daddy and go to karate. by the time i get home, he's usually bathed, fed and sleeping soundly, so it's a quick dinner for darren and me, then bedtime for mommy.

TR: (tuesday/thursday, because abbreviations are a little tough for uga-ers?)

i try to use the 8am-11am window to do some planning while darren watches Will. then, the hand-off, and daddy goes to work while i make up for hardly seeing Will MWF.

the benefits of this schedule:

-we both still get a good amount of quality time with Will, even though we're both working full-time.

-i get a little time to myself, even if it is teaching and planning. it's a reminder that i didn't lose my identity at all by becoming a mom--i just added on to it. and, strangely enough, i have realized again how much i really enjoy teaching.

-Will gets time outside the house and with other people--not just Grandma Debbie, but also a couple other babies from church that Debbie occasionally watches.

-whether it's a direct consequence or not, Will has started napping better! sometimes he'll sleep for a total of 3 hours or more at Debbie's, and at least 2 hours total at home. (hence this blog post!)

the drawbacks so far are few:

-i really miss seeing Will the days i teach and have karate. on the upside, though, i feel like i appreciate my time with him even more, and i feel more patient when he's having a rough day.

-well, 8am classes are never fun, even though it's the most convenient time for us. i am really exhausted at the end of every teaching day. but being able to rest a little on TR makes it bearable.

-apparently our little genius has already learned some math: an earlier bedtime + a few naps = the right to get up at least once during the night. whereas he used to sleep 10 hours straight easily, now he wakes up after about 5 hours. or like last night, after 5 hours, then 3 more hours, then 2 more hours....(that's still very unusual, though). again, we can't complain--plenty of babies don't even sleep 5 hours straight at his age.

overall, things are going smoothly, and we're still counting our blessings everyday. we both have jobs that we love (most of the time) and that manage to pay the bills, we have wonderful family and friends to help us learn the ropes of parenthood, and we have the sweetest, cutest, snuggliest little boy ever.

and just to prove that last point:

allow me to elaborate

"Sometimes there's no coffee in the coffee. I plow through it and it is definitely a coffee area, but there's no coffee in it. I always think they'll (sic) be a little at the bottom of the cup, but there never is. If it's missing at all, it's all missing. The fact is, coffee isn't just a substance--it's an event, and it's manifestation depends on countless subtle conditions, most of which are not speakable."

~Joe Wenderoth, Letters to Wendy's

all i have to say is:

"sometimes there's no coffee in the coffee."

~joe wenderoth

The Case for Spreading Your Stuff Around*

and i don't mean spreading it around to other folks, like sharing the wealth or anything like that, though i'm sure that has it's benefits, too. but i seriously doubt they can stand up to remarkable benefits of leaving your stuff lying around in places it shouldn't be because a) you think it might come in handy there at some point or 2) you're just too lazy to put it back where it belongs.

now, since the birth of our little Will, i have taken to keeping certain things within arm's reach of where i normally feed the little guy (that is, where the little guy subsequently passes out without two seconds' warning and where i often find myself stuck until he wakes up again. i am happy to say that this doesn't happen as often now that we're training him to put himself to sleep in his crib whenever he gets droopy-eyed. but i digress).

such items include, but are not limited to: multiple burp cloths, a couple baby books, a rattle, a receiving blanket, a novel or two of my own, a giant travel mug of water, my cell phone and the tv and dvd remote controls. i think it's self-explanatory why these things come in handy when one is trapped on a sofa for up to 3 hours at a time.

but what, you ask, are the possible benefits of leaving random items out of arm's reach, in such distant places as your car, your office or even a friend's house, simply because you're too lazy to return them to their proper homes? glad you asked. let me tell you a little story about my morning.

phyllis** is staying with us this week so that i can get a headstart on my planning for the fall semester***. though she and ellie have brought down a cot in the past, she finds it just as comfortable to sleep on our sofa, which is where she was this morning as i was getting ready to go teach my 8am class. not wanting to wake her, i didn't bother to turn on the lights to put on my sandals, which were located conveniently by the front door beside darren's flip-flops.

you see where this is going, right?

as i stepped out of the truck on campus, i was shocked to find that i had put on mismatched sandals--one brown and sparkly, one black and old-navy-flip-floppy. i laughed at myself all the way to my department, where, having sufficiently 'spread my stuff around,' i found a complete pair of matched sandals in which to teach. granted, this pair was black, which didn't at all correspond to my brown tank top and brown leopard-spotted skirt, so i still felt compelled to explain myself, in spanish, to my students. they were quite entertained and most likely now think i am a complete airhead.****

just for the record, a list of other random stuff in my office:
a pink fluffy scarf, a bag of microwave popcorn, two sturdy water bottles, a roll of toilet paper, an empty canister that once held coffee, a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head, a list of the caffeine content of various beverages, peanut butter, several pieces of silverware, a can of chicken noodle soup, a stack of paper plates, plastic cups and plastic forks, and a Christmas ornament of a smiling marshmallow knitting while sitting atop a chocolate square and a graham cracker (a.k.a., a s'more).

don't ask.

*what a great topic to make my big blog comeback, right?
**darren's mom, a.k.a. best mother-in-law ever
***i'm teaching introduction to spanish literature, which means i've got a lot of planning now and a lot of grading later
****also worth mentioning are the benefits of having a patient, understanding companion with a good sense of humor. my darling husband did take the time to bring me my other brown sparkly sandal, as well as the lunch i had absentmindedly left in the refrigerator....

Top 5 Ways Grad School Prepares You for Parenthood:

1) Multitasking.
Grad School forces even the most adamant one-thing-at-a-timer to learn the art of multitasking. For example, more often than not, any kind of food is eaten while reading, studying, walking to class, sitting in class, writing papers or grading papers.

For a new parent (stay-at-home moms, especially), any kind of food is eaten while feeding the baby, burping the baby, rocking the baby, entertaining the baby, or praying the baby will stay asleep for 5 more minutes.

2) Prioritizing.
The Grad Student must learn to prioritize tasks and complete them accordingly. While in many other professions this prioritization might depend on the relative importance of each task, in Grad School, it generally depends solely on the official deadline of said tasks. Consequently, tasks without official deadlines often go unaccomplished.

This is why, since Will was born, I have somehow managed to get all the necessary grading done for my Spanish classes, but I still have tons of Thank You notes to write for the many, many gifts we received celebrating his birth.

I blame this mostly on one simple point of confusion: Everyone knows that newlyweds get a full year to send Thank You notes for gifts, just as friends of newlyweds get a full year to send such gifts. But what is the official deadline for newly-parents???

As I said, tasks without official deadlines often go unaccomplished. (I am trying, though!)

3) Irregular Eating Habits.
See "Multitasking." This example assumes, of course, that you manage to eat at all.

4) Limited Time with Friends and Family.
This is related to the problem of official deadlines and prioritization. In terms of importance alone, most Grad students would easily rank friends and family far above the tedious work of Grad School. However, returning that phone call or getting together for that dinner doesn't carry an official deadline, so it often gets put off a little longer than it should. In a way, then, friends and family are being conditioned for the future parenthood of the Grad student as much as the Grad student himself (or herself).

Fortunately, though, your average friend or family member is much more likely to comprehend the demands placed on the parents of a newborn than those placed on a Grad student, unless they themselves have chosen at some point to endure the masochistic nightmare that is Grad School. It's much easier to imagine why a new parent with a screaming baby doesn't answer the phone than to imagine why the same person, staring silently at a blank computer screen, won't return your calls.

So with new parents, friends and family start to preface emails and voicemails with ever-so-kind concessions like, "I know you're really busy, so you don't have to call me back right away...." It's really quite touching.

5) Sleep.
Grad school not only adequately prepares you for the lack of sleep you'll experience as a new parent, it actually over-prepares you.

Grad school makes it possible at 5:30am, having gotten only 3 1/2 hours of sleep that night, to think, "It could be worse. I could be writing a 20-page paper in Spanish on the use of Lacanian linguistics as a basis for a Feminist reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude."

In other words, it's much easier to feed a baby on one-hour spurts of interrupted sleep than it is to write coherent strings of theoretical jargon in a foreign language.


Top 1 Way Grad School Doesn't Prepare You for Parenthood:

1) Coffee.
While doctors agree that a "moderate" amount of caffeine is harmless during the 40 weeks of pregnancy and the many months of nursing that may follow, this allowance is nowhere near the quantity necessary to support the caffeine addiction one likely will develop in Grad School. Therefore, it is recommended to put at least one full year between finishing Grad School and getting pregnant in order to sufficiently wean oneself from this oh-so-tasty drug.

Some days are easier than others...

and so far, today looks like the Second-Easy-Day-In-A-Row.

other new moms (still getting used to that title) will surely understand that this simply means that baby Will is either sleeping or calmly entertaining his awake self. for the moment, it is the former. yesterday, it was the former practically all day long.

don't get me wrong--i love when the little sweetie is awake, and i have no qualms about cuddling him just as much as he wants to be cuddled. i mean, who could resist such cuteness?



but, days like yesterday are quite needed to maintain some level of sanity. yesterday, i was able to:

-straighten the living room (burp cloths everywhere!)

-clean the kitchen (even the floor)

-take out the trash (not my favorite chore...)

-change the sheets on the bed (even to my OCD standards)

-eat a real lunch (all four food groups!)

-unload and reload the dishwasher (did that while making lunch)

-wash, dry, fold AND put away 2 loads of laundry (that never happened even before Will came along)

-vacuum the whole house (yep. with our loud-as-a-lawnmower vacuum. while Will was sleeping. because Will is awesome.)

so, now you're all thinking i'm a neat-freak (or just really weird) for being excited about doing these kinds of things all day. far from it--just ask darren. i can tolerate messiness much longer than he can.

but, honestly, it felt great to accomplish something during the day, to be able to make a list (above) of quantifiable tasks that i had completed. it's a different feeling than thinking "hmmmmm, what did i do today? oh, fed the baby, burped the baby, rocked the baby to sleep, changed the baby's diaper, fed the baby, burped the baby...."

now that i think about it, it's the same feeling i got from knitting random things while working on my thesis and while trying to survive last semester (teaching 5 classes, the play, karate, being pregnant). knitting gave me something concrete at which to look and say, "ha! i made this! i have tangible proof that i have been productive today!" so now, that tangible proof has become a clean apartment.

and on a final note, i realized in the process that i am very thankful for 2 things:


1-that our apartment is so small. sounds silly, but i never could've cleaned the whole thing in one day otherwise. and then the feeling of accomplishment would've been greatly compromised.


2-my dear husband, who noticed the clean apartment not 2 seconds after coming home last night and kept complimenting & thanking me for it. i hope Will grows up to be just like his daddy.

so far, he seems well on his way (see darren's latest post).

(by the way, sorry for long gap in posting. as i said, some days are easier than others, and it's been hard to find time to squeeze it in. and i decided to just jump right in to talking about the present day, rather than catch up on everything since my last post. if you want more on what's been going on, see darren's blog.)

thank God it's sunny out

or i might be having a bad day. but those of you who know me well know that i can't help but be in a blissful mood the first several weeks of spring. (and it didn't even get really cold this year...)

so why might i have been in a bad mood otherwise, you ask? well, it really comes down to three things: pants, receipts and food.

let's start with the pants.

while being pregnant, and especially now that i'm getting rather large, i have really tried to focus on the things i can do instead of things i can't. and because God is gracious, i can still do lots of things.

for instance, karate. i can still do self-defense techniques, jabs and punches, and katas, even though i can't much kick anymore or (sigh) do the crunches and push-ups during our warm-up.

what does this have to do with pants? i'm getting to that.

another thing i can still do, much to even my own surprise, is paint my toenails and shave my legs. be impressed. this is significant because it means i can also wear skirts, capris and sandals. again, those who know me well know how eagerly i await the first chance to don such clothing every spring.

which brings us to the pants. i had this great idea to roll up my maternity jeans today--you know, with big fat cuffs--thus turning them into cute little capris. only said maternity jeans decided not to fit so comfortably. fortunately, a friend in my department has so generously lent me several pairs of pants, including some brown gaucho maternity pants, so i wore them instead. but i did have to forego my rolled capri look, about which i had been really excited (insert only half-serious pouty face here).

well, to cure my pseudo-poutiness, i tried going out to the JCPenney at the mall to exchange a couple of shirts i got for Christmas which i thought i'd grow into, but still haven't. they're really cute polo shirts (one is lime green!), so i was pumped about getting them in a smaller size. just one problem--this JCPenney has no maternity section. okay, so i'll get store credit, then use it to buy the shirts online, right?

wrong. apparently, amid the big stack of JCPenney gift receipts i brought along, i had managed to misplace the one for these shirts. obviously, since the shirts had been bought a while back, they were on super-low clearance now, so returning them would only give me a few bucks to spend online. way to go losing that receipt, jenna. (insert sincere pouty face here).

which brings us to the food. the other part of my poutiness-recovery plan was to stop by our apartment on the way back from the mall to pick up the leftover pesto chicken pasta i had planned to eat for lunch today but had forgotten at home this morning.

but then a reminder sounded from my cell phone which read: "be at office early--1pm". apparently, i had made an appointment with a student for half an hour before my office hours usually begin, but i had forgotten about that, too. fortunately, my keen foresight had led my to put this appointment into my phone. unfortunately, this also meant no lunch.

so here i am, in my office, hungry, wearing ever-so-comfy-but-not-what-i-had-planned-to-wear gaucho pants, devising a plan to shrink these polo shirts by washing them in really hot water and drying them with high heat (they're 97% cotton, so it should work, right?), and wondering...

where the heck is that student?!?!?

hey, mr. kroger bagger,

why did you stop putting my milk in a bag? now, when i carry in my groceries, it takes a whole hand to carry just the milk, whereas i used to grab three or four bags with that one hand.

can anyone tell me if this is a trend throughout the whole kroger organization? do they do this at your local kroger? would it be rude to ask for my milk in a bag? i mean, i do recycle those bags, so it's no harm done to the environment...

moving on to other topics, is being rude and reckless a requirement to own a Toyota Sequoia? i can cite three different instances just this week to support this hypothesis. but i thought people who bought Toyotas were supposed to be smart and practical.

maybe it's because they're still trying to hold onto the american dream of driving a huge suv, but at the same time they're trying to save a little gas money? perhaps this internal conflict is what has driven so many Sequoia drivers to such completely asenine behavior on the road?

on a more positive note, all is well at the grem place. william has started playing a kicking game with us, i.e., when he pushes out his little foot, we push it back in, then he kicks...it's kinda like a foot fight, only we're just using our fingertips. very fun, indeed. also, we should have another picture of him this coming tuesday--this time in 3D!

hope all is well with you, whoever you are, as you read this mostly pointless and rambling post!

Metaphors

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.

~Sylvia Plath