Mar. 20: Jen’s obsessions this week

Later, doods.

Sep. 10: Lots of nothing. At least it’s something.

The fact that my last handful of posts are all tidbits of nothingness? Well, it speaks volumes about the status of my thinking lately. So, without apologies, here we go again.

• Recently Victor and I tried valiantly to explain Back to the Future to Jack. Funny that a movie franchise that made perfect sense to us 25+ years ago sounds idiotic when telling today’s generation about it. We got a lot of blank stares as we hee-hawed over plot twists and manure being dumped on Biff.
  
  Somehow the conversation turned to my father-in-law’s profession before he retired. We reminded Jack that Grandpa delivered babies, and Jack said with his ever-sarcastic grin, “So, Grandpa’s a bird?” Yes, Jack. Your grandfather is a stork. Grandpa can fly. Dur.
  
  Our son, Jack: biggest dork ever.
• I’ve said before that there are dads at school who are—how shall I say it?—DREAMBOAT-Y. At a meeting today, someone mentioned that one of the dreamboatier dads had suggestions about a new policy at school, and we said it’d be nice if he came to our meeting to share his thoughts. I imagine his presence at our meetings would go something like this:

  “Thank, you, Dreamy Dad™, for your input, but I cannot hear you with your shirt on.”
  
  And there would also be a lot of:
  
  “Oops, I dropped my huge pile of papers again! How clumsy of me! Dreamy Dad™, would you mind bending over to pick them up for me AGAIN? I’ll just stand back here, out of your way, and watch.”
  
  and
  
  “Hey Dreamy Dad™, I’m having a hard time getting this donut into my mouth. Can you help me? Slowly?”
  

  … and this is probably exactly the reason we so seldom have guest speakers at our meetings.
• Do you know how long it takes to transfer a domain name and get one’s email address fully functioning again? A really, really long time. Like, an anxiety-increasing, blood pressure-raising, seems-way-longer-than-it-is length of time. Pffft.
• Here’s a good way to remind yourself that your monster of a puppy isn’t the most giant beast that ever was: take her to the dog park. There was a Great Dane there that Lucy could have walked under. She’s still no petite flower, but it’s somewhat reassuring to know that bigger dogs do exist.
• Stephanie made a deal with me that if Romney wins the election, I have to wear an I ♥ Republicans shirt, and if Obama is re-elected, she has to sing the praises of Democrats. I am slightly regretting that we shook on it in front of witnesses. However, I’m thinking positive thoughts because I hope so very much that she’ll have to drive around with that Obama Odyssey wrap I’m designing… Wouldn’t that be so awesome for me??? Of course, I also just plain hope that Romney does NOT win.

 

 

 

I think I’ve found our next Christmas card photo:

 

Have a good week!

Oct. 9: Like the (cobwebby) corners of my mind

I got to see two of my best girls, Debi and Deanna, yesterday! We didn’t have a ton of time together, but we got a little bit caught up and had a lovely visit. They brought their daughters (both five years old) with them, and were planning to spend the rest of the day driving around town to show them where they grew up, went to school, all that. It got me reminiscing, and that got me Googling memories.

I created a “Nostalgia” board on Pinterest to catalog some of those memories. It has things from way-way back, to things that are from not-so-far back. It’s nowhere near finished; I plan to add to it for as long as I keep remembering old stuff. This is, for me, what Pinterest is really about.

(OK, I also find lots of hilarious things that I send to friends. I guess Pinterest is a little about silly stuff too.)

Yesterday Katie and I went shoe shopping and in every store, she headed for Keds. It made me want to weep. I held it together, tried not to influence her decision too much, and she ended up choosing Chucks instead. Tis OK. Tis enough time to choose Keds later. Tis my girl. Tis inevitable.

I love that things come back, like fashion. Some fashion, that is. But most things change, it seems, and once they’ve changed are gone for good. Jack asked if I used to get in trouble for texting during class. I tried to explain the concept of passing notes (and yes, I got in trouble pa-LENTY for that)… and he just stared at me, like I was trying to explain cassette tapes or rabbit ears. Futility, that.

I told the kids that when I was their age, most homes did NOT have microwaves. They didn’t believe me. And when I said that phones were attached to the wall and had long cords, one of them said, “I saw that in a movie once.” (We’ll save the rotary and pay phone schoolin’ for another day.) Air conditioning in cars was a luxury. There were no Happy Meals. The mall was closed on Sundays. Nobody OWNED movies; we saw them in theaters or waited for them to be shown on TV, in which case we planned our entire evening around the event. Maps, phone books, dictionaries, newspapers… they were vital.

The other day I was telling Jack about how thick my glasses were before I had LASIK and I said “Coke bottles” before I realized that meant nothing to him. Kids today know not of glass pop bottles.

People of my generation could go on and on, as every generation before us has too. Once upon a time I giggled at the idea of outhouses... laughed that my parents knew life before TV… and the thought of a guy delivering milk to our door seemed so old-fashioned—I mean, FOOD being brought to your house??? Crazy!

My mom’s laughing her head off as she reads this, I’m pretty sure. She loves that my kids make me feel like an oldster—it’s payback, to her. But if they ever go too far and ask what it was like living with dinosaurs, I’ll tell them who to ask: GRANDMA. GRANDMA KNOWS.

Sep. 28: Updated "mix tape"

Who'd have thought tapes would be "retro" this soon? Not I.

This is kinda fun, if only for nostalgia's sake. It's an mp3 player that looks like a cassette tape. Just like a real cassette, there's no LCD screen. Click the image to see a large version and you can get an up close and personal view of the buttons. Nothing fancy, but it's got all the basics. The battery is built-in and rechargeable with a USB cable. There's no built-in memory but it holds SD cards, which is actually sorta cool because you could have a bunch of different types of music on different SD cards and switch them out all the time. Just like your old collection of tapes, but smaller.

It costs about $21 at the link above, and includes headphones and an A/C power adapter. You know you want it.

Lori, would Taylor stare at this/you like she did when you told her about records?