Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Olympics and Women's Sports

It's Olympics time, as you already know. I would like to take this moment to complain--as I do every four years--about the women's gymnastics floor routines.  Why are women required to prance around the floor like wanna-be ballerinas, and men are not?  Why can't women simply get out there and do (amazing) tumbling passes? 

Also, I really, really hope Ye Shiwen has not been doping.  It would mean great things for women's sports if she pulled off those awesome swims without medical/chemical assistance.

And finally, kudos and congratulations to all the Olympic athletes, who inspire me and remind me that I could find at least a little time to exercise regularly.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

What's New with Me

Has this ever happened to you?  You're at a dinner event or banquet, and as the wait staff serve the entrees, they serve everyone at your table except you, serve the entire rest of the room, and then come back to serve you at the end.  No?  Oh. 

It's happened to me, and more than once.

Over time, JLR and I have begun to feel we're suffering from a mild case of invisibility.  We don't have a full blown case so that no one can see us, but we have it just bad enough that people don't see us unless we speak to them or in some other way draw attention to ourselves. 

People cut in line in front of us regularly, and they'll walk right in front of us as we go down a grocery store aisle, and then they'll stop and stand there, perusing the merchandise.  Eventually, our "excuse me" will cause them to turn around and, surprised, notice that we're standing there.  Combine our near invisibility with the fact that we look like a lot of other people (so much so that we've begun to think we might be trapped in an Anna to the Infinite Power situation), and I'm left wondering--why has no one recruited us to be spies?  Sure, we'd be terrible spies, but the Spy Recruiting People don't know that, do they?  Aren't they trained to notice people who aren't noticeable?  Drop us into any location involving white people, and we are completely unremarkable.

But all that's just something I was thinking about earlier.  What I really wanted to tell you is that Psy's new song Gangnam Style is stuck in my head.  May it also be stuck in yours.

P.S., it's hot outside.  And I got an "all clear" from the dermatologist after my full body mole checkup, and I had peanut butter and banana after dinner, so it was a good day.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Lunch with People I Like

JLR and I were both off from work yesterday, off course, since we have government jobs, and yesterday was an official government holiday.  And we took today off as well.  I've been debating whether or not to take tomorrow off, too.  I have a lot of work to get done, but I have a lot going on at home, too (see earlier post about house water issues).

Yesterday, JLR and I drove out to have lunch with Deals and her husband, her baby boy (now six months old! Happy Half Birthday, Little Dude!), and her brother.  We haven't seen Deals in a long time, so even though we had to eat lunch at the grocery store (thanks, food allergies), it was great.  We got caught up on what's been going on with Deals, the drama at her office, and people she and JLR both know but that JLR hasn't seen since law school.  And there was snuggling with a little baby who is powerless to flee from my clutches, which was nice.  Small children = boring unless they're saying something to embarrass their parents or using grown-up sounding phrases, which sound funny coming from little ones. (Example from my past:  Me: L, what is your favorite kind of cheese?  L: (with a pensive expression on her face) Um...I would have to say...Muenster.)  But babies of a snuggly size and prone to making little gurgly noises = fantastic.  Thanks for sharing the snuggles, Deals.

Today, we had lunch with our brother and our sort-of sister-in-law.  "Sort of" because she and my brother aren't married, but they've been dating for years, so it feels like she's my sister-in-law.  Her icky boss is out of town this week, and JLR and I have the day off from work, so it seemed like a good time for a daytime get-together.  We thought it was going to be just the ladies, but then this morning our brother texted us, "Lunch at noon, right?"  Um...sure, man.  Come on along.  Now we can't talk about you.  Ha ha ha, I kid.  Actually, I joke about him butting in, but really we were happy to see him.  We don't see him often, since all three of us have busy work schedules, and because JLR and I don't like to leave the house more than we absolutely have to.

So despite the household issues, the past two days have been good!  And the landlords called the water removal people, and we are now having giant, very noisy fans running in our house, which will be running for 3 or 4 days.  But that's okay.  We'll feed Wally upstairs so he doesn't have to come down to deal with it, and we'll just finish watching season one of 뱀파이어 검사 (Vampire Prosecutor; silly name, good show, despite the fact that it involves vampires) on the laptop upstairs.  No problem.

I don't think I'm going to work tomorrow.