Hello Again

So a lot has been going on since the blog kind of petered out this summer. AND i have a ton of papers to write so reactivating this bastion of silly and not so silly family commentary seems like a pretty solid use of time.

The quick version of my life since last summer:
I applied to medical school and am now freaking out about hearing back about interviews (they are supposed to start notifying people in mid october, its already late october…OH NO)

I am almost officially a comparative literature concentrator at Brown University with a focus in Spanish and Latin, meaning I have to relearn Spanish and Latin.

After lots of waffling on my part, I am going home for thanksgiving!!!!! Could not be more excited.

My mom, aunt, and I have been gchatting during the day while I procrastinate, my mom sits at her 9-5 job and my aunt… I don’t really know maybe she just comes online because she likes us!!
and with good reason those little chats are (in a nondepressing way) one of the highlights of my day!

I’ve been emailing with my grandfather about why literature is important for life and for medicine… an important question because I KNOW reading a ton of literature over the next few years will make me a better smarter person and probably doctor. BUT I DONT KNOW WHY AND I WANT TO.

So thats the relatively long short version. I’m going to get back to writing about civilization imagery in Antigone, the character of Ajax as he appears in Sophocles’ Ajax and the Iliad, some yet-to-be-defined topic, the purpose of a (formally) child narrative in Corregidora, and distorted perceptions of the Other in Kafka’s Metamorphosis. YIKES.

-Tyrone Shoelaces

(GET IT? Tie your own shoelaces….)

“Oops, Sorry”

Hey guys, I haven’t seen you in a while. Anyway, let’s get rolling. So, I’m going to talk about mistakes. Now, there are big mistake like accidentally blowing up the whole world, there little mistakes like making a typo, and then there’s about five thousand other different kinds in between. Now, in my life the most annoying and embarrassing are the kind where you try to do something cool or funny and you end up messing something up. For instance, in P.E. a while back they taught us how to play volleyball. We were all sitting and one guy was standing. The coach bumps the ball as a demonstration and the ball goes near the guy who’s standing. So, the guy who’s standing picks up the ball and while trying to cool and awesome, he bumps the ball to the coach. To bad that the ball goes nowhere near the coach and hit’s someone in the head and we all start yelling at him. Try not to feel pity for the guy because he’s really annoying and he just hit someone in the head with a volleyball, so enough. So, I guess I’m done. Anyway, Live long and prosper. Meiergreen

Book Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is THE best book I have ever read in my life. Although that’s pretty much a sum of the way I feel about this book, I guess I’ll just have to explain further: A group of four children is gathered to go on a top secret, life threatening mission. Each of these witty characters contribute to the story, making the plot very dynamic. Information is constantly twisting and turning around the plot, and the nonstop adventure makes this a book you just can’t put down. I have just started the sequel, and so far it is proving to be just as great! 10 Stars and 5 thumbs up for this series!

– Middle Child

P.S. This book can easily be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

Things that are supposed to happen but don’t.

As you can probably tell from the title, this post is going to be about thing that are supposed to happen but don’t. For instance, in my class during lunchtime there are three sports that everybody wants to play. The three sports are football, soccor, and capture the flag. Of course the yard isn’t large enough to play all of those sports so we have to agree on only one. So we have to rotate different games every day. Sadly that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen because everybody wants to play capture the flag and the days were supposed to play the other games everybody leaves leaving us wit around five people. I’m not going to talk about this all day but I’m also going to talk about people cheating on stuff. I don’t mean like stealing money in monopoly, I mean like cheating on a diet or ritual. I know that some of the people reading this post are on a diet, and I know that some people reading this post are cheating on their diet, possibly right now, Dun, Dun, Dun. I also mean people who are trying to quit smoking or drinking but that’s not going to happen if you keep cheating. Anyway, I’m in to much of a happy mood to talk like a therapist right now so I think I’m am going to stop now. Live long and prosper. Meiergreen.

Uh What?

You know, sometimes people just say things that make no sense what so ever. Like me and my friend tell jokes basically all the time and one of my friends makes the most stupidest jokes in the world. Most of the time I don’t even know what he’s talking about. Also, my teacher is really weird. One as a class assignment we had to wright a feature article, and she edited it and she said that the ending made no sense even it made absolute perfect sense. Sorry, sorry, I have been trying to cut back on the complaining, and I know that I’m complaining right now. Even thought sometimes I sound like a grumpy old man who’s really funny I’m still going to try to cut down on the complaining. But, sometimes people say things by accident that make no sense and are also really funny. Ha, ha I can already tell that I’m cutting down on the complaining. Anyway, people say things that they said by mistake and are really funny. Also sometimes people say the right thing but it sounds like something else. Like my teacher, not the one who makes no sense, has an accent and when she says sit is sounds like something else, ha, ha, ha. I know, I know I’m sounding like complete boy right now LOL. Ha, I actually never have said, “OMG” and I said, “did you really just say OMG?” I’m sorry what was I talking about. Well, I forgot so I’m just going to call it a day. Live long and prosper. Meiergreen.

Dear Lora 1: Watching “Weeds” with the kids, oops…

Hey girl. I haven’t seen you in forev, except for that night we went to what felt like a baby shower. I hope you guys are doing great. My oldest is back and doing awesome except for the fact she had her wisdom teeth pulled out yesterday. It pretty much sucks, especially when she accidentally pulled out a chunk of her stitches. While we were hanging out watching the TV (no shock there) we decided to watch Weeds. OMG, I don’t know if you’ve ever watched this show but its has totally adult content. I didn’t mind watching it with her so much (18 years old) but then my 11 year old comes in and I let him watch it too. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It was not a shining mothering moment It just seemed like too much effort to shoo him away and maybe I convinced myself that the show seemed innocent enough. Anyway, he’s supposed to keep his new knowledge to himself. We’ll see how that works out. I better run but I wanted to say hi so send me a message whenever you have the chance. MB

Dear Laquita 5: Way too Early on Monday morning

Hi hope you’re doing well this morning and the traffic wasn’t too bad. I’m already at work and trying to figure out what to do first. Since I don’t like to make lists, I have to sort it out in my brain. On another subject, our weekend was good. My oldest daughter came back from her freshman year in college and it’s beyond exciting for us. It’s amazing how nice and familiar it is to be with her. On the other hand, she has so many family members vying for her time and in truth, all she wants to do is sleep. Obviously we need to be more patient. We have to remember that she’ll be here for a while so it’s ok to take a step back and give her the space she needs.

On our one outing, she and I took my middle daughter to get an outfit for her middle school culmination. It was both fun and, gulp, you know…. At some point I had to run out and get a coffee to settle down. The shop was up the hill and I was surprised at how beautiful everything was. She decided on a flowing cream colored dress ending just above knee length, a black cardigan and black shiny flats with glimmering stones on the toe. The outfit is gorgeous. She also has long dark wavy hair that will look beautiful with it.

Switching the subject again, my husband and son and I have been continuing to work diligently on our Battle Star Galactica marathon, binge, or whatever you want to call it. The girls don’t seem interested but I, myself, can’t get enough of it. It has made me wish that I was (along with everything I’m doing now) a fighter pilot. I use to wish I could be a race car driver but that’s out the window now. It’s the love of speed in three dimensional space I guess, not to mention the target practice. This makes me sound more violent than I am, but the process just sounds amazing.

A downside of the show is that everyone is drinking and smoking all the time. It makes it look so cool but I know that it is not. In fact for me, those things make me feel like crap. Maybe that’s also true for being a fighter pilot. I’ll never know. Ironically, my father’s life dream was to be a fighter pilot with the air force. He went for it but they rejected him because of some issue with his eyes. I guess he was meant to do something else (if you believe in fate that is, which I know you do).

On the topic of emotions (which I admit we weren’t discussing before) I am feeling medium today. I was thinking about why and at first I thought that if all these external things in my life went the way I wanted them to, then I would be happy. Then I realized that that is not true. It can be hard to feel happy when there are a lot of challenges and uncertainties in one’s life but on the other hand, i do know down deep that happiness come from the inside. One needs to feel positive about who they are. I don’t know why it’s so difficult to feel this consistently. Maybe you have it figured out. I think I have some inner work.

But enough about me. I am so excited for your Wednesday night adventure. I’m pretty sure you’ll have a great time, but if not, it will at least be a step in the right direction in terms of doing something new. I’m excited to hear how it goes. You’ll have to tell me everything afterward.

This morning, I’m supposed to organize receipts, an activity I’ve been putting off for at least a month. To get revved up, I think I’ll make myself some “astronaut” coffee: One part brown powder, one part cream colored powder, and one half part white powder. It’s not so good, as you can imagine but it does the trick. I hope you have a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
-MB

Annoying Much?

People are annoying. Don’t get me wrong, not everybody’s annoying, but some people get on my nerves. Some people are just annoying, but there are other types of annoying people like goody-goodies, braggers, or weirdies. Some people aren’t annoying but sometimes do stuff that’s annoying. Like when my teacher asks us how far we are to done with something people put their hands sidewise and shake them to mean their almost done. I can’t tell you exactly what they do because it’s too hard to describe. Also, when we play capture the flag or any other game at the yard, people always accuse other people of cheating. No, I don’t mean usually, I mean always, and it’s always the same people. But, to be more specific, there two really annoying people in my class. If you read my very first post you would know who those people are. Those people annoy the hell out of me. Well that’s the end of my post. Live long and prosper. MeierGreen.

Dear Laquita 4: Feeling like its too cold and windy

Hi girl:

It’s nice to say hi even though I know you can’t read this. Even so, I wish you would respond. You always give me something good to think about. The news for today is that I feel blue. low. sad. guilty. Probably there’s more but that’s all I can think of for now. I disappointed my son this morning. He felt terrible about it and rightly so. The irony of the situation is that I want my kids to express themselves to me fully. That is one of the few things I’m good at as a parent, I listen. But now, I’m not so good at handling it when they’re upset with me. Sometimes they have good reason and sometimes they don’t but it’s hard for me to tell the difference. When they were younger it never bothered me too much if they got upset, because usually their requests were not terribly reasonable, e.g., I want ice cream for dinner. But now, they want things that are important to them, that effect the quality of their academic and social experiences, and I can’t often deliver. I’m too tired, too late, too distracted, unable to patch up differences. It hurts, I have to say. Their suffering is my suffering to some degree. On the other hand, why do I care so much if they are unhappy with me? Usually, they express that they love me and my company, but it seems like I let them down far too often. Is that would a good mother would do? I don’t think so. I think she would be able to do the right things. I feel unable to fix this. Maybe that’s the crux of the problem. I can’t fix it know matter how hard I try. And I do try hard. Yet there’s always one problem after another. This feeling I have right now doesn’t seem responsible or mature or even reasonable. And knowing that just makes it worse. Everyone has cares, has hurtles, has setbacks, etc., but I just can’t face mine. Lately, every fear, every mistake I make feels like a thin needle in my heart. Some days it’s not like this. But today, or at least this morning, i feel like I have a few needles in there. And the bleeding, I just can’t stop. -MB

Dear Laquita 3

This morning I got a text from my daughter that said, “I’m going to stress eat so hardcore while finishing this paper…” It was so funny to me. I love her so much and she’s so cute. She’ll be home on Saturday which is awesome. Everything at home is going pretty well. My son read my last post and was not happy about it. Maybe it was a bit complainy.

I hope you’re doing good. Right now I’m at work and can hear several conversations around me. It’s actually nice compared with the general silence we get for most of the day.You must be at work also in a similar sitch. I hope your new project director is cool. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I’m hoping to get on a project here related to critical thinking and surgery. It’s a shift, but new is good. I’ll jump up and down if the project director for the surgery project is good. Its funny how everyone knows which project director is good and which isn’t, but they don’t know themselves.

One thing that’s cool is I’ve been losing some weight recently and can fit into some clothes I couldn’t before. Right now I’m wearing my skinny jeans what were like binding seal skin before. Now I’m pretty comfy.

When I saw my therapist this morning she said I need to write at least one paragraph a day on the final paper for my Language Anthro class. It was due over a week ago. It makes me feel slightly sick to my stomach just to say that. I hate missing deadlines. Even though I’m late in a lot of things I do, I rarely miss these kind of deadlines. Whatev. I’ll do a paragraph a day and see how it goes.

So have a great day and a good evening with Jordan.
-MB