Potpourri No. 36

Light portions o’ life…

Summertime, Summertime, Sum- Sum- Summertime
While my summer break is halfway over, this marks the first full week that Edison (and thus Melanie) is relieved of school duties. Eddie was very excited for his summer break to begin, and so far it’s going well. Melanie’s planned enough activities to keep the kids fairly busy thus far. But adjustments are never completely easy, and the kids are a bit more unruly now that their days are a little less structured. Oddly, the kids’ freedom is having an effect on me, such that I feel more in vacation mode than I should. I’ve been slacking a bit during these last few days. I’ve loved it, but I need to get back on track. (Writing this blog isn’t helping, but oh well.) It’s crazy to think that in less than three months, Eddie will be in 2nd grade and Peter will be in Kindergarten! I guess it’s just me that isn’t making any progress!

More Summer…
It’s 99.99% official that Melanie, the kids, and I will indeed be heading to Utah for an as-of-yet undetermined amount of time in August. We’ve been wishy-washy about committing to the idea of traveling home this year, but with my little sister planning to get married (!!!) in the next couple of months, how can we not? Details are forthcoming, so stay tuned!

D’oh-Nuts
Last night while lounging in front of the TV, Melanie and I opened up some crumb donut gems we had purchased earlier in the day. I took a bite and said something like, “What in the—?” The taste was strange. It had a vibrant flavor, almost amplified in its sweetness but not entirely dessert-like. The thought that came immediately to mind was that the donut tasted a bit like green onion. (Gag!) I swallowed the piece in my mouth, and Melanie immediately showed me what appeared to be mold growing on the donut gem in her hand. I assume it was mold, anyway. Perhaps the preservatives affect the way mold can grow on pre-packaged baked goods, but the growth wasn’t green or blue. Instead, it basically looked like a cobweb had grown in the hole in the middle of the donut. I checked another donut, and it was the same. I then looked at the packaging and could not find an expiration date anywhere, which was both bizarre and unsettling. Needless to say, I felt rather disgusted that I had probably swallowed a mold cobweb. I then drank a lot of Diet Mountain Dew, hoping the soda would kill whatever bacteria had gotten into my stomach. I never puked, so I guess the soda was an inspired move on my part.

Jean-Clod Damn Van
I’ve written numerous times about the problems we’ve experienced with our minivan. Somehow, almost magically, the latter half of 2012 was a miraculous time for the van. There weren’t any issues with the van for several months. Then, out of nowhere, on the day Melanie’s parents flew into town to visit us in February, the van didn’t start. Fortunately, Melanie’s dad got it running for us (as I wrote about here) and there weren’t any problems for over two months. Then, a few weeks ago, a hose burst in the van that sent coolant all over the place. It was at the end of my semester, so I put fixing the van on hold. Well, I went to start the van a few days ago, and it won’t start. The battery seems to have at least some juice in it, but it won’t turn over. Now what do I do? I don’t know about these things, and we don’t have money. We get along quite well with just the Corolla, but I’ll soon be heading to campus five days a week and it would be nice to have two working vehicles. Curse this van. Curse it to heck.

You’ve Got a Friend
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I rarely talk to anyone other than my wife and kids. When school’s in session and I’m a TA, I talk to whatever teacher I work for. That accounts for maybe 10-20 minutes of socializing per week. Other than that, I don’t have much occasion to talk to people. I engage in small talk with some people at church, I say things like “Hi” and “Thanks” to the cashiers at the grocery store or the gas station, and I make the occasional comment on Facebook. But I don’t have friends that I hang out with. For the most part, I’m fine with this. I honestly don’t know a lot of people that I feel inclined to hang out with. This has changed recently, however. Melanie has become good friends with a woman who goes to our church, and I kept hearing things about this woman and her husband that made me think they were my kind of people. I hoped we’d get together sometime as a group, and on Saturday, they spontaneously invited us over to dinner. We had a great time. Eddie, Peter, and Creegan loved playing with this other couple’s kids, while we adults enjoyed conversing about religion and music, two topics that I basically cannot get enough of. As I told the husband, we seemed to share similar “intellectual values.” This allowed us to discuss things quite freely and openly. I found it very rewarding, and I think they did too. I know Melanie and I aren’t likely to be here in Tallahassee beyond next summer, but I’m hopeful that we can foster this newfound friendship in the meantime.

That’s all, folks!