role play

it turns out my smartphone has been accessing the worldwide web on its own accord over the past month and racking up a whopping data usage bill on my behalf. J2 runs through my settings and disables the offending button. you've got to know what you authorize, mom, she says, with all the authority and exasperation of omniscient youth. i can't be here to bail you out every time. actually, her exact words are, what are you going to do when i'm not here to do this for you?

right. i stand chastised.

decision algorithms

to awaken before the dawn and spend an arm and a leg taking a cab in the wee hours to meet your father at the airport coming in from his trans-atlantic flight, or to await a more pragmatic hour and meet him at the hotel, at a considerably less painful pinch to your (limited, military-sized) wallet? 

i cannot begin to tell you how proud i am of your choice, i tell my son. that's mushy, he says. that, too.

oops

i take HOM to the airport, which you would think is a nice thing to do on a sunday afternoon for a husband going off on a business trip.

we forget that for over a decade he has depended on the limousine service. this leaves us happily leaving home without checking which airport which terminal and without our cellphones. next time, i want to tell him, we say goodbye at our front door. that way you'll definitely get there.

tangled threads

this is our summer vacation plan:

he wants to come.
she wants to go.
he needs to go.
i will stay.
all at the same time.

i'm thinking i would like to hide me 'ead in the sand for a bit.

obit 2

on the heels of this my friend reminds me of your you're and there they're their, which are interchangeable these days.

i wonder. do they arise and spread from spellcheck malfunction pedagogic failure or straight up incompetence? because dis is evltn. d othr is clearly grammatical.

interregnum

there is a glorious period during the parent-child journey when a parent is able to have an adult-level intellectual discussion with her child because the child actually believes the parent has something useful to say and the parent in fact enjoys the exchange of ideas. this period emerges hesitantly from the ravages of the teenage years and, while you are still marveling, slinks off into the jungle of the college years.

the college challenge 2

how to do the college challenge successfully without losing sight of the main objective, which is, well, getting a college education.

the college challenge

how to pack the most functionally minimized conglomerate of impediments and their accessories that can sustain a body over a period of time without taking up any substantial volume if possible.

king of shadows

he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

... he was bruised for our iniquities;

- isaiah 53

in all their affliction he was afflicted,

- isaiah 63:9

how ironic that the focus is so often on the iniquities

that it is easy to forget he also carries the griefs.

the God who is sorrowed by my sin

also shares in my human sorrows.

the God of my redemption from sin

is also the God of my griefs.

the friday night knitting club - kate jacobs (2007)

quite simply a celebration of women's friendships and second chances, and the most enjoyable book i've read this year to date. also, i almost want to start knitting again.

they should make an official chick lit subgenre of these women's friendship books that come in trade sized paperbacks with subdued non-fuchsia jacket designs. good writing helps too, but that's harder to come by.