Thursday T– had plans to meet her dad at the halfway point between OKC and Wichita and hand over AB. Her parents had agreed to watch AB Thursday night and Friday so T– could have a little bit of a break.
The broken car put a little bit of a kink in that plan, but T– wasn’t willing to let that stop her. So we all woke up early early on Thursday, piled into the Saturn, and T– drove thirty minutes south to my work, processed through our Pass and ID office to get a temporary Pick Up/Drop Off badge, and then dropped me off at my office door. Then she turned around and drove all the way back across town and another hour and a half north on I-35 to meet her dad at the Dairy Queen for the baby transfer.
Then she turned around and came home, which put her back in town right around time for my lunch, and since she already had the badge she just came to the office, picked me up, and had me drop her off at home after lunch, so that she wouldn’t have to do any more driving for the rest of the day. It was a pretty busy morning for her.
After work I continued my experiment with Madden-based elliptical exercise, and it proved a continuing success. Then I got cleaned up and took T– out for a date night. We had Mexican at the new place right around the corner (Victor’s Mexican Cafe where the old Boomerang Grill was), and it was not great. The prices were medium-high, service was slow and clumsy, and the salsa tasted like Chef Boyardee for some reason. The entree was delicious (we shared Tacos al Carbon), but not enough to make up for bad salsa. That’s my primary criterion for any Mexican place.
Anyway, it wasn’t terrible. Just disappointing. Then we went up to Barnes and Noble for a little shopping, stopped at Wal-Mart for some ice cream, and then went back home and watched InkHeart and The Pink Panther 2. The unapologetically stupid one was the better of the two.
Friday I had off for the holiday, so I got up late, worked out (and won my third preseason game in Madden), then we went over to K– and N–‘s for a delicious lunch. We brought croissants and they had chicken salad ready for sandwiches, and there was an American Flag themed brownie birthday cake for N–, and a fruit basket showed up for N–‘s mom with perfect timing for all of us to enjoy. We were there for a couple hours, and then headed home to finish packing.
Then a little after three we headed to Wichita. We grabbed snowcones on the way out of town, and T– was driving so I was able to read Click for an hour or so (I’ll give more details at a later date, but no, it’s not the novelisation of the Adam Sandler movie). Then, a little shy of halfway there, T– started experiencing some Braxton-Hicks, which she hadn’t had at all with AB. It was uncomfortable, but I think mostly it scared her. Either way, it was enough reason for her to pull over and I took over driving for the second half of the trip. She called N– and got a prognosis over the phone, and called her mom to talk about it, and after that she felt a lot better.
When we got in the party was already going. The Charboneaus did their Fourth party on the third, because her brother Matt has to work tonight. John grilled out, and did chicken breasts, chicken wings, hot dogs, hamburgers, and a whole mess of stuffed jalapenos that were hugely popular. There was also potato salad and lots of chips and dip and a counterful of desserts. It was pretty awesome.
I got a little overwhelmed by the crowd, so I slipped away before the fireworks started. Went downstairs to check my email, and next thing I knew it was eleven o’clock and everybody was leaving.
This morning T– and her parents took AB to a parade, and she loved it. Then we had chicken fajitas for lunch, and ribs are on the menu for tonight. I’m certainly going to be well-fed! In spite of the holiday we’re looking forward to a pretty quiet Saturday, but tomorrow’s going to be busy with birthday parties, so that’s probably a good thing.
Other than that, it’s just things and stuff
By the way, I collect quotes. I started in college, and I have filled several notebooks with them. recently, I was paging through my first notebook and found the following:
“Every time you censor people, you are deliberately breeding weak people.” –Aaron Pogue
All I remember is that you said this in class at some point. What class did we have together?
I never know whether I’m supposed to answer here or there, but I’m answering here because this is precisely one of those elusive memories I made this blog to capture.
It’s funny you ask that question, because just last week I was going through old notebooks, deciding what to scan and save, and what to trash, and came across a list of…I think it was answers to test questions, but there were no questions to go with them. Anyway, they were handwritten and numbered, and the first page was my answers, and the second page was Jeanine Varner’s, and then page after page of student responses. I have no idea how or why I ended up with this collection.
But I was startled to recognize your name on the last pair of pages, and if I hadn’t seen that I’d have sworn you and I never had any classes together (although I do remember you from a couple mixed-year Honors events my Freshman year).
The class was on Milton, and that quote (as well as the test notes) was on Areopagitica, Milton’s vocal and outright rejection of censorship. I found it incredibly compelling. I’m glad you collected that quote, though, because I don’t remember saying it, but love it.