Wander

September 21, 2009

• I will be 100 or 31 tomorrow, depending on whether you are counting in base 7 or hexadecimal, and that introduction, my friends, signals how this entry will go (hint sort of like the title of the post).

Q: What's worse than driving a vanload of middle school girls to their soccer match?

A: One of them finding a cricket colony in their shoes when they start to gear up (This blog would have to come with a sound track for you to fully understand the mayhem and squealing that ensued as one after another now-deceased cricket came out of its dark and aromatic hiding place).

Q: What's worse than driving a vanload of middle school girls to their soccer match after they discover a cricket colony in their cleats?

A: Eating lunch after the game, when three-fourths of them order a cup of dirt for dessert (chocolate pudding, crumbled oreos, and gummy worms) and then let the worms crawl out of their mouths continuously.

• You probably didn't know but the online order form for lanyards went on the blink over the weekend. I fixed it this morning (using "fix" in the sense of repair rather than the Southern sense of I'll get around to it pretty soon).

Several years ago, the county decided that residents of rural Brazos County needed a fixed permanent address with a street name and house number instead of a rural route address, so they could have a county-wide 911 system and emergency personnel could find everyone. At the time, Walter unilaterally made up a name for our street and the street on the other side of the lake. We didn't really poll our neighbors. he just chose Cypress Road and Blue Heron Road and we had signs made. Davis bought me a Tom Tom. I think it is pretty amazing that the little road that Walter named first showed up on emergency responder maps, than official county maps, and now is embedded in the satellite map that Tom Tom accesses. Very grass roots.

• I listened to Book Notes on C-Span on Saturday and they interviewed Rosalind Wiseman who has written several books including Queen Bees and Wannabes and most recently Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads. She suggests the novel idea that we'd all be better off if we treated everyone we encountered with some dignity and respect. I have heard and overheard a lot of rude behavior lately--on tv and radio, in sports, and around campus. Ms. Wiseman's suggestion made me think about what I teach about influence. I am rarely influenced by someone yelling at me or acting like a jerk towards me. I don't think I ever change my mind about something if it comes with an insult or hostility. Why does that seem to be the currency of exchange in so many instances these days? I'm going to work really hard to dial it back in my world and I hope you will, too.

Please consider coming to the lanyard workshop on Friday afternoon/evening if you are local and not committed to one of our local high school Friday night activities. There are a growing number of opportunities to display more of our lanyards, if we have them available.

• For those interested in ordering we now have three available specialty lines (with more to come soon): the Christian Year lanyard (with special beads denoting important events in the Christian year and liturgical colors), the Pat Lacey manyard (featuring very manly, non-shiny beads like rocks and wood and shells and an emergency bottle opener attachment), and the Colby Ash camo manyard for hunting enthusiasts. I will post photos on the Erin's Dream Lanyards (and Manyards) website in the next couple of days.

If this felt like you were reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, you are exactly right. I followed my brain where it led me today.