Are we really that stupid?

I just witnessed a bit of Jay Leno humor and have to ask myself that question. While I know he must ask many people many questions and edit out all except those truly idiotic answers, it is hard to believe that even one person wouldn't know who Benedict XVI is, or that Kerry and Bush were the two presidential candidates in the last election. No, Tony Blair isn't a black lady who works with George Bush. That's Aunt Jemima dontcha know! Yah. This general lack of knowledge about the goings on in the world around them wouldn't be so difficult to understand if this situation was the case for all events and activities. There seemed to be a generally high degree of knowledge about really important popular culture topics such as who the judge is on American Idol, or what the name of the street is in Desparate Housewives. Sometimes truth is much stranger than fiction.

I need a bit of extra shut-eye tonight so I am going to leave my meanderings for right now.

One of *those* days

Did you ever have the feeling that some days are better (or worse) than others? Today has been one of those days you don't want to repeat too often. It started with my daughter throwing up in my bed late last night. It appears the sassy little kid caught some stomach bug. She had been complaining about a headache for a few days, but had otherwise been in good spirits. I keep hoping that at some point she will figure out that she shouldn't just heave all over, but that instead she should get herself to the bathroom or a bucket. Happily she doesn't get too upset about heaving--me, I am miserable if I have thrown up. So while spending the day wiping up you know what, and playing nurse to my green kid, I have been debating about calling the endodontist. My recently root canalled tooth doesn't feel that great and I don't know if I should be concerned. Such fun! Since I had such a full night's sleep last night (heh!), and I am not really feeling 100% I decided to go to bed early tonight. Mimi and I climbed into her bed since my bed was stripped last night due to her getting sick all over it, and we quickly fell asleep. Ah, sleep a chance to dream and restore our aching bodies to health! Alas, my crazy neighbor had other plans for me and so I woke up to screaming expletives and other niceties. I hope you are ready for a rant...

I live on a floor that has been inhabited by several individuals that are mentally compromised. They shuffle around, act odd and otherwise make living life in this building really strange. All of these characters live on my floor. How lucky is that? In general, they haven't been a bad lot. That was until my next door neighbor showed up. As luck would have it, his bedroom and my daughter's bedroom share a wall. This wouldn't be such an issue, except for that fact that he is obssessed with, uhm, self-gratification and screaming obscenities. Tonight's phrases du jour was "you booger", and "that bitch can sit on my face", coupled with "f#ck you, a$$hole". Over and over and over again. Interestingly he does this between the hours of 1 and 5 am, rather than other times of the day that wouldn't make such an impact on our lives. Hey, he doesn't work for a living so he can operate on whatever schedule works best for him.

My lovely neighbor is the reason why my daughter was in my bed last night when she got sick. She hasn't slept in her bed for months because of this charming fellow. For a while I was sleeping in her bed, but I couldn't sleep through his "routine." I should have just made my bed tonight, but I guess I had forgotten how much fun it was to be woken up by him. Tonight I just wanted it to stop, and against my better judgement (he stands well over 6 feet tall and probably outweighs me by at least 100 pounds) I knocked on his door. He wouldn't answer the door. At least my daughter was able to sleep through his antics tonight.

The apartment management office for this building is useless. Although they have been made aware of my screaming neighbor they have done nothing to resolve it. This is merely in keeping with their typical modus operandi. I was without a working fridge for nearly a year and a half with a toddler. I wasted so much money on food that was never eaten. Their lacky repairman told me I put the food in the fridge incorrectly. I finally got smart and graphed the temperature fluctuations. They begrudgingnly gave me a fridge dating from the 1970s that they had taken out of another apt. I warned you about the rant...

Pre-Schooler Funnies

My daughter is in the tub so I have a few free minutes to jot down some thoughts. All of this might involve butts, since this is her word obssession as I write. She is in hysterics in the tub laughing about "sticking ______ onto your butt." Insert your favorite noun in the blank, and then repeat an nauseum. I am afraid I started her on this path. I went through the alphabet with her, asking her for examples of words beginning with a particular letter. I can't wait until she is in junior high school, when potty talk gets taken to a new level of grossness.

The past few days I have been working on a web page for a course I am taking at Drexel. It has taken so much time to get everything together. I'm afraid I don't have the patience for this work on a full-time basis. A lobotomy might resolve that daily angst for me, however. LOL. The page offers a glimpse into who I am professionally and personally, so if you have stumbled across my blog and you are interested in the person behind the words take a peek at the page http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jeb56/ It should be completed by the end of the week, so mea culpa in advance for any weirdness or broken links until then. Be forewarned that it was designed for IE, rather than Mozilla.

Malicious Monday

How better to start your week than to spend nearly two hours in an endodontist's office getting a root canal before you are even fully awake? My mouth and jaw are quite sore 16 hours and many doses of Tylenol and Advil later. Tomorrow will be better, yes? Please?

On top of my root canal fun, I am in the throes of trying to finish up a few projects for my final two courses for the MS degree. I am a bit sleep deprived. The storm last night didn't help much--it was a pretty destructive storm. It seems a house in the next town over was struck by lightening. With the number of lightening bolts that I witnessed it didn't surprise me. Ok, I am beat and it is time to turn in so I won't be catatonic tomorrow.

A Sunday night spent as usual

The title of this post refers to the fact that it is near midnight and I have just finished an assignment for one of the courses I am taking this quarter. This situation has been my life for nearly a year and a half. The idea I might be able to do coursework without having to spend my entire Sunday devoted to the task is such a pleasant thing to think about. My typical Sunday begins with an 8 am rise and non-stop activity until at least midnight. I absolutely love the MS program (as opposed to the MA program I graduated and escaped from, but this is a story for another time), and all the new material I have ingested while studying. If there is one thing that I think I have developed while persuing this degree, it would be the ability to hone in on the important concepts quickly.

Ok, there is a terrible storm outside and I really don't like the idea of being killed by lightening while blogging. Until later.

Hey, my first post!

If you have managed to stumble across my blog, welcome. I have no idea what I will do with the blog, but since eveyone is doing it... I can nearly hear my parents voices.

Reading random streams of consciousness isn't all that interesting to me. (I have way too much going on in my life and so all that time "wasted" makes me antsy!). However, I love the idea of keeping a journal and I hope this will push me in that direction. If this type of thing doesn't interest you, move along. ;-)