The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Being Grateful for the Little Things
In case you haven’t heard, flossing your teeth is very important. Something about bacteria and heart disease. Whatever. I am into hygiene and all, but flossing is a pain and I am lazy. Which is why the totally not-green plastic flossy things have been so great.
Just to sound like a commercial, Crest Glide floss sticks are the best of the many, many I have tried. How do I know? Because when I tried to use something more eco-friendly (involving less plastic) my dental hygienist, Marina, could tell the difference in my mouth.
Imagining that scene is right now making my mother cringe. She knows Marina.
So about six months ago, I was in the drugstore and they were on clearance. I bought every last box in a total panic. As my supply is diminishing, I have been considering trolling the Internet and paying shipping for these things.
Yesterday, I went to the CVS down the street because I can never remember to pack toothpaste. And I found them again – in new packaging.
I could just floss all night.
Happy Travel Day
Everyone has airport horror stories. Particularly about my own airport. Did you hear that we were rated the “worst” again? “Worst” meaning of all the airports in the U.S., you are most likely to encounter a delay at O’Hare.
Boohoo. Go find another airport.
So I thought I would change the pace and tell you all about my great day.
The cab was early. So I arrived at the airport early. Went through security without any trouble at all. Even though I wear gym shoes and had a laptop in my bag. I picked up some caramel corn at Garrett’s to get me through the week (Garrett’s! #12 on the list of Reasons Why O’Hare Rules!) and then went to Starbucks for oatmeal.Eating my oatmeal at the gate, I see that the 8am flight to Washington is boarding. I am on the 9am flight. I consider trying to get on the 8am flight, then decide that I would never find room for my luggage and anyway, I am eating my oatmeal.
I finish my oatmeal and see on the new, fancy informational sign that this flight has 60 available seats. And seven more minutes to board. The gate agent is just trying to track down two last no-shows. Everyone else has boarded. I walk up, explain that I am booked on the 9am, but only have carry on luggage and would be happy to go early if it was convenient.It most certainly was. She gave me seat 3D. I kicked the squatter out of my chair, stored my luggage, e-mailed my mother (because she has made clear that if I die on a flight that I am not supposed to be on, she will be super-mad) and went to sleep.
The flight took off early and landed early so I arrived in time to have lunch with my boss. Which is a good thing.Happy travel day.
Even More about the Kindle
A Blog of Note led me to an article in the Economist about the Kindle.
Part of it talks about how Kindle is not to books what iPod was to CDs. But here is what I really liked:
“So far, says Mr Kessel, this does not seem to spell the end of paper books, since Kindle users buy just as many bound books as before, so that their total consumption of books goes up by 2.6 times. That may change as more titles become available. More importantly, the Kindle and similar devices made by Sony and others represent only one side of the evolving e-reader market. They are for aficionados, since paying $359 for a device makes sense only if you read quite a lot of books, newspapers or magazines on it. “
I am leaving for Washington again on Tuesday, and I will be taking the Kindle with me. I noted this afternoon that I will hurry up and finish the book I am reading so as not to carry both. I purchased three books at Half Price Books sale this weekend. Oh, and one more at the Library Used Book Store on Thursday.
Although. Except for that first purchase, (and the 99 cent Complete Shakespeare), I have only downloaded the free e-books from Amazon. I just picked up a free Sherlock Holmes e-book the other day, actually. It’s kind a thrill-of-the-hunt bargain shopping thing.
And I can’t get any real reading done while school is in session!
Anyway. You can read the entire article here.
Hand and Foot Creams
Janet Franz wrote a mid-winter article in the Chicago Tribune comparing hand creams. It seems Aveda wins and Neutrogena is the best from the drug store. (Neutrogena is also the best for boys that don’t want to smell like girls.)
But the real conclusion Franz came to is that most of the hand creams on the market will do the job if you can manage to remember to use them. A good scent helps with that. I would add that to keep one at your desk at work, it must be non-greasy. Franz also notes that most hand creams don’t really manage dry cuticles. So true.
I am still using my Bath and Body Works Hand Creams. Shea Cashmere at work and Breathe “delight” at home. But I am not particularly loyal because I don’t think anyone has found something head and shoulders above the others. In my price range, anyway.
And speaking of price range, I have even more trouble with what to use on my feet. I want to keep them healthy and moisturized, but am not willing to spend the same dollars as I do on my hands. During the Ulta clearance sales, I found this:
Bag Balm is one of the creams that dairy farmers use on the udders of cows. And I have to tell you, this stuff works. I shower at night, so I slather this stuff on my feet and cover them with socks. And my feet feel great.
The downside:
Looks like Carmex, doesn’t it? If I remember correctly, the smell is similar. Which is unfortunate. But I have been using this almost every night for over a month, and barely put a dent in it.
So. That is how I am getting my feet through the winter. Any further recommendations are welcome.
Any Given Friday During the Semester
Spooky cannot seem to stay away from my computer. I took it downstairs to do some homework and supervise parrot play time.
Eloise was on her perch, eating her almond butter sandwich. Shadow was at her feet. Kiwi the Grey flew to the floor and veerrrry quietly waddled toward the dog.
Me: “Shadow! Watch out for Kiwi.”
Kiwi: (turns to glare at me)
Shadow: (huh? waiting for treats now!)
Kiwi: (turns back to Shadow) “You’re ok!”
Yes. She literally said that.
I got up, thinking either to scare her off of biting the dog’s feet or to snap a picture of her doing it. I hadn’t decided. By the time I had the camera, she had given up. And the cat was at the computer.
This scene could seriously happen on any given Friday night while I am in school
On Lincoln’s Birthday
I don’t know if the rest of the country is going as goofy as Illinois about President Lincoln’s 200th birthday. But the other day I was watching something on TV where the historian was saying that the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Speech were just about the best two pieces that any leader had ever written in this country.
“The Second Inaugural,” I thought. “That’s the one on the other wall of the Lincoln Memorial. The one about ‘with malice toward none’.”
I’m not proud of that. Luckily, I have a copy or three in my house, so I pulled it out and think you should read it (again):
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war–seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
When the snow melts
When the snow melts, we see what has been sitting in the snow banks all winter long. At my office, that usually means cigarette butts.
I don’t mind smokers as a rule, but I do mind their littering. My real-life friends will know that I have three times had a lit cigarette discarded by a drive land inside my car.
Also, we see a lot of road kill. Mostly raccoons, but over the weekend, I swear I saw a deer on top of a snow bank. Sorry for being graphic, but I am seriously wondering if it had involved a snow plow and been there all winter.
On Monday, I was finally able to leave my office and crossed the parking lot to Taco Bell. Because the snow is piled at the back of the parking lot, there is no easy way to walk over there.
This is what is left. You can’t tell from the picture, but this mountain was six feet high when I snapped the shot.
It is going to snow again this weekend, so the mud will be covered with a dusting of white. For a few hours.
On this, the nicest day of the year.
The other night, I was driving my father and step mother to dinner. She doesn’t speak a whole lot of English, so he and I are just chattering away. I asked what he was doing this week. Visiting friends, going to the casino, etc.
Me: “Dad, Susan has never been to Chicago. When are you taking her into the city?”
Dad: “What is there to do in the city?”
Me: (names 10 things)
Dad: “Susan grew up in a city in China. She has no interest in seeing the city.”
Me: “Really? Did you ask her?”
The next day, at Alex’s birthday party, he said:
“I stand corrected. Susan wants to see the city. Let’s do that on Tuesday.”
So I took a vacation day, got online and figured out how this would work. They got on the train near my brother’s house and I picked it up closer to where I live. I had to fight to get him on the 9:18 train.
Well – I don’t remember how to get everywhere, but the State Street Marshall Fields? I remember. And it. Looked. Horrible. I hadn’t been in since they changed it to Macy’s, so I don’t know if it is always that horrible or if this is some kind of post-holiday, economic slump thing. But it made me sad.
So we went to the Park and they get a big kick out of the bean and Navy Pier and The Art Institute. By the way, The Art Institute is doing free admission for the entire month. The Munch Exhibition doesn’t start until next week and they are charging for that, but if the gift shop can be believed, they have conned the Smithsonian into lending them “Vampire” (which was apparently originally titled “Love and Pain” – thanks Internet) and I really love that piece.
Airplane Etiquette
MSN’s Travel section had an article about how Virgin Airlines is “advocating a return to civility” in flight. I thought, “Finally, someone is going to shut these whiners up”.
I am no Million Mile passenger, but I fly regularly. I make a conscious effort to be pleasant to the airport staff as well as the airline people. Their jobs are not easy. Sure, there are the horror stories of sitting on the tarmac for six hours. And I have often complained about the lack of communication from the airlines about expected delays. Oh, and the fact that they are charging for checked luggage has made the competition for overhead bins unbearable. But that isn’t the fault of the staff at the gate, or the flight attendants.
Generally, the biggest trouble for me in flying is the other passengers.
“Much has been made in recent years of the lack of civility when it comes to flying, with the term air rage now part of the daily lexicon. Many point to post-9/11 security, which forced a focus on safety over service, as the cause. But in the past two years, flying has become even more trying: in addition to security hassles, there are fuller flights with smaller staffs; increased airfares, even as airlines charge for food, pillows, and checked luggage; and a spike in flight delays. It’s no wonder that increasingly beleaguered passengers are looking to reassert their control — even over issues as seemingly inconsequential as where their It Bags are stored.”
Hm. That sounds like we are excusing them.
Virgin Airlines is training its staff to bend over backwards in accommodating people so as to defuse air rage. I liked it better when they were kicked off the plane. You know why? Because I don’t like that people are rewarded for behaving badly. Check this out, from a role playing training session:
“Do you know how much this bag is worth?” Cournoyer countered.
“Yes I do, and if I had one I wouldn’t want to let go of it either,” Nobles replied with the reverence of one who knows her Hermès from her Hervé. “But how about I wrap it between two blankets for you, stow it overhead, and as soon as the seat-belt sign is turned off, I’ll run down the aisle and give it back to you? I promise! Please!”
Or how about if you can’t store your luggage like a normal person, you don’t bring it on the damn airplane?!
As flyers, we are all in this together. We are all stuck in security lines. We are all subject to delays. We are all looking for space in the overhead bin. We are all “beleaguered passengers” looking to “reassert control”. That is no excuse for behaving badly. I wish Virgin the best of luck – points for trying something. But I’m not convinced.
Birthdays and Christenings
Half the state was at my brother’s house this weekend. Friday night we celebrated my nephew and my father’s birthdays by having dinner at Lou Malnati’s. Pizza is one of the three foods that Alex really likes and Malnati’s is all Dad wants when he is in town, since he moved to Florida.
Saturday was Alex’s birthday party. It was also his uncle, Michael’s birthday. So there were two cakes. And cupcakes. I managed to get home in time to review my lectures and take my weekly Accounting quiz. Not feeling particularly confident, though.
Today was my niece Ainslie’s christening. I distracted Alex and his best friend, Ellie (also age 4) with the camera phone. Worked for five minutes. Mostly, they took pictures of each other, and they all came out blurry. But Ellie went for the “flowers”:
The baptismal font (or whatever it is called) is huge in that church. And they do a full (well, up to the chest) “immersion” of the child. Would you believe that the priest told Alex and Ellie that sometimes snakes come out of this thing? Alex did two laps around it, looking for snakes from every angle, which was funny. And so not what I thought he would do:
And then we had an ice cream cake.
The Next Dark Age 