Baby names

In Twilight (or, more accurately, Breaking Dawn), Bella names her baby Renesmee, which is a combination of her mother's name, Renee, and Edward's mother's name, Esme. Jonathan and I are going to do the same thing (right, honey?). Our firstborn daughter will be named Maggendy, Wendaggie, or possibly Wengy. Our firstborn son can be named Jamal or Vernames.

On second thought, I just realized this sounds a lot like a dilemma Jonathan and I had earlier. Let's just scrap the whole thing.

P.S. This is not an announcement. Just speculation and some Twilight mockery.

Scare Tactics

When I was in elementary school, they decided it was important that we learn about AIDS. Not all about AIDS, though. We just learned a few select facts. For example, we learned that AIDS is caused by a virus known as HIV. You can have HIV for years before you develop AIDS. If you get AIDS, there is no cure, and eventually it will kill you, often indirectly through something like a common cold that your body, not having an immune system, can't fight off. We learned that you can't get HIV/AIDS from a drinking fountain, and that you can get it from the blood brothers/blood sisters thing, but that isn't the only way. And they taught us some of the symptoms. This is the part of the presentation where I got scared.

They told us that if, for example, somebody had a cold that wouldn't go away for months, that person was certain to have AIDS, and would die a slow, lingering, painful, family-and-friends-infecting death. OK, maybe they didn't actually say all of that. But they did say that a long-lasting cold was one of the symptoms.

I had a cold (or allergies) that had lasted for over a month. I was pretty sure that meant I had AIDS. I didn't know how I might have contracted it, but I suspected some classmate had the virus and sneezed on me or something. I didn't tell anybody because I didn't want them to know that I was slowly wasting away. Get ready for an embarrassing confession: I believed I had AIDS for the next three years, until I was in eighth grade.

And that's why we say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Tragedy

Every vicious cycle has some backstory, so here's mine.

I am not a morning person. At all. Before 10:00, the world is a colorless place associated with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, a nasty taste in my mouth, unbearably heavy eyelids, and a vague sense of impending doom. On the other hand, I love nights. They are full of bright lights, time with friends, and a carefree assurance that I can, in fact, accomplish everything I need to and everything I want to, as long as I don't mind staying up later.

And now the sad part comes. Somehow, I've fallen into the bad habit of being early to bed and earlier to rise. So far, I don't feel particularly healthy, I am not wealthy at all, and based just on my sleeping habits, I must be very unwise. But I can't seem to break the cycle.

Here's how the death spiral goes. I have lots of homework, and it takes lots of time to do. So at some point I decided it would be wise to go to bed, and wake up early and do my homework. That meant that the next day, I was tired early, and I had to go to bed early. But my homework still wasn't done. So I set my alarm for an alarmingly early awakening. And the next night I got tired early again. And so forth.

The results of all this? Every morning I am awake by 5:00am (5:30 at the latest). And I get extra hours of feeling pale and washed-out, and then I'm asleep when I should be enjoying the vibrancy of the night. Tragic, isn't it?

Omens

Apparently, a long time ago people used to believe that if you dropped cutlery on the floor, it was an omen of things to come. I never really believed that, but today I decided it might have something to it after all. I dropped three cups on the floor, and I could immediately foresee the future. It held sweeping and buying new cups.

In other news, I like the saying "Cold hands, warm heart," found on the same list of superstitions. It proves that I don't suffer from circulatory problems; I'm just a kind person.

Book Deal, Here We Come!

The other night Jonathan came up with an idea for a children's book. After you read it, you have three tries to guess the circumstances contributing to this idea.

There is an anglerfish in the ocean. Whenever other fish see his dangly lure, they want to come close. He warns them, "If you come near me, I'll kill you and eat you." (Good line for a children's book, no?) But all the fish that hear him think he must just be joking. So they come close and he eats them all.

But one day, one fish starts to come close. The anglerfish says, "If you come near me, I'm going to eat you." The fish says, "No, you're trying to use reverse psychology. I see through you!" So the anglerfish says, "You're right. That was really smart." And the two fish become friends.

From that point on, the anglerfish and the friend-fish work together. The angler-fish tells all the other fish that he will eat them if they come close. The friend-fish tells them not to trust the angler-fish. So, all the other fish get eaten. The end.

I asked Jonathan what the point of the story was. He said the point was that you should trust people who say they're going to hurt you, and you shouldn't trust people who say the first group of people won't hurt you. Good moral.

Have you figured out the circumstances yet?

A Few of My Least Favorite Things

To help you get to know me better, the below is my bottom ten list--the ten activities I most wish I could live without forever.

1. Getting shots
2. Throwing up
3. Going to the doctor
4. Moving (maybe something to do with 5 and 6 below?)
5. Unpacking
6. Packing
7. Running
8. Cleaning
9. Washing dishes
10. Dying

Word Games

For your entertainment, and because it's driving me crazy, I'm posting some puzzles I was given in one of my classes. Enjoy, and if you figure them out, let me know.

The following puzzle is made up from common phrases that contain a number and several words. For example, 26: L of the A is Letters of the Alphabet.
24: H in a D -- Hours in a Day.

9: P in the S S
88: P K
13: S on the A F
90: D in a R A
200: D for P G in M
8: S on a S S
5: D in a Z C
64: S on a C

The Magic Bullet

So school started last Monday. This was exciting, but a little less so than it might otherwise have been. Both Jonathan and I were pretty sick, possibly due to our black mold problem. Anyway, I don't usually believe in treating symptoms, but I decided that I had to stop being unable to move if was to have any chance of academic success. So we went to the doctor.

He spent about three minutes, and prescribed a symptom-managing pill. In addition to treating nausea, vomiting, and respiratory ailments, it also is prescribed as a painkiller and mild sleeping pill. So I went from being ill to being sleepy, but it's a trade I was willing to make.

The side effects of this particular medicine were pretty awesome. First there was the standard warning that although it was intended to treat nausea and vomiting, it could also cause them. Then came the really good stuff. It may cause "an exaggerated sense of well-being." Fortunately (or not) I didn't experience any side effects. It would have been pretty cool, though.