Great post with advice for first time Dads - Archived with the hope that tumbledry is still around when I say “holy cow I’m going to have a baby and have no idea what is going on.”
Scene 1. Saturday. The curtain rises to reveal Alex hunkered down over an organic chemistry book, solution manual, notecards and notes. He sighs and pushes his hair back from his forehead. He needs a haircut. The modification of the Wittig recation makes sense, but he wonders if he’ll be able to keep it straight from the 20 other reaction/reagent combinations he has to keep straight.
Scene 2. Sunday. Early morning light streams across the stage, illuminating Alex intently staring at his notes. Hours pass. In the evening, Alex’s glasses pop open, leaving only one lens. Inches from the desk, he reviews and reviews his summaries of the sections, trying to get it all straight.
Act II.
Scene 1. An alarm rings in a darkened room. Alex grabs it and mashes the buttons until it finally ceases its ringing. After some time, he crawls out of bed and gets ready for the day.
Scene 2. Alex shovels food in, checking his watch so he is not late for his first class. Two guys sit close by, talking about all the snow that fell last night and the big drifts that have accumulated.
Guy 1: “You know class is cancelled today.”
Alex: [mishearing] “No, I don’t think so, class is never cancelled around here.”
Guy 1: “No, really - I saw you rushing but … there’s no class today.”
Alex: !!!!!!!
Scene 3. An acoustic, hopeful, inspiring song (I am thinking Damien Rice’s “Older Chests” off of the album O) slowly increases volume on the stage as Alex walks along a snowy street, smiling at all the extra time he has to study with. Exit all, with snow continuing to fall as the lights fade out.
Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time
If you were given that cosmic rewind button, how far back would you go? Would you really be able to stop after yesterday, or last week? Or would you keep going until you didn’t have thumbs to push the button with?
How many stupid musings can one man fit in an away message?
Ryan notes: “I bet in France, instead of cottage cheese, they call it Château de Fromage.” That means (with apologies to Emily Lauren) approximately “Castle of the Cheese.”
Today is the day that prospective students tour the dorms at St. Thomas; so, we have done our best to get the building ready for all the visitors: taking shoes out of the hall, removing trash, cleaning up rooms for tours. The whole idea is for Cretin to put its best foot forward to those who might be living here some time soon.
Dan, never an RA to “half-a” something, went all-out and purchased an air freshener for his floor. Now, this may have been to bring the floor smell up to an average above-toxic-dump olfactory level, though it may have been to edge out other floors in attracting prospective residents (Hey, we’re second floors - fewer stairs and less odor!). That said, Dan plugged in a Glade™ PlugIns™ Scented Oil Fan, loaded it up with Rainshower™ scent (I’m not kidding about the registered trademark signs, check out the Glade website), set the thing on high (maybe they don’t call it “high” … maybe just “mega fresh” or “holy cow! it’s fresh!”), and went about his business. Two hours later, up here on fifth floor, I left my room to go to dinner and immediately smelled a fresh rainforest scent in nostrils. Could it be? Yes, the air freshening power permeated three floors up Cretin Hall, down the hallway to my room at the corner of the building.
Just as I am waxing philosophical about the past, one of youth’s role models goes and dies. Nothing tells you you are getting older like people from your generation dying. But I say this with tongue in cheek - I do not really put the “facing aging” thing in front of a life lost. I do not know what exactly Kirby Puckett did in his later life (there were some scandals), nor do I care all that much. I do, however, remember being a little kid, new to sports (unlike many boys my age), suddenly finding a touchstone to talk with people about: “He climbed that plexiglass!” I, of course, refer to the unbelievable (and now classic) footage of Puckett chasing down a fly ball and leaping to a seemingly impossbile height to snatch the dang thing out of the air. Wikipedia (personally, I welcome our new referential overloads):
The World Series which followed is considered by many to be the most exciting ever. Both the Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never been done before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two and had to win to stay alive. Puckett helped to hold off a late Atlanta rally with a leaping catch off the outfield wall that stole a sure double by Ron Gant. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic walk-off home run off Charlie Leibrandt to keep his team alive. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett’s career.
Dan: kirby puckett died
Alex: what the
Alex: garbage
Alex: i’m going back to get him
Alex: the role models from our youth can’t die
Dan: i agree
Dan: to all of the above
We will miss you, Kirby Puckett. Your spirit will live on in future role models and history-makers.
