Abnormal People and Other Moments From Today

So I was driving to an Enrichment activity tonight and it was drizzling a bit. I noticed a young man walking on the side of the road. He had a mohawk and wasn't wearing a rain jacket or poncho and he wasn't carrying an umbrella, and I thought to myself, "You don't ever see 'normal' people walking on the side of the road when it is raining." Then I asked myself, "Why is that?" And myself answered, "Because 'normal' people drive or ride in cars. And if they are walking in the rain, they aren't walking a long distance that would require a jaunt down a road without a sidewalk." I further reasoned with myself, "Also, 'normal' people would wait until the rain stopped or something before venturing out." So, naturally, my thoughts graduated to include the hypothesis, that, in fact, one does not tend to see 'normal' people walking on the side of roads much at all. Sure, a mother pushing a stroller or holding her kid's hand on a sidewalk is 'normal'. But someone walking alongside traffic on a road just isn't 'normal'. 'Normal' people use sidewalks or trails or something. Satisfied with my assessment of this aspect of normality, I forgot all about it and continued my drive to the church. On my way home, on the same road I saw another 'abnormal' person walking along the road. Now it is dark and really raining. This person (who is definitely not the person from earlier), is walking alongside traffic on a road without rain gear only covering his head with his sweatshirt hood. Surely he is not 'normal'. So my question to my friends and family is this... Is it abnormal to walk on the side of the road in the rain and the dark? Or is it perfectly normal to do such and it is abnormal to think about whether or not it is normal to do such? If you can decipher that and answer...you win a prize! Well, actually the prize is just the gratification knowing you could decipher that and answer it. That is about all this paragraph is worth, anyway.

So before my little quest toward normalcy, I made brownies for the church activity mentioned above. In the recipe you are to melt butter and mix in cocoa and then remove from heat. GOT IT! Then you add a variety of other ingredients to the pan. In the recipe it calls for 4 eggs. As I'm adding the eggs, I'm noticing that something is burning. I thought it was my whisk handle getting too hot on the side of the pan. But the smell kept coming. So, the quick thinker I am (reference above paragraph) I realize something else is burning so I'm looking around to make sure nothing is touching my pan. Then I look down and see that my egg carton was carelessly placed on the HOT burner from which I just moved my pan. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK", was my exact reaction. Then I quickly removed the carton to see a few round, melted pieces of styrofoam on the burner. In case you have never burned styrofoam on a burner, it smells! But there were still brownies to make, so I left the aftermath there to cool. You'll be happy to know that I did not lose any eggs, and the stove top wiped right up (once it was cooled--- I do have some brain cells left). Now, I could blame myself for this mishap. After all, no one else was in the kitchen with me. But I choose to shoulder only 1/4 of the responsibility (and how I get that number is a dizzying mathematical equation that can not be understood in this realm of reality--- but trust me that it works out to 1/4). Yes, I choose to only take on 1/4 responsibility and blame 1/4 on styrofoam (after all if the eggs came in something a little more heat resistant, I think more kitchens I cook in would be safe) and 1/2 on the fact that I have to cook on an electric smooth top range.

I miss CA for a lot of reasons. I miss my friends, my house, Nate's old schedule. But I also miss my gas stove and oven. I didn't think I would miss it as much as I have. I keep telling myself that I can survive the next 2.5 years with an electric stove, but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. But I will press on, because that is what I have agreed to do. But you better believe that a gas range is moving closer to #1 on my post law school list!

And so you think that I've completely lost my mind since moving to the East Coast, I'll share one more story from today. I went to help set up this morning for the church activity. Afterwards I take Abby and Iris to Walmart. Now I went to the Walmart 20 minutes from my house because I have pledged not to shop at the Walmart closer to my house. Why? You may ask. I will just tell you this and it will sum it up. The Walmart closest to my house is called the "Ghetto Walmart." And I've decided it is not worth the headache of going in there, shopping with a cart with no tires that wobbles and screeches and not finding half the stuff on my list. Plus it is dirty and disorganized and the people who patron that store are not "normal". On with the story. So I go and get the things on my list, careful not to overload the cart. Iris has a fever and is grumpy, so I make her comfortable in the cart with a bottle. I'm about to check out and realize that I left my wallet at home. I took it out of the diaper bag and put it in the library bag because Abby and I went to the library last night. So I had to shelf everything and go home, empty handed. Now I could blame myself for this, but I will only shoulder 1/3 of the responsibility. I hold Walmart 1/3 responsible for not having a decent one closer to me. The other 1/3 responsibility goes to society in general for making us moms think we need all these separate bags. We have diaper bags, library book bags, purses, church bags, grocery bags, beach bags, tote bags (alright I'm stretching here, but it sounded good). Why can't be figure out how to lug our children, books, church items and money without needing a separate bag for everything and without having one bag that weighs more than we do?

It looks like you have work to do. I've left you with some questions to ponder and answer. And I'm not posting pictures so that you won't be distracted from the deep thoughts this post is inspiring.