Surprisingly Bedazzled

First, a big Mahalo to all of you, and especially to Jer, for butting out of this conversation and letting me have the whole floor to myself. You guys ROCK! :)

So, is it just me or do anyone else's jaws ache from hitting the floor while watching the Olympics? Is there no limit to the bedazzling things the human body can do? (Under aged and over aged bodies alike). This is the question I was actually pondering while sitting on my couch eating cheetos and watching the finale of So You Thing You Can Dance. It was the night before the Olympics so I had no idea that the story of humankind was about to come to a climax in a birds nest in Beijing. Did anyone else sense that as you were scraping your chin off the ground during the Opening Ceremonies?

I mean, did we just peak or what? You know, We. Us. The collective whole. Civilization as we know it. Phenomenal things are being accomplished while I am sitting on my coach eating cheetos and watching So You Think You Can Dance. People are thriving, pulsing, reaching higher, spinning faster (this was my epiphany as I watched men's gymnastics and got the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge my stomach from my throat).

To borrow a phrase and drive the point home . . . I stand all amazed! (well, sit all amazed, actually--while eating cheetos).

Okay, enough about cheetos (notice I always use one key concept at least 3 times in each post--that's the first rule of being a writer. I learned that at writing school). ;)

So Zach has been outed as a BG (band geek). He's been assigned to play one of these most subtle instruments known to man, you guessed it, the TROMBONE! Hard not to be conspicuous when you and your instrument take up one whole seat on the bus. But there is some surprisingly good news; last night Alan and I went to Parent Night where we got to attend all of Zach's classes for 15 minutes. We took this opportunity to scope out teachers and other parents. It seems Zach is still riding the coat tails of good fortune as the band is full of non-geeky parents, an outstanding teacher (who says if you want to get a scholarship to college, learn to play the trombone) and one very lovely girl, who also happens to be Zach's partner in English class. Fancy that. (No wonder he hasn't complained about band yet.)

Other surprisingly good news:

1. Though I still miss you all, I am surprisingly bored no longer (maybe because I put the house on self-clean).

2. Tatum and I had a girls day out and enjoyed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 a surprisingly surprising amount (have I used that word 3 times yet?). We learned something about each other. We are both ashamed of crying in movies about traveling pants and choose to deflect our shame by poking fun at others who cry about traveling pants.

3. Wyatt is now fully capable of swallowing a pill--one of the upsides of laying in bed for 4 days straight with a high fever and a wicked bout of diarreah (too bad I already used up my quota of poo jokes) Alan treated him for Leptospyrosis, which we suspect he got from that thirsty waterfall we hiked a week ago.

4. I have not yet been excommunicated after voicing my desire for low-rise garments!

5. Tatum has embraced her hair and is letting it go au' natural. She now looks more like a Hawaiian Tropic model (Modbe style) than a Disney Channel rock star.

6. Garrett met proficiany on the state math test!

So far, it's been a surprisingly good week!