10 05 pm pdt   [ factoids ]

Work has turned me into a little factoid machine. I come home with a story every day. Today one of the kids forgot his last name. Today one of the kids told me that if you don't wipe your bottom, things will grow there. Today one of the kids told me that he had a solution for the "war on terrorism" (his solution was to surround Bush with some army guys so he could go talk to Osama Bin Laden and work it out; I think I very deftly explained that sometimes two different people can believe that they are right and that the other person is wrong, and it's very hard for them to come to a compromise when their conviction is so strong).

Well, none of those things actually happened today, but they all happened. Today I was with the middle schoolers. Some of them were asking me about being vegetarian and vegan. I was explaining that it's really hard to be protein deficient as long as you eat enough calcium. I was trying to say that my mom was all worried at different times that I would be (1) protein deficient, (2) calcium deficient, (3) anemic. "Anemic?" one of the kids asked. "Yes, it means you don't have enough iron." Another one said, "I thought it was pronounced anema." "Anemia," I explained. "There's a CD called 'Enema of the State' and I always pronounced it wrong." "Oh," I said, "that's something completely different." "What is?" "An enema." "What's that?" "I'm not sure you guys want to know." "We want to know."

This was the point when I had to pause and remind myself that I really work hard to cultivate this relationship where we are comfortable talking about whatever they want to talk about.

"It's when you put water in your butt to clean in out." This explanation was proceeded by much squealing, exclaiming "Ew gross!", giggling, and asking me if I was serious.

And now, on a completely unrelated and rather boring note, Matthew and I spent $300 tonight at Costco, purchasing:

• 3 jars of Wiejske Wyroby Polish style petite dill pickles
• 1.5 litres of Stolichnaya vodka
• salsa
• Odwalla tangerine juice
• Boca Burgers
• car wash stuff
• car wax
• towels for washing the car
• 100 32-speed 80-minute writable CD's
• frosted flakes
• frosted mini chex
• cheerios
• 1500 Q-tips
• 25 sharpies [this was the subject of many jokes]
• 2 bags of tostitos
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• 24 437-mL (16 fl oz) bottles of Crystal Geyser sparkling mineral water
• 10 cans of S & W garbanzo beans
• toilet paper
• paper towels
• Amy's brand cheese enchiladas
• a 128 meg memory stick for Matthew's digital camera, which I use to take my daily photos

^ Matthew wanted to play with the new memory stick, so he has spent some time this evening taking pictures and movies of various things in the apartment.