First, let me apologize for the Fashion Friday post and, I guess, everything you're about to read right now. Mr Blyleaf said Fashion Friday was mediocre, but not the worst thing I've ever written. To reiterate, that's mediocre, but not the worst thing I've ever written. Why, thanks. I've got to tell you, while that may be a completely accurate assessment, saying it out loud is no way to get a debut short story collection dedicated to you. Not that I was going to dedicate my debut short story collection to him anyway because a) I don't have one and b) have we learned nothing from Sandra Bullock's Oscar speech.
While my husband suddenly having standards is completely irritating, I had bigger challenges to deal with Friday. Earlier in the week I met Lauren's teacher's new puppy. Teacher brought him into school to play with the children. But puppy didn't look too good. It was obvious something was wrong. In fact, when Lauren got home from school, I had her wash up before she got anywhere near our own dogs.
So Friday, when I looked over the newsletter that comes home in Lauren's backpack each week, I wasn't surprised to read that the puppy had died. I was surprised that Teacher told the students all about it. Apparently she felt like she needed to be honest with them about why she was so sad. Am I completely heartless for wondering why she was crying at school over a puppy she'd only known for three days? Probably.
I just can't understand why she then took things a step further and went on to tell them that the little puppy went to puppy heaven where he's all better and playing with other puppies. What is that about? Do you think the kindergartners were at all curious about what happened to the puppy's soul? And if they were, why couldn't she have told them that people have different beliefs about what happens when something dies and that they should ask their parents? Would that have been so bad?
This isn't an area of strength for me. Honestly, I've been quite negligent in Lauren's spiritual education and Teacher has complicated things tremendously. We're still working on the concept of what dead means to a physical body. Now we've been forced to talk puppy heaven. Great. The reason this is such a challenge is because I'm not even sure what I believe. I'm curious about what happens when we die, sure, but I figure I'll find out when I get there and, anyway, I've pretty much got enough on my plate with the whole being alive situation.
I have Lauren doing yoga. I think that's a good start. It's a good way to teach a kid about the consciousness that dwells within her body. But we haven't progressed much beyond that. When I go to Bible study I tell her it's a book club. I don't go to church every week because I don't know where I belong, but I do drop in to different churches on occasion. When I do, I lie and say I'm running errands. The main thing is, I really want to avoid painting a picture of a cartoon Jesus or God as an old white guy sitting on a cloud moving people around like a fucked up board game. So I've avoided it. It looks like that wasn't the best idea I've ever had.
On a different note, Friday night I got together with my friend Kathy and had a great time. It was our last visit before her two week vacation to Paris (and other places). So if you find me increasingly whiny and needy you'll know why. Seriously, we're in touch like twenty times a day. I don't know what I'm going to do without her. We practically have a psychic connection. In fact, we'd be exactly alike if I were a teeny blond Republican who listens to Coldplay. This is going to be a long two weeks. Bear with me.
Friday Night Lights was pretty good this week. The big bombshell plot development that caused me to tell you you couldn't miss this episode didn't come until the very end of the hour so that was kind of a let down. I have to say, Tim Riggins is really carrying the show right now. He's just hilarious. I loved him and Matt hunting. What a couple of nuts. Oh, did anyone notice the Rob Pattinson look alike at that party in Gilroy? That was so weirdly distracting. I believe he belongs somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, not Texas.
Saturday I mostly ran errands. Real errands. I wasn't secretly at church. Saturday night we watched a movie called Good Dick. The subject matter is challenging. I probably wouldn't have watched it if I hadn't stumbled across the last half hour first. So I knew I could handle it. Jason Ritter (Mr Cyr from Parenthood) was in it and did just a fantastic job. He's quite the little actor, that fella.
Sunday I finished up The City of Your Final Destination. It was really good. It made me want to go to Uruguay. You should read it. Very romantic.
Maybe I'll go back to Sam Lipsyte for my next book. Although I have been reading a lot of fiction lately. I don't know. I could do Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood. I've almost picked that up several times. Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell is appealing. I've also been thinking of maybe doing a post-Katrina thing. The idea of a crazy wild frontier just opening up on the gulf coast when you think all of our frontiers are long gone is so intriguing. I'm so curious to see how people treat it, but I don't really know where to start. I feel like I want a better foundation in Southern literature before I dive into that. But I'm not sure what I have to read to get a good foundation. Well, I'll work on that.
And that was the big weekend. Mediocre, for sure, but you already know that about me.
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