In sports media there is a concept of a player being so underrated they're overrated. What happens is a player will be good for a while without people paying much attention to them and so commentaries will start to trickle out online about how underrated they are, and then because the Internet is the Internet, this idea quickly spreads and reaches a point where nearly everybody is calling them underrated, and so they actually become overrated because of it. If you are a baseball fan, you can call it the Ben Zobrist Effect.
I feel like that's what happened with Thanksgiving. It's a good, solid holiday, but I seem to be constantly reading articles or listening to podcasts or hearing from friends and coworkers about how it's the best holiday, and how it's actually better than Christmas, and I think we all need to slow our (dinner) roll with all that. It's a fine holiday; I like it. But it's got some pretty major drawbacks -- the main one being that's it's long enough that you can start to get cabin fever if you stay home all four days (especially if you have kids), but it's too short to travel anywhere of distance, especially considering you will likely sit in traffic or in line at the airport for half the holiday if you do. I think I would like it a lot better if I lived closer to my family or S's family, and we could just stop by and hang out with them for the night. As it is, it's not very practical for us to go to South Carolina to see S's parents (nor fly across country to see my family), as it's more hassle than pleasure, especially considering we will see them in like two weeks for Christmas break, anyway. (Actually, we will see S's mom tonight, because she's coming to visit for a bit, but that's not usually the case.) On the plus side of the Thanksgiving ledger, the food is good and there is usually football on. Like I said, it's a fine holiday -- nothing more, nothing less.
This year we went over to our friends' house T & Su. They're really more friends of a friend, but they're good people. T grew up Mormon -- I don't think he still is, but I'm not sure -- and a lot of his family were there too, so I was having flashbacks to grade school, when about half my friends were Mormon. The thing about Mormons is that interpersonally they are the kindest people you will ever meet -- genuinely nice, loving folks. (T's family is no exception.) The flip side is that as a religious entity they believe some strange shit, and not all of it is benign wackiness like peeper stones and magical underwear. They have long been opposed to LGBT rights, and they majorly mess kids' heads up when it comes to sex. (Also, it's worth noting that Utah voted for Trump by a healthy margin.) The other thing I found as I got into high school is that Mormons are very exclusionary. When I was a little kid it didn't matter -- everybody just played with everybody -- but as I got older, I mostly stopped hanging out with my Mormon friends. It wasn't like anybody decided this or there was any ill-will or anything. We just gradually split apart. Some of this was on me because I wanted to experiment with the bad (i.e., fun) parts of high school -- partying, swearing, messing around with girls, etc. -- and most Mormon kids don't do that. But aside from that, I feel like Mormons don't really let you into their world unless you're Mormon too. You can be their friend, but you're never going to be their friend.
Anyway, this really has nothing to do with anything, as religion didn't come up at all on Thursday, and T & Su did a fine job hosting a nice dinner, and a merry time was had by all.
In other news, it appears as if the lice has not gone away -- or least we are still finding nits in the kids' hair. We did another round of shampoo treatment and washed and sterilized all the sheets and clothes and stuff. I also broke down and shaved the kids' heads. I should've just done it last week. It looks kinda patchy because I did it with a pair of clippers in our laundry room, but whatever. It will grow back and hopefully it will help. If we are still finding nits a few days from now, I might have to take it down to the scalp. According to an expert on lice per this NPR story, shaving your head is "like using a cannon to kill a housefly." And that may be true, but at least a cannon kills the housefly (and your house will grow back by itself if it gets destroyed in the process). Also in the story, it says olive oil has not been shown to be an effective treatment. So, we probably got ripped off by the "Lice Doctors," selling us their bullshit natural remedy, when what we really need is some good old-fashioned permethrin. The thing is, I actually went online and researched olive oil treatment and it seemed legit. I guess I should have done more than just read the first few sentences of the first few links that popped up on Google and called it good. I should know better. One of my cardinal rules is to not attempt to diagnose any ailments online. It almost always go wrong, and this is a good example.
Another wrinkle is that I'm not 100% certain that we are actually finding nits and not just dandruff. S says she is certain, and she's probably right, but if somebody who actually knew what they are looking for told me otherwise, I wouldn't be totally blown away.
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted, as I'm sure you are on pins and needles.
Alright, that's about all I have time for tonight. I need to get a decent night's rest. S is taking me to one of her Solid Core exercise courses tomorrow. (We're taking advantage of her mom being in town: exercise date!) She's always talking up how hard the class is, so I have to put in a good effort to show her that it's not any harder than what I do at Krav Maga on a regular basis. Oh, that reminds me, if you are somebody who wants to exercise but doesn't want to spend a lot of time doing it, you should listen to this Science Vs podcast. It's less than ten minutes long, but if you want the tl;dl (too long; didn't listen) version, research has demonstrated that very high-intensity, very short workouts, can have a lot of health benefits, and in some ways can be even better for you than longish low-intensity workouts like jogging. I'm genuinely excited to hear this.
Well, until next time...
I feel like that's what happened with Thanksgiving. It's a good, solid holiday, but I seem to be constantly reading articles or listening to podcasts or hearing from friends and coworkers about how it's the best holiday, and how it's actually better than Christmas, and I think we all need to slow our (dinner) roll with all that. It's a fine holiday; I like it. But it's got some pretty major drawbacks -- the main one being that's it's long enough that you can start to get cabin fever if you stay home all four days (especially if you have kids), but it's too short to travel anywhere of distance, especially considering you will likely sit in traffic or in line at the airport for half the holiday if you do. I think I would like it a lot better if I lived closer to my family or S's family, and we could just stop by and hang out with them for the night. As it is, it's not very practical for us to go to South Carolina to see S's parents (nor fly across country to see my family), as it's more hassle than pleasure, especially considering we will see them in like two weeks for Christmas break, anyway. (Actually, we will see S's mom tonight, because she's coming to visit for a bit, but that's not usually the case.) On the plus side of the Thanksgiving ledger, the food is good and there is usually football on. Like I said, it's a fine holiday -- nothing more, nothing less.
This year we went over to our friends' house T & Su. They're really more friends of a friend, but they're good people. T grew up Mormon -- I don't think he still is, but I'm not sure -- and a lot of his family were there too, so I was having flashbacks to grade school, when about half my friends were Mormon. The thing about Mormons is that interpersonally they are the kindest people you will ever meet -- genuinely nice, loving folks. (T's family is no exception.) The flip side is that as a religious entity they believe some strange shit, and not all of it is benign wackiness like peeper stones and magical underwear. They have long been opposed to LGBT rights, and they majorly mess kids' heads up when it comes to sex. (Also, it's worth noting that Utah voted for Trump by a healthy margin.) The other thing I found as I got into high school is that Mormons are very exclusionary. When I was a little kid it didn't matter -- everybody just played with everybody -- but as I got older, I mostly stopped hanging out with my Mormon friends. It wasn't like anybody decided this or there was any ill-will or anything. We just gradually split apart. Some of this was on me because I wanted to experiment with the bad (i.e., fun) parts of high school -- partying, swearing, messing around with girls, etc. -- and most Mormon kids don't do that. But aside from that, I feel like Mormons don't really let you into their world unless you're Mormon too. You can be their friend, but you're never going to be their friend.
Anyway, this really has nothing to do with anything, as religion didn't come up at all on Thursday, and T & Su did a fine job hosting a nice dinner, and a merry time was had by all.
In other news, it appears as if the lice has not gone away -- or least we are still finding nits in the kids' hair. We did another round of shampoo treatment and washed and sterilized all the sheets and clothes and stuff. I also broke down and shaved the kids' heads. I should've just done it last week. It looks kinda patchy because I did it with a pair of clippers in our laundry room, but whatever. It will grow back and hopefully it will help. If we are still finding nits a few days from now, I might have to take it down to the scalp. According to an expert on lice per this NPR story, shaving your head is "like using a cannon to kill a housefly." And that may be true, but at least a cannon kills the housefly (and your house will grow back by itself if it gets destroyed in the process). Also in the story, it says olive oil has not been shown to be an effective treatment. So, we probably got ripped off by the "Lice Doctors," selling us their bullshit natural remedy, when what we really need is some good old-fashioned permethrin. The thing is, I actually went online and researched olive oil treatment and it seemed legit. I guess I should have done more than just read the first few sentences of the first few links that popped up on Google and called it good. I should know better. One of my cardinal rules is to not attempt to diagnose any ailments online. It almost always go wrong, and this is a good example.
Another wrinkle is that I'm not 100% certain that we are actually finding nits and not just dandruff. S says she is certain, and she's probably right, but if somebody who actually knew what they are looking for told me otherwise, I wouldn't be totally blown away.
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted, as I'm sure you are on pins and needles.
Alright, that's about all I have time for tonight. I need to get a decent night's rest. S is taking me to one of her Solid Core exercise courses tomorrow. (We're taking advantage of her mom being in town: exercise date!) She's always talking up how hard the class is, so I have to put in a good effort to show her that it's not any harder than what I do at Krav Maga on a regular basis. Oh, that reminds me, if you are somebody who wants to exercise but doesn't want to spend a lot of time doing it, you should listen to this Science Vs podcast. It's less than ten minutes long, but if you want the tl;dl (too long; didn't listen) version, research has demonstrated that very high-intensity, very short workouts, can have a lot of health benefits, and in some ways can be even better for you than longish low-intensity workouts like jogging. I'm genuinely excited to hear this.
Well, until next time...
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