Mild Amusement

One of the more interesting things that I've noticed as I've gotten older is that parents control what their children eat. For example, most parents try to limit the amount of sugar that their kids consume. Sugar tends to make kids really hyper, so it's just best for everyone involved if they don't eat enough of it that they start bouncing off the walls. In that spirit, one of the tricks that I've often seen employed is to water down juice. Some of the juice that you buy is just teeming with sugar. I occasionally check the nutritional information for these things, and I was surprised by just how many grams of sugar there are in a serving. It's not quite bouncing-off-the-walls high, but it's high enough that I did a double-take the first time I noticed it. I don't have any recollection of this happening to us as kids, but it's entirely possible that my folks were just really good about hiding their tracks. Or that I was entirely oblivious to the w...

I get a lot of mistaken identities. I've been suspected of stealing my own car , and had random people assume that I was my own gardener . I also look young for my age, while simultaneously  making old people plans  on occasion. Throw in my apparently surprising penchant for speaking Spanish , and I'm just full of surprises for other people. All in all, it makes life pretty interesting. Now, I've gotten used to it. I've clearly had plenty of those experiences (see the links in the above paragraph as proof), so it comes as no surprise any more. However, if there's a second person involved, things get exponentially funnier. Take, for example, dinners out with the Mild Fiancée. She is only a year younger than me, but she looks even younger than that. We both get carded routinely, as we apparently do not look our age. For the record, that is not a complaint. The two of us will happily look young for the rest of our lives, but it's just funny when it happens. I...

So, I was home alone one day. This was not a particularly special day, it was just another weekend. It's not like we're talking about Christmas or a new member of the family or something. No, it was just another weekend, like any other. The only real difference on this particular day was that I was by myself in the house. Now, I had to do chores around the house. The first thing I was focusing on was laundry, so I threw a load into the wash. Everything was going well, and I was multi-tasking so that I could do some writing while I waited for the laundry to finish. Of course, washing the clothes is only the first half of the chore, so I had to throw that load of laundry into the dryer. I also had a second load of laundry to do, so I decided to multi-task. I threw the second load of laundry into the washer, and moved the first load into the dryer. Yes, I know that everyone does this. It's more or less standard practice. But you can't help but feel a little bit product...

Somehow, I got into crocheting a while back . I even got to put my skills to use for my new nephew, since I figured he could use a one-up mushroom beanie . All in all, I'm pretty happy about this turn of events. I get to make people hand-made gifts, and that goes over pretty well. I've also found that it's a half-way decent way to relax and unwind in the evenings. If I've had a rough day at work, I can spend some time thinking about a crochet hook instead. So, yeah, it's been a good thing. That said, it's showed up in other parts of my life, sometimes in surprising ways. For starters, my brother made fun of me. I forget exactly what he said, but it was something to the effect of me being an old lady. I can't say that I was entirely surprised, since I figured someone was bound to poke fun eventually. It just so happened to be him, in this case. Also, it was all in fun, so we both laughed about it. The other thing that came up, however, was at work. So...