Thursday

Hey, guess what! I got a new (to me) car!

It's a 2015 VW Golf Wagon, and it's a diesel. Which is weird, right? But Mike got a great deal on it, and I'm told being diesel makes it kinda cool. (PS: Now that I've just written the word "diesel" so many times I'm starting to wonder if I'm even spelling it right. It looks strange.) Oh, and it's an automatic with 11,000 miles.

Okay, those were the basics. Now I'll tell you the two embarrassing things that have already happened to me with this car:

1. Come to find out, there are two different ways to drive it. You can put it in "Drive" mode, and that's just regular, or you can bump the shifter the slightest little bit and find yourself in "Sport" mode, which is not a good place to be if you're me. I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly it felt a lot like I was driving a stick, but without the actual stick. It was like the car was stuck in first gear, leaving me puttering along, not understanding how to get it into second. Anyway, I hope to never accidentally bump it into that mode again.
2. I messed with the wipers, but then couldn't figure out how to turn them off again, so I went miles down Aurora looking like I was in my own imaginary rain storm. It was awkward. 

Basically, there are a lot of buttons and knobs and stuff, and I don't know what almost any of them do, so I guess I should take Mike up on his offer to show me how everything works.

Different topic: My teacher got after all of us a bit in French class today, because of something I did. What happened was that he showed us a picture of a family eating Christmas dinner, and he told us to come up with sentences about what we saw.

When it was my turn I tried to say, "They want to have a good time," but no. Apparently the way I structured it was just totally wrong and not something that a French person would actually say.

The teacher ended up stopping everything and going on a 5-minute tangent about how we need to not overreach. He said that I was thinking in English, then trying to change my thoughts into French, instead of just thinking in French in the first place. He said to always try to think in French when we're speaking it, even if it means keeping things super simple for awhile, because ultimately that's how you become fluent.

Then he gave us an example of what not to do. He looked at the picture and said something like, "You guys want to go into all kinds of detail, and you're not ready for that! You want to say things like, 'Well, Christmas dinner isn't as nice this year, because the economy isn't doing well right now, and we can't buy all the things we usually do. Instead of ham, like we normally have, we're having turkey, and it's not as good. And we don't have as many presents under the tree. Oh, and Grandma couldn't make it to the celebration this year!'"

All of us students were quiet for about three beats, then I said, "Elle est morte."

Everyone laughed, and the teacher said, "Exactly! Keep it simple!"

Mostly Easter

We had a really nice Easter. We went to Patty's house, and we were joined by Mike's cousin James, his 2 high school-aged kids, his older son, and his son's wife and toddler. It was a full house and a lot of fun!

And here are a couple other quick pics from lately. This first one is from Baylee's Instagram page.

And I took this one of the cat in the sunlight this morning.

Friday

Drew got a haircut! I had no idea it was coming. I just knew that he went to Zoe's, and suddenly his hair was short and he was sending us pictures. I guess they went to a fancy barbershop to have it done.

We all really like it, but it took just a minute to get used to. Baylee put it best when she said, "It's like the family pet passed away." lol Yeah, Drew's hair was pretty much the 6th member of the family, and it was a bit of a shock to have it gone. Like I said, though, we all quickly came around.

It's my mom's birthday today! She had lunch with all her brothers and sisters, and they took this picture together. Aren't they a good-looking bunch? From left to right that's my Uncle Bill, Aunt Ann, Aunt Karen, Mom, and Uncle Bud.

And here are some random pics from lately:

Handsome Zach.

From the yard.

Every night Gibbs sleeps on an old blanket right next to Mike's side of the bed.

Happy and weird.

Baylee has another gig with Cashing in Karma tonight, but, as much as I love to see them play, I'm not sure I'm going this time. They're not even on stage until 10:30 or 11pm, and that's really late for me. Mike will be there, though, even if I'm not.

Wednesday

A couple mornings ago Mike was putting the finishing touches on a salad he made for himself to take to work, and it looked delicious. I told him, "Well, you outdid yourself, Marion."

Mike laughed, because he knew exactly what I was referring to. I was saying one of the things my grandpa used to say to my grandma when she made a really good meal. Mike replied with, "I've had better, but I don't know where." (Another of my grandpa's after-meal sayings.)

Then I added, "Heaven can wait. This is paradise!" (My grandpa had several of these sayings, as you can see.)

"Wasn't there one he used to say about his teeth near the end?" Mike asked.

"Oh, yeah. 'I only have two teeth, but at least they meet!'"

I have a head cold. Blah. In fact, I made a little video this morning, and I think you can kinda hear it in my voice.

We went to see Kansas play at the Paramount this past weekend, and they were so good!!!  Here's a picture I snapped of Mike and Baylee downtown before the show.

And here are a couple short videos. Kansas has been around for 46 years, and it still has two original members, the guitar player on the far left and the drummer. Imagine that! And they both still totally rock.

Saturday

It's been quite a week here, mainly because Baylee legit had the flu. She's just now, almost a week later, starting to feel like herself again, but for most of the last several days she was in bed with a terrible headache, aches and pains, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. She didn't do school, go to work, go to rehearsal, or do anything else. It was bad. Like I said, though, she's feeling quite a bit better now.

Tonight we're going to a Kansas concert! ("Carry On, My Wayward Son," "Dust in the Wind," etc.) I'm excited!

Drew got a second job at a record store. He's really happy about it.

I had the weirdest thing happen while I was listening to my French podcast. The author of the podcast was talking about the French Revolution, and to emphasize one of his points he played a little piece of something...I think a movie...in which the character who played Louis XVI (I think? One of the Louis anyway.) was making a speech. The strange part was that as I was listening to the king talk I thought, "This must be an English movie, since he's speaking English." Then I realized that, wait a minute, it wasn't English at all; it was French. Here's the thing that nobody tells you about learning a different language: Once you get decent at it, you lose the ability to appreciate what you've accomplished, because it feels normal. It doesn't sound foreign anymore. In fact, you start to wonder if everyone can secretly understand it.

Here's an analogy: When I was in high school my parents got me a tiny TV for Christmas one year. I had it next to my bed, and sometimes I would watch it before going to sleep. One time I was watching the Christmas episode of Silver Spoons, and Ricky and Edward were decorating a tree and making a big deal about lighting it for the first time. They even had a count-down. Finally they plugged it in and...it was kind of anticlimactic. I remember thinking, "Why would anyone choose to use all white lights? How boring!" (This was back before that was actually popular.) Then it hit me: My TV was black-and-white. I had completely forgotten for a second there. Learning a language is kind of like that. You get so used to it that you forget it's different.

The cat looked pretty this week, as usual.

Monday

Poor Baylee had quite a night of it. She threw up at around 9pm, and then was violently sick (in every different way) every half hour after that until morning. She caught a bad bug of some kind. Actually, I ended up taking her to the doctor this morning, because she was so dehydrated, and she threw up again while we waited to be seen. At one point she asked me if it would be okay if she laid down on the floor in the waiting room, and I was like, "Uhhh....no. That would be weird." Finally, a nurse took pity on her and had her rest in a quiet room.

Long story short, they gave her an anti-nausea tablet that dissolved under her tongue, and within about 20 minutes she was feeling significantly better. Now we're home and she can hold down sips of liquids. I'm thankful, because, according to the doctor at the clinic, the next stop would've been the ER.

I'm starting to have a new "problem" when it comes to my French classes. It's that a lot of times I understand what a teacher is saying when another student doesn't. The problem is that I badly want to help the other student out by interpreting. It's such a strong urge!  lol I know I need to keep my mouth shut, though, because that person needs to figure it out himself (or have it explained by the teacher, not by me).

The Milgram Experiment

This morning, before we got up and started the day, Mike and I laid in bed and talked about the Milgram Experiment. lol (Isn't that what you talk about in bed with your spouse?) It's the subject of the latest French podcast I listened to, and it's really fascinating.

In the '60's (I think. I'm not great with hearing numbers, especially years) a psychologist named Stanley Milgram, who worked at Yale University, decided to do an experiment. He put out an advertisement  in the local newspaper, asking for people to help him study the effects of punishment on the learning process. (Because back then it was common for teachers to use pain to motivate students, and he said he wanted to see if it really worked.) The money he offered was good, so, of course, people showed up. They were randomly chosen to either be a student or a teacher, and then paired off and put in a situation where the student had to memorize lists. If he made a mistake, the teacher had to give him an electric shock. At first the shocks were mild, but with every mistake they got stronger.

Okay, here's the thing: None of that was the real experiment. It's what the participants thought was going on, but secretly the experiment was on how much pain someone was willing to give someone else, if they were told to by an authority figure. In reality the students were paid actors, pretending to make mistakes and get shocked, and all the people who responded to the newspaper ad were given the job of teacher.

What do you think happened? Do you think the teachers were only willing to hurt the students a little bit before it became too much for them? Do you think seeing the obvious harm they were causing would make them quit? It didn't. In fact, most of them took the experiment so far that, if those shocks were real, the person receiving them would've died.

Milgram concluded that most people will blindly follow authority. In this case, the participants were told to hurt others by important-looking men in lab coats, so they did. And why not? All our lives we're conditioned to follow the rules. At home, at school, at work, and in society we're supposed to do what we're told. Milgram even made the connection to the Holocaust. The German soldiers had their orders, so they followed them. Does that make them blameless? No, of course not, but maybe it offers a reason to some extent.

Anyway, Mike and I were talking about all this, and I told him that I don't think I would've gone through with shocking the student, if I had been one of the experiment participants. It's not because I'm a rebel, though. In fact, my obedience to authority is pretty strong; I hate rocking the boat. No, it's because I can't stand seeing people and animals being hurt. It makes me feel sick.

Then I told him this story: When I was 17 my church showed a film called The Silent Scream during the Sunday school hour. It was for all the adults and high school kids, and it was about the horror of abortion. In fact, it showed, from inside the woman (using ultrasound or something), an actual abortion taking place. I made it through about half of it before I left the sanctuary, went out into the hallway, and fainted. The next thing I knew a lovely older woman was crouching over me, asking if I was okay. I sat up, she wrapped me in one of those metallic emergency blankets that she must've gotten out of a first aid kit, then I think she got my mom. So...yeah. I don't do well with other people's pain.

What about you? How far would you be willing to go?

Thursday

I told you guys that I've been listening to a French podcast lately, and in it the creator of the podcast talks about whatever interests him. I like it for a couple reasons: It's giving me really good listening practice, and it's teaching me new things. This week I'm learning about la décroissance, which means economic degrowth. Basically, it's about how Capitalism has a downside and about how there's a new movement out there to live more simply. That is, there's a growing group of people who are trying to buy less, own less, and possibly even work less, in order to fill their lives with things that are more meaningful than possessions and to help the environment as well. The whole thing makes good sense, and, of course, I couldn't help but look at how my family lives. I think we're doing fairly well with it. 1) We're not big consumers who need to have the latest and greatest of everything; in fact, a lot of the stuff we buy is used. Along with that, a large portion of our money goes toward things that enrich our minds: classes, instruments, books, etc. 2) Mike tries hard to balance work with home. He's not a work-a-holic who only cares about earning more and more. 3) We recycle. To be fair, we're literally forced to in the state of WA, but still.

All that said, we did buy a couple things for the house recently, and I'm really happy with them! lol

We got a new mattress and duvet...

...and a coffee table and rug. (The corners of the rug are a bit curled in the pics, because I had literally just unrolled it and put it down.)

I got such a nice compliment today in my French class. The teacher told me that I'm the only monolingual English speaker (he means that I've only spoken English most of my life) he's ever met who can correctly pronounce the French nasal u sound. Honestly, I think it might be because I'm midwestern, and we tend to kinda talk through our noses. (One time in Australia the mom of the family I was staying with said, "I always know where Sue is in the house. All I have to do is listen for the twang." Tsk.) Anyway, my teacher's words made me feel good.

Tuesday

Today's my birthday! I'm 48. You know what's weird? When we first moved here I was 35, and I had a 5 year old, an 8 year old, and an 11 year old.

TMA performed this past weekend...

...and did a good job, but the most fun part about it for me was sitting with Bri's parents (Bri is the lead singer) and getting to know them. We hit it off.

It's definitely spring out there. Mike mowed the grass.

I had the best class yet yesterday. There were only three of us, all women: the teacher in France, a student in Russia, and me. The other student, the Russian woman, had a great, willing attitude, but she was a beginner and was probably in over her head a bit. The class was on being polite in different situations, and at one point we had to role play a scene in a cafe. She was trying her hardest to have a conversation with me in French, saying anything and everything she could think of (mostly consisting of things like, "Hello! How are you? Where are you from?"), until finally in a panic she said, "Please do the dishes!" It was so wrong that all three of us started giggling and couldn't stop. It wasn't even that funny, yet somehow we all ended up laughing to tears. There we were, three people in three different corners of the world, each with our own language, culture, and probably religion (my teacher was wearing an Islamic head covering), and we were sharing that crazy, lovely moment. Every time I think about it I smile.

PS: Later in our lesson we role played again, pretending to be at a fancy restaurant, and I ended it by saying, "Tu peux payer l'addition, depuis j'ai fait la vaisselle la dernière fois."* Then we laughed all over again.

Finally, here's a picture for the road.

*You can pay the check, since I did the dishes last time.