Month: September 2019

Posted in about me, ebb & flow, food, physical health

The former deliciousness of peanut brittle

Posted on by heatweirdlastname

For a long time, peanut brittle was one of my favorites. And it was an infrequent treat, which made it even more delightful.

It’s been years, maybe decades, since I had peanut brittle.

There was some at work the other day.

I took a piece. Or two…

And you know what? It wasn’t that delicious.

I relayed this story to a friend who reacted with sadness, but no! It’s not sad at all!

Peanut brittle is crap. It’s (formerly) tasty crap, but it’s still crap.

And now, if it shows up in the teachers’ lounge again, I won’t have to expend any energy to pass it by, because it’s not delicious.

It’s not the first time this has happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. The list of things that are no longer delicious just got one thing longer.

And yes, there have been a few things that I had for the first time in years and yes, they were still amazing. (A cream doughnut from McMillan’s Bakery immediately comes to mind. Only ate a couple of bites but YUM.)

But it’s OK to let your taste buds get pickier about junk food. Your body will thank you for it.

Posted in books, differences, education, mindset, parenting

Reading is reading!

Posted on by heatweirdlastname

The Kid is learning to read. I mean, he’s in the years-long process of learning to read.

He loves to read.

Part of that is that he reads things that are interesting to him. It doesn’t have to be books. It doesn’t have to be at his reading level. Whatever is interesting.

Sometimes, he likes to read his old picture books. (The words in those are not always easy to read, since they’re generally intended to be read out loud by a competent reader. Even when they are easy, he enjoys them.

Sometimes, he reads LEGO magazines.

Sometimes, he reads chapter books.

Right now, he’s reading a Minecraft graphic novel. I believe he’s read it in its entirety three times since acquiring it less than a week ago.

Reading is reading. It’s all practice. It’s all building skills, building habits, nurturing a love of reading.

I remember overhearing a conversation years ago between two moms. One’s son was only interested in reading comic books. She forced him to read “real books” before he was allowed to read comic books. They weren’t school-assigned; she just didn’t think comic books “counted” as reading.

There are words, sentences. There’s a story. There are characters.

It counts. It all counts.

Reading is reading.

Posted in differences, mindset

Basic job skills

Posted on by heatweirdlastname

I was in the ER last night (I’m OK—no worries). The two nurses who most often attended me were very personable and seemed to know what they were doing.

Except they sucked at putting in IVs.

Now, I know my veins are small. Through my cancer journey, I had ample opportunities for nurses and techs to try and fail to put in an IV.

But I was well-hydrated and I haven’t had a needle stick in years (so there aren’t any spots blown out).

First nurse tried, dug around a bit (OUCH), failed.

Second nurse used ultrasound, which was kind of cool, but it still hurt more than it should have and continued to bounce between very uncomfortable and hurts the entire time it was in.

I would think that, maybe aside from EMTs (though I don’t know for sure) that the ER most often needs IVs placed in a hurry. Which means all the people working there should be better than average at this skill.

Are my expectations unreasonable? (Perhaps my ignorance leads me to draw poor conclusions.)

Teachers should be able to explain things in a variety of ways and troubleshoot learning pitfalls.

Anyone who works with the public should be personable.

Anyone with a phone job should have good diction. (I’m not only talking about thick accents.)

And ER nurses should be able to install IVs well.