The nicest thing happened to me today, and I'm serious.
My aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin's fiance, and other cousin were going to my parents' house for Easter brunch. Since all the people I go to church with here were here this weekend, I decided to go to my own church, then go to my parents' house for brunch.
At about 3:00 yesterday I realized I didn't have a thing to wear. (Okay, I probably did, but like it's such a big surprise for a girl to use a holiday as an excuse to "need" a new dress.)
I hit what passes for a mall in this town, zeroed in on what passes for a department store, and promptly found the greatest dress for me. It was a light, sort of sea green (which is a nice change from my usual dark colors) with a few floral/greenery type prints on it. The dress itself is long and flowy and sleeveless, but has a matching light long-sleeved jacket. I had perfect shoes. Yay.
So last night at about 12:30 a.m., I took a shower and washed my hair. I dried it about halfway, then rolled it in about 25 pink spongy rollers. I pulled a t-shirt around my head (don't laugh, those things are not actually all that comfortable) and went to sleep.
I woke up this morning with enought time to completely redo my hair if it came out looking like a freak show, which it didn't. It was actually quite cute, curly and bouncy. I got dressed in my new dress, put on my make-up which included my new New York MAC lipstick, put on my trial competition jewelry (pearl earrings and pearl link necklace) and stockings and shoes and went to church.
And then to my parents' house, where I only had about ten minutes to chat with my mother before the relatives arrived, and then I had to leave before they did, to get back and keep working on my paper.
(Yes, I do have a point. I'm getting there.)
About half an hour after I got back, I had to go over to the school to print out some cases. (My deskjet prints things crooked at 2 pages an hour, so I do all my printing from my boss's computer.) When I got home, there were two messages from my mother, about a half an hour apart, saying nothing more than "Just call me when you get home, don't wait until tomorrow."
So I called her back.
"I just wanted to tell you how pretty you looked today. The dress was perfect for you, your hair looked really nice that way, and your make-up was really flattering. We didn't have a whole lot of time to talk without everyone else there, but every time I looked over at you at the table you just looked so nice, and I really wanted to tell you that."
WOW.
This is big. My mother in particular has never been very effusive as far as my appearance goes. I rarely get anything more than a "you look nice," which is ALWAYS in response to me finally asking if I look okay.
The fact that she went out of her way to call me, and call me again, to make sure that she told me as soon as possible... well, it just made me really happy.
There is a new Abeyance feature down before the navigation: the Rule of Thumb. They come from one of my favorite cheesy books, called "Never Trust A Calm Dog," by Tom Parker, who collected thousands of rules of thumb from people all over the country.
And for anyone who is upset because of the somewhat misogynistic history of the phrase "Rule of Thumb" (namely that men in England could beat their wives with rods no greater in diameter than their thumb), I say: get over it. You didn't live in England when that "rule" was in existence, so what the hell do you care?
My anti-political-correctness statement for the day. I'm a rebel.
My paper is so boring, and I'm so ready to be done with it, and I can't tell if it makes any sense but at least I have my 20 pages.
It's for an Education Law seminar, and I wrote about whether the Kansas School Board's decision last August to remove evolution from the mandatory science standards is a violation of the First Amendment. See, Congress (or any government agency, such as a state school board) can make no law (or issue any mandate) that respects the establishment of religion. My argument is that by removing evolution from the mandatory curriculum (teachers can still teach it, it's up to the school district, but students will no longer be tested on it in statewide achievement tests), the School Board is respecting the establishment of religion, which is the primary -- let's face it, the ONLY -- reason a person does not believe the theory of evolution.
According to me, the Supreme Court agrees. They've developed several tests for determining whether a state action contravenes the First Amendment, and the school board's decision fails every one of them.
Of course, it's unlikely anyone will do anything about it. First of all, it isn't as though evolution is banned, it's just not required. Second, no one is going to be teaching out and out Creationism. What they may be teaching, however, is something known in anti-evolution circles as "intelligent design": evolution, but evolution that has been caused by a superior being. That happens to be what I personally believe, but I don't think it has any place in public school science classrooms.
So far, there are two school districts in the bumfuck areas of Kansas that have reportedly removed evolution from the curriculum for next year. The ACLU has prepared its case and says they will step in the day anyone starts teaching any kind of creationist theory, but not before.
Anyway, it's an interesting topic (okay, shut up), but I'm tired of it and I have my 20 pages, so I'm putting it away and watching the X-Files repeat. So there.
To determine whether a letter needs extra postage for domestic mailing, hold the upper left corner with your left index finger and the lower right corner with your right index finger. If the letter flips off center, add another stamp.
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