Sad

Just returned from our home-style restaurant (see previous blog) and observed something that made me sad.

At the table next to us sat a little boy about four, his dad, about 40 and the dad's dad, age around 75. During the meal the 40-year old's cell phone went off at least three times. Each time he answered and talked long and loud. One call was about scheduling his son's surgery for next week. No, I did not need that information but his voice was clearly carrying over to the surrounding tables. He addressed another caller as "Mr." and spoke with a tone of voice indicating to me that Mr. Somebody was indeed, somebody important. Again, I did not care.

What I cared about was the lack of interaction between the three of these guys. The young son ate in silence. The older man ate in silence. The middle guy talked. When he was not on the phone he talked about a trip he would be taking to Florida and then a trip he would take to New York over the July 4th weekend.

I admit it is hard sometimes to interact with those of another generation, be it older or younger. And yes, older folks can be hard of hearing. And younger kids can be ignored rather easily over grown-up conversation.

Of course, you are thinking, she doesn't know what the situation was. She is just guessing from this one observation that dad is a little 'into' himself, ignoring the two men who should mean the most to him in the world.

What am I really thinking about this.

I'm not happy that this guy could not extend the courtesy of turning his cell phone to vibrate in a public place. And before you jump to conclusions, yes, I always turn my phone to silent when we enter a public place. And yes, it does bug the heck out of me when I hear my husband's phone ringing out loud and clear with the Ohio State fight song. But that did not happen this morning.

That's what I think about it.

Futball

Sunday afternoon and I have my TV choice between golf, tennis, NASCAR, poker, baseball, animal Frisbee competition and futball. Yes, yes I could read a book or heaven forbid finish that pesky paper I wrote about yesterday but I opt for the European Championship Final in futball between Germany and Spain.

Ninety minutes of non-stop activity this game ended in a 1-0 victory for Spain. The Scottish announcer, first name Adrian, narrated. He came out with such verbal nuggets as, "I know you're lapping this up. I'm so glad you could join us," called one player the "Peroxide Bombshell," called the Turks the "Cardiac Kids from Turkey" which I thought had been trade marked by the Cleveland Browns, and the player who scored, "tucked it into the corner of the old onion bag."

Poor Germany was "again the bridesmaid."

If you've noticed, soccer is the global sport. If you've read "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer you are aware of the importance of this game around the world. But not so much here in the USA. Not much action I've heard people say. Just teams running up the field and down the field, repeated until the final whistle. Although, think about it, there is something to be said for anyone who can run for 90 minutes especially while being chased by angry folks from another country shouting who knows why and calling you who knows what.

There was great security at this game today. Security personnel placed about four feet apart around the sides of the field and nearly three dozen additional in the goal areas, all facing the crowd. I don't know what ticket prices were but I do know that sometimes you volunteer to be an usher at a venue so you can get in free but here you couldn't watch the game. You had to keep your eyes on thousands of fans dressed in Halloween type get-ups. Surely their mothers did not see them leave the house. Oh wait, some of the most colorfully dressed were my age. If you read the above mentioned book you will note how the population of the world decreases after some soccer games and not in a 'natural cause' kind of way. Thus the watchful eye of security.

In Spain a major electronics manufacturer promised that if one bought a big screen TV to watch this match and Spain won, he would refund half of the purchase price. He's going to be out a pretty penny on this one.

I'm not thinking anything very profound about this except to ponder if our cultural arrogance has prevented us from joining with the rest of the world around this sport. Perhaps we like action and injury too much. Although with the death rates around the sport of futball we might feel right at home.

That's what I think about it.

Procrastination

I'm taking a summer class.

Greek!

And I have a paper due.

Next Tuesday!

And I've known about this paper being due next Tuesday since, let's see...April.

I am creative with my excuses and alibis for delaying getting it finished. Heck, I'm creative at finding excuses for not even getting it started.

The weather was really good last week and the porch and a few good recommended books took precedence. Another day, I wanted to spend some time with my daughters; it was a birthday after all. One day I determined to get up early and begin but got hungry and felt 'called' to our favorite restaurant for breakfast with Jim. When I returned home it was too late to get a good solid start on the paper. Too much caffeine another morning made me jittery with flight of ideas, nothing very scholarly unfortunately. Yesterday, just as I was preparing to put my name on page one, the cat got a hair ball. Today I am marveling at how lame these sound although they made perfect sense at the time. And right now, with the books spread out around me and the syllabus in front of me, it is much more enjoyable writing to my faceless blog friends (no offense implied to anyone).

Like a kid in a classroom I look at every car that passes the house, observe birds out in the lawn, rabbits chewing away on the same Hosta that came up in spite of their being desecrated last summer by the same bunnies. I can hear the news on TV coming from the next room in the house and wonder what my friends are doing. I look around this room for distractions and finding none, sit back and close my eyes and make up some glorious story about a student who was able to graduate with honors in spite of never having handed in a paper on time.

Back to reality. Tuesday is coming.

Just a Heloise Tip

If you are in a restaurant restroom and you notice food between your teeth, your earring post can be removed from your ear lobe and used as a make shift toothpick.

But be careful, earring posts can be sharp.

Don't ask me how I know this.