Quickies

Here are a few things that I am thinking about today:

Smart Kids: It seems like I am surrounded by pretty friggin' smart kids. My niece and nephew are hella smart. My cousin's kids are all smart. Qwanty's kids are smart. My best buddy in Tejas, Gus, (big shout out to you, by the way, sport!) is super smart too. Amazingly, they are all also beautiful. Anyhoo. I've always enjoyed being around all these smart whippersnappers, but maybe that is changing. I got an email from my cousin's youngest, Mitch. HE IS ONLY IN FIRST GRADE, and this is what he wrote to me: I noticed a mistake, on your email to me!When you said I love you to, the 2 (too, two, to) was really the too kind of 2 (to, too or two).Too as in very or also. And then his sister said, "Kristin, doesn't this really embarrass you, considering that you teach college and everything." Great. I officially declare Mitch and Michaela "too smart."

(In my defense, I had a fever of 102 when I wrote the email and I think that it was just that the ring finger on my right hand was just toooooo weak to hit the "o" that second time.)

Why you gotta do me like that, Eddie Vedder? So I don't normally notice things like this, but apparently Pearl Jam has a new song called "Brother." Um. Seriously? Does this mean that if the band stays together for long enough we have "Great-niece" and "Gramps" and "Stepsister" to look forward to? (Actually, now that I ask, doesn't "Sexy Stepsister" sound like a DLRoth-era Van Halen tune?) But seriously. Maybe it is time to hang up the mechanic's jacket, Eddie. Are we also going to be subjected to an outpouring of songs named after color? (By the way, if you ever meet my youngest brother, try to get him to do his impression of Pearl Jam's drummer trying to play "Daughter". This is one of my favorite of his bits. He also does a really funny Charlie Watts impression, but he has to be in the right mood for it.)

If you can't beat them: Felisa, inspired by your comment on the last post, I made myself a birthday manicure appointment. I figure I can have pretty nails and whip some cream like I mean it.

Good feelin': Hey, you know what makes you feel good? When you hear from someone you haven't heard from in a long time, and they tell you that a conversation that you had with them has stuck with them in some way. Case in point, yesterday I got a message from Chung (those of you in Tejas will know of whom I speak, those of you who don't, he's a guy from the program there). He was at my going away party in July, and I had recommended Bill Buford's sensational book Heat to him. I had forgotten that we'd even talked about it. Anyway, he let me know that he'd read it and really enjoyed it. What a nice thing to do for someone else. I need to remember to be more thoughtful like that. Good on ya, Chung.

List: I am trying to make a list of some of the nicknames that I (or others in my life) have had for boys/men that I have either had relationships with, or crushes on. I am quite sure that I am leaving lots off the list, but this is what I have so far (it is more or less chronological). Slashes indicate a guy with multiple nicknames:

Little Jason Brown (5th grade boyfriend--he was pretty little)
Turtle
Beaner (in my defense, I didn't give this one--he gave it to himself)
"All the colors of the rainbow"
Ohio
Fon Jarrell
The Weasel
Homer
Axel
Prof. Detroit
Butt Karl and Smoking Karl (I had crushes on two guys named Karl in college, at the same time. I actually had hand motions that I used when referring to them, but they don't translate to blog)
Nature Man/Dr. Frankenstein
Coffee Boy
Bus-y Boy
Slim Shady
Hot & Bald
Byronatron/Byronasauraus Rex/Byrone/"The Old Man" (By the way, he would not be happy to know that he has such a long list of nicknames, ALL of them given to him by people other than myself)
Dunket
Firken (I mistakenly thought that this was a guy's last name. It was not, in fact)
Chaselweiss/Monster (there are many more too, but I didn't come up with them, and I don't want them getting back to him)
F.J.

Qwanty? I'm sure I'm leaving some important ones out.

In case you're counting: Rome had on his 8th Rex in a row today.