Gratitude Project, Week Five

Simon's Joke: Q: What did the math book say to the principal?
A: I have so many problems.

Essay: Jonathan Franzen's essay "Why Bother" in his collection titled "How to Be Alone" --still not sick of him.

Weather: Watching the storm roll in and white out Tuesday evening. Wallace and Simon put on their hats, coats and boots to go out in it and then Wallace stripped off his coat, sweater and shirt because he wanted to feel the "power."

Wallace's Exasperation: Wallace's ability to dramatically poke holes in well-meaning advice he receives. He has a flair for facial expression, grand full-body gestures, and ending a verbal tirade with a higher-than-he-started vocal tone. Like, when instructed to replace "I'm worried about" with "I wonder what will happen if" as one way to cope with the repetitive hand wringing that keeps him up at night, he points out that it doesn't relax him to wonder what will happen when all the adults in his life get a brain disease and become stark raving, mad cannibals.

New Song/Video: Pink's Raise Your Glass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vXuw0p7Aqc

Gratitude Project, Week Four

Simon Thing: The way Simon says: “Thanks for the good luck!” when you wish him good luck, like you just gave him an extra dessert.

Wallace Thing: Brought home a trophy for winning the Reflections (theme: Together we Can) contest at his school. He entered a poem which made his Dad so very proud (and validated). Here it is:

Together We Can

Alone I can kick a soccer ball
With a friend we can make a pass
With a team we can play a game
Without barriers we can play the World Cup

Alone I can play a solo
With a violin we can perform a duet
With an orchestra we can play a symphony
Without discord we can live in harmony

Alone I can be happy
With a friend I can be happier
With a family we can love
Without hate we can leave war behind

Alone I can do some things
Together we can do more

Me Thing: That I can watch DVDs from the library in the middle of the day all by myself, like Blind Date (loved Stanley Tucci), The City of Your Final Destination (loved Anthony Hopkins), Whatever Works (loved this Woody Allen) and Inside Man (loved this Spike Lee)

Gratitude Project, Week Three

time
how Paige laughs at everything
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
patience
Simon's art
Wallace's obsessive mind
people at First Unitarian Church
Kevin's interest
this song (though not this rendition): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2b-swbPxfU&feature=related

Gratitude Project, Week Two

This week's favorites for which I am grateful.

Find on the internet: http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/sarah-and-joshua-littman/
(a 12-year-old with Asperger’s interviews his mother)

Simon thing: “Dad says people say ‘bless you’ when you sneeze because they think your soul is coming out of your mouth. But I don’t think your soul looks like that. I think it looks like bones. The bones, like, in your shoulder and down to your elbow. Right?”

Wallace thing: “Sam says it’s fun to break the rules and get in trouble. He’s wrong. I mean, sure it may be fun for, like, one minute. But, then, seriously, how can people trust you or think you are a man of your word?”

Book passage: “Chip’s hand went to the rivet in his earlobe as to a talisman. He felt like a child out of Grimm, lured into the enchanted house by the warmth and the food; and now the witch was going to lock him in a cage, fatten him up, and eat him.” The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Chip, a grown man, returns home (after an absence of four years) for Christmas at the behest of his aging parents and siblings only to be asked by his mother to stay for a week while his father undergoes hospitalization.)

New word: Spandrel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology)) (stumbled across in the Preface of How Pleasure Works, the New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom)

Weather: Highs in the 60s.

Corrective running shoes: Pearl Izumis for pronaters