Random Bullets of Randomness

• I'm going with the popular term "random" instead of the correct term "arbitrary".
• I am teaching two graduate courses and one is a very informal seminar that we hold each semester for our math-ed cohort. Today was our first meeting and as one of those tired old get to know you exercises each person told us something nobody in the room knew about them. Thus I found out that one of my students has produced several movies, another student went to an Ashram in India when he was a kid, a third student once worked in a cheese factory, and another student likes to do crazy endurance racing and has run 100-mile races. His goal for this summer's 100-mile race is to complete it in 20 hours. Straight. Of running. Running for 20 hours in a row. Still can't wrap my head around that.
• Nora woke up twice last night and Milo woke up twice, and the kids were up for good at 6:15. I am a person who changed careers due to not being able to handle getting up early. I left a perfectly good job in order to find a job that would allow me to sleep in.  Then I went and had kids.  How dumb am I?
• The power cord on my computer only works intermittently and tonight it has decided not to work. I have 2 hours and 46 minutes left on the battery.
• I've noticed that many things I used to think were caricatures of baby behavior are actually true. For instance, when young infants cry, their tongues actually do waggle back and forth like you see on the Simpsons. Also, babies (or more specifically, Milo) actually do thrust out their lower lip in a giant pout without any sense of irony. In addition, babies (again Milo) will actually say "boo hoo" as they cry.
• I have noticed that a lot of the people I knew from high school now look super, super old. I mean, if I saw them on the street I'd never think that we were the same age. It is a huge shock to realize that this just means that I am actually pretty damn old, and I don't even realize it. People probably see me on the street and think "dang, she's old."
• In the first gesture of goodwill in a while, I actually saw Milo hand a toy to Nora today. She took it, then hugged me and said "nice". Both kids love to come running for a hug, which is definitely nice.
• After a long, long day at work I came home to a cheerful Nora and a cranky Milo who cried unless I was holding him, so I tried to make dinner while holding him the entire time. The kid must weigh 20 pounds. It's really hard to make dinner with one hand. Frankly, this is not conforming to my fantasies of parenthood. In my fantasy world I will come home from yet another fabulously successful day at work to greet my clean, smiling, happy children. Jake will also come home and entertain the children while reading them educational books as he tells me, "you look like you've had a rough day. Why don't you take a hot, relaxing bath before dinner." After my bath, which is silent and not punctuated by piercing screams of any kind, I'll come downstairs to find that dinner is being delivered from L'Etoile by none other than John Cusak. And not the older, saggy-faced John Cusak of today, but the younger, cute, Lloyd Dobbler John Cusak from Say Anything. After John Cusak drops off our meal of brioche-crusted jumbo sea scallops and tagliatele tossed in a lemon cream sauce with spinach and chive oil, Jake and I will dine by candlelight as the children delightedly partake in the meal by finger-feeding themselves and quietly praising the food. Again, the meal will be decidedly absent of any screaming or yelling. Then I will snuggle with the children, content in my lap, as I read them creative and educational books, which they will enjoy immensely. They will then trip off to bed, leaving me and Jake to an evening of scintillating conversation over a glass or three of wine.