a.d.d.

On Brad Listi:

Brad Listi is the author of a newly-released book, Attention.Deficit.Disorder. He is an unbelievably talented and engaging author...though I haven't even read the book yet. I follow his blogs closely, and have been in contact with him on a number of occasions. Also, on the cover of the book is a sillhouette, cut from a road map. Directly in the center? Cleveland, Ohio. He told me that he requested it on purpose. He later informed me that he has a soft spot in his heart for Cleveland, given our affinity to losing athletic battles in a clinch (or, just losing them outright, as the case may be). I have always stood for supporting the little guy, so I figured I'd give Brad a free advertisement for all...uh...10 people (maybe) who read this blog. Read his book. He recently finished the manuscript for a second one. I'll probably promote that one too.

On Job:

ADD isn't just relevant because I wanted to offer Brad some publicity. Indeed, I think I was afflicted with the disorder temporarily this afternoon. I think, further, that Josh B. and Josh S. (to my left and right in class, respectively) were also dealing with this particular situation. While the following events will not be listed in chronological order, they are a summation of things that happened between 1:30 and 4:00 this afternoon:

1. Josh S. hits me while I'm taking a drink, causing me to almost spit out my water onto my computer.
2. Josh B. purposely knocks my nalgene off the table, onto the level below us.
3. I knock Josh B.'s pen off the ledge in retalation for #2.
4. I turn toward Josh B. while taking a drink of water, at which point Josh S. screams my name loudly into my ear, thus making me spit out water...so, it appears, his mission in #1 was accomplished.
5. I played lots of hearts and minesweeper. At various points, both Josh S. and Josh B. had comments.
6. Josh B. pointed out a passage in the OT and told me I should preach on it. The passage had to do with complacent women needing to strip down and beat their bare breasts.
7. The three of us attempted to come up with a complete list of all words that are modified in spelling by the British (i.e. saviour, colour, behaviour, etc.).
8. Josh B. invited me to go to dinner with him tonight at some place in Polish Hill...He doesn't know how to get there and he can't even remember the name of the place (he said, "uh...it's like gish...gash....it starts with a 'g'). I told him that, sadly, I wasn't able to make it, but we both agreed to eat at Gish Gash another time...hopefully, he will have figured out the name and location by that time.
9. I learned that Josh S. and his brother were once tied up by their mom because they wouldn't stop fighting. Also, Josh B. got a brick thrown at him by his brother. It missed him, but then Josh pulled out a weed eater and proceeded to weed eat his brother's hand. They were both grounded for 2 weeks. On another occasion, his brother hit him with a shovel.
10. Dr. Gowan told us a story about shrews and hummingbirds only because there was a remote chance that Jen, in our class, had actually been a part of the particular incident of which Dr. Gowan spoke, and an even more remote chance that she remembered it...It happened in 1987. She does not remember it.

All in all, it was an entertaining class. And, even with all of those mishaps, I did manage to pay attention and take several pages worth of notes.

On AD:
My dad signs his emails in various ways, but they almost always involve "ADtM" or "AD (OtM)". Of course, most people would conclude that AD are his initials. However, they are not. ADtM means: "Awesome Dad the Magnificent" and OtM means "Opa the Magnificent." Dad is very fond, it seems, of giving himself epithets. This, of course, does not surprise me, given my own affinity for doing the very same thing. My sister, on the other hand, has a record for creating some weird nicknames...somehow endearing, but weird nonetheless. The three weirdest that come to mind at the moment are: "Bob Baryshnikov," "Pooka Mooka my soda cracker," and, of course, "Kristenita Mostachiolli Barf Breath." Now, the second name was derived from Chubby Checker's song, "Hooka Tooka." This makes sense because, growing up, Chubby Checker was my favorite singer. And, the third name makes sense because there was actually a time when I barfed mostachiolli. Of course, that shouldn't necessarily earn me a nickname, but there you have it.

Anyway, my family is nuts. Every last one of us. But, I rarely hear of any other family who has as much fun as we do. I mean, we make up weird dances with alarming frequency. We have weird rules about butt-hitting, wherein J and I must both say, "I agree to it." We do a lot of flapping. And, of course, we try to get Rachey to say "Ben Roethlisberger" as much as we can. (On a side note, she thinks that Ben Roethlisberger is the one coming to visit with me in March. J tried to correct her by explaining that there are 2 Bens, but Rach only came back with, "I want the two Ben Roethlisbergers to come visit!" We'll have to work on that).

They're my family. And I will be seeing two of them this weekend (Mom and Dad), and the other three in 23 days (J, Mat, Rach). Hurray! :0)

Dinner and service at CHUP tonight. And packing (I, of course, will take plenty of laundry with me to Cleveland). One and a half classes tomorrow, then I'll leave early to drive to Mom and Dad's house, meet up with Mom, we'll drive down to UH, and we'll hopefully get pleasant results!

Ok, bye. :0)