Nothing to Say, Part Two

Prognosis: lazy.

Today was picture day at Lyra's preschool. Remember picture day? Did you mom get you all cuted-up and adorable so you looked basically nothing like your normal self, and this make-believe you would be captured on film to spend all eternity perched on a wall in your grandma's hallway?

Yeah, I thought so. This happened to me AT LEAST once, but I only know this because of the hallway thing. I think as I got older I grew either less cute or less cooperative.

I'm not cooperative now, either, but this is usually because I forget. Last picture day at Lyra's school, she didn't attend for some forgotten reason or another, so they nabbed her the next day in very much her normal attire (read: mismatched socks and wild hair). Luckily, I have trained Lyra to love the camera, and the series of photos that were returned to us were a perfect embodiment of her personality and patience. The first: wide smile, classic pose. The second: possibly genuine smile; body language lacking enthusiasm. The third: teeth stretched obligingly over gums. Possibly irritated.

Today, though, Picture Day! I was as excited as any mother of a young child could be. I expressed this by dutifully picking lint off the cutest possible sweater and crossed my fingers in an attempt to supernaturally prevent the morning's inevitable spills and stains. Then: I brushed her hair, opting not for the boring ponytail but for two "dinosaur ears" (two earlike buns, for those of you who do not parent the dinosaur-obsessed). Afterwards I made sure she was wearing matching socks and we experienced only a minor crisis when I thwarted her attempts to wear her pajama pants to school.

Of course this was all too much excitement for me, so I drove her to school and promptly returned home for a nap.

All of this is to preface me saying that the analytic portions of my mind are... shrinking. I had a beer with Chris later in the afternoon (and a busy beer it was, what with everyone having the same idea to take off work early and get a head start on the, erm, beautiful Memorial Day weekend), and I cannot BELIEVE how much that man can remember. While birthdays are not his shtick, quantum fragments of information regarding chemistry, the general theory of relativity, calculus, etc. - all gleaned either from his education or the distant reading of books - these all ride the eternal waves of his mind, never to be forgotten. And, unlike when we discuss politics, ethics, or psychology, I actually believe he's gotten the facts right.

What does this have to do with me? I dunno, nothing. What does it have to do with you? I dunno... nothing. Why are you even reading this post?

Jeez. Some people.