homework for my birthday

July 8: It took me all day to decide between Colonel Sanders and Walt Disney. Olivia is teaching a course on growth mindset and teaching about people who failed multiple times before they found success. Preliminary research shows that Colonel Sanders was involved in a shootout where his rival died, he sued his own company after selling it, he constantly swore, supposedly cursed a Japanese baseball team, he cheated on his wife frequently, and was buried in his famous white suit and bolo tie getup. So Disney won by default.

July 9: We were talking about how too much of anything, even a good thing, is bad. 
“Too much sun gives you cancer, too much exercise can kill you.” Want said.
Nick joined in. “Drinking too much water can kill you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s called drowning.”

July 10: It’s been a surreal and nostalgic week. Cleaning out my closet and coming across photos of me from age 9 to 18. We all watched Stranger Things together and it was weird seeing the styles and objects I saw growing up. Then with Toy Story 4 yesterday. It’s making me really feel like I’m about to turn 30.

July 11: While cleaning out the garage, Nick dismantled an old work bench that ran along one of the walls and contained a rat nest. The tabletop was supported by two crates. Each had the word ‘Dublin’ printed on them. We checked with Grannie and it turns out that they are the actual crates they packed their belongings into when they moved here from Ireland.

July 12: At Grandpa Bob’s memorial, they placed photo albums on a few tables for people to look through while remembering his life and his legacy. The photos were browning with age, different layers of the paper were beginning to separate and the dog-eared corners were nearly torn off.The dates, locations, and names of everyone in the image were all written down in black pen on the photo itself. In a few flips of pages, we watched his entire life. We saw him as a child with chickens blocking him out from the knees down. We saw him at various beaches showing off gymnastic poses he could, balancing on one hand in the hot sand. We saw his first marriage, his army uniform, his children, and his grandchildren.

July 13: I asked Lindsie about her recent trip to Africa. I’m no quite sure how it happened, but it lead to my birthday party becoming a bunch of tipsy 30-year olds making drunken guesses as to the names of groups of animals for almost two hours straight. A smack of jellyfish, a business of ferrets, and a parliament of owls. Then it turned into us deciding what groups of our own clones would be. A harmony of Lindsies, a sparkle of Heidis, and a snark of Heathers.

July 14: The dirt crunched beneath the car tires. The road wavered back and forth in gentle curves and the surrounding trees grew up and towards each other, reaching out and brushing against the branches of the trees on the opposite side of the road so that they formed a steeple of leaves that left little room to see the stars.

July 15: I asked everyone to give me a copy of their favorite book for my birthday. I wanted them to write something inside about why they loved this book so much and leave me little note throughout it so that I would think of them while I read it. It wasn’t until I scanned the six-page essay Raven has scrawled inside the cover and first few pages of Pride and Prejudice that I realized that I essentially gave everyone homework for my birthday.




much love,
hedgie