Jenny Webb: Blogger Extraordinaire

It seems that Jenny's way with words has gotten around. She was recently invited to be a guest blogger on one of the big mormon blogs, Times and Seasons. I encourage all to go read, comment, and heckle.

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My First Yeast Infection

On No! Does Nick REALLY have a yeast infection? You'll have to click 'read more...' to find out.

The answer is.... no. I do not have a yeast infection, for er... obvious reasons. However, I DO have some cream that was prescribed to me last week, the tube of which reads "for vaginal yeast infections and itch". Needless to say, when my wife picked it up from the pharmacy, and it had my name on it, the pharmacist looked confused.

(All it really is is 2 small 1/2 centimeter size spots on my leg that apparently is a fungus. I thought they were old zits(ok I'll stop with the TMI personal stuff))

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Where Were You?

(To those who are sick of the constant barrage of 9/11 anniversary coverage, I duely apologize. (We have no TV reception so I haven't reached overload yet))

Where were you five years ago this morning? As I rummage through old papers, I find wrinkled yellowing copies of the Daily Universe at the bottom of the box. They've got the familiar pictures on their front pages. Holding them and seeing what age has done to the paper makes that day seem so long ago, but I just watched the video archive on Foxnews of the news coverage and it feels like yesterday.

I had just broken up with my first girlfriend and subsequently met Jenny. I was finally a BYU student after several failed attempts at being (re)admitted. I had just started my first real upper level physics classes at BYU. One of them was classical field theory. The homework was due by 8:00 am that Tuesday morning, so I was up there by 7:30. I remember the TV was on in the faculty lounge, though I didn't stop to watch since I'm not exactly a morning person and wanted to get back to bed. I walked back down the hill on south campus and returned to apartment 18 in southridge (or was it 16?). I honestly don't know why, but I turned on the TV.

I remember actually thinking that maybe it would be nice to start off the day with some news for a change instead of sleeping in. I saw one of the towers of the trade center with smoke coming out of it. I thought, "Those stupid New Yorkers, what have they done now?" It looked like there had been a fire in the building. Then I heard someone mention that a plane had hit it. I imagined it was some kind of small commuter plane. It was about 7:55. Someone then mentioned that a plane had also hit the pentagon. "Now THAT's not normal" I thought. I wondered why I couldn't see the other tower. Was it the position of the camera? Was it enveloped in the smoke?

Then I saw the tower collapse. Just like that. I realized why I couldn't see the other tower since all I saw was empty space behind where the now collapsed one was. I think I yelled to my roomates upstairs to get down there. Josh and Burton came down sleepy eyed, whose faces turned into ones of wide-eyed disbelief once they realized what had happened. Somehow, when someone tells you that two 110 story buildings just collapsed potentially killing tens of thousands of people, here, in America, it takes you a second to realize what the person said, and several more to even believe it.

Now there were three of us silently watching the coverage. Before the tower collapsed, I saw footage of hundreds of firefighters running in a line towards the building. Now, they were walking slowly in a line away from it, some with there heads down, crying. That was what first welled up my tears. The sight of the collapse was too shocking for tears, but seeing those big tough firefighters cry made me lose it too. I remember seeing footage of people hanging out of windows with smoke billowing out of them. I saw a picture of people jumping. That picture made me sick. Not vomit sick, but I was literally shuddering and had to look away. Within an hour we had a good 10 people watching, and many stayed most of the day. I don't think I left, except to go to class, which I'm pretty sure was canceled anyway.

Where were you that morning?

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First Do No Harm

Although normally a content and happy child, I am beginning to believe that Lucy desires to do herself harm.

No matter how hard I try, she keeps on bumping into/falling off of/getting stuck in things. And that's with the house as babyproofed as it can get and still be used as a dwelling space for sleep-deprived adults.

Did I mention she's stopped sleeping? I think that's also part of her plan. (And a very sad one at that: you know it's bad when you got better sleep when she was three months old ...). Either she wants to be so tired that she increases her chances of hurting herself, or she want us to be so tired that our cognitive skills (i.e., our ability to recognize potentially hazardous situations) fail.

If I say that I feel like I'm on a suicide watch, can we all understand that I'm not trying to make light of suicide in general but rather take that implied metaphor as an indication of the physical and emotional drain of these past few weeks? Good. Thank you.

I better go. She's off.

(I just looked at the book that I gave her from our bookshelves to keep her occupied and the title made me giggle in a oh-I'm-tired-but-this-is-amusing kind of way: King Lear. Maybe that's trying to tell me something....)

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Celebrity Wisdom

I don't know why for sure, but I found this really funny. Maybe I've read too much Eric Snider lately or something.

By the way, did you know that you can read Eric Snider's columns for free now? Bonus. Now he and I can be poor together.
This is not my normal fare, but I'm trying to liven things up a bit in here.
Anyway, I saw this AP news story via Yahoo News.
My favorite quotes:
(Brad Pitt) "'Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,' the 42-year-old actor reveals."
What do you mean Brad? Do you mean banjo-playin' cousins? How about Warren Jeffs-ites? Okay so I know he is talking about gay marriage, but it seems like he wants to take up some sort of homosexual-equality banner but is uncomfortable saying "homosexual" in public. Maybe he was trying to just be clever...I guess I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps more likely is that AP didn't do him justice in their excerpt of the interview.
(Brad again, about adopted children.) "They're as much of my blood as any natural born, and I'm theirs."
Fascinating. I assume you mean in every way but actually. I think I know what he's trying to say, but that's just a silly way to put it.
Anyway...my quest for precision in language and celebration of only people who deserve it continues.

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