The Post About Nothing

Nothing is awesome.


I'm sitting on the couch with my 10 year-old nephew James, and I asked him what I should blog about. He told me that I should blog about nothing. When I asked him to further clarify, he said my first sentence should be what I wrote above. So here we go, writing about nothing (Seinfeld-style).

Why do they call it Ovaltine? The jar is round, why don't they call it "Roundtine?"

Huh. I think that bit may have already been done.

I'd have to say that I enjoy Doing Nothing. Not all the time, just from time to time. Here's a picture of James and me sitting on the couch Doing Nothing:

Really, when you're Doing Nothing, you're actually doing Something. It's like trying to have complete silence; you can't actually be completely quiet, or else you'd be dead. I think that Doing Nothing is more along the lines of whether or not whatever it is that you are Doing is Meaningful or Worthwhile. In that picture above, James was (and still is) playing Super Marios Brothers on the DS, and I was playing Taipei on my computer. Is that worthwhile? It's fun and relaxing, but where does that get us in life? One hour further on, is all.

I think that the masters of Doing Nothing are Calvin & Hobbes. While Calvin tends to slide his way through life with the help of his pal, Hobbes, he truly knows how to relax and Do Nothing. And he's creative about it! I think we can learn a lesson from their Doing of Nothingness - do we rush around focusing so much on all of the Somethings that we have to do that we fail to take time to do Nothing? Doing Nothing is an important part of our lives - it's like a palette cleanser between meals or Kazimir Malevich's White on White in a Jackson Pollack museum (a breather between zaniness!).

So I recommend to you all to take a moment, stop with all the Somethings you've got going on, and Do a Little Nothing. You may just accomplish something great! For example, James just beat Super Mario Brothers! With 73 lives to spare!! Now that's Something.

Before it's too late!!!

Yesterday I was helping one of my kindergarten/1st grade classes get ready for lunch when two of the girls in the class got in a little bit of a tiff. One of the girls (we'll call her Ella) was crying and mad at the other girl ("Hannah" for our story here) and Hannah said, "Ella, why are you so mad at me? We've been best friends since last year!" Ah, youth.

While I was dealing with the mini drama between the girls, I wasn't paying too much attention to the other students who were lining up for lunch. All of a sudden little Ana comes up to me and says, "Joey kissed me and I didn't like it!" Now HOW am I supposed to keep a straight face? I couldn't!! I chuckled a little and said, "Joey, you're not supposed to be doing that until you're at least 16! Didn't you know that girls have cooties?" A roomful of 5 and 6 year-olds does not get my sarcasm. After the crickets subsided, I told Joey he needed to respect Ana's space and not do that unless she wanted him to.

I also encouraged Ana to use her "I statements," which is something we try to get all of the students (k-8th grade) to do. For example, Ana could say, "Joey, I don't like it when you kiss me." It's a way to get the kids solving problems on their own and also to not just get mad and yell at/tell on someone, ie: "He kissed me!" It's quite effective for all ages!

I breezed past that cootie comment back there, but would like to talk about them for a minute. I don't think that I was fully prepared as a child for all that cooties entail. Wikipedia, the most accurate website of all time, gives us the following information about cooties: One catches cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, contact with an infected person's possessions, square-dancing, or third-party transmission. I didn't know you could get cooties from square dancing!! Oh, I'm doomed.

I have some questions about cooties, too. Do you become immune when you get married? Is it like building up an immunity to iocane powder, done little by little? What if a boy tries to do something like (heaven forbid) hold your hand, and you haven't been immunized? The horror.

Here is a video that should be required viewing for all children:

I tell you, my cootie shot is WAAAAY past due.

I'd like to take a moment here to use an "I statement" of my own:

I don't like it when boys give me cooties.

So, be prepared my friends. Don't Procrastinate your immunization!! If you do, it could be too late.

The Truth About Betty Cooper

Elizabeth tagged me in her blog, and I fully intend to respond to that tag, but on my own terms. This "tagging" reminds me of those emails I often get where you have to answer all of these questions about yourself: favorite food, favorite TV shows, greatest fears, etc. I think I answered them seriously the first 2 or 3 times that I got one, but the next 90 or so times I decided to get creative. On more than one occasion I answered them as my alter-ego, Betty Cooper. (Well, one of two alter-egos that I have. It's tricky balancing them, but having Wonder Woman's super powers helps.)

I hope you now enjoy finding out some secrets about Archie's sometimes girlfriend, Betty!

3 Joys
-Spending time with the love of my life, Archie Andrews.
-Hanging out with the gang at Pop Tate's.
-Baking! And making my own clothes. And puppies and kittens! And baby-sitting, and surfing, and school...how am I supposed to keep it to just 3?!?!

3 Fears
-That Archie will leave me forever for Veronica!
-That we'll never achieve world peace.
-That Pop's will close down...where would we hang out then??

3 Obsessions or Collections
-Um, well, I guess you could say that I am obsessed with Archie. I mean, I wouldn't say that, I think our relationship is perfectly healthy, but some might say that...
-I collect mementos of dates with Archie.
-I suppose I'm a little obsessed with cooking...it's the way to Archie's heart!!

Surprising Facts
-My hair is actually really blonde! Don't let Veronica tell you otherwise.
-Sometimes I think Jughead's kind of cute! I mean, he's so good with Jellybean! I think his hatred of girls is just a facade.
-I like fixing cars more than I like baking. Crazy, huh??

A side note from Katherine...I think it's interesting to note that my paternal grandfather, Archie, married my grandmother, a woman named...Betty. Seriously!! So we all know who gets him in the end...sorry Ronnie!

Snow, That Cunning Little Vixen

Snow. It really thinks a lot of itself, all white and fluffy and pretentious. I may sound angry, but really I just feel like Snow is a big flirt, teasing us all winter long.

For months and months our lives are fine, we're going about our business, getting tans, enjoying the flowers and the greenery, the sunshine and even the occasional thunderstorm. We're even fine with the leaves changing colors - it's a gradual thing, and we enjoy the slow process and being called "Leaf Peepers" and jumping in leaf piles and pressing leaves between pieces of wax paper. Takes us back to our childhood, I think. Then out of the clear blue (well, grayish-white) sky, BAM! Snow.

Now I suppose that you're going to say to me here, "Katherine, Snow takes us back to our childhoods, too! Remember? Snowmen, snow angels, snow forts, snowball fights, sledding...remember that stuff? Do ya? Huh?" My answer to you would be a resounding, "Yeah, I guess..."

I s'pose I just feel like Snow can be a bit of an interloper. I mean, Snow forces you into a completely different wardrobe, for Pete's sake! And you just never know what form it's going to take next: will it be big fluffy flakes, soggy wet flakes, tiny scarce flakes that barely cover the ground, or will they gang up on you when you least expect it and strand you in your car on the side of the dirt road at midnight near the Troll Bridge when you're being chased by an army of zombies and a woodchuck? ...Sorry, I got a little carried away. What can I say? Snow makes me a little crazy.

Speaking of crazy, let's talk about the game playing. It's here, it's not, we got 2 inches, it all melted away, back and forth and back and forth...you never know where you stand with Snow. It's tricky, that Snow. I prefer more reliable weather.

Rain - now there's a precipitation I can get behind. It doesn't pretend to be something it's not; it's rain, and you're gonna get wet. Deal. Yeah, it may mist sometimes or throw you off with a good old fashioned downpour, but who doesn't love to jump in puddles and wear big, goofy galoshes?

Well, I hope you're all prepared for another up and down relationship with Snow this winter. Most likely it will tease you at first, make you think it's here to stay, play a little hard-to-get, stick around for a while, then take off for good at the first sign of a little tilt of the earth. And when you get really fed up and don't know what else to do, sometimes all you can do is say, "It's not me, it's you..."