The End of a Long Week

 

My father-in-law’s funeral is today, and I still feel bad that I cannot be with Brian at this difficult time.  On the other hand, things always work out as they should—had I gone to Philadelphia with him, there would have been no one readily available to care for Granny this week.  (One of the positive parts of unemployment: no real schedule to rearrange.)

Yesterday I did finally have the time to drive up to my future alma mater and get enrolled in my first few classes.  I won’t bore you with the details, but it was something of an ordeal, so my fingers are crossed that I didn’t mess anything up in the enrollment process and I’ll actually be taking the classes I chose.

Last night I got to sleep in my own bed for the second time this week, but I think I’m still quite a few hours behind on restful sleep.  There may be a nap in my future today.

But, at the end of such a long and stressful week, it’s fun to be able to turn to simple Friday questions to take my mind off of things, and to make it super-duper easy to create a blog post.  At its core, I’m pretty sure that’s what Five Question Friday is all about.  So, let’s not waste any more time, shall we?

1. Is love at 1st sight possible?

I think so.  It’s probably rare, but not completely unheard of.  At least, there is for sure the possibility of that immediate spark of something that lets you know destiny has just put you together with this person for a reason.  Upon further consideration, I’m not sure that’s actually love, but I think it’s something pretty special.  Though I suppose it could just be lust that nobody wants to admit to. 

On the other hand, let me tell you about how I met Brian.  We were in a class together at the local university.  The first night, as everyone was introducing themselves and all, I decided there were three people in the room I’d be interested in dating.  (Call me shallow, but one of the things I was hoping to gain from this excursion into higher education was to broaden my social horizons, so, yeah, I was looking right from the get-go.)  Anyway, one of the three was Brian, so I guess I have a pretty good radar for who’s of interest to me on the personal level.  For the record, one of the others was the instructor (a graduate assistant), and he did end up asking me out later, but I was already dating Brian at that point.  I don’t really remember the third, but we never moved beyond classmates.  Still, for an immediate interpretation of personality compatibility, two out of three ain’t bad. 

But, to the question at hand, I’ve never referred to it as ‘love at first sight’, that meeting with Brian.  Attraction?  Sure.  Interest?  Absolutely.  But love?  Not that night.  Still, I do believe in fate, and I believe fate can be recognized at the moment it manifests itself, so even if it wasn’t true for me, I think I mostly believe love at first sight is possible.  Maybe.

2. How did you choose your pet's name?

Well, our last two dogs were named Simba and Nala, because we got them when Billy was very young, and very enthralled with The Lion King.  Well, actually, that’s when we got Simba.  We got Nala a few years later, but who can have one without the other?

As for our passel of cats, I usually name them based on their appearance in some way.  We end up with lots of of variations of “gray”.  (Grayson, Grady, Earl—like the tea, get it?—etc.)  Pretty soon I will need to choose names for our newest kittens, but first they have to quit running from me long enough for me to be able to tell them apart.  Oh, and one benefit of the name-them-after-the-way-they-look approach is that it tends to end up pretty gender-neutral.  That’s important, because the crazy things rarely let us get close enough to tell what’s what in that department.

3. What are you considering giving up (cable, home phone)?

I don’t think I’m currently in the market for giving up anything.  Certainly it would not be any form of electronic communication, as I’m fairly addicted to that sort of stuff. 

Sometimes I think I should make some changes to my diet—give up sugar, or processed carbs, or something—but the truth is, I know I’d never be successful on something like that, so the idea passes pretty quickly.  Sometimes I consider giving up my Netflix subscription, because I don’t use it all that regularly, but my argument for keeping it is always the same:  it’s only eight bucks a month; watch one or two movies, and it’s paid for.  I think that’s going to be a winning argument for a really long time.

4. How much do you pay your babysitter? 

We were very lucky that we never had to pay a babysitter as Billy was growing up.  For the vast majority of his early life, Brian and I worked opposite shifts, so one of us was with him most always.  For the few hours that our jobs overlapped, or when we wanted to go out or whatever, we were fortunate to have family willing and able to keep him.

5. How "young" is old enough to babysit?

I don’t think there’s a concrete answer to this question, because it depends so much on the individual.  I think it also depends on the child(ren) needing a sitter.  And, to further confuse things, as a rule, I think a child could watch their own siblings (or maybe cousins) at a younger age than you’d allow them to sit for others.  I think I was probably 9 or 10 when my younger sister and I started being allowed to stay home alone (briefly), but even though I’ve always been a pretty reasonable and responsible person (my mom used to call me an “old soul”), I know good and well there’s no way I would’ve been allowed to babysit for someone else at that age. 

Generally speaking, I’d say most 13-14 year olds would be able to handle an evening with most kids who were at least 4 years of age.  I think if the kids being watched were much younger than that, you’d want a more mature person keeping an eye on things, because kids that young need lots of attention.  And if you’ve got kids that are just little hellions?  Go for at least a 16 year old.  Or, better yet, stay home and don’t inflict the brats on anyone else. 

Really, thinking through all that, I’m glad all over again that we never had to make those decisions.

And, that brings us to the conclusion of another 5QF.  As always, thanks for dropping by, and feel free to share your thoughts in comments or link to the blog hop. 

Have a great weekend!