Some notes before bedtime

Sometimes when I'm picking up the kids from school, some little girl will sweetly tell THEBOY goodbye. Sometimes he responds, sometimes he doesn't.

Today in the van I told him that the girls seem to like him.

THEBOY: "I know they do. But in my class they think kissing is yucky."

Me: "What do you think?"

THEBOY: "I think it's GREAT."

***

We got the model tonight. Actually, we got two of them. One is a Stealth fighter, and the other is a PT Cruiser that we bought on sale for 50% off.

We built the fighter, and it went pretty well. It's a snap-together type that doesn't require glue or paint. THEBOY was patient, and he used those keen eyes of his to help me find parts I was asking for.

***

I remember building models when I was a boy. I showed one to my grandmother, and she stared at it for a long time.

"Do you like it?" I asked.

"I'm just amazed that you can see all of those little parts," she said.

Now I understand what she meant.

***

The doc left me a little sore. Next time I'm gonna wear a cup to my physical.

***

It's a rare week: I don't have anything to write for my classes. On the one hand, I'd like to just do the reading and take it comparatively easy.

On the other hand, there's a little voice inside of me saying I could pull ahead a little bit if I'd get a jump on the next writing assignments.

I'll let the voices fight it out for a couple days.

***

Funny, that sounds like a serious symptom: "Voices are fighting in my head..."

***

This multi-cultural class is great, just fascinating stuff. Useful too. For example, hallucinations are a really big deal in this field. If someone's experiencing them, it's likely a sign of a serious problem.

But patients from some cultures could talk about experiences that strictly speaking are hallucinations, yet are not the alarming symptoms they could be mistaken for. Some cultures have experiences more akin to "visions," and that's not the same thing. I mean, how many Mexican people have you ever spoken to who mentioned nonchalantly that dead relatives came to visit them? I've spoken to plenty.

***

Hallucinations are not limited to sight, by the way. Auditory, touch, whatever. The most serious, from a clinical standpoint, are olfactory hallucinations. If a patient is persistently smelling something that's not there... that could be a problem.

Or the therapist has gas.

(Badoom!)

***

Jeez, is the weekend here yet?