Life is What Happens When You're Sitting Around Waiting for Something to Happen

One would think, after perusing the last dozen entries or so, that all this boy's life is about is hurtling himself across American roads at eighty miles an hour, racking up speeding tickets, eating turkey sandwiches, and taking pictures of his wife and others with half of his head in the foreground. This is not entirely true. Summer, this year, has been filled with few cares (where I am concerned), but much else is going on around me. Let me clue you in to a few of those.

To begin with, the most important theme for the last few weeks has been the Monkey's preparation for her EPPP test. I really have no idea what the acronym stands for (but I am pretty sure one of the Ps is "psychology" or "psychological" and I suspect that one of them may be "practice" or "professional", and the E might stand for "exam" or "examination"). At any rate, all the cool kids call it "E-triple-P." I like to call up Snoop Dogg every once in a while and call it the "E to the trizzy pizzy." He hates that. But I digress.

Whatever the acronym stands for, it is the liscensing exam for practicing psychology in the US of A. You can see where my conjectures about the letters may come from. The studying has been a frustrating endeavor for Monkey, thus far. By association, it has also been frustrating for me, but only vicariously. I have done my best to be positive and supportive in the following ways: no loud belching while Monkey is studying; all baseball is viewed on MUTE while Monkey is studying; limited "Hey, Monkey, listen to this" while reading the newspaper when Monkey is studying; no music while Monkey is studying (and thus, no dancing while Monkey is studying); no laughing and saying "Boy, I'm glad I don't have to take the E to the trizzy pizzy" while talking to Snoop Dogg when Monkey is studying; no talking to Snoop Dogg while Monkey is studying. In addition, I sometimes (recently) help by quizzing Monkey a little using her 1 million flash cards about childhood development and maternal depression and such, and asking her questions from practice tests she has taken already (as a reinforcement of her learning).

Some days, Monkey comes home and feels like she is progressing, and that she will probably pass the test. Other days, she comes home a little frustrated and worried that she will not pass the test. In either case, I try to be supportive by saying things like, "What do you want for dinner", or "That's a nice pair of socks you are wearing", or "Golly, it sure is hot, huh?".

In addition to that, I recently was extremely worried before our trip to Lincoln when I thought I had not paid a bill but was down to $0.12 in my checking account (okay, that's an exaggeration--it was $0.27). I went to the cable office (it was the damn cable bill--by the way MediaCom, it sure would be nice to watch the Tour de France this year, but no OLN...I'd trade it for the both the Sci-Fi Channel AND the Fox "News" Channel--I never watch them), credit card in hand, prepared to pay the bill. By the way, I didn't have the bill with me. I don't know if I lost it, or I never received it (oh, no, that never happens), but I didn't have it. So I get to the office and explain what is up to the woman at the counter, and it turns out that I had paid the bill, like two weeks prior! Silly me. I never pay the cable bill that early. What was I thinking? And look at the trouble it caused me. Well, I learned from that: never pay the cable bill ahead of time.

Now, as has been mentioned before, travel time is over. It's time to start focusing on the upcoming school year, but it's a slow transition. I told myself I was going to start yesterday, but I started reading The Da Vinci Code instead (I know, what have I been waiting for?). I'll probably finish that by dinner tonight. Then , I said I would begin today, but here I am at 11 o'clock chronicling my life so far. Maybe I will start today. Maybe I'll start tomorrow.

Maybe I'll make a turkey sandwich, grab the camera, hop in the Penguin, and drive somewhere. I just hope I don't get a speeding ticket.