A Romantic Story or Cow, Marriage, Priorities

I heard a good story recently. My friend was telling me about her son Paul, a struggling farmer. When he was young and just starting out, he was seriously dating a girl. After some time, things had proceeded to the point where she was hoping for a ring at Christmas. Instead, Paul spent his money on a tractor. His girlfriend dumped him. She later married and had children, and is living happily ever after as far as anyone knows. Paul, meanwhile, had a good decade of regretting what he'd done. In all that time he dated only sporadically, and had no serious prospects. And it looks as if he learned something from that long ago mistake.

Recently, a wonderful young woman showed up in his life. In short order they became inseparable, and decided to get married. They're scrimping and saving for the wedding, which is coming up in a couple of months. Then a close relative of hers passed away unexpectedly. She was really rocked by the death. She wanted to go to the funeral, but the plane ticket was exorbitant, and they're scrimping and saving for their wedding. But Paul realized how important it was for her to go to the funeral. Without even telling her, he sold one of his cows. Then he told her to go ahead and get her ticket, because they had the money for it.

Looks like he got his priorities straight now.

Nasty Bit of Cattiness

I heard a nasty little story the other day, and I just keep thinking about it. I was talking to my friend, who works in administration at the school I used to work at. A parent called to ask a question. My friend didn't have the answer, so referred her to another staff member. The parent replied, "Oh, is she the one whose husband is cheating on her?"

OK - is that just the coldest, cattiest thing to say? This parent didn't even know my friend, and she didn't know the other woman. Did she really think that was acceptable thing to say in a polite, business conversation? I know it happens on TV, but I guess I didn't really think people were like that in real life.

PMS

I just got to thinking about PMS. I'm wondering if it's really a myth created by men who aren't willing to accept that sometimes they actually do just behave like assholes.

Witches Under the Bed

Last night my daughter had trouble falling asleep. She was afraid of witches. I soothed her and tried to help her over her fears. She's still somewhat pre-logical, at age 6, so I was able to use two contradictory arguments and have them both be fairly convincing. I told her there were no witches. And also, many of them are nice ones.

What finally made the difference was posting a sentry under the bed. We had to find just the right stuffed animal to do the job. She has a bumblebee, who could sting any bad witches. My daughter reminded me that bumblebees can only sting once. But I assured her this was a magic bumblebee who could sting as many times as necessary. So that was OK. And she went to sleep.