I'm afraid I've been thinking, a dangerous pastime I know

Here are some of the thoughts and chains of thoughts that are currently floating through my mind. I apologize in advance; what follows is going to be very jumbled up and won't make much sense and will probably make you shake you head for a while. Ok, here goes.

My back has been hurting since Thanksgiving break. I know I've complained enough about it, so let me just say that I happened to mention something about it hurting last weekend, and that I hurt it during my Thanksgiving break, and what was the first thing my family (almost in unison) asked me? Well, to say it bluntly here would be quite embarrassing, so let me just say they made some semi-crude speculations as to when the back-hurting occurred, and where, and how, and some more of those w-questions. They, of course, were quite wrong, the entire lot of cheeky blighters that they are. But that scene keeps replaying in my head for some reason. Maybe it was because my Dad was one of the first to speculate - that was pretty unsettling. Anyway, moving on...

I previously mentioned that for Chris and Miki's wedding that I had planned to wear jeans. And then I mentioned that that possibility was explicitly denied, do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars. My first response was to say that I wasn't going. That was met in the same manner as a parent confronting a petulant child. It came to pass that I was threatened (by at least four people sitting round the table - Mom, Dad, Darren, and Kim - I know your names, be afraid!) into agreeing to go shopping to find a suitable outfit. What was the threat? Wouldn't you like to know. But, I think I got back at the girls - who now know for sure not to get me any clothes for Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. And then I was told by all of the girls that I would be a perfect candidate for TLC's What Not to Wear. My Mom did a [terrible] impression of my saying no to all of their selections, "No, no, no, no, no..." and so on. I can't help it if they have bad taste! I can't help it if my tastes run to the simple and plain (like me!). However, I think I would be fine on What Not to Wear because when I shop by myself, I get along just fine, thank you very much. My only problem would be having Stacy and Clinton throw away all of my old clothes - I get too sentimentally attached to stuff, including clothing, and I think I'd probably do some eye-gouging if they tried to take away my comfort clothes.

And along those same lines, I have noticed a dramatic increase in the level of teasing aimed at me over the past few weeks. What gives? But do I mind? Not really. I actually kinda like it. This way I know they love me. Sigh. They can tease me all they want because I am exceedingly happy and nothing they do is going to pop my bubble. So, Nah-na-na-na-nah!

And then a funny story. The other day I was telling Callie (I was in a rambling mood) that I was very glad to be done with my organic chemistry lab because most everything we did in lab was not covered in lecture prior to the specific labs, so we were basically going into lab, being expected to know what was going on, and we didn't have a clue. My TA finally caught on halfway through the semester, and she told us something along the lines of she just realized that Dr. Sandberg hadn't covered this material in class yet which meant that we were screwed, basically. It was then that I said to Callie that we were indeed screwed because my TA couldn't explain shit. And then Callie pipes up and says, "I can explain shit!" And she can, because she just covered the digestive tract in her animal science class and can explain to me thoroughly every step in the poo-making process, including why poo is colored the way it is colored. Isn't that funny?