Sunday, October 23, 2011

I Wonder

I've been saving up a few things to tell you but they are random--not related. I wonder if you mind?

First of all, last week at church I wore a wide elastic belt over my dress. Midway through sacrament meeting it exploded off me and I had to catch it before it whipped someone in the face. I demurely folded it and put it in my bag. I think of it as madcap instead of as me being really fat or something. Maybe it was a tender mercy. But I don't have the perspective to see it like that yet.

I also got a new calling. So that's exciting. I'm the counselor in the primary presidency over cub scouts. My mom has the same calling. Tell me if you have the same calling and we can form a supportive clique. We're getting the yellow scout leader shirts, right? Are we doing scarves? My ward has the most awesome bridge you guys--I'm not even kidding.  I've been teaching primary for the last year (since the Activities Committee was dissolved) and while primary doesn't afford me as many opportunities to make playlists, it's a perfectly nice place to be. My husband and the primary president's husband are both in the bishopric, so you'd think we would form a very powerful and effective quadfecta but as it turns out I can't even get a replacement for my primary class yet. We sought to strengthen our respective powers by combining them but we made a mistake. By increasing our power we weakened it. Was it greed? Only time will tell what the consequences of this perverse lust for control will be. Prediction: One day my whole family will sit together at Round Table. The table itself will be made of stone and Aslan will die on it. (Leave Sharing Time ideas and links in the comments, please.)

Last night I saw a movie called The Big Year. It was rather a pleasant movie but I wouldn't say it's a MUST SEE, unless you've waited your whole life to see Steve Martin wild-and-crazy-guying it in the same frame as Jack Black Jack-blacking it, which I have. It's about the competitive nature of birding. It's not a hilarious spoof like Best in Show but it is amusing and in this day and age of ironic mustaches and refusing to weigh in on things until you know if it's cool, I appreciated the earnestness of The Big Year.  I like spotting birds. I have a birding life list and I keep trying to get my kids into it. Since I'm lazy and impatient my life list is short.  However, on my life list is Owen Wilson's nose. He's a very hard-core birder in the movie. Reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaal bird nerd.

Which brings me to my last observation--it's just an observation. People now use the word "nerd" to mean "enthusiast." It's interesting. Nerdy used to apply to computer and math stuff. But over the last few years I've noticed that everyone says it about their hobby. "I'm a real choir nerd." "I'm a total film nerd." When was film ever nerdy? But see, it's a way of saying "I'm a film enthusiast" while also acting self-deprecating (I'm a total nerd, guys!) but really you are a film nerd because you think film is cool in the same way that computer nerds think programming is cool, which it is. It has become an interesting way to sort of brag or discuss your interests safely, in case the person you are talking to does not share your passion. See how it works? Calling yourself a nerd is short hand for, "I recognize that some people think its dumb but I'm actually very passionate about it and if you laugh and shrug it off I won't mention it again but if you are the same kind of nerd I am then we can drop this pretense and really talk about graphic novels in depth." It's just something I've noticed. And I say that as someone who reads Webster's Dictionary of English Usage for fun so in terms of nerd--I know whereof I speak. (See? I just did it too.)


25 comments:

  1. Yours is the only blog I like anymore.

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  2. I was recently called as Primary Pres. and the old president had assigned herself Cub Scouts. I kept the assignments the same. I'm an idiot. Also, I didn't want to alienate any of my newly called counselors. I'm a people pleaser and a wimp. But now I'm stuck going to an 8 hour scout training meeting on Saturday. Hour there. Hour home. Makes for 10 hours. I'm pretty sure even classes on brain surgery don't take 10 hours. Scouts. Ugh. I'm so NOT a scouting nerd.

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  3. This is why I LOVE your blog! I read parts aloud to my husband.

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  4. Oh my gosh, that first paragraph put such a vivid picture in my mind. Wow I burst out laughing. So so funny. Anyway, good stuff as always, very true observation about the nerd thing.

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  5. I am a total Kacy's Blog Nerd!

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  6. Oh my gosh-the tender mercy. Still laughing...

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  7. i'm a cub scout committee member, and i gotta say...it makes no sense to me at all. i sit in meetings, and i get emails, and even send emails that all contain words that have no meaning for me. art loops? silver arrow points? dens? tell me it will become clearer! i'm a smart person, and scouting makes me feel dumb.

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  8. Very interesting random observations. Sorry to hear about the belt incident. I can see that happening to me. Sigh!

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  9. I have always loved Cub Scouts - I not only had the yellow shirt, I had a wardrobe of the scout tee shirts - to go with each season. Harry is now Stake Cubmaster because our stake is so small we have a big pack meeting all together each month - all 20 of us! He's not a scout nerd however - he never even was a scout as a lad - so I been teaching him the cheers! And the stake Primary presidency handles the Blue and Gold Dinner , so we are good to go!

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  10. It's not you, it's the buckle.

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  11. "have been" - what kind of English major am I? (One who teaches middle school - see it wrong often enough and you think it's right!!)

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  12. I don't do yellow well. I opted for the tan uniform instead.

    As as for "nerd", one of my husband's co workers will say to him and his team, "Whenever you guys talk all I hear is 'geek, geek, geek, dork, dork, dork, geek'."

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  13. Well, bird nerd, our family of bird nerds have been looking forward to seeing The Big Year for a while. And last night on the river trail, we, NO KIDDING, saw a GREAT HORNED OWL!!!! in the tree just above us and we took video and like 12 pictures and we stared at it for 20 minutes while all these rollerblade nerds and dogwalkers looked at us strangely. AND THEN we saw it fly off.
    True story.

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  14. Well, I have been an actual nerd pretty much my entire life, so I just don't know what the rules are or what's cool to say any more. But usually I prefer the expression "geek out" over nerd.

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  15. In a similar usage category with "nerd" is "whore": book whore, shoe whore, Etsy whore, etc. That one icks me out.

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  16. Scouts makes me feel dumb too! There's just too much going on.

    By the way, I was corrected a few weeks ago on the nerd thing. Apparently, when you're way into something, you're a "geek". A nerd is just, well, nerdy. I'm not saying everyone has to change the way they speak, I'm just sayin'...well, I don't know what I'm saying. But, I love your blog! You make me laugh! A lot!

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  17. I always thought that when someone said they were a "whatever" nerd it meant they were really good at it and were being show-offs. But I like your take better, the enthusiast take. That makes more sense and is not as cynical.

    I am also a Kacy's Blog Nerd.

    Is there a word for something that means you like the idea of it, but are not very good at it? Kind of like enthusiast but not quite there? For instance, I wish I were a homemaking nerd, or even a homemaking enthusiast. I love the idea of homemaking (that is to say, making an organized, functional, clean, happy home) and yet I currently have 5 loads of laundry in the queue and don't remember the last time I scrubbed the floor. I mean that in a genuine way, not a self-deprecating "I'm actually really good at it" way. Somehow this comment turned into a therapy session, sorry about that.

    I love Primary. My favorite sharing times are the ones where the kids do most of the work. They like it better that way too. You know, getting into groups and moving around the room and acting out stuff. Cheesy but effective.

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  18. Thank you for asking if we mind, by the way. A little interactive exercise for the reader there... It's getting so you never know when things are better left alone, but I don't... no, I don't mind at all. (although I do care and have a modicum of concern to go along with it)

    'Nerd' is essentially a misnomer these days. If you criticize yourself in jest, you might fool people into thinking it's not that serious. Calling oneself a nerd is the equivalent of admitting you're immature and that you don't want to break out of it, much in the same vein as calling oneself an addict of something. "Ha-ha... I'm addicted to that show. Possibly even pathological, chortle, chortle..."

    Which brings me to my first point. I'm the Cub Committee Chair in our ward. I'm the one people sit on. I think this is a conspiracy to have all the blog people in Cub scouts. I sit in the committee meeting like a soccer goalie. Most of the time, the action is somewhere else, but every once in a while, it comes back over on my end of the field. And then I kick it back out and watch them fight over it. Occasionally we have yellow cards given, but I haven't seen a red one yet. (The Wolf leader came awfully close for kicking the Cubmaster in the sternum)

    I called Hope Solo for some pointers. She hasn't called me back yet, because I'm sure she's busy researching analogies between Cub committee meeting and her sport of choice.

    For sharing time ideas, I'd first recommend re-enactments of burnt offerings at the altar, and then you can use the ketchup to go with the treats at the end. Also for other sharing activities if any of the children have head lice, you could have everyone come up to the front and rub that child's head. And then just make an object lesson out of it — maybe something to do with plagues of the Old Testament. The kids love those.

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  19. I love Alyssa's comment. And Rusty's. I, too, am the second counselor and over cub scouts- so is my mom and my sister and my sister-in-law. Weird huh? I trying to read into this pattern to derive meaning from it but so far I got nothing. Or maybe it means there are a whole lot of suckers in my family... IDK. All I do know is I didn't want to spend money on an ugly yellow shirt. At my first pack meeting I wore my husband's old one, he being just released from the CS, did not need it anymore. The other thing I do know is it didn't fit in a too small kind of way and basically did the same thing your belt did. I'm still not gonna spend money on an ugly yellow shirt.

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  20. I just got called to be on the Scout committee (same lives theory, pt. 142) and I don't anticipate being a "Scout Nerd," but, like Carly, I'm a total Kacy's Blog Nerd and I don't care who knows it!

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  21. Alyssa, don't tell me you're turning into a blog snob... Say it isn't so!

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  22. Please, please, please don't wear the yellow shirt. Sorry to all of you yellow-cub-shirt-moms, but those look hideous on anyone of any shape, size or skin tone. Everyone here in Texas wears the tan shirt. I haven't seen the yellow shirt worn by a woman in years. You can be the new trendsetter in Utah :).

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  25. I have the same calling you do.

    And I'm a string bass nerd. It's also called a double bass, an upright bass, a contrabass and a standup bass.

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