7 Quick Takes about Moonlighting as a Ballerina, Things that Happen in Space, and Ideas for Improving Political Discourse

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

I cut my hair! It was long overdue. I was so sick of it. 

She actually cut the sides and back way shorter than I wanted, but I guess it's hair and it grows back.

I don't have any "before" photos without my hair in a ponytail or messy bun, so this image of the cut hair on the floor will have to suffice to give you a visual:

Some of this should've still been on my head. She cut it really short.

So I don't love the new cut, but I love having the long hair gone. The first time I laid down and didn't have to adjust my hair because it was tickling my face or getting pulled by my own body weight was magical.

—2—

My friend Bridget is taking an adult ballet class at a local dance studio. This week they had bring-a-friend day this week so she invited... me. 

Ballet class is probably the last place in the world it makes sense for me to go. I'm uncoordinated and inflexible, and if I were to rank every possible activity by how well I can do it, following any sort of dance routine would be second or third from the bottom. Oh, and I also have no prior knowledge about ballet.

So of course, I said I'd love to go.

My mom was pretty surprised when I mentioned I was going to the class, and I explained that life goes by quickly when you're doing your normal routine and slowly when you do lots of new and different things, so this is all part of my plan to cheat death by living forever. "Plus," I said, "It will make an interesting story."

"As long as it's not interesting enough for other people in the class to tell," she answered.

I'm not sure I accomplished that goal, but it did feel like a long day so the objective was reached, in my opinion.

—3—

When I pulled into the parking lot of the ballet studio, I saw a woman I know from church who has kids about the same age as mine. 

She was sitting in her car and looked like she was waiting for someone, so I said hi and gestured toward the studio and said something like, "Do you have someone in there?"

 "Yes," she said, "Emily's friend invited her. Today is bring-a-friend day."

It felt slightly awkward to be like Yeah I know, I'm here to do the same thing as your 11-year-old. And probably not as well, either.

—4—

Did you know that NASA live streamed crashing a probe into an asteroid on Monday? It was called the DART mission, and they were intentionally testing out whether they could deflect the path of an asteroid that was, say, headed toward Earth at some point in the theoretical future.

Phillip's sinuses were driving him nuts, hence the mask.

It will be a few weeks before they know if the impact actually changed the asteroid's orbit, but regardless of whether it did or not, I'm impressed.

How crazy is it that we sent a probe 7 billion miles away and successfully hit an asteroid 500 feet wide. I can't even get a thread through the needle on my first try. 

—5—

Who here thinks they're the world's best mom? That's what I thought.

On Thursday, there was a miscommunication with my son about his afterschool activities, and I thought he was staying late for something but he wasn't, so I didn't go pick him up.

At first he probably assumed I was running late, but some point he must have decided I wasn't coming and walked 3 miles home. After having a bad day at school, a long cross-country practice, and waiting for me for who-know-how-long before he started walking.

As you can imagine, he wasn't happy when he got home, and I felt like the most garbage mom on the planet.

I tell you this because it reminds me of when I wrote this back in 2014. Just like that day, I'd done tons of things right, from making everyone's favorite dinner from scratch to having a picnic lunch with my homeschooled daughter to sending everyone off to school for the day with a hug and a kiss. Did my parenting fail erase those successes?

The good news was that because my son knows he's loved at home, he was worn out but he still felt better once he came home. He knows what happened was a mistake, not evidence. Good parents still mess up, they just even out the scales by trying hard, praying hard, and hopefully achieving a success/fail ratio that lets their kids know they're loved. 

If you do that, I'm pretty sure you're a good parent. (And yes, I triple-checked what time I'm supposed to pick him up today.)

—6—

My 16-year-old has an idea to take some of the vitriol out of politics: start spelling the names of the political parties backward and pronouncing them that way whenever we say them. 

She might just have a point, because it would be kind of hard for everyone to take themselves so seriously if Democrats and Republicans were called "Tarcomeds" and "Nacilbupers."

Maybe Kanye West had the right idea, after all.

—7—

One unique thing about my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is we have a prophet and apostles leading it. This weekend, we have a chance to hear from them at what we call general conference.

Like most people, I'll be watching the broadcast on YouTube instead of going in person, but here's a picture of what the conference center in Salt Lake City looks like:

With the combination of COVID and all the extensive construction going on, there will be a lot fewer people in the building this time.

I think it's a safe bet that most of the prophet and apostles' messages will be about how to find peace in an increasingly turbulent world. The talks are given in sessions on Saturday from 12-2 EST and 4-6 EST, with an extra session on Saturday night from 8-10 EST, and regardless of your religion you're welcome to watch and take whatever wisdom you find in them.

And yes, I did go shopping yesterday to buy a bunch of snacks.

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