May 31, Benjamin

  1. Today I found out that I’m sitting at a 4.0 in my stats class going into the final.  Yippee. That went well because I’m freaking brilliant, and I care now that I’m 32.

2. Today I found out that I’m sitting at a 4.0 in my spanish class going into the final.  Yippee. That went well because I’m freaking brilliant, and I care now that I’m 32.

3. Today Jim commented on this blog, which means that he is probably occasionally reading it, which rocks because he’s a really kewl person whom I rather like. That went well because I started the blog, and because I have such an amazing and brilliant personality that I attract other people with amazing and brilliant personalities to hang out with me and read my stuff. (I’d start to list them, but then I’d leave someone out, which would suck. Just know that if you are reading this, you are clearly an amazing and brilliant person, and what’s more, you have an amazing and brilliant and unique, and astounding, heart wrenching, profoundly moving story, which I would *totally and completely* love to hear in part or in whole, anytime!  And I mean that. Just email me and we can set up a time.) =)

I think this little exercise might be starting to work for me.

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May 30 Benjamin

1. I think I did reasonably well on my stats test this morning. That went well (I think) because I actually did do the studying
2. I had a really fun time with Tony, Tracy, John, Brett, Megan and Renee at the final Alpha dinner thing tonite. That went well because I went and formed relationships over this past 14 weeks or so, and worked on listening, and they are really amazing people.
3. … (think simple Benjamin–simple) …. um…I found a good quote from Jim Henderson today which was comforting to me. That went well because, well, because I hang around electronically with Jim and friends.

 Added on May 31:  Here’s the quote that I found comforting:

Here’s how people feel whenever they enter a new experience—alone and stupid. Churches need to “attack” those feelings by training Christians (the non-professional and non-highly motivated kinds) to simply say “hi” to someone who they have not noticed before.

The part I found comforting was the bit about “alone and stupid”. I also found the bit about “highly motivated kinds” hilarious, and humor is also comforting. Sorry to overanalyze. I’m experiencing end of quarter brain squish.

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May 30 Beth

1. On my drive home from work this afternoon, even though it took (!) an hour and fifteen minutes, I got to let a grand total of five cars into my lane. I don’t really know why I consider that a blessing, but it makes me feel good about myself! 🙂 This happened because 520 is one busy freeway! And because people need to change lanes, I guess…

2. One of my coworkers invited me out to lunch today. This happened because she forgot to bring her lunch, and because she’s friendly. I was just the lucky recipient. And it was a lovely day to eat on an outside patio.

3. Tonight, after Carl got home from work, we walked to Gasworks Park, and spent some lovely time soaking up the sunshine and giggling for no good reason, and watching boats drive by while blasting their music. This happened because I was *very* insistent that we go to the park after he got home, because I was patient while he played his requisite 30 minutes of video games instead of nagging, and because it was a lovely, superhot day.

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May 29 Benjamin

May 29 Benjamin

1. Today I dumpstered dozens (which, by the way, is a strange word. You can say “dozens”—it’s considered an acceptable form for the plural of “dozen”, when it’s … unspecific. But (at least in the parts of this country that I’m from), you would *not* say, for instance, “five dozens” or “8 dozens”. Instead you would say “five dozen” or “eight dozen”, as in “I’d like 3 dozen doughnuts (or, as is increasingly used in this country, “donuts”)”. So it’s “dozens” for the plural when unspecific, but “dozen” for the plural when specific. And that’s just weird. But I digress.) of beautiful, aromatic red and white roses—36 of them, to be exact. I guess they were specific to memorial day and thus were no longer saleable. Or something. Now they are gracing our counter/table in two vases, looking gorgeous. That went well because I checked the dumpster, and because I persisted in the face of a rude onslaught of “You shouldn’t be in our trash” and such from a nasty horrible manager type person at the local supermarket. (well, actually, I humbly acquiesced, and then came back later when she was gone)

2. I got 12 out of 12 on my psych stats quiz this morning. That’s went well because I did the reading twice.

3. I had a brillig time at the park with my two lovely daughters and my lovely wife, lying on the grass in the late afternoon sun, and then playing freeze tag on that same grass with the three of them. At one point my wife and I were just laying there soaking up the delicious warmth and laze of the sun, and my two lovely daughters, giggling uproariously, ran over and flung themselves on top of us with wild glee and abandon. Awesome. That went well because I somehow mustered the energy (mostly from a sense of “oughty/should”, which I generally purposefully contradict with great glee and force, but not this time) to herd us all down to the park to run some of the pre-bedtime wiggles out.

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May 29

Today was all around lovely!

1. It was my first day of work at a new job, which is certainly a blessing, both financially and well, sanity-wise, if we’re being honest. This happened because I interviewed well, because I was prepared with questions, because I wasn’t freaked out by going to interview at the same company twice, and because the rest of the people at my work are very friendly. And because I like learning things, and I was definitely doing a lot of learning today. Anyway, yay!

2. We went out to lunch, and our tech guy paid for the whole group! Another blessing, particularly since we’ve been feeling a little cash-strapped lately (partly due to my lack of employment for the last couple months). And it was Chinese buffet 🙂 This happened because, well, tech guy is generous?

3. It is a beautiful day outside, and I got to drive back and forth from Bellevue across the floating bridge, which means that I got to enjoy the sunshine sparkling off the water, and all the boaters enjoying playing in the waves. I suppose this happened because I wasn’t too busy cursing the guy in front of me for whatever traffic infraction to notice the gorgeous day, and I suppose because God made a beautiful day? 🙂 Just a blessing without much of my influence on it, I guess.

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May 28 Benjamin

1. I got to hang out with a bunch of kewl people from Union at Matthew’s Beach and had a brilliant time.  That went well because I got invited, and meg encouraged me, and I got off my butt and went.

 2. I got to taste a yummy beer I hadn’t previously tasted–called haymaker pale ale.  That went well because I got to meet Tony at Alpha, and Tony rocks, and he has a gift for choosing yummy beers, and he brought this beer and offered me one.

3. I got stuck on the following problem, then in the process of trying to post about my stuckness on the class discussion board online, I managed to get unstuck and figure it out.  The answer is 48 =). (that is, with class size lower than 48, Mark can relax because his 25% could just be error. But with class size bigger than 48, he should start to worry) That went well cause I stuck to it and I’m damn good at maths. If you really wanna know the process by which we get to 48, email me at Benjamin at gmail.com, and I’ll send you the answer. (I know, I know, I’m a freakazoid wierdo cause I *like* this stuff.) (by the way, it doesn’t require a trial and error approach. Once you reduce it to a formula it’s amazingly simple, actually)

 Mark is a new instructor who has just received his teaching evaluations from his first course. He is really disappointed at how many students said “definitely not” when asked whether they would recommend his course to a friend.  Mark goes to seek the counsel of Susan, an experienced member of his department who tells him not to worry.  In her experience, even the best teachers tend to have around 15% of students say “definitely not” in response to that question.  Mark says, “but 25% of my students said that!”.  Susan responds, “that’s just sampling error.  You had a small class.  Next time you might have no one say it, but it doesn’t mean you’d have done a better job.”  How big would Mark’s class have to be before he’d have to worry about observing 25% of students responding “definitely not” when asked if they’d recommend his class to a friend?  (This problem may require a trial and error approach).

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May 27 Benjamin

1. Yeehaw! So i feel immensely stoked today that Beth joined in adding her three blessings here. I was inspired by the idea of proving “The Seattle freeze” idea wrong, and intend to take up this project as well. Plus, it led me to imagine a future in which even *more* bloggers are leaving blessings here occasionally or regularly, and how pumped I’d be by reading them all. That went well because I started this blog, and I met Beth through Shemaiah, and she decided to post. Mega welcome Beth!

2. I dumpstered two beautiful bags of delicious grapes at a local supermarket. This was stokish because honestly (and this next is fairly unusual, but not *super* unusual) if I had had a choice as to what I might have liked to find in the dumpster, grapes would have been near the top of the list. This happened because I am friends with B&P, who taught us to dumpster, and I’ve gradually managed to get over my … shyness about it. Yummer!

3. I made mac and white sauce (that is, homemade mac and cheese) for dins and everyone loved it. That went well because, well, because I used half a stick of butter for the white sauce (shhhh, don’t tell megs), which is the key to a beautiful thick white sauce, and because Megan taught me how to make white sauce when we were first married, but I’ve perfected it with much practice =)

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May 27

1. I was most blessed today by the services of a kind stranger, who offered online his services as a notary, for the simple price of a cup of coffee. My husband and I are in the process of selling our house back in Illinois, and while our realtor had sent all the paperwork on our end in a large obvious envelope, which we duly signed, notarized and took care of a week and a half ago, the buyer’s realtor had sent his documents in a regular business envelope with a simple “National City Mortgage” on the front. We thought it was junk mail, but had the good sense to open it to check before tossing it. Once we found the paperwork last night, and realized we didn’t have much time until our closing on Wednesday, I frantically dug through Seattle’s livejournal, having noted a weekend notary post earlier in the week. So, I guess it happened  because I was attentive, but mostly because this kind soul was happy to provide a public service, and because we were sensible enough not to toss our “junk mail” without first double-checking it.

2.  My husband and I had two good conversations today in the car about important topics. And that happened because I was confident enough to bring the subjects up, and because he was willing to listen and respond- fortunately neither of the conversations ended in anger, which can sometimes happen when discussing volatile topics (like a cat who pees on *everything*). Anyway, it was excellent.

3. Not only was the notary good enough to sign our paperwork, but he and his companion were also very amiable, which was really nice. We had a good friendly conversation over coffee with them, and with lots of smiles. Us newbies to the land of Seattle enjoy proving that the Seattle Freeze is a myth, and these two guys certainly helped us on our way to breaking the stereotype 😀 I supposed it happened because Seattle actually does produce friendly people, and because we were just as willing to listen and ask questions as they were 🙂

But man, I totally wish I’d gotten the bee swarm 😀 That’s pretty awesome, if you ask me!

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May 26

1. Today I got to see a bee swarm.  That was awesome.  Megan yelled out “Benjamin, there are a huge number of bees right out in the street–they look dangerous!”  So I ran to look and there must have been thousands of them all flying together in a swarm right out the front of our house, making an amazing humming noise.  And then the started coming toward the house, and we quick stick closed the windows and got the girls inside, but they went right over the house and through our neighbors backyard.  I wiki’d bee swarm and found out that they are off to fin a new place for a new hive–their way of reproducing the hive.  Very kewl.  That went well cause it’s spring and so they swarmed and I ran to pay attention when Megan called out and maybe cause the universe conspired to give me the opportunity =)

2. I got to see 3 beavers and 5 baby ducklings at dusk today at our local wetland park–a five minute walk from our house.  That went well cause megsie and I agreed to walk down there with the girls at dusk and followed through.

3. okay–the ducklings were only a couple days old, I’m thinking. and they and their mother came right over next to us and mum looked up at us as if she were hoping for food or something. And the beavers live in a beaver house they’ve built *right* next to the walkway for humans, and we got to see one of them pop underwater and then through the hole into her home, and then back out again, 3 times! and we got to hear and watch her and one of the other beavers scraping the bark off of smallish sticks they had in their possession–I guess they were eating eat.  It makes a kewl scraping ish sound. So the beavers and the ducklings should count for two blessings.

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May 25

 I’m new- I don’t have much to introduce myself with, but I’m 25, married, recently transplanted to Seattle, and that’s about all I really have to say, I guess. Except that if Ben was cheating a little, I’m cheating a lot. Here are my three blessings from yesterday.

1. I got to meet an online friend for the first time yesterday, and that went well because I kept up with her schedule changes, and because I’d set aside time to meet her.

2. I went to a party and stayed talking to friends until the wee hours of the night, which is one of my favorite things in the world to do (the talking, not the partying). This happened because we were invited, rsvped, and rather than leaving when most of the group did, I decided to come back and hang around and because I did my best to listen to the other people rather than just talking about myself.

3. My husband’s glasses were repaired for free yesterday! I don’t know exactly why it happened, other than that I chose to use the Lenscrafters I noticed in the mall the other day, but it was definitely a high point, particularly after expecting at least a $50 charge. Yay Lenscrafters and the nice girl who restrung his glasses for free!

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