1. Watching House as I tried to write a 15-page research paper made me think that one of the perks of doing genealogy is that if I ever get sick, especially if I ever have some crazy disease that needs to be diagnosed by the country's leading diagnostician, is that I'll be able to give the doctors a familial medical history going back to my great-great-great-great-grandmother. (She died of old age, so she tells us nothing, but still.)
2. Speaking of medical histories, a few years ago, I broke my nose. After a week or two, I still seemed like I was congested and runny, for no good reason, and my mom made me see an ENT. The form asked for a family medical history, and I gave a brief one - Dad had sinus problems, sister has asthma, grandmother died of breast cancer. She asked for more details. And more details. And more details. I had skipped the part about what kind of health my "aunt" was in, because I have *9* aunts. She asked how old each one was, what exact health problems each had ever suffered from. But when it really started to get ridiculous was when she had to know whether my twin aunts were identical or fraternal. For a broken nose. Could someone with medical training please explain how the type of twins my mother's younger sisters are could possibly have any bearing on the depressed fracture I got from being being headbutted during Judo class?*
3. Irony: having been too busy last week to put together 7 Quick Takes, but realizing that I posted *9* quick short little 1-3 sentence posts in the days surrounding last Friday.
4. I opened up my Gmail account when I was studying abroad in Florence. Because of this, when it takes a moment for me to sign in or sign out, the screen reads, "Attendere prego" instead of "Wait please" (which I assume is what it would say if it were speaking to me in English). I have found this endlessly amusing every single time it's happened for the past 2 years.
5. Speaking of Italy, I am dying to go back. I didn't have the stereotypical "best three months of my life, I never wanted to leave" study abroad experience, and I couldn't wait to get home. For a long time afterwards, I thought I was done with Italy. As nice a place as it might be, I couldn't imagine going back without reliving the soul-crushing loneliness of that trip.
Last week, I saw the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the family travels to Italy, and I've been pining for Italia ever since. I think I'm over my study abroad-induced phobia, and instead I'm missing the relatives I met while I was there, remembering how swimming in Mediterranean was so much more fun than any other swimming I've ever done, crying over commercials for Barilla pasta, contemplating taking a summer course to brush up on my Italian, and sending Rhett links that have pictures of beautiful places in Italy in an attempt to convince him that we need to start saving now, because our honeymoon is going to be a very long, very comprehensive, and very expensive Italian tour.
6. Just yesterday, I was thinking about how the pursuit of genealogy is chiefly involved in finding documentation to back up what you already know and disseminating information to other people. The "Ah-ha Moments" are few and far between. Then I happened upon an Ancestry.com member tree which I'm almost positive records, though it spells her maiden name wrong, the descendants of my great-great-grandmother's older sister. I literally got up and danced around the living the room, a little butt-wiggling, arms-flailing move that never would have seen the light of day if my roommate had been home.
7. As you may be able to tell, I spent the past day doing genealogy. This is part of a vicious cycle, wherein immediately after I hand in an assignment, I feel that I both need and deserve a break. Then I take a break until a day or two my next assignment is due and am forced to work for constantly, to the extent of not sleeping and eating only Ritz crackers with nothing on them for days at a time. As soon as that is done, predictably, feel that I need a break until immediately before my next assignment is due. The next week is going to suck.
*FYI, headbutting is not a legitimate Judo technique.
2. Speaking of medical histories, a few years ago, I broke my nose. After a week or two, I still seemed like I was congested and runny, for no good reason, and my mom made me see an ENT. The form asked for a family medical history, and I gave a brief one - Dad had sinus problems, sister has asthma, grandmother died of breast cancer. She asked for more details. And more details. And more details. I had skipped the part about what kind of health my "aunt" was in, because I have *9* aunts. She asked how old each one was, what exact health problems each had ever suffered from. But when it really started to get ridiculous was when she had to know whether my twin aunts were identical or fraternal. For a broken nose. Could someone with medical training please explain how the type of twins my mother's younger sisters are could possibly have any bearing on the depressed fracture I got from being being headbutted during Judo class?*
3. Irony: having been too busy last week to put together 7 Quick Takes, but realizing that I posted *9* quick short little 1-3 sentence posts in the days surrounding last Friday.
4. I opened up my Gmail account when I was studying abroad in Florence. Because of this, when it takes a moment for me to sign in or sign out, the screen reads, "Attendere prego" instead of "Wait please" (which I assume is what it would say if it were speaking to me in English). I have found this endlessly amusing every single time it's happened for the past 2 years.
5. Speaking of Italy, I am dying to go back. I didn't have the stereotypical "best three months of my life, I never wanted to leave" study abroad experience, and I couldn't wait to get home. For a long time afterwards, I thought I was done with Italy. As nice a place as it might be, I couldn't imagine going back without reliving the soul-crushing loneliness of that trip.
Last week, I saw the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the family travels to Italy, and I've been pining for Italia ever since. I think I'm over my study abroad-induced phobia, and instead I'm missing the relatives I met while I was there, remembering how swimming in Mediterranean was so much more fun than any other swimming I've ever done, crying over commercials for Barilla pasta, contemplating taking a summer course to brush up on my Italian, and sending Rhett links that have pictures of beautiful places in Italy in an attempt to convince him that we need to start saving now, because our honeymoon is going to be a very long, very comprehensive, and very expensive Italian tour.
6. Just yesterday, I was thinking about how the pursuit of genealogy is chiefly involved in finding documentation to back up what you already know and disseminating information to other people. The "Ah-ha Moments" are few and far between. Then I happened upon an Ancestry.com member tree which I'm almost positive records, though it spells her maiden name wrong, the descendants of my great-great-grandmother's older sister. I literally got up and danced around the living the room, a little butt-wiggling, arms-flailing move that never would have seen the light of day if my roommate had been home.
7. As you may be able to tell, I spent the past day doing genealogy. This is part of a vicious cycle, wherein immediately after I hand in an assignment, I feel that I both need and deserve a break. Then I take a break until a day or two my next assignment is due and am forced to work for constantly, to the extent of not sleeping and eating only Ritz crackers with nothing on them for days at a time. As soon as that is done, predictably, feel that I need a break until immediately before my next assignment is due. The next week is going to suck.
*FYI, headbutting is not a legitimate Judo technique.
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