Life always makes me say "oh."

What does it mean when you can actually feel the mental brick wall you keep having to bash through when you’re on a steeply pitched uphill learning curve? Fie on USPS barcodes and the pony express pony they rode in on. Are there people who absorb new levels of technical complexity with ease, or does everyone’s brain hurt now and then?

For my next trick, I will help Olivia get her new MacBook up and at ‘em. What wonders await? (Frankly, this should be easy. It’s my...what...8th Mac set-up?) But even remembering where the heck I put the Office:Mac install software seemed taxing...as it does every time. Had we not missed exercise this morning, I could have aching triceps to balance my brain.

Here is one good and unexpected thing: We got, with the Mac, a “free” iPod Touch, and “free” printer. Which means not really free right then and there, but there’s a rebate. I hate rebates. I hate rebate forms. Usually you need 3 receipts, a UPC code sliced off the actual box, several copies of everything, and reading glasses to fill in all the numbers. But I have never experienced such a quick and simple rebate submission as the online Apple one I did this afternoon. Go to apple.com. Enter receipt id#. Hit go. Done. This is something Apple is definitely doing right.

Today 3 tuition packs came in the mail, from St. Mary’s. 3? Wait a minute...didn’t someone just graduate? I remember something about a blue mortarboard and rain...but there it is, on my desk with the undergrad ones: Math for teachers. Exceptionality. Educational Psychology. So, does this mean we maybe are thinking about the Masters in teaching? Thank goodness I’m not the first to find these things out. What a burdensome drag that would be. (smirky smile at Zoto, who will read this.) At least I was only the second to find out that I may keep all children on my health insurance policy until they are 25. No, seriously. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I mean, if your brain explodes like mine is about to (thanks to postal barcodes) and we have to replace it with silicon, (which could be pricey I’m guessing,) it will be much cheaper if we just have insurance on you in the first place.

We had Chipotle for lunch. We like Chipotle. We do not eat there infrequently. It tends to be busy, and your orders are processed individually, assembly-line style, as you advise the Chipotlers on what else they should toss on your tortilla. I got to the the cashier, people piling up behind me. There is my burrito, waiting. I turn to Jeff, behind me. “Which is your salad?” I ask. “I haven’t ordered yet,” he replies. But wait. He’s behind me. We’ve reached the cashier. We’re 12 feet from the person he was supposed to tell, and the throng is getting heavier. I say to the guac-girl “He forgot to order his salad down there.” She seems to understand, issues a quick command to the guy at the starting end, and they’ve fixed the flub in fifteen seconds flat. It went well. Later, Olivia says to me: “That’s why you make Jeffy go before you.” Yes, indeed.