disconcerting /adj./ upsetting the composure of. frustrating. causing a person to be self-consciously distressed. embarrassing or confusing. mortifying. bewildering. being thrown for a loop.
disconcerting /adj./ 1. For whatever reason, this has always been one of my favorite words. I love a word that is (all by itself) a little revelation of its definition. You can feel it's mortifying unease as the syllables break apart and switch directions on the way out of your mouth. So I was excited to spotlight it, but forgot about the uncanny and disconcerting way the word-of-the-week determines my destiny. As Amy commented: "last week when I saw "disconcerting" I knew it didn't bode well." I wish I had had the same sense.
disconcerting /adj./ 2. As I type this, it is disconcerting to realize that I can hardly remember back two weeks. I remember I was going to comment on the disconcerting economy, the disconcerting lack of sagacious national leaders, the disconcerting speed that entropy takes over in my house, and the disconcerting bad grades my children continue to bring home in math and spelling. I am starting to get the disconcerting feeling that I have very little "real control" over anything.
disconcerting /adj./ 3. Last Saturday I volunteered myself and David (he was briefly disconcerted by this) for the Prop 102 campaign. Here in Arizona there is a proposition on the November ballot to change the Arizona constitution to say that "only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state." So we went and worked at a phone bank for about three hours on Saturday afternoon to poll registered voters about how they were voting and encourage those in support of the proposition to be sure to vote. Admittedly this was a bit scary calling people I didn't know, and there were a few disconcerting calls, but for the most part I felt good about doing what we could to hold the moral fabric of our state together. Plus, I thought that being a "political activist" might make me that much more attractive to David. He now reports that I'm irresistible.
disconcerting /adj./ 4. Caleb decided to enter an aerospace contest with some of his friends from school, in which they have to make a model of a space station for 100 people to live on for 2 years. He asked me to be the "parent coach." It has been a bit disconcerting to discover all the variables he has to address in the project: food, water, power, oxygen, waste removal including carbon dioxide, the effects of weightlessness, docking, communication, radiation protection, and the list goes on. This week we worked on air supply (that seemed like the most critical first step). We made some progress, but quite frankly, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of the project and secretly think Caleb would find it disconcerting to discover that I got a C in my organic chemistry class. I'm seriously considering flying him out to his grandpa's house for a crash chemistry course.
disconcerting /adj./ 5. Caleb and Olivia performed their musical number (Olivia singing, Caleb on the violin) in sacrament meeting at church this last Sunday. It went well until the disconcerting moment when Olivia stopped singing. She just stood there as Caleb finished the song and later said through her tears that she "just went blank." I hugged her and assured her that it was beautiful and no one could tell that that wasn't how it was supposed to be. So many people came up afterwards and told her how well she did that she was on cloud nine before we left church. On the way home she told us that the bad part was forgetting the words, but the good part was all the compliments. She kept track. And counted 37.
disconcerting /adj./ 6. The end of my canning season came this week. Last week I made what I thought would be a year's supply of raspberry jam, but then made the disconcerting discovery that this wouldn't be near enough, when my family finished off an entire bottle at dinner that night. And I was also a bit disconcerted when, after kissing David hello and after having him admire my jamming, he said offhandedly, "So what did you do today?" Um. Do you want to rethink that question?
And in a wholly brave move, I tried canning spaghetti sauce this year. (I usually just do the tomatoes halved, but I had 60extra pounds of romas and decided to try something new.) I find the process of box to sauce to jar nothing short of miraculous. The only disconcerting thing about it was that these babies turned out to be about $5 a jar. (Don't ask me how Prego does it, but I'm suspecting it might not all be real tomatoes in there? How's that for disconcerting?) My only consolation was that I added real sausage to the sauce as well, so it's ready to go as is. I was admittedly proud of the endeavor, despite the disconcerting price tag.
disconcerting /adj./ 7. I got a UTI this weekend and if you don't know what that is, then you have been blessed and you can blissfully skip this definition, because the rest of this won't make sense. All Sunday I kept having that disconcerting feeling that it was coming and then by evening I was completely miserable and David ran to the pharmacy for antibiotics. I didn't feel like myself until Wednesday and then had to face my house, which nearly took the wind out of my sails again. It was a disconcerting combination of the regular weekly mess plus two serious days of neglect, not to mention the laundry, some of which I had to wash twice, because people had just walked over it rather than wearing it or (heaven forbid) folding it after I washed it the first time. It is nice to know I'm needed, but a bit disconcerting to think about how these darlings would survive without me.
