First allusions, and an apology for yesterday.
When David read the post he said, "Who's Valdez?"
I said, "Just keep reading."
A bit later he said, "Who's Reuben Lands?"
"Reuben Land, in the plural. Just keep reading."
And then, "You think you're a Swede? You are definitely not a Swede."
"Not a Swede. Just Swede."
He read a couple more sentences. "Wait, who is the she that bangs on the wall?"
"She is Swede."
He got to the end. "So wait. Now who's Valdez again?"
I could only sigh and mutter, "Never mind."
I can only say that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Secondly, punctuation.
Yesterday my sister and I had to write a few emails for our body image class. One of them was to someone that we both have great admiration and love for, a person we would normally never have the opportunity to write to. At the end of the email we made a little joke and added a smiley face with punctuation. You know the kind: :). Yes, really. I have no idea what got into me. Nerves, I think. I mean not only do I have a personal moral objection against using punctuation in such a literal way, it seems embarrassingly childish especially given the respect I have for the person we were writing, like I am some immature texter with no real grasp of the English language.
After I sent the email I stared at that smiley face, aghast at what I had done. I always say that if the person can't tell that you meant it to be funny it needs to be rewritten, that you just haven't used the right words. I rewrote that sentence about a hundred times last night and regretted (oh how I regretted) the use of that punctuation. Sheer madness.
I can hardly believe that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Lastly, plot.
Olivia's lungs are making their way out of the soup and into a light, gentle wheezing now and then. She even managed to read her verses of scripture this morning without sounding like she'd run a half-marathon. We were in the brief Book of Omni, which always needs a roadmap, I think. The kids looked at me cross-eyed, with lots of "Wait, what?"s as I tried to explain the plot, the comings and goings of entire civilizations that happen over the course of about six verses, the introduction of new characters and new settings that pop up without warning. Even Mormon had to add a brief word of explanation after it was all over. It required a more extensive explanation than we had time for and so I gave it up as a bad job and a discussion for another day, and administered antibiotics and albuterol instead.
I can only think that Amaleki (who, like me, was working without an editor) thought it was a good idea at the time.
And after yesterday, I have all kinds of empathy for him.