Ten Things I've Learned in the Past Month

10. Where I used to cluck sadly at bedraggled parents with their toddler on a leash, I now ponder the legitimate use of a (very small) Taser for getting mine in formation. Or at least into their carseats.

9. If you casually mock Axe body spray over the years, you will accidentally buy scented oils labeled Lavender & SomethingSomething, but they'll just smell like Axe body spray.

8. The most polished etiquette cannot replace manners. When you meet darkness in its most civilized forms, run. When warmth and light come in the distressing disguise of the poor or suffering, embrace. This takes practice.

7. I can no longer tolerate Kandinsky.

6. Conjunto is REAL.

5. Packing sack lunches and dispatching children for activities means the dishwasher can take three days (!) to fill up, which feels like being on vacation.

4. There is some redeemable value in Christian rock music. That might be the most embarrassing sentence I've ever written.

3. Polish people and Minnesotans have a lot in common -- the good stuff.

2. GoPro videos taken by children are funny. But they do seem like pointless "home movies" --- since the child is nowhere to be seen. Tree climbing is predictable and needs no narration. And I don't know why ice fishing needs to be re-enacted at all. Give me a stranger's clichéd travel slideshow any day.

1. Typing resumes for friends is gratifying, for selfish and unselfish reasons. I love to type and hear life stories, linger over design (all the best fonts are named for composers, have you noticed that?) and see the final product bring happiness to the person it describes.

PS This week's doddery (mine) brought to you by Her Excellence Jen, at Conversion Diary.