Signs of Aging

This morning we woke up early to drop off our car at the mechanic's for the annual mandatory inspection before tag renewal. Since we've been on holiday schedule, my brain was not cooperating with my body in responding to the alarm and getting ready. Somehow my body managed to get up, take a shower, and put clothes on while the brain hit the snooze button laying on the pillow warm and fast asleep as we left the house.

Jonathan, being the 11 year old independent that he is, has taken to modifying his store bought clothing to express his unique style by cutting holes in his long sleeve shirts at the inside wrists so he can slip his thumbs through. At this point you're wondering whether I've mistakenly combined two posts and confirmed the title in an unintentional way. No, this is all very intentional.

As we are pulling into the mechanics I notice my sleeves are unusually short. Yet another layering tee lost to dryer shrinkage. But wait, what are these holes in the sleeves?


















People! I can fit my son's clothes! Now I feel old and old!

But I think he may be onto something with these sleeve holes. It's like having gloves connected to your shirt. Hmmm....

From Johnny to Grandpa: "Let's have a jam session when I come to visit!"

Johnny's New Guitar from Denise Collazo on Vimeo.

Gonads, Vulva, and Nematodes! Now that I have your attention....

Earlier this week I got to visit my friend, Jeanyoung, at her office. She is a geneticist currently working in cancer research. She is one of those people who is humbly brilliant. Regular people need to have a dictionary and scientific thesaurus to reference while in a conversation with her. Not pretentious, just super smart. What is common knowledge to her is rocket science to me so I ask a lot of questions. And when I feel too dumb to ask anymore questions I just smile and nod.

We spent a few hours looking under the microscopes at the tiny worms she is currently working with. They are barely visible to the human eye. Maybe the size of a tiny piece of lint and she dissects them to look at their gonads! (I know you were wondering when I would get to that part.) Does this seem crazy to anyone else? DISSECTING WORMS THE SIZE OF LINT???? How do you make tools that small or microscopes that powerful? How do you keep your hands steady enough to make precision cuts? And more importantly, what do worm gonads have to do with cancer? I don't have the answers to any of these questions yet. I'm sure Jeanyoung explained it to me but I used my smile and nod technique. I did get a lesson in the anatomy and sexuality of these worms which I found to be just as fascinating.












I came away from my field trip more in awe of God's complex design even down to a single cell. Just as the universe is infinitely vast in the realms of outer space, so it is on the genetic level. In addition, I'm blown away at how He created us humans in His image! I see that fact expressed in a new light when I look at scientists. Insatiable curiosity to discover and understand. Persistent pursuit of new innovations. We humans are unique in this way.

Out of the mouths of underclassmen...

Manny speaks in the public schools on abstinence where he is affectionately known to the students as "the sex guy". They send Manny notes after his presentation and they're always fun to read. Here are some of my favorites as written, without grammar or spelling corrections, from the last batch he received:

Dear Mr. Collazo,

"I'm the blonde girl that screamed out penis when no one else would. Yeah, you remember me. that was probably the best health class Ive had. I just want to say your son was cute....just kidding...or was I??? Anyway, Thank You!"

"Dude you are the first person I met that made the "sex" talk fun!"

"Thankyou so! much! Your speech was informational and freaking hiloriouse! It was real, not just some over used speach about how sex is bad and blah, blah, blah...P.S. sorry about the spelling."

"...You know how those annoying Jonas Brothers continue to rant about their great abstinence and purity rings, you need to show a few things to those Jonas Brothers plus your extremely funny, how come your not on tv?"

"...I shall remember what you implanted in my brain about hands off, clothes on, and don't lay down."

Milestones

Manny (Jr.) was going over the list of legal and cultural age markers which spurred a game of sorts; what are the privileges (debatable) of different ages?
This is what we came up with:

5 years- start school
under 12 years- order off the kids menu, cheaper movie tix, and cheaper admission prices
14 years- get a job
16 years- drivers license
18 years- vote and smoke
21 years- chug a beer
25 years- rent a car (without the extra fee) and run for a seat in the House of Reps
30 years- run for the Senate
35 years- run for President
55 years- Senior discounts
65 years- collect Social Security

Can you think of any others?