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As Justin and I were lazily flipping through channels Saturday night, we happened upon what I believe to be the most surreal scene I’ve yet encountered. Admittedly, I’m only 23 and hopefully have many years left in which to best myself, but still. This was freaky.

Initial scene: A group of brightly-dressed clowns in what appears to be a third-world children’s hospital. The clowns are playing with the children, who are laughing and enjoying themselves.

Cut to scene: A young girl, probably around seven years old, lies screaming on an operating table. Her body has been horribly burned to the point that her flesh in many places is unrecognizably charred. Her mother stands off to the side, sobbing. While the doctor examines her back, which seems to have taken the brunt of the damage, a clown tries to distract the girl with antics. As the doctor begins cutting charred chunks of flesh from her body, inducing screams of an entirely new decibel from the girl, the clown holds the child’s arms to keep her from fighting off the doctor while simultaneously trying to get the girl to laugh. Another clown wanders into the room playing a somber tune on a violin.

Justin and I were transfixed for a good ten minutes, stuck somewhere between sympathy, revulsion, compassion, and a desire to laugh at the seemingly impossible scene. Once the girl was bandaged and taken home by her mother, we changed the channel and watched a good fifteen minutes of the home shopping network. We needed a touchstone of normalcy. :)

After a bit of online searching, I’m guessing he and I caught a portion of an Italian movie/documentary called Clown in Kabul. How we stumbled upon this, or why it was playing at 12:30am on a Sunday morning, I don’t know. But I think it may have numbed my surreality sensors for a bit.

Before my mom blows a gasket or something more severe, I figured I’d better post this: Lilly meeting mom and dad for the first time, at least from the outside. Sandy looks tired. :)

My mom is still posting half a dozen pictures daily, so if you’d like to keep up the LillyWatch, I would suggest reading her site. I don’t have the stamina to post daily, I’m afraid. :) Also, she has daily access to the kid, and I do not. However, I am fully planning on finally meeting her in person this afternoon, after a bit of homework. Last night’s ice had me a little worried, but the cars out my window seem to be handling themselves well enough.

I fear I have become a coat person. The most fearsome part of this is, I wasn’t even aware such a thing as a ‘coat person’ existed. My last two trips to Target for things such as conditioner or notebook paper have resulted in me buying a coat at absurdly low (but still more than I should probably be spending) prices. I now own four coats that I can find, which is three more than most guys I know, and doesn’t count my suit jacket, my hoodie, or my Eddie Bauer jacket which I can’t find anywhere. The two I’ve owned for quite some are a black trench coat which doesn’t get a lot of wear time (maybe when I start wearing suits) and a really heavy black/gray insulated winter coat given me by my grandma, if I remember right. The first trip to Target, a couple of weeks ago, scored me a simple black button-up wool coat, which I bought mostly to make me look slightly more grown-up and professional when teaching. The coat was originally $89 or thereabouts (I think), and I got it for just under $30. The second trip, a few days ago, resulted in the purchase of a slender brown button-up leather jacket for $30, down from $120. It looks professional, but I could also wear it out on the weekends. Plus, it goes with my brown shoes (the main reason I talked myself into getting it). In other news, I also own four pairs of shoes: black (St. John’s Bay or some other such nonsense), brown (Birkenstock), white (workout shoes), and blue (sandals for around the house).

It’s always tough to decide what I can and cannot say about teaching. My other TA friends don’t seem to have that problem, or at least don’t let those worries slow them down much. However, I’m pretty damn easy to find on both Google and the ISU website, so I have to assume that by mid-semester a few of my students will have found and begun reading my blog. I’ve 52 of them this semester, and I’m teaching them all about blogs and the Internet, so the odds of a couple of them figuring out how to conduct a Google search seem fairly high. Plus, you know, I gave one kid my website address. It wasn’t my fault! They had an assignment to email me and ask me a question (an exercise in proper email etiquette), and his question was “what’s your URL?”. Sneaky punk.

That having been said, I don’t really have anything nasty to report as yet. Thus far, my students seem like fun and intelligent human persons, so we should get along fine. I’ve only had a couple awkward moments so far. A week ago I had them read a letter to the editor published on the Ayn Rand Institute website which gave several reasons why the US Government shouldn’t send money to the tsunami victims (but individuals, charities, and corporations still should). Several students agreed with the sentiment, stating that we should be spending so much money to rebuild our enemies. I’m thinking maybe a geography/history lesson couldn’t hurt. :) Then, a few days ago, we were having a discussion about the plausibility of national ID cards, and one student mentioned s/he liked the idea because it would help get all those illegal immigrants out of our country. Sensitivity to audience and kairos is something that we’ll have to work on over time, I guess. :)

I’d better start my daily routine (eat, shower, homework) so that I can head down to Des Moines before dusk. Adieu. :)

Okay, this isn’t a photo, so technically, I’m true to my word about posting all new photos in the last post. :) My mom sent me this video via email, and sense it sorta made me tear up a little (I’m blaming a wholly unrelated allergy to fox that I may explain later), I’m sharing it with you all. I present to you Lilly Mae, at the point at which I can only assume she has arrived home.

I’m entirely hoping I can visit her tomorrow sometime assuming my car cooperates (it hasn’t the last few days… the driver’s side door is frozen open, of all things) and I finish my homework at a decent hour (roughly 100 pages to go, and I’m still up at 4:30am, so we’ll see). If I can accomplish all that, I’ll finally be able to report on her cuteness firsthand. Until then, you’re going to have to rely on the extensive pictures on my mom’s website and the movie I have right here. Go ahead, contest me. :)

Goodnight all!

Update 3:02am: Mom now has some gorgeous photos of Lillian up on her site. Send some love that way. :)

Way to go, mom(s)! She’s already gotten a photo to me via the wonderful world of cameraphones. Presented below, for the world’s enjoyment, is (whom I’m presuming is; I haven’t seen a pic of the birth certificate) Lilly Mae. Lilly, world. World, Lilly.

Cute, no? Now that I see her without all the goop on her, I’m surprised at how accurate the ultrasound thingamabober was. Here’s what she looked like two months ago:

Just to keep up the reverse chronology thing, here’s the lovely girl at negative six months old:

I’ll post any more pictures I get within this post, just to keep the number of posts down. Have a great night, all. :)

My dad just called to give me the happy news! :) My niece was born at 6:33pm (or roughly half an hour ago), weighs 7 pounds, and has dark hair just like her father. I guessed correctly on the dark hair, at least. I figured she’d be a good pound heavier and torment my sister with a longer labor.

My mom’s taking pictures with her cameraphone, and I’ve requested access to them as soon as humanly possible. We’ll see how this goes. I’ll keep you all updated!