I have a soda addiction, a specific brand, that I've drank my whole life. Like, I have to have it in the house. It is very rare that I go a single day without having at least a can. Um, and that's not -- it's usually because I just can't get to the store. It's not 'cause I don't, like -- I put aside money to get it. Um. And so... There's this one day, where I, like... I, I had some at home still, and I was just going to the store to get a few things. But they had a really good sale on it... and it was 12-packs, you get -- had to get three of them. And because I’d only planned on getting a few things, I just had a basket of stuff. And so, I'm like, well, I don't want to go all the way to the front and get a cart just to get these things. I will take three 12-packs and stack them, along with my basket and check out --- and like, the soda section is relatively close to check out, so it was whatever, I was like, “Oh, you know, I'll carry it and check out.” And I did that successfully. And I put the basket back... on my way out the door, and I was like, "I don't... I don't really want to carry this in front of me like a pregnant woman. I think I can, I think I'll just hook one finger into one 12-pack, any the other finger in the other 12-pack on one hand, and then I'll carry my bag and the other 12-pack on the other hand." And, uh, you know, I'm hypermobile, and I'm really not that strong, and I should have known. I should have known. I felt it slipping as I'm heading out the door. And wouldn't you know it, my effort to try to hike my fingers back into the 12-packs ripped both of them. And so I had a bunch of cans of soda, all over the entryway of the store. Thank goodness none of them, like, split open. Like, that would have been just the cherry on top of public humiliation because like it was like a busy summer day. There are people everywhere watching this happen. And I... what I ended up doing is grabbing a small cart…

One of the questions this week asked, as always, if there is a headline that stuck out to us this week. Well, the headline that sticks out to me is one I just saw on WDIV Channel 4 Detroit, which is... there is a little bit of a phenomenon happening where people are sitting in their cars longer and longer and longer, whether it's sitting in front of their house, not going in for sometimes upwards of an hour, or whether it's driving to parking lots, or just pulling over somewhere and sitting there for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour. And the reason that headline struck me as so odd... is because my sister -- I had just -- this is funny. I just called my sister and I said, "Hey, what are you doing?" And she said, she said to me, "Hey what are YOU doing?" And I said, I said, "I'm just sitting in the Meijer parking lot. What are you doin'?" And she asked which one, and I told her which one, and she said, "Oh, I'm over at the other one sitting in the parking lot. Just doin' a lot of parking lot sitting today, aren't we?" So, I guess we are. You know, and what the article was saying, is that so many people are going at a hundred all the time. Whether it's physically, mentally, whatever, we're just non-stop in our heads, in our bodies. So, a lot of people, when they get home, before they go into their house, whether they live with people and they need a moment before it's time to face the wife and kids, or whether they live alone and they just need a moment to decompress in that car, before they walk inside and see the dishes that need to be done, and the pile of laundry waiting for them, you know? And the parking lot thing is because so many of us don't feel safe at home. Either you know, we're in shared living situations because income issues are so tight, or people are in unhappy marriages, or people are just mamas running from the kids 'cause they feel like they haven't got to breathe since the kids were born, whatever the case may be, people are pulling over in parking lots and just sitting there checking their emails, scrolling their phones, calling people, talking, you…

Well, my story on this is that my son and I were in Chicago together and we went to this nice little restaurant, really close to our hotel and several tables away like the way I, the table that I was facing, I could see these two young people talking to each other and I saw the, the woman hold up her hand and like point to it, like, you know, just like Michiganders do. And so I said to my son, "Oh, hey, I think there's two people over there. I'm guessing like they might be on a first date, because I think she just showed him where she lived in Michigan.” And I basically, you know, held up my hand and did the same thing, like I was just showing him what she was doing. Well, she happened to be looking up like my way when I did it and she saw me doing it and I guess saw me glancing her way and like our eyes kind of met. I just -- I think she instantly understood, like, I'm from Michigan, she's from Michigan. And I don't know, I just, we had this like little bit of fellowship there for a minute and I definitely felt like a real Michigander then.  It's funny because not growing up in Michigan I feel like there are a lot of Michigan things that I'm just not as familiar with that I might be if I had grown up here, you know, that's because I would have taken civics class in high school or because I'd be traveling around with my family. So there's still a lot of places like I don't know necessarily where they are like if you had to, if I had to hold up my hand like a mitten and point out where different towns are I not sure, I do great on it, but I do, I do, most of the time, I feel like a Michigander, I'm proud of this place, I stick up for this place. Glad I live here.

My parents were older, you know, by the time I came around and it's like they did do stuff, but they also didn't, if that makes sense. But I do remember a time, I think you know maybe it was for Easter or something. I’d gotten this, we’d gotten this plastic baseball bat which was a lot larger. It was probably like two or three times as round as a normal baseball bat. It was like for little kids. And some plastic balls with it, and we were in the backyard, and we kinda had these like, little you know, little makeshift diamonds or whatever they call them, and, it was my, you know, and we -- plus like my oldest nephews who were around my age and they lived with us for the most part. So it was like several of us and we all played, you know with and with my dad and stuff and older brother all played, like a little makeshift baseball, and so that was really memorable, a lot of fun.

This week you asked us if there was ever something that we thought would never end like an endless chain of scarves. And it made me think real hard. And I think a lot of us -- or at least me, thought that feeling would never end. That feeling when we were young. That feeling that we had all summer long, that feeling of wonderment, and curiosity, and excitement, and freedom. And, you know -- just your body didn't hurt. Your mind hadn't been broken by a thousand cruel people yet. And you really, you really felt like summer was never gonna end. You just felt like there would be a million more sunsets to ride your bikes into with your friends. You thought there would be a million more days to walk through the woods and you know pick up little weird stuff you find and carve your name into a million trees and you just, you feel like being a kid is never gonna end and then before you know it -- before, you know it truly, truly, truly -- you're middle-aged, and you're a grandma, and you wish, for one second, you could feel that way again. You wish you could just get up out of your wheelchair and start walking and never have to sit back down. But you could just walk down to the pond, down the street, down past the woods, and go swimming with your friends. Hang out by the gravel pit. Smoke a couple cigarettes even though you shouldn't. It really does feel like it's not gonna end back then. And I kind of wish it never did.

Years ago, my son had friends over all the time. Our house was a house where everybody was welcome and the kids would come over and they’d play video games, and they knew that somewhere down the line, I would make them a mystery ice cream sundae a mystery ice cream sundae would be something like, you take a tulip glass and you look in your cupboard. You see what's in there. If you have cereal, candy, all kinds of things, it was a surprise Sunday.  So, how does that apply to a coat? Well, the kids were here and there all the time and they came in they would either put the coats in the closet or just throw them on the floor someplace. We didn't care. Well, one day when we were looking for something in the closet, maybe even cleaning it ,we found this Nike jacket. We asked everyone, whose Nike jacket it was, it was in really good shape, size medium, and it's more than a Meijer jacket. And none of his friends would say it was their jacket, so then I went to my nephews, asked every single person. Nope, wasn't their jacket. It was just a mystery jacket that magically appeared in her closet. It has no owner but now I use it to work out in the yard because it's just very lightweight and it has enough water repellent on it but. Jackets just don't appear in your closet and it was the craziest thing because somebody was missing a very nice jacket.

Um, has there been anything particularly difficult this week? Yes. Yes, there has. I experienced a career first. I completely forgot about a meeting at school. Which doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, uh, from afar. You know, there’s always business meetings and professional developments or whatever. If this were just a random staff meeting, I would facepalm, apologize to my principal, and move on. This meeting involved a student. And it completely slipped my mind. I had no idea I was even missing the meeting, and it’s entirely my fault that I did. And that’s partially why it’s so crushing that I did as well. I felt awful, awful.  I have this tendency to believe that kids should be able to know that the people in their lives at least somewhere will be there for them when they’re supposed to be. In fact, that’s kind of a cornerstone of why I am an educator, is to be that person, even if that student or child doesn’t have anyone else who can be that person, you know? And so then for me to not be that person, I know this is just a one-time incident in which this occurred, but it still, it stung me. It hit me deep. Felt super badly and also, it was just kind of a strange feeling because I didn’t know I was missing it. I was even talking about the prospect of meeting with a co-worker while I was supposed to be in the meeting. I don’t think I have ever dropped the ball like that before in my life.  What I ended up doing is I, uh, I felt it was appropriate to write the child with whom I was supposed to be meeting alongside another educator. I felt it was appropriate to write them an apology note. I met with them in person the following morning, and just kinda laid it out there and was straight up. Like basically like, “Yeah. I’m so sorry I messed up. There’s no excuse, and I just want you to know that I’m sorry, you know? And I’ll -- I’m going to do better next time.”  And in a way I guess, as my principal put it out there after the fact, and it did kind of come to me as I was struggling the night before with how badly I felt for leaving…

I think the biggest regret I had with [Name] is that when we were in college he said, “Look, every year West Point has this really big formal and I would love if you would come up and like, be my date for it.” And I said no. And I had a couple of reasons. One is that I was always really interested in [Name] as a friend, and I felt like sometimes he wanted us to be more than that. In fact, I know he, he came out and told me one time that that was kind of how he felt, but I don’t remember if we’d had that conversation yet when we were in college. But I definitely sensed it. So that was one thing.  The other thing is that I couldn’t figure out the logistics. Which, I could have. I mean, I could have taken Amtrak up there. I could have flown up there. We would have worked it out. And I was also worried about the cost, ‘cause I knew I couldn’t foot it on my own, I was a college student, and I was going to have to ask my parents for more money to do it, and I felt really guilty about that expense. So when I told my mom about it, I think like sometime after it would have taken place, she told me, “We absolutely would have given you money to do something that special.” Um, and that I shouldn’t have been so, you know, I shouldn’t have like, I don’t wanna say ‘self edited’ or whatever, but, you know, I should have -- shouldn’t have held back. I should have asked them about it if I’d really wanted to go. And now I look back and I’m like, that -- like a chance to go and see West Point, which I’ve never seen, which is, you know, this very amazing historic, you know, institution and to get to go to an event like that, which not very many people probably get to do, like I really missed out on a chance. I really blew it. I wish, I wish I had done it. But, you know, it’s how it is.

Note: There is language that is excluded in the transcript but not excluded in the audio.  My grandma was like, the only female on the debate team in the 1940s when she was in high school. She was a pretty cool chick. And anyways, when she'd graduated from high school, you know, she was 17, and she desperately wanted to get away from her stepfather. And so that’s why she joined the Marines. And I guess to join the Marines, you had to be 18. But, um, she lied. She lied on her thing and said she was 18, but she was 17. And they didn’t check. She just -- they just were like, “Alright.” So she joined the Marine and then, uh, when she joined into the Marines, she got put in, um, what was it, Communications? She ended up learning Morse code and got to do stuff like that and she was -- she had a typewriter. I still have her typewriter that she used in the war, World War Two. And, um, there was a moment where they had, they asked, they were -- okay, so they were gonna be deployed overseas. She didn’t want to do that. She wanted to stay here. And the other place they were going was, I believe it was Hawaiʻi. I could be wrong, but I believe it was Hawaiʻi or some, somewhere, some island in the Pacific. I think it was Hawaiʻi. And she said, “Oh, that, that sounds better.”  And so they, they asked -- basically, the only thing that they needed from her was whether or not she could drive a jeep or, um, some vehicle that they had. Like a, an army vehicle. And if she could drive it then she didn’t have to get shipped out. She -- or she didn’t have to do whatever she didn’t want to do. Gosh, you know what, I wish I knew the exact details of this. But basically there was something she didn’t want to do. And the place that she wanted to go was Hawaiʻi. And so she lied again, and said “Yeah, yeah, I can drive, I can drive that. I know how to drive that.” And so they were like “Alright.” And so she like got into the car or the vehicle and just like totally bullsh***ed her way into, like, figuring out how to do…

I remember one time -- w- we would sell these things called course packs, which were basically just photocopies of, like, articles and stuff that the professor, like, hand-picked and put them in a big pack. Excuse me. And then the student -- and then they’d -- you know, they’d print them out and pay copyright on them and royalties to the authors of all the articles or whatever. And then you’d get charged accordingly, and it’d be, you know, a packet of a hundred papers or something. And that’s what all the course packs were.  And I remember somebody came in once, and they’re like, “I need the course pack.” I’m like, “What class is it for?” And she’s like, “For my writing course pack -- it’s my writing course pack.” I’m like, “Well, which course -- which one is it? Like, which class is it?” and stuff, and she didn’t know. And I’m like, “Well, I guess I ju- -- I just need to know, like, which course pack it is,” like, I was trying to, like, get this information out of her. And I remember she said, like, “Well, it’s, it’s the course pack that’s paper.” And I was like, “Well, they’re all paper.”  And she’s like, “Oh. I, I don’t know.” And she, like, left.  I was like, “That was the least helpful answer ever, telling me that the course pay- pack was made out of paper.” Like, yeah, that’s what they all are. There’s -- they’re all made out of paper. So yeah, I get a lot of dumb quest- -- lot of dumb questions.