i learned something this morning that, i'll admit, saddened me a bit. i understand that it's a fine medical accomplishment. i understand that it has probably reduced childhood deaths and has potential to reduce shingles.

however, i strongly believe that the chicken pox vaccine is a bad thing.

did you know there was a chicken pox vaccine? i learned it this morning from a temporary coworker, whose three-year-old just received the chicken pox vaccine.

i fondly remember the summer of chickenpox in the rud household. i'd say i was approximately ten years old, and i know that at least three of the rud kids were afflicted, and i am making the assumption that all four were afflicted. i watched breakfast at wimbledon and missed the neighborhood fourth of july bicycle parade. i believe, perhaps, i was allowed to view - from a distance - by looking out the window.

i think chicken pox are a great part of the childhood experience. as i recall, i probably got gifts, or cards, or money. i seem to remember that the boy (then known as "steven") and i played a lot of nintendo super-spike v-ball, and i also remember picking chicken pox off the top of my head.

i also remember that d had a chicken pock [probably not a word] inside his mouth, making swallowing difficult. ahh, youth.

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not related:
i seem to remember, in elementary school and junior high and, perhaps, high school, we were taught to hit space bar twice at the end of a sentence. somewhere along the line, perhaps college or perhaps high school, this became a single press of the space bar. as i recall, it was explained to me that "double-space" was a typewriter convention for some reason or another, and that the single-space was acceptable for computer-typed documents.

anyway, the single-spaced habit is entrenched in me at this point. however, when i'm editing things at "work," every preexisting file is double-spaced. this means, of course, that i'm required to double-space as well. it's difficult. [especially because i can't use the control-h command, and type find: "[space][space]" and replace with "[space]", like we could do with the high school newspaper.] (this finding indicates that i didn't type single-spacing until college, because the double-space was still entrenched for the high school newspaper, meaning that i was still using that, rather than the single space. too many commas, and not enough coherent thoughts there.)

so, do you single- or double-space?

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just moments ago, i had a kernel of popcorn stuck in the back of my teeth. the bulls were in overtime. my dad was in the kitchen, and the game was on in the family room. the interaction went like this [slightly abridged]:
me: "dad, do we have toothpicks?"
dad: "i think so. here."
me: "thanks."
me: [removes kernel from teeth. swallows kernel.]
me and dad: [return to family room to watch the bulls]
chicago bulls [on tv]: [blow a lead. up one with nine seconds left, luol deng gets a defensive rebound, falling out of bounds. rather than call timeout, he throws a blind pass. utah makes the steal on the errant chuck, and mehmet okur cans a three with 0.7 seconds left.]
dad: "mmrdbfemhh"
me: "new and exciting ways to lose. crap."
bulls: [get a three-pointer from andres nocioni. however, he pump-faked with andrei kirilenko running at him, and didn't get the shot off in time.]
dad: [flips to leno. mo rocca is unfunny from detroit. i don't know why dad didn't turn on letterman]
me: "dad."
dad: "yeah?"
me: "ironically, i just got a splinter from a toothpick stuck in my teeth."

[that's actually the truth. i cracked it in a few places, then put it in my mouth. i believe my gums have now absorbed it.]

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i experimented with something today, writing blog-worthy thoughts on a post-it note in my wallet. point is, it didn't help.