16. Abraham doesn't have a dream career. He's never had something he just absolutely had to be. Nevertheless....a man has to work for a living, and he has found a good match for his personality in librarianship, so he's currently working on a master's degree in the field.
17. Abe loves to shop. Loves it. He loves it way more than I will ever love it. He shops online, he shops in stores, he peruses ads for great deals. A typical date night for us is a huge platter of nachos at Garcia's and a trip to the mall.
18. Abe worked on a Christmas Tree farm for seven years. A Christmas Tree Farm is not the magical holiday wonderland it sounds like. With less-than-savory co-workers, Abe planted, clipped, sheared, weeded, shaped, cut, and baled conifers for a mean, old, tight-fisted New-Englander who paid him $3.75/hour.
19. Abraham was once hit by a car. By his father, who was apparently backing up at an extraordinary clip without looking to see where he was going. The back bumper hit 18-year-old Abe in both shins, throwing him back about ten feet. Abe, who drank an extraordinary amount of milk growing up, didn't even suffer a fracture. He just got up, slid into the passenger's seat, and said, "Da-ad, you just hit me." His Dad's reply: "Oh, was that you?"
20. Abe's family has its own time zone. When Abe was on his mission, his mother wrote to say: "I've decided I am no longer going to participate in Daylight Saving's Time." And they have done so ever since. Visiting is very confusing, because I find myself constantly calculating. "So it's 10:00 AM Skousen Time, which means that it's 11:00 AM in the rest of New Hampshire, which means that it's 9:00 AM in Idaho, so I guess now would be a good time to call home..."
21. Abraham once rode a greyhound bus from Utah to New Hampshire. He describes this time as being his three days in the belly of the whale. He spent a good portion of this time with his nose buried in the window air-conditioner, drawing pictures with his face grease on the window, trying desperately not to breathe in the odor of the man sitting next to him, whom Abe suspects had maybe never showered ever.
6 comments:
I want to ride a greyhound bus across the country. Just to say I have.
Rach,
These installments are SO interesting! I'll be disappointed when they come to an end. Fascinating, Abraham's non-love of taters, his love of shopping, his old man-ness combined with youthful enthusiasm for learning. I share his love of furry spiders. They ARE interesting. Ooo! You'll have to tell him, for years Paul's recruited me to join him in saving spiders that get trapped in the house and begin to starve. (Sometimes we leave 'em be, but only if the food supply seems okay. Been fewer buggies since Paul plugged up all the holes in the siding.) Anyway, I did this spider-saving with a reasonable amount of reluctant enthusiasm... All of which changed the day that a spider we'd let be--A BIG ONE--TROTTED across the family room carpet (it was SO big it couldn't be described as crawling--only trotting suits)... with: a GIANT EARWIG SPEARED IN ITS JAWS!
Hooray Spidey! My hero!! That was a great day for America. Earwigs give me the creeps. (I was told, convincingly, as a child, by a very creepy, stupid-head adult that earwigs crawl in our ears at night! I think adults like that should be squished up in tp and dumped outside, not spiders!)
I've gotten completely off point. Anyway, I've been enjoying these Abraham installments and look forward to more. I'm especially interested in his renowned bookophilia--Seth and Kay spoke in awe-struck tones of his book collection--especially, what he's read. Anyway, I'm not asking you to supply me with that info, I'm just letting you know I'm interested.
I read this post to Paul (as I had grabbed his attention by cackling aloud in my sad sick person's voice!) and he had a helpful suggestion: Abe's parents might contemplate a move to Indiana (or Arizona). Apparently, there are entire states that join them in refusing Daylight Savings Time!
Gollee, I loved that part. It takes guts to establish your own time zone. But: why not? (As Paul said, "At least they're DOING something, instead of just complaining, the way most people do." That applies to a lot, huh! I'm going to start boycoytting getting sick.)
Kudos.
XO--H
Nick, you can. Just bring a notebook-- and don't say I didn't warn you.
Heidi, I'm sorry you're sick! We've had a bout of sickness around here too-- the little ones have had it the worst, of course. Or at least, they've complained the most loudly.
I was utterly charmed your trotting spider story. It made him sound a bit like a loyal hunting dog carrying a duck to its master. Except that I believe that ducks should be allowed to live but that earwigs definitely deserve to die. One of my cheaper apartments in Provo had a wild earwig infestation. It got so bad I would open textbooks in classes and earwigs would climb out.
I wish Abe's folks would move to AZ. Then maybe we would see them once in a while. However, Abraham's parents are ridiculously, frustratingly, weirdly stubborn about staying in The World's Most Beautiful Trailer Park (Northern New Hampshire) for the rest of their lives.
I think you're darling!
Who are you calling a mean, old, tight-fisted New-Englander? You're an insolent young potato-lover!
Mr. Willey! I, um, er....I was talking about a DIFFERENT Christmas Tree farm that Abe worked at. No, he always speaks of YOU glowingly!
These are so great!!!
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