Down the Rabbit Hole

I fell into the Rabbit Hole this afternoon. It has been a long time since I became so engaged in what I was doing that I forgot everything except what was directly in front of me. I started my journey at 4:10 pm. I intended to do a little Christmas shopping. As Santa’s helper, I take my job seriously.
I had a list rattling around in my head, so I thought I should attack it. I did so with gusto. I did notice - around 5:15pm - that my husband had come home briefly. I did notice it was so dark in my bedroom that I was using to phone and my keyboard to illuminate my papers. It then dawned on me to turn on a light. I renewed my efforts to take advantage of special offers and sales. I visited websites that specialize in tracking discounts down for consumers. My favorite, and most successful, is retailmenot.com. Go figure. In any event, I started to lose myself when I realized I had ten or eleven windows open as I comparison shopped. I sent orders to my printer and moved on. I started to wonder where my son was, I was stunned, when I eyed the clock, that it was 6:40pm. How did that happen?
I recalled he was meeting a friend after school to study Chinese. I, on the other hand, was studying the economic base of our country as it related to consumer spending. Back to the chore at hand, I rolled up my sleeves and marched onward. First, however, I clicked on a lamp. I neglected such minor inconveniences as the need to visit the bathroom, the dry rasp in my throat when I cleared it, and the loud objections my stomach was making because I had so thoroughly ignored it. I pushed the Google Pay button and placed my next order. At this point, my son called to say he was on his way home, and he had not had dinner. More a request than a statement, I knew he was wondering whether I would make his meal. I looked at my clock and looked again. It was 8:06 p.m.! I was stunned that I lost track of another 90 minutes. I started the unravelling. I backed out of my many open screens. Through Nordstrom and Overstock.com, and Wintersilks, and Madewell and Fossil and Urban Outfitters and ...
Whew, no wonder I am wiped out. All in the name of hope, that the gifts I have chosen will bring the recipient a smile, and perhaps, make their lives a little brighter. I can’t change the world, but I can try to bring joy to my little corner of it.

Do-overs

There is no use wishing for do-overs. Do you remember the practice of do-overs from childhood? There was a time when the cry “do-over” was used to impose reason and order in a world that didn’t always make sense. The idea that anyone -- even the weakest among us -- could assert the request to redo a play meant that we had leveled the playing field. “Do-overs” was an accepted practice in most of the games we played: badminton, bombardment, four-square, jacks, tag and even tennis - it was a reasonable way to settle a dispute. Do-overs didn’t solve everything, but they gave us a way to move past arguments. Everyone had an equal voice whenever they suspected a misplay. Imagine if, as adults, we could call do-over when a dispute is dragging out too long with no sign of a resolution. It would be a relief to be able to declare do-overs in such circumstances or in those moments that we inadvertently say something careless or thoughtless. It seems to me that we should have a way to ask for the the space to make amends for the things we have said or done to hurt others. I am ready for do-overs.

Google It

When did Google become a verb?
Inquiring minds want to know. How to find out? Google it. So I did.
Wikipedia came up with ...
Google (transitive verb) -
refers to using the Google search engine to obtain information on the Web....It was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006, and to the eleventh edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006. The first recorded usage of google used as a gerund, thus supposing the verb, was on July 8, 1998, by Google co-founder Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: "Have fun and keep googling!"
There was a time when I had a good relationship with the reference librarians at both the Forbes Library and the Jones Library. I had a library card for U.Mass library as well. I would call the reference librarians, often with a bit of embarrassment, to ask how to obtain the information I needed to write an article or to develop an essay idea. No longer. Rarely do I have to leave the comfort of my home to collect overwhelming amounts of information to consider. In fact, my job has gone from desperately seeking sufficient information to whittling down the information I do find to make it accessible to others.
Do all weeks have seven days?
Where was the first reference to Ezra Stone made?
In what year was Citizen Kane released?
How many seats does the North Kentucky Convention Center hold?
With Google, I have easy access to information, day or night. I relish the notion that, with the right wording, and some degree of tenacity, I can unearth just about anything I can imagine asking.