30 Days Apologies

If this was your first night of "30 Days," I'm really sorry. I should have put a caveat to pay attention to the rating at the beginning.

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Two favorite scenes from the Muslim-Christian "30 Days" episode included the beginning, just after the guy donned the Muslim garb and went through the airport--he was immediately pulled aside and checked by security. He'd never been stopped before, but before he even arrived in Michigan--no, I think before he even boarded the plan from West Virginia--he was profiled. The other scene was at the very end (they used the clip for the show's teaser, too), when he was heading down the hallway to his bedroom. It was kind of dark, and he held up his fingers to make the peace sign, but it was hard to tell what he was doing. The camera was just behind the Muslim couple so that the shot was from their perspective. "G'night," the guy said. "Good night," they replied. Then he held up his fingers in the dark hallway, and the Muslim host turned to his wife and whispered, "Did he just flip me off?" "No," she replied, "He gave you the peace sign, dude."

I have yet to watch the episode with the "off the grid" people. I'm very interested in how it unfolds. Two fossil-fuel lovin' people go live with some environmentalists in a small colony that lives with as little impact on the environment as possible. I saw a small part of it, but haven't had time to watch the whole thing yet.

The episode with the guy who was using human growth hormone (HGH) and steroids and other stuff to get back into his top athletic form again was really sobering. Morgan interviewed a Senior woman who was a race walker, and she said that there is no quick fix, that HGH is a bunch of hooey and you just have to exercise and eat right. By the end of the show, you definitely agreed with her. The guy lost a little weight and seemed to improve his speed in swimming, but not dramatically more than he might have with just diet and exercise. The high drama on that one came at the end: He was a virile and healthy man reproductively speaking at the beginning of the show, then they did another count toward the end of the 30 days and there was just nothing there. They said that the hormones and stuff he was taking could do that, but in such a short amount of time? The wife was shocked and horrified and they decided to end their 30-day experiment early. They were hoping to have another baby sometime and were afraid they wouldn't be able to. "Don't mess with your body," they concluded.

For a while there, it seemed like he was on a run of trying to stretch self-proclaimed Christians more than any one type of person. I appreciate that we all need to get outside our comfort zone to truly understand people who are wildly different from us, but how about a stretch toward Christianity? Say, why not ask an atheist or New Age person to live among earnest believers and see if he or she might not at least grow to respect their point of view? So far, several of the shows have implied that Christians as a group are closed-minded people who most need to grow and change. I would like to hope that somewhere out there are some really neat, sincere, loving Christians who would open their community up to someone who believes quite differently. I do love that he's including faith and religious issues, however...don't get me wrong. And I love the other topics, too, like the minimum wage show he did. I'm not looking forward to the binge-drinking mom episode, but maybe I'll be surprised.

Overall, I still think it's a great idea and hope the show stays on the air long enough to explore an even wider range of topics.

You will have no sympathy, I am sure, when I tell you about yesterday's exhaustion. When the day ended, I staggered upstairs, took a shower to rid myself of the sticky film of sweat encasing my weary body, yanked the decorative pillows off the bed and flopped into it.

"Why, Ann, were you so weary?" you might ask. "What difficult circumstances did you endure?"

Sighing heavily to emphasize how real my plight was, I'd answer, "The pool. I sat by the pool all day long."

Poor me. After rushing through morning errands (beginning at 8:30), I raced home and made sack lunches, met my friend and her kids, and we spent the entire afternoon sitting in the brutal sunshine as our kids swam and spun and somersaulted underwater. Dear me, did I sit and sit and sit there, the UV protection wearing off over time, the layer of sweat oozing out of my pores. My only break was to walk home, shower, change into clothes, pack a dinner, and get back just in time for check-in and warmups for my kids' swim club meet. Then I was there until 8:30 p.m. All day long at the pool. All day.

I really was exhausted, but I'm sure you don't care to hear about it and will offer me no pity. I don't blame you, either.

Fire pit

My brother stuffed newspapers and blocks of wood into his new copper fire pit. He lit it, while we pulled camp chairs around and sat mesmerized by the flames. The kids gathered around and began telling stories, long, drawn-out stories involving a T-rex, zombies, fiery houses, and chopped off body parts. Our preschooler was quite impressed with the subject matter of his four-year-old cousin's story, so he included similar themes on his turn. Then an older cousin told a great story he must have heard before with repetition and variation on a theme. It was cute to see them all waiting to roast their marshmallows, making up stories, inspired by the firelight. I love that sense of creativity and community. I'd like to have a fire pit.