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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mid-week good news

Mid-week good news

by | 63 Comments

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I think that we should celebrate unabashed good news more often.

So today’s thread and comments section is only for good news, things that made you smile, things that brightened your day sometime in the past week.

I’ll start.

Last week at a parent-teacher training event, my son’s teacher was describing how a student in her class finally had everything click.  This student had been struggling with a core concept for the entire year but all of a sudden, the student put everything together and practiced all of the skills that had eluded him for months and was able to do something that had been frustrating the living crap out of him.  And at the end, he Dabbed in celebration.

I was fairly certain she was referring to my son.

When I went up to talk with her after the training event, I was 80% sure it was my son.  She saw me, smiled and even before I asked, said she had been referring to him.

And my eyes glistened and I was smiling as I know he had been struggling with that concept all year.  And the discussion we had about him Dabbing in school made way more sense now that I had the concept.

As soon as I picked him from childcare, I told him how proud I was of him.

That is my good thing of the week….

What about yours?

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I posted this on Twitter last night.

    Also, had a very good meeting with a state senator. A group of us are supporting one of his bills, and we are potentially a counterweight to paid lobbying.

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I should probably add that working with the New Mexico legislature is always a pleasure. The state capitol building is beautiful, and the legislators are very open to constituents.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    My play “All Together Now,” about a gay couple finding out that one of them has a 15-year-old son thanks to sperm donation, has been chosen for the Vermont Pride Theatre Festival in Randolph, VT and will have two performances next summer. I haven’t been to Vermont since 1970 and I hope I can make it up there to see the show.

  11. 11.

    Kenneth Kohl

    First, my sister-in-law (wife’s sister) became a grandparent this week. Next, our grandson is confident enough to start standing on his own. Next step – steps!

    Grandchildren!!

  12. 12.

    zhena gogolia

    I was told that as of July 1 I would be given an important honor in my profession.

    ETA: Important to me, not to anybody else.

  13. 13.

    randy khan

    Mike Mussina will be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

    I had the pleasure of watching him pitch when he was with the Orioles, and he probably threw 5 of the 10 best games I’ve ever seen (and I saw peak Doc Gooden and saw Max Scherzer strike out 20). His 1997 postseason was otherworldly – he beat Randy Johnson twice and then had two fantastic starts against Cleveland in which, alas, his team couldn’t score. A great player, even if he spent too many years with the Yankees.

  14. 14.

    Kelly

    I’m sitting by the fire, drinking coffee, the good kind of stiff and tired after a great day of XC skiing yesterday.

    The kitten of the dawn is here
    Laying on my neck
    Purring in my ear

    apologies to Gordon Lightfoot

  16. 16.

    Mary G

    I haven’t posted much about the teen housemate lately; there have been some rough times. He was expecting to be expelled from school since while on his last strike the vice principal was patrolling the bathroom and saw him drop a vape pen. His mother and I went to a bunch of meetings with administrators of the school district and they allowed him to keep attending school. They do this very rarely, in fact he is the first kid allowed to do this this school year. He currently has an A and 4 B’s and perfect attendance. If he can stay good through the end of the semester he will be back to regular status next year, and if he is OK through all of next year he can apply to have the expulsion expunged from his record.

  17. 17.

    Matt Smith

    This week I’ve been moving decidedly further from depression and isolation. So that’s pretty great. I feel like things are happening, like I’m in motion… which has not been my norm lately. In related news, I’ve got a new partner in crime, someone who has a similar business to mine, and we’ve started meeting every week for strategizing and mutual support. I need that kind of thing, and she needs what I bring, so it feels very two-way. I’m grateful to have her!

  18. 18.

    BC in Illinois

    Mrs. BC’s and my 47th wedding anniversary was yesterday, January 22nd. Coming on that date, it often coincides with miserable news stories like the Covington/DC story of this weekend. Two years ago, Trump’s inauguration was on the weekend of our 45th anniversary. We went to a bed-and-breakfast at a winery in southern Illinois, with a strict no-politics rule for the weekend. We caught up on the inauguration (and a report from our daughter on the St Louis Women’s March of Jan 21) at a family gathering when we came back.

    So today – – yesterday was a madhouse of required activities – – today we drive to Peoria for two days of the Illinois Music Educators Conference. Two days of concerts, workshops, constant music. Not every one’s cup of tea, but we start tonight with James Hill. (Listen for the first 2 minutes — you’ll listen to all 7 minutes.) The most unusual ukulele version of “Billy Jean” you have ever heard. We’ll see him tonight, 150 miles away.

    Good times.

  19. 19.

    JAFD

    Am in the Ambulatory Care Center waitingroom, gonna see if the drugs they’re giving me are at the level they want. Should have gotten more exercise over wkend, but too

  21. 21.

    jacy

    On the good news front, my youngest got accepted to the performing arts magnet school he had his heart set on. (It’s tough to get in.) He’s tremendously excited and it’s one of the best schools in the state and nationally ranked quite well. (Of course, now comes the court fight with his dad to allow him to attend, but my lawyer thinks that the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor, provided his dad even wants to go all the way to trial. I will file paperwork as soon as it’s drawn up and we go from there, but I feel better about it than I have over the past two years I’ve been dreading this moment…..)

  25. 25.

    JAFD

    @JAFD: #$$%^^^&$* darn cold (Apology for interruptn. Call from Ambulatry Care Ctr auto system remindr of Friday appt frobbled browser)
    So hoping to get thru Winter, finish projects on workbeach, get strongr.

  26. 26.

    The Midnight Lurker

    A nine-year-old girl with leukemia was granted her wish to star in a broadway musical. She made her debut in Mean Girls, celebrating her third year in remission. Thank you Make-A-Wish foundation! Here’s another $20.

    Maybe not necessarily good news, but cool – apparently a large meteor struck the moon at the EXACT SAME TIME we were watching the eclipse! I gotta get a bigger lens.

    In China, a golden retriever led an ambulance crew through a series of alleys to his collapsed owner. There is really cool ambulance dash cam video at the Daily Mail, but being a troglodyte, I can’t post it.

    And if we’re going to do a weekly ‘Good News’ feature, I insist you get a Professor Farnsworth meme up!

  28. 28.

    dnfree

    I have to say that whenever someone asks “What is ….” referring to something in popular culture that they’re not familiar with, I always wonder why they ask instead of just opening a tab for Google (or Youtube, if you think it’s something that could be visualized”) and searching for that term.

    Dabbing was actually in the news recently!

    https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a25737837/rashida-tlaibs-kids-heroes-dabbed-on-the-floor-of-congress/

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I only know what Dabbing is because I’ve been doing Young Storytellers with 5th graders and the kid I was working with showed me when I admitted I was clueless.

    Sessions for YT start next week, so that’s my Good Thing. It’s always hugely fun to get to spend an hour a week helping kids write a short play that then gets performed in front of their fellow students by professional actors.

    More info:
    http://www.youngstorytellers.com

  32. 32.

    dnfree

    @Waynski: In context, it’s a celebratory move (he got something he’d been struggling with)! See Rashida Tlaib’s kids in my previous post.

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @jacy:

    Congratulations! Folks were asking about you yesterday and hoping you were well, so I’m glad you had some good news for us.

  37. 37.

    FelonyGovt

    My good news- I’ve (finally) gotten my husband interested in yoga. It will be so helpful for him for both physical and mental flexibility.

  38. 38.

    Cathie from Canada

    I remember struggling for weeks with long division in Grade 5, then suddenly “getting” it – a marvelous feeling, like the clouds had rolled away and the sun was shining.
    And in other good news, we are on our way to exercise class again — its also marvelous to start doing something new at the age of 70!

  39. 39.

    dnfree

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t mean it as snark–it’s just something I genuinely wonder. The other week Carolyn Hax (one of my favorite advice columnists) had a question in her online chat that related to something called “hand dancing”. Someone in the chat asked “What is hand dancing?” and Carolyn just put up a link to Google. Just plain Google, no “Let me Google that for you”, no “hand dancing”. Just “This is how you would find out what hand dancing is”.

  40. 40.

    Original Lee

    We finally finished repainting the family room, and also replacing the ceiling lights in there, and it looks great. I’m still getting used to the new wall color, as well as actually being able to see in there.

  42. 42.

    jacy

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ve just been bearing down at work and spending lots of times doing kid stuff (the college kid had a hiccup with his scheduling that involved many visits to the counselor and much tearing out of everybody’s hair). And I’ve been riddled with anxiety about the school thing: waiting to get the acceptance, finding a new lawyer, deciding what to do, paying for the lawyer…. So I’ve been depressed/anxious this month, but hopefully the good news bears up!

  43. 43.

    AAAndrew

    Thanks for the opportunity to read good news, and congrats to all the others who have good things happening in your lives.

    For me, I am an amateur historian studying a lost part of our cultural and industrial history. I can honestly say I’m the world’s foremost expert on this topic, because, as far as I know, I’m the world’s only expert on this topic. It’s that obscure. (it’s the history of steel dip pens in America, which for about 100 years from 1830 to 1930 was the primary means of putting ink on paper)

    All of my careful research and documentation finally resulted in me getting published last fall, and this week the second part of my three-part article on Thomas Jefferson’s Pen Maker was sent to me for final revisions. And now they’d like to see if I have more to contribute once the third part is published.

    And, while it’s from a couple of weeks ago, it’s related. There was an article in the NYTimes’ style section on fountain pens. I believe the author has actually read the first part of my article because she mentions Thomas Jefferson using his metallic pens, and no one has ever known Jefferson used metallic pens until my article was published. So, indirectly, I was referenced in the NYT Style Section. That’s pretty wild for someone writing about something so obscure that 20 visitors to my site is a busy day.

  44. 44.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @jacy: That’s great news and I hope your ex doesn’t bother contesting it.

  49. 49.

    Tom Witherspoon

    A dear friend had a kidney replaced last week and is doing splendidly, exceeding all of his doctor’s expectations.

  50. 50.

    JAFD

    Well, my blood’s warfarin level is up a notch, good but not where they want it to be t deal with clots in arteries, so dose adjusted, I”m to get another test next week.
    Damp gray day here, but better than singledigit freezng.
    I’m not a winter person.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @dnfree:

    Just to be clear, when you’re emailing or otherwise interacting with a friend online and they ask you a question about something you said, you always send them a link to the main Google page rather than explaining or clarifying?

  53. 53.

    Leto

    Avalune and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this past Sunday. The kid is doing well in his career. I’m making steady progress in rehab (despite my asshole Ortho doc insisting I should doing backflips and cartwheels by now).

    Grats to everyone on their good news. Hope everyone has an abundance of it this year.

  54. 54.

    Renie

    My good news is my daughter who is at William & Mary law school on a full scholarship finished her first semester with all As. Plus she was offered a summer internship at the U.S. District Court Eastern District of NY and the DOJ in Wash DC. She’s going to try for one where all the action is at the SDNY in NYC. Hoping she takes a NY one so I can have her home all summer!

  55. 55.

    Starfish

    Some terrible chain-charter affiliated with a small Christian college was trying to open up a school in town, and the school board voted it down.

  57. 57.

    ruemara

    PodCon2 was successful. Had people say I was a really good actress. They don’t know I’m really a space alien, which shows how good I am. And Seattle was fun. I got to explore more, had a nice burst of creativity from it. I think I may share some pics with Alain. Arrived safely and the cats are almost recognizing that they know me again.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    I recommended your podcast to someone, but I don’t know if she listened to it yet.

    The cats are pretending not to recognize you to punish you for cruelly abandoning them. They’ll get over it.

  59. 59.

    Michael Cain

    Donated whole blood yesterday, that makes 11 gallons. Not so much good news for me, but good news for someone in a couple of weeks because it will be there for them.

  61. 61.

    dnfree

    @Mnemosyne: If someone mentioned a topic in an email and I didn’t know what it was, I would still go Google it myself before emailing back to ask them. I don’t know if that’s just me, or if it’s more general practice. Many commenters here know each other better than I know you all, so maybe it’s more the norm here to ask the question–but that seems to put the burden on the person who mentioned the topic (say “dabbing”) when a lot of people reading the post or comment may already know what it is. I guess I figure the burden of finding out is on me rather than on them?

    And I really don’t mean it snarkily!

  62. 62.

    Scamp Dog

    I’m starting to get a decent number of hours at my new job, tax prep for a well known company with a rectangular-ish name (figuring it’s not cool to shill for my employer here). I even did my first return for a client yesterday!

  63. 63.

    Hunter

    Nothing on the home front, but Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo has a new DeBrazza’s Monkey baby who, at a little over two months old, is getting pretty lively, scampering around the branches and basically driving his mother nuts.

    There’s also a new Black and White Colobus that’s only about a month or so, still almost all white (they’re born that way), and still sticking close to mama, although his older siblings keep trying to steal him.

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