N-E-R-D. NERD! NERD! NERD!

Last week, the Observer published a letter to the editor in response to an editorial regarding school spirit. I thought the editorial celebrated school spirit while calling for responsibility and class, but apparently, the guy who wrote the letter thought the editorial denounced school spirit altogether.

As a Case alum and the Observer co-adviser, I have strong feelings about the matter. If I were to submit a letter to the editor, it would say something like this:

To the editor:

I'm one of those nerds referred to in Bob Niccoli's letter to the editor "School spirit should come at any cost" (October 14). I take offense to the idea that nerdiness precludes school spirit. Au contraire, mon frere! It is possible to be both a nerd *and* a rowdy superfan.

You can often spot me in the stands heartily cheering on the Case football team. But you are just as likely to find me glued to my computer, struggling mightily to get to the next level in Planarity (a highly addictive online game designed by Case student John Tantalo).

At Case, it doesn't have to be *either or* when it comes to showing school spirit and taking academics seriously - you can do both. In fact, it's most inspiring to me to learn about Case students like Santo Maimone, a semifinalist for the Draddy Trophy (the "academic Heisman"). The straight-A pre-med chemistry and anthropology double major has also been recognized as a First Team All-UAA defensive back.

I tip my hat to Mr. Niccoli for wanting to improve school spirit on campus. It's wonderful to see that students like him are supporting the Spartans 110%. But sports cliches aside, let's not bash the nerds.

In his letter to the editor, Mr. Niccoli said, "Go sit in the “O” Block [sic] at an Ohio State home game and see how many “drunken idiots” you see." What is the point of comparing Case to Ohio State? As an alum of both fine institutions, I root for both schools. I would not ask Case students to model themselves after OSU undergrads in their cheering habits just as I wouldn't ask OSU students to study more. The point is that we're not Ohio State and that's perfectly fine. Case has its own unique identity and we should embrace it.

Nerdiness is beautiful. N-E-R-D. NERD! NERD! NERD!

Lisa Chiu ('93)

This is how kids become spoiled

So I think Nico is getting quite spoiled. He's already very manipulative and seems to think he's my peer. Whenever I tell him to get ready for bed time or dinner time, he takes it as a suggestion and not an order.

I've known for some time that he has my parents wrapped around his very little finger, but I discovered more evidence of it yesterday. He had spent the late afternoon with them and apparently talked them into taking him to Richmond Mall so he could play with the Thomas the Tank Engine set-up at the Borders bookstore there. He also persuaded them to let him ride all sorts of 50-cent rides. And then he got them to go on the escalator several times.

When I went to pick him up, Nico gloated to me that he went shopping and ate "chocklit cookie". I asked my dad about it and learned that the last time they had gone to the mall, Nico saw some people eating cookies and he wanted one too. My parents said no and he had a full-blown meltdown. He laid on the floor and refused to get up. My parents caved in and got him a cookie. So this time, he led my parents to the store, pointed, and said, simply, "GET IT." They did. Rrrr. Vic and I don't let him eat anything like that at unless it's a special occasion - a birthday party, etc.

Nico totally knows how to play us. I need to figure out a way to teach him that he's not the boss. Dr. Phil would be disgusted with me.

Toilet training is very stressful

This toilet training thing is not going well. It seemed like we were starting to make some progress. The stickers were working pretty nicely as an incentive to get Nico interested and motivated. But then, overnight, it seemed, he just stopped caring.

Now, Nico will be building a Lego tower or something, go off to a corner to do his thing, and them come over to tell me, "I pooped." Then he goes back to his tower. It doesn't seem to matter that he's got this big, steaming, stinking load in his pants. Is this a boy thing or what?

Anyhow, so then Vic and I started trying to do the whole "big boys wear underwear and babies wear diapers" thing to see if that would get Nico motivated. Not really. I bought Nico some underwear to see if he'd be interested. I bought him some Nemo underwear. I bought him some Thomas the Tank Engine underwear. I bought him underwear with airplanes on them.

I laid out all this new underwear in a row and told Nico that if he would use the toilet instead of diapers, he could wear the cool "big boy" underwear. He seemed amused. Mildly. It appears that he likes underwear in theory, but not in practice. I guess I can't blame him - I'm kinda that way about coffee.

Tonight, Nico had a major meltdown on the toilet. He was so intent on pooping in the toilet. He sat there straining and screaming until his face and body turned red. "COME OUT, POOP! COME OUTTTTTTTTT!" He nearly threw up from straining so hard. He was gagging and in between his scream-sobs, he'd say, "Imma sticker! Imma underwear! I a big boy!"

I tried to calm him down and I offered to give him stickers just for trying, but this only seemed to worsen the situation. He was really set on his goal. He sat on the toilet screaming and crying for a very long time. Vic was upstairs trying to grade papers and wondering what was going on. Eventually, Nico calmed down and I awarded him two shiny ambulance stickers, one for each hand.

The whole episode kinda makes me wonder, though, what lies ahead for me and Vic as parents. I have a feeling Nico has inherited Vic's intensity and need to be a perfectionist. I can be all-or-nothing about things too sometimes, but I don't think I was ever that way about poop.

Wedding anniversary

It's me and Vic's fourth wedding anniversary today! Hooray for us. I hope we do something fun tonight. Neither of us really planned anything and we didn't line up a babysitter. Hmm.

Nico's first Classie

This year, I'm an adviser to The Observer, Case Western Reserve University's student newspaper, and Nico and I have been going to production nights every Wednesday. The editors order pizza from Valentino's in Little Italy (Nico's favorite pizza place) and Nico CHOWS DOWN. He's three years old but he can eat more than a grown man does. This past Wednesday, he ate three pretty big slices.

Anyhow, the staff included a Classie (a classified ad in the newspaper) in the latest issue that said "Nico ate more pizza than any of us!"

What a great surprise! I need to put it in his scrapbook.

Potty training

*sigh*

Toilet training sucks. Nico is 3 and still not trained yet. We've been working on it for a while now but it's taking longer than I expected. We entice him with transportation stickers since he loves cars, trucks, airplanes, and trains and this has worked for #1, but not for #2.

The good news is that Nico laid two mini-poops in the toilet last night to get a bulldozer sticker.

I need to get more stickers.

My name is Lisa and I have a problem...

OK, it's official. I'm a pop culture junkie. *sigh* I'm addicted to the show "Rock Star: INXS"! The show is on three times a week and I've planned my evenings around it. I know I've hit rock bottom, as I attempted to purchase one of the contestant's songs (Hey - $0.99 a song is a good deal to me) this afternoon and then tried to chat with Dave Navarro today after work. Help me, somebody.