randomness

so today . . . has been quite a day...

9:30 a.m.

it started at school when we were doing calendar time. the kids were sitting on the rug, and we were talking about going from april to may. the cutout that said "april" had raindrops on it, and the cutout that said "may" had daisies on it. so i decided it was time to teach my students a joke, a real joke. you know, the kind where the punchline is actually related to the rest of it!

first we talked about the saying "april showers bring may flowers." and then i said, "so, if april showers bring may flowers, what do mayflowers bring?" i knew they would probably not guess the correct answer, but their responses were so serious! i guess they thought we were doing science, because their answers ranged from more flowers to sunshine to bees. i finally said, "ok, but this is going to be a joke. so the answer is going to be funny." they were clearly lost. (i was just glad no one said "poop," because they seem to find that hilarious!) so i finally just told them the answer. and they just looked at me blankly. then i explained why it was funny. they still didn't laugh. i said, "it's a joke!" but apparently when you are six, it is not...

however, apparently when you are six, a lot of other stuff is--like "if you mix pink and red you get orange." and then, just in case i didn't "get" it, "that's a joke!" yes, they may not have understood the joke i tried to teach them, but they understood the part where you clarify at the end by saying, "it's a joke!" i'll bet i heard that phrase 85 times today--and it ALWAYS followed some random, nonsensical group of sentences. always.

10:45 a.m.

later in the morning, i had a few free minutes, so i decided to check my email. of course, my computer would not connect to the internet... but never fear! my iphone4 was near!! so i hit the email button, and it promptly informed me that my username or password were incorrect...

... oh yeah... probably because yesterday when i was trying to log in to hotmail on my new computer (which doesn't know any of my passwords yet!) i was desperate to get my email, so i reset my password. which meant now i couldn't access it on either my old netbook or my phone, unless i knew the new password. which, of course, i didn't. because when i was resetting the password, i told the new computer to remember it, not realizing that now my other electronics would be locked out...

ok, no problem. i would just wait until i got home to check my email. i need to get used to using the new computer anyway. (for some reason when i get new electronic equipment, it takes me a while to actually USE it. i get so impatient waiting for it to get here, and then when it finally arrives, i don't want to use it, for fear of messing it up.)

11:45 a.m.

there were birthday cupcakes in the kitchen. i knew this, because it was nicholas's birthday, and his mom told me she had brought two trays of cupcakes (that's 24 for those of you who never buy cupcakes.) we usually have our birthday parties in the afternoon after naptime, but i was thinking about what i was going to have for lunch, and wondering if maybe i should have a salad since birthday cupcakes were on the agenda. but you never know what the birthday cupcakes are going to be like. sometimes parents buy white cupcakes with white frosting, thinking it won't be quite so bad for the kids. i think, at least chocolate cupcakes have cocoa in them. which comes from a bean. which makes it a vegetable. but clearly many people do not share my view...

i decided that while i was on my break, i should check out the cupcake situation. so i went into the kitchen to see if we were going to have delicious chocolate cupcakes or icky white ones, only to find out that we might not have any cupcakes at all...

...because there had been a communication mix up, and the birthday cupcakes had already been mostly eaten by the classmates of nicholas's younger sister! there were only nine cupcakes left, and we have 14-16 children in the afternoon! thankfully the remaining cupcakes were chocolate, but there weren't enough! as we sorted out the incident, it quickly became clear that we needed more cupcakes. so during lunch, ms. amy went to the store... and she brought back RED VELVET CUPCAKES!!

(can i just say, i was pretty sure the kids were going to be eating the chocolate cupcakes, because i was pretty sure i was going to be eating a red velvet one!)

5:45 p.m.

after dinner i went to walmart to "pick up a few things." you know how that goes. mostly i needed toilet paper and small milk bones, but walmart was out of small milk bones. we need small milk bones at our house, because our dogs have trained me that if i am leaving to go anywhere, they get a milk bone...

it started out as sort of comfort food when they were left home alone--whoever was the last one out of the house would give them each a milk bone. but it seemed as though i was almost always the last one out of the house (i'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that i am almost always running late!) so usually i was the one handing out the treat. and now things have evolved... now, rollie and diandra can both be home, but if i head toward the garage door, i will find at least one pup standing there, wagging their tail, looking up at me with big bright eyes, just hoping for a treat.

i cannot resist. i'm sure that is why they do it!

and so, we go through a lot of milk bones. but today i had to settle for liver snaps. the dogs will probably be thrilled!

6:30 p.m.

i got this text: "are you ever coming home?" i got this text from diandra just as i was pulling into the driveway, so i didn't bother to respond. i had told her i wouldn't be coming straight home from work today, but she had forgotten. we talked for a few minutes and then i changed my clothes--into my flannel pajama pants...

my flannel pajama pants are a leftover from a christmas present 5 or 6 years ago. they are navy blue with dogs wearing santa hats all over them. and they are a men's size large. i wear them at home sometimes because they are soooo comfortable, but only my family gets the dubious "pleasure" of seeing them. they are perfect for an evening of sitting on the couch and working on computer stuff. which is what i was doing when diandra said she didn't feel so good, but she thought a soda might help...

well, that's just great, but we didn't have any soda, because i still am trying to drink less of it by not keeping it in the house! she thought maybe we could go to 7-11, but in case you didn't know it, 7-11 does not have drive thru window, and i had just put on my flannel pajama pants! i thought that maybe if i ignored her, she would forget about it. but she didn't.

"so, when are we going," she said.

"i don't want to go," i replied. " i don't want to put on pants." she just looked at me.

"how about this," i said, "you can go in, and i'll drive the getaway car."

"are you suggesting we rob the 7-11," she asked?

"no," i said, "i don't think i drive well enough--we would get caught."

we went to 7-11. i waited in the car while diandra went in. she came out and got back into the car, and i was going to show her how i could drive a getaway car (you know, just in case she ever needed me to,) but i was thwarted by traffic--i couldn't even get out of the parking lot!

i suddenly realized that i didn't feel all that great either. i said, "i have a headache. it's all the pressure of driving the getaway car."

diandra said, "you're going 30 miles an hour!!"

"hey!" i said, "i am not! i'm going 38!" and then my precious darling daughter, the one who i was driving around with $4.29 gas in my tank said, "you're the worst getaway car driver ever."

i thought maybe she was still fixated on my speed. "well," i said, "we could put the top down--then it would feel like we were going faster! and anyway, i can't be the worst getaway car driver ever, because i've never been caught!"

"NO ONE IS CHASING US!!!" she said. technically true, but still...

8:00 p.m.

when we got home, i finally got settled in with my computer. it was time to check my email. i went to hotmail... and it asked me for my password... the password i just changed yesterday... that i can't remember... (yeah, i guess i didn't tell the new computer to remember it either.) so i look at my options, and the first one offers to email me my password.

who writes these things!?!?! how am i going to get an email with my password in it, when i can't check my email, because i don't know my password!!! i am ranting about this to diandra, when she says, "don't you have another email address?"

oh. i didn't think of that...

but it doesn't matter anyway, because my other electronics don't know it, so i need to reset it anyway. i click the "reset password" button, answer the security question (which thankfully i CAN remember the answer to,) and proceed to try to think of yet another password...

and btw, if i can reset the password by answering the security question, why can't they just tell me the password if i answer the security question correctly?? what's the difference?!?!?

11:51 p.m.

my headache is worse. i still don't have a house (oh, you don't even want to know what is happening there--although, as i am sure i will eventually blog it, you will eventually find out...) it is going to be HOT tomorrow. and the next day. and i still have seven weeks of school left. and i still can't get into my email...

but the good news is, if any of you need a getaway car driver, i might be available. i might even put the top down...

busyness and randomness...

so today . . . i'm just writing to let you all know that i am still alive.

i haven't blogged in a week! but i'm not sick. i'm not hurt. i'm not sad or depressed or unfunny. i'm just busy.

we had a very busy weekend, and then we were out of town sunday night through tuesday for a retreat. (oddly, i was more tired when i got home from the retreat than i was before i went.) i've spent most of my available time continuing the search for glasses--both online and in stores. i think i've finally made a decision, but since i haven't actually paid for anything yet, i'm not absolutely sure that i am sure about my decision. we will see what happens in the next few days...

tuesday afternoon i got a flu shot. it was free--i guess my insurance company is hoping it will keep me from getting sick. i am hoping for that too. i am hoping i will NOT get the flu this year. or pneumonia. or have an asthma issue. again, we will have to wait and see...

this morning i had to go back to work after having two days off. my alarm went off, and i thought, "rats! back to work..." i wish i was one of those people whose eyes pop open immediately, and who leap out of bed in a happy mood (yes, i guess in the morning i wish i was rollie!) but instead i lay there thinking, "i can't get up and go to work today. i just can't. i can't get out of this warm bed. i can't get in the shower. i can't get dressed. i am just too tired. i can't go to work. not today. nope. today i think i just have to stay here in bed. today maybe i will just go back to sleep."

this is all a bluff, because i know that i am going to get up, get in the shower, get dressed, and go to work. i know that when the clock hits a certain time, i really have to roll out of bed. i know this, and yet i lay there pretending that i have a choice.

it isn't that i hate my job--i have a pretty good job. the problem is that i hate getting out of bed. i even hate getting up on saturdays! my bed is comfy cozy. i have a memory foam mattress pad and a fluffy comforter. i usually have a dog snuggied up against me, and reading material close by... and at 7:00 in the morning, it seems preferable to a room full of four and five year olds.

but i did finally get up and made it to school on time. it was a completely uneventful day--except for the appearance of sod on our newly renovated playground. actually, the new sod was the most exciting thing that happened today, until "angry birds" showed up...

angry birds is a shooting game. i got a notification that it was a free download today for android phones. i don't have an android phone, but rollie and diandra do. so i forwarded the email to them. i had no idea what the game was like, but it was free (and probably more fun than my flu shot!) rollie downloaded it, and then started playing it so i could see what it was like...

little birds jump into a slingshot, waiting for you to fling them toward different structures that house green pigs. they smack into the structure, causing differing amounts of damage, trying to flatten the pigs. of course, you get points and there are ever increasing levels of difficulty. but what i love, even more than the graphics, is the sound. the angry birds mutter angrily. when they smack into a structure, they say "ow." if the pigs survive, they laugh. i found it funny. especially because rollie was sitting next to me on the couch so i could see the game, but while he was trying to play, both dogs were trying to get into his lap. he was trying to ignore them and send tiny virtual birds smacking into pig-infested structures at the same time. milo would try to get close enough to his face to lick it. rollie would try to avoid milo. mia would creep closer to him, until she was draped completely across his lap. milo sat in my lap watching for an opportunity to reach his face. and rollie kept playing. through all that commotion... he cleared ten levels!

he finally went up to bed, but i am not so sure he went to sleep. my guess is that he is still avoiding dogs, and sending virtual birds flying through the air...

i, however, am going to shut down my computer for the night and head for my comfy, cozy bed. it is calling to me, and maybe if i get into it earlier, my morning conversation with myself will be a bit more positive. maybe. or maybe not...

a hectic day ends with a sweet boy . . .

so today . . . i haven't had time to think of a blog. school was hectic, because ms. martha is on vacation. this means that a certain little boy from her room spent the day with me. which is fine, except it drastically raises the energy quotient in my classroom--and yet, my energy stays the same!

after school i went straight to our church. today was the national day of prayer and our church had a special event set up which i didn't want to miss. but i am on three different medications right now that all say "may cause drowsiness." i think i'm doing pretty well to remain upright and conscious, considering . . . but i admit that sitting quietly in the darkened sanctuary of our church, i dozed off. twice. sitting up.

then it was on to chuck e. cheese, because our school was hosting a fundraiser there tonight.

i was doing a lot of driving back and forth over the same roads, but sometimes the best part of my day is driving around with the top down on my car. today was shaping up to be one of those days. then i was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left, i saw rollie coming through the interection toward me. he was on his way to the church to teach a class tonight. we saw each other and waved as our cars passed.

that was the only time i saw him today :(

when i got to chuck e. cheese, there were only a few people there. i love chuck e. cheese under normal circumstances, but i especially like fundraiser night! it is just so much fun to see all the school kids in a different environment. they can talk and laugh and run around with abandon--and i am not responsible for any of them! kids who normally pick at each other will ride the rides together and help each other out. it is amazing.

i was working the room as i was leaving, when i saw elvis for the first time. he was standing at a game machine with a cup full of tokens while his dad (whose hands were full of tickets) was watching. his little face lit up when he saw me (another reason i love chuck e. cheese night,) and he proceeded to tell me what he had been doing. i told him i was going home, and he said, "wait a minute!" he turned to his dad, grabbed about half of his tickets and with the biggest smile on his face said, "here, these are for you!"

awwww, how sweet is that! of course, i declined. he insisted. and i declined two more times before i finally convinced him that he should keep them.

but with that attitude, he will make someone a good husband someday . . .

NOT a top ten list

so today . . . did i tell you last week that some of my kids were blowing their noses again? yes, well, they were. and do you know what that means? yes, i think the evil germs are after me. again.

i am fighting them with every weapon i have, but tonight i am congested and soooo tired. i am actually hoping for allergies, because i have meds for that . . .

but i wanted to blog something tonight, so here are a few random things i realized today.

1. i can eat at jack-in-the-box two times in one day. yes, it is possible. as you may remember, i usually eat at chick-fil-a with my book on mondays. but we had a teacher out sick today, so staffing had to be shifted, resulting in the demise of my hour-long lunch. then, rollie had a meeting tonight, so we had to grab something quick if we were going to eat together. and no, i did not order the same thing for both meals--that would be ridiculous!!

2. a quiet voice spoken in the ear of a little boy having a melt-down can sometimes accomplish the miraculous. sometimes. i say sometimes, because it worked brilliantly the first time, and i was thinking, "yeah, i am an awesome teacher. look at me dealing with this explosive situation by just using a very quiet voice. i rock!" which may have been true. but the next time, it didn't work nearly as well. or at all. apparently there are no absolutes when you are five and your regular teacher is home sick . . .

3. the laundry isn't really done if it is still sitting in the laundry basket in the garage. even if it is clean. especially if it has been sitting there for a week and a half. it is a good thing we have lots of underwear.

4. my handbag apparently has a life that doesn't include me--and it is there right now. saturday night we went out, so i put my wallet and keys in a smaller bag to take with me. and that has been fine for the last couple of days, but today i needed my sunglasses, which are in my bigger bag. and it is gone. gone, i tell you! it is not where i left it, and it is not anywhere else in this house. either the dogs have buried it in the back yard, or it has gone to the mall to visit it's rich relatives at the coach store . . .

5. for small children, what they want trumps everything else! ok, i knew this, but it seems as though i ran up against this particular thinking more than the usual amount of times today. it's like they think that if they say, "but i WANT to!" i will say, "oh, ok. i didn't realize that you WANTED to! i guess it is ok then." and no, this has no bearing at all on #8! don't even try to connect them!! i am not five!!!

6. tights are hot--and i don't mean in the "wow, those are HOTT" way. (besides, i have been banned from using that particular phrase by my darling daughter--not that i ever would anyway.) but here is the thing that confuses me: tights=fall and winter, and leggings=spring and summer. it seems to me that leggings would feel way hotter than tights, since they are a bit thicker. and yet, look at the spring fashion--leggings are everywhere. i just don't get it. but i guess i had better get some leggings, because it is already may, so i can't continue to wear my tights much longer. and yet, my legs are not quite ready to be let out on their own.

7. when i sit in my car, i cannot see the outside of it. which is good, because my car is really dirty right now. my car had an adventure (without me--again, the darling daughter,) this weekend and hasn't had it's bath yet. so i just cleaned the windshield, and now i can pretend it is clean until it actually is!

8. i want to be in charge of the world! ok, maybe not the whole world, but my world. i am coping with a lot of stuff right now that is causing me stress. and as i was thinking about it today, i realized that i have control over very little of it. which doesn't make it any easier, because i still have to deal with it. and i thought, "if i could just sit everyone down, and tell them what is on my mind and how i think we should do things, and if they would respond positively, then we could all smile and live happily ever after!" why can't things work that way? i am sure everyone would be happier if they would just do things my way. really. i know i would . . .

9. sometimes, when leaving a tiny tot at preschool for the first time, it is harder for the dad than for the child. really.

and that is the end. nothing else comes to my mind tonight. which is kind of too bad, because if i could just think of one more thing, then i could have a top ten list . . .

darn these evil germs!!!

random thoughts from a sudafed-addled mind

so today . . . i realized i hadn't blogged in a few days and decided i had better write something!

i've had the whole sinus thing going on again, as you may have figured out after reading about my adventure at the pharmacy on wednesday. and when i am sick, i don't really go anywhere or do anything, so blogging is a challenge. i could write about the stuff going on in my head, but i don't want to alarm you . . .

but i also don't want you to stop reading my blog, so the pressure is on to write something! i don't have a hilarious escapade to tell you about--escapades only happen when i am out of the house--so i am just going to share some random thoughts about the last couple of days.

*why do i feel the need for a new dress on easter? easter is not about what i am wearing, and yet, it doesn't feel like easter unless i am wearing a new dress. i don't remember if i always had a new dress for easter when i was growing up, but i remember that brand new bright, white patent leather shoes showed up in my easter basket more than once.

*what possesses people to wait until sunday night to go to target to do their easter basket shopping? i mean really, if you are going to wait until easter eve, don't expect to be able to get any cadbury eggs . . . (i know, because i tried!)

*if you find an expensive piece of electronic equipment made by apple on a movie theater bathroom floor, wouldn't you be honest and return it? because if you keep it, it is stealing--especially when it displays an "if found" message when you turn it on . . .

*nasal irrigation does help--sometimes just not enough.

*we had an earthquake today, and i was awake and able to experience it. it sort of felt like vertigo, only it lasted a couple of minutes. it felt like the earth was just sort of shimmying, not quaking. i guess i am not the earthquake repellent that i thought i was. sigh.

*when diandra got up this morning, she came into my room and said, "well, i guess pigs are flying somewhere." what? then she continued, "you bought me navy nail polish." yes, i have not been a fan of those really dark colors, but they are starting to grow on me . . . and target was out of cadbury eggs, so i had to get something for her easter basket.

*i got to hear rollie play the bass guitar in church this morning. since he is the pastor, he is in "big boy church" every sunday, but i am always in the alternative service. so i don't get to hear him very often, but today i did. and he sounded awesome!

it is now past 9:30 and i need to go to bed. i know this is early, but remember, my sinuses are trying to kill me and i need to go to work in the morning. in order to overcome my evil sinuses, i must battle them with nasal rinses, contraband sudafed, and sleep. and in order to complete this trifecta of mucous annihilation, i must go to bed. right now.

three starts, one finish

so today . . . this is my third blog. maybe i will actually post this one.

my eyeballs are scratchy. it has been a long day, and promises to be an exceptionally busy week, and it is 11:30 and i want to go to bed. but i need to blog.

so i started a blog about how my thoughts are turning into blogs--about how i no longer have normal random thoughts, everything ends up in blogspeak. but as i was trying to explain what goes on in my head, i got confused . . . and it is my head!!! so it needed some clarification, and my brain has already gone to bed. and without it, it is hard for me to write coherently.

so then i started another blog about the latest sign that i am becoming a california person. i think it is going to be a really good blog. when i write it. but not today. today i got the first sentence written, and then quickly put down a couple of thoughts that i will work with later to write something that i think will make you laugh. but i am afraid that if i tried to write it today, it would just make you yawn--the creative juices are all bottled up. (hahaha, get it? juices? bottled up? ok, i know it is a little lame, but certain of my readers enjoy a good pun, so there it is for you honey!)

actually, while i was at walmart today, i thought i could write a really good blog about saturday at walmart--complete with pictures!! but i had two big bags of dark chocolate m&m's trying to slip out of my arms as i also wrestled two big boxes of milkbones to the nearest cash register. it was impossible to snap any pictures. i decided that blog would have to wait for another saturday . . .

so here i am, with nothing to blog about and no brain power to manufacture something. but at least there was no whining in this one. and yet, yesterday's whiny blog got more comments than i have had in a while, so maybe i should go back to whining . . . that seems to be where the rewards are. and you know how i need rewards . . .

i did choose just one husband . . .

so today . . . we went to rubio's for lunch. again.

rubio's is rollie's current favorite place to eat. he would eat there twice a day, every day if he could. we eat there a lot, because when we are getting ready to go out, he will say to me, "so, where do you want to go to eat?" and i will say, "i have no preference--you choose," or "i'll be happy anywhere i can get a huge soda," or the ever popular, "it doesn't make any difference to me as long as i don't have to make the decision." and so we go to rubio's.

decision-making is not my strong suit . . .

we eat out a lot, and menus pose a problem for me--they are full of choices. but at the places we eat more frequently, i usually know what i am going to have before we even get there. at jack-in-the-box i have a sourdough jack. at subway i have tuna on whole wheat with lots of lettuce. at mcdonald's i have cinnamon melts (we only go there for breakfast.) at red lobster and olive garden i have the salmon. at sizzler i have steak and malibu chicken. and at black angus i have the teriyaki steak. (ok, we don't eat at black angus often, but on the few occasions we do eat there, i know i am going to have the teriyaki steak!) i don't even need to look at the menus. but if we go someplace unfamiliar, i am always the last one to decide what i want to eat . .

i hate to make decisions. sometimes my email inbox is 5 or 6 pages long--not because i haven't been keeping up with my reading, but because i can't decide what to do with it. should i forward it? who should i forward it to? should i save it? delete it--no wait, i can't delete it, i might need it someday . . . maybe i should go to that website and buy the advertised item, but i don't have time right now,so let's just save it for later . . . that looks interesting, but is it true? i should ask someone about it or check it out on snopes, but again, i don't have time right now . . . this is what goes through my head when i read my email each day.

when i got my new computer, i didn't bookmark any sites for several days. the bookmarking feature is dangerous for me. on my old computer i had hundreds of sites bookmarked. i bookmark anything i think looks interesting, or that i don't have time to read immediately, or that i can't afford to purchase right away. if i am researching a new purchase (usually something electronic) i will bookmark every review i read, every place i find it for sale (because of course i want the best price,) and every comparison chart. and once it is on my bookmark list, it is pretty much there for life, because i can't decide what to keep and what to delete--you never know when i might need to refer to something . . .

this is a large part of why it is taking me so long to finish up cleaning out the scary room. i am swamped with decisions--what to keep? what to throw away? what to give to charity? what to box up and save? what to sell on ebay? what will diandra want? (she saved the yearbooks . . . ) it would be so much easier if i could just choose what i wanted to keep and throw the rest of it out! but i can't do that--i can't throw away perfectly good stuff just because i don't want it anymore . . .

maybe it would help if i would quit shopping in multiples. because when i am shopping, if i find something i really like, i will often buy the same thing in different colors. i have read that it can sometimes be a good idea to do that--buy one in black and one in a color. i do it because i can't make up my mind about what color to buy. i don't really have a favorite color--i like them all. recently i found a dress in my favorite store on clearance. and then i had a coupon to use. and by the time all the discounts had been taken, it cost me $7.50 instead of the original $30! i should have said, "woohoo," picked a color, and saved myself $22.50! instead i bought three dresses in different colors. because i couldn't choose--well, i guess i did choose, because i didn't buy it in all 7 colors (that would have just been too much!) but i couldn't pick just one.

recently we went to the new yogurtland store. this is a wonderful and awful place. they probably have at least 20 different kinds of frozen yogurt and probably that many toppings as well. it is both heaven and hell for me! there are so many choices . . . and yet, since i fill my own bowl i can have all 20 flavors if i like, so i really don't have to make a decision. but i do, because i have to pay by the weight of my delicious frozen treat . . . and then eat it all!

. . . so we ended up at rubio's for lunch once again. and that is ok with me, because they do have big sodas there and i don't have to look at the menu--i know what i want--all american taco on a whole wheat tortilla with no fresca. that is my current favorite. although, today they told me they will only have that on the menu for a few more days, which means that the next time we go to rubio's, i will have to choose something different to eat.

maybe we could just start going to jack-in-the-box . . .

at least i don't have to go hunting

so today . . . i wasn't going to write a blog. it is wednesday, which as you know, is my official day off from blogging. and nothing extraordinarily funny happened to me today.

i did finally fold the laundry. yes, the laundry that i washed last friday night and saturday morning before we left for fishfest. i got kind of busy after that, and so the laundry remained in the laundry basket, out in the hot garage, waiting to come in. today it got to come in. and get folded. and actually put away into the drawers.

i also went to the grocery store, and you know how i love to do that! rollie called and asked if i wanted to go out for lunch today, and of course i said yes. he was going to come pick me up, but i said NO! and just had him meet me at rubio's. that got me out of the house in my own car, which is the first step to getting to the grocery store. (there is something about being home for the summer that makes it sooo hard for me to go do the stuff i need to do. i just want to stay put. at home.) so we had a nice lunch, sat outside at the town center enjoying the view (there are lots of palm trees there,) and the sound of the water from the fountain, and then i headed off to buy food.

but first, i stopped at walmart. how could i not? it is at the town center and i had to drive right by it and my car just parked. so i got out, went in, checked the list i keep in my phone of things i need to get at walmart, and bought mini chocolate covered donuts.

i don't know what it is about those crazy donuts, but i cannot seem to resist them. i don't crave them to the point of making a special trip to buy them, but if i walk past them in the store, i get them. and then i take them home and eat them all myself. (rollie won't eat them, and i hide them from diandra . . . i know, what kind of a mom am i? i'll tell you--i am the kind of mom that is trying desperately to save my daughter from my addictions!!) as i walked to the car with my "catch of the day," i realized i had a problem. i had chocolate covered mini donuts. and if i went to the grocery store, those donuts were going to sit in the trunk of my car and the chocolate coating was going to get all melty and they would stick together and that would not be good. so i did the only thing i could do. i went home. without buying groceries.

it isn't like there is no food in the house. there is, but it all requires cooking--all of our instant food was pretty much gone. but i thought maybe we could live on raw broccoli, hard boiled eggs, and cucumbers for another day or two . . .

and then i got a text message from someone at my school. each teacher was getting $50 to spend for classroom materials this year, but they needed to be ordered right away and could i come look at the catalog? ok. so i was going to be out in my car again~

i drove to the school, perused the catalog and made my choices--do you know how hard it is to spend only $50 in an educational materials catalog?!? oh my goodness! but i finally did, after which i headed off to the grocery store.

it didn't take me long to fill my cart. we tend to like to eat the same things over and over again, so usually i can go through the store on autopilot. and it turned out to be a great time to be in the store--there wasn't even a line at the cash register!

so we have food again. we are not going to starve. or be forced to become vegetarians. i mean, i have learned to eat broccoli, but sometimes a girl just needs tuna fish! oh yeah, and dark chocolate m&m's!

kind of heavy thoughts--you might want to skip it today . . .

so today . . . i went to a funeral. this is my fourth funeral in three months, and the first one that made me cry.

my uncle passed away a few months ago. it was sudden and unexpected. i got a plane ticket, took a few days off work, and headed north to be with my family. his family did a great job of putting together a service that celebrated who he was, and they did it in a very short time. but i didn't cry. in my defense, i don't cry a lot. but this would be a time when you would think i might, and yet, i didn't. everything happened at such a whirlwind pace, that maybe it didn't really seem real to me that he was gone. and since i live so far away and only see him a couple of times a year, even though my brain knows he is gone, my heart hasn't quite grasped it yet. i can still kind of pretend that he is at home painting or tying fishing flies or going to garage sales . . .

the second funeral was just a couple of weeks later. it was for a very old lady at our church. she was not one of those grumpy, cranky old people that we all encounter occasionally. she was kind and sweet, and never complained about her physical issues--and she had plenty she could have complained about! so her death wasn't completely unexpected. she was ready to go, she knew where she was headed, and she was at peace with it. and while we will miss her, we know that it must be a relief for her to be in a place where she feels no pain and her body works like it is supposed to again. (i'm talking about heaven here, in case you didn't know . . . ) but it was awfully close to uncle jim's funeral. and while i didn't actually cry, it was just too close. i went, but i didn't let myself really participate. finally i just left and wandered around the church offices, waiting for it to be over.

the third funeral was for an older man who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. thankfully, he didn't have to battle it for too long. he lived his life in service to God, and his funeral was a send-off fit for, well, maybe the pope! his children and grandchildren loved him fiercely and were so proud of all he had accomplished, and they wanted us all to know that and remember it! they had quite a bit of time to plan the service, and they made the most of it. again, no tears for me, but i smiled several times at how this family was honoring the life of their dad. and they did it in such a way that it drew them closer together, which would have made their dad very proud too.

but today's funeral was different. today's funeral was for a 44 year old woman who had decided, for whatever reasons, that she was done living. i didn't know her. i've met her sister and parents, but i don't really know them. and yet as i sat there and saw a family that was going to forever have to live with the knowledge that their mom/daughter/sister had chosen to leave them, i cried. finally i cried. i don't know what her life was like. i don't know why she felt she couldn't cope with it any longer. i don't know why she decided to end her own life. but she left people behind who loved her and cared about her, and who will have to figure out how to continue on with their lives without her.

i'm sorry for the gloomy tone of today's blog. usually i try to write something that will make you laugh. but today, i just couldn't. today i feel very, very sad. whenever i go to a funeral, it gets me to thinking about my own mortality. when you go to one funeral every two or three years, it isn't too bad--i think about it for a day or two, and then life gets back to normal. but in the last few months, with all these funerals, i have been thinking about it a lot. i've been thinking about what the service should be like (you should take care of yourselves so you can outlive me, because you will want to be at my funeral!) i've been thinking about who gets what (which is pretty easy, since i only have one daughter!) i've been wondering if will there be ANY good pictures to use (because there will be no viewing, believe me!) but lately i've been thinking about what people will say about me when i'm gone. i try not to worry too much about what people say about me now, while i am alive. but when i'm gone, what will people remember about me?

a couple of years ago, one of our teachers lost her father. we went to the funeral, and later that week, another one of the teachers brought me a piece of notebook paper, all folded up. she said the funeral had started her thinking about how we never get to hear our own eulogies, because if there is a eulogy written about us, we are dead already. so she had decided to write eulogies for each of us, just to let us know how we had affected her life. it was so interesting to read what she had written about me. some of the things were things i kind of expected she would write, but there were a lot surprises in it as well. it was enlightening to see myself through her eyes . . .

but here's what i hope--i hope that when i am gone, people will remember my character and my personality and how i made them feel (which i hope will be good.) i hope that maybe i will have made a difference in someone's life. i hope people are not reduced to saying things like, "she had nice hair," or "she wasn't a bad driver," or "she sure knew how to accessorize," or the dreaded, "i never saw her without her nails done!"

it's easy to get into a rut and just kind of coast through life. i'm kind of doing that right now. but today's funeral made me realize that i need to get my act together. i don't want my life to overwhelm me. i don't want to hide from people--i want them to know who i am, really, not just let them think they know me. i want to be a positive voice in other people's lives. i want to live a long, long time.

i think i may need some vitamins . . . :)

vacation = too tired to blog

so today . . . i am still on vacation and funny stuff is happening. we are laughing a lot. the problem is, i am so tired at night that it is hard for me to blog it. we have done a little bit of shopping. we went garage saling. we watched a movie. we went to the bread store. i signed up for twitter (@jewelielynn). we looked at new glasses for my mom. we ate sandwiches and barbeque chips and mini chocolate donuts (well, mostly i ate the donuts.) and we signed my mom up for a phone plan with unlimited text messaging and internet access. then we convinced her to buy the coolest phone ever! (and no, it isn't an iphone. puh-lease!! it is way cooler than that!) and then we signed her up for twitter. tomorrow we are going to the antique show, which has over 1000 vendors! we are going to be tired when we get home!! but i will try to save enough brain power to write a blog. diandra is coming too, so there may even be pictures . . .

vacations--don't you love 'em?!

not quite done yet . . .

so today . . . . AAAGGGHHHHH!!! tomorrow is my last day of school for the year. which should be cause for celebration, and it is, but i have so much to do and not nearly enough time in which to do it! i am in a pickle!!

first of all, tomorrow is diandra's birthday and she has high expectations for what that means. usually i am up to the challenge, but i had to work an extra week this year, so i have not had adequate time to prepare . . . i am afraid she is going to be somewhat underwhelmed by my plans.

AND tomorrow i am meeting with the teacher who is going to be teaching my new crop of kindergarteners for the summer, while i am on 'vacation.' it would probably be nice if the kindergarten room looked inviting and maybe even a little bit spiffy. but as of 3:30 this afternoon when i left . . . it was neither. i've been moving all my stuff back in from the classroom i shared this year, and somehow it does not all seem to fit back into the space it came out of. contrary to what you are thinking, i did NOT add any new stuff this year. maybe i just don't remember how i had it all put away. all i know is, my cupboards are full and there is still stuff sitting on the tables. and i only work half a day tomorrow. i do not have high hopes of a relaxing last day of school. there probably won't even be any presents, because no one really knows it is my last day. not that it matters . . .

AND farm town is acting weird tonight. my mom had to actually call me on the phone, because it wouldn't let us talk to each other. and then one of my new neighbors came to my farm to harvest, and i couldn't see her. she kept saying she was standing right in front of me, but it looked to me like i was all alone on my big, beautiful, successful farm. (did i mention i am kind of a farm town tycoon?) and then my mom came to harvest my farm, but the crops were still there after she harvested, at least on my computer. no one else could see them, but i haven't been paid for them, and i can still see them. it was not my day on farm town, tycoon or not . . .

AND we finally got a bass player for our band. but she is pretty new at the whole bass playing thing. so she needs some extra practice outside of rehearsal. and since i am going to be out of town for 10 days, and then come home briefly before being gone for another week, i need to get her practice music ready. copying the lead sheets won't be a problem, but making cds is always a challenge for me--i am somewhat skills challenged when it comes to getting digital files onto small silvery discs.

AND although i did report cards yesterday, i still need to make the picture cds for my boys of the pictures i have taken of them throughout the year, and all their artwork that i scanned into the computer. i did a pretty good job of keeping that up to date until about a month ago (hmmm, could that be about the time i started playing farm town?) but i took a lot of pictures at the aquarium on tuesday. so i need to get those sorted into the right folders and label everything and burn cds--hopefully without any glitches. but of course, there are always glitches when i try to burn a cd.

AND, did i mention i am trying to get ready to go out of town for 10 days? but first we need to celebrate diandra's birthday, and there will be laundry to do before we can pack, and milo's nails need to be trimmed again (which is always a job for me and whatever army i can recruit,) and i am going to santa barbara on monday with diandra for a photo shoot, and did i mention that tomorrow she will be turning 24 and would probably like to celebrate a bit?!?!?!

i had great plans tonight of making some progress here--i wanted to at least get those cds made! but rollie wanted real food for dinner--not fast food (no, i didn't cook--but we took the time to eat at a real restaurant instead of one with a drive-thru!) and then my mom called me on the phone to alert me to our farm town issues (because it wouldn't even let us chat,) and then when i went to write my blog, i realized that i hadn't read any of the blogs i follow for the last couple of days . . . so of course, i had to get caught up. and now, even though it is only 10:30, my eyes are sandpapery, and i am fading fast. my inclination is to just stay up late tonight, get everything done, and sleep later. but that is what i have been doing for the last couple of weeks. i am beginning to wonder when 'later' is going to arrive. i'm so tired, my ears are ringing.

so i'm headed for bed. it can all wait until tomorrow.

except for the blog . . .

a typical sunday

so today . . . was a typical sunday--church in the morning, lunch at subway, short nap, leadership meeting in the afternoon, dinner at rubio's, come home for computer time and tv, and then bed. usually something will happen for me to write about, or at the very least, i will think about something that i think will be interesting to write about. but not today . . .

i didn't really have any thoughts today. i mean, not the rambling, out in left field kind that make for a good blog. my brain stayed occupied with whatever was happening around me, without wandering about on it's own. that does not make for good blog writing. at least not on a sunday . . .

and then tonight i spent quite a while talking to diandra, who just got home from shooting the wedding of one of her college roommates. she was gone all weekend, and i was curious about how it went. and, of course, we had to look at a small portion of the hundreds of photos that were recorded. she took some beautiful shots, even right out of the camera. i can't wait to see the final results . . . check out her blog later this week--there will be lovely photos, and a pretty funny story about four wheel drive and a rogue gps, i hope.

the bride and groom are honeymooning in fiji. i happen to know where that is now, because last week joshua asked me, "where's fiji?" so we searched our globe until we found it. it is pretty small. i asked how he knew about fiji and he said he saw something about it on tv. then he proceeded to tell me all about it. joshua says that his mom says he can go there. i'm sure she means some day, when he is a grown up and saves enough money. he thinks she is taking him there this summer . . .

summer camp might be a bit of a disappointment, if you are expecting to go to fiji.

happy endings

so today . . . we watched a movie. i was pretty excited about it, because it looked like a good story. it started off well. it was an interesting idea. the middle did a good job of developing the idea. then we headed into the ending, and that's where the trouble began . . .

i like stories--books, blogs, movies, my dad talking--but it is disappointing when the end doesn't live up to the promise of the beginning. i hate it when the end just kind of fizzles out, like the storyteller just ran out of ideas and decided to say, "the end." i also hate it when they take the easy way out.

that was the case today. the story was good--it was intriguing and had me sitting on the edge of my seat. my mind was filled with possibilities of the places it might go. the suspense built as the characters raced around trying to find a solution to a seemingly impossible situation. i was riveted. emotionally involved. i was feeling the main characters. i was thinking, "this is a great movie. i'll have to tell my friends about it."

and then they sent in aliens to save the day . . .

are you kidding me?!?! i mean, i like a good alien movie as much as the next person. one of my favorite movies is independence day (WHAP! "welcome to earth!") but this was just taking the easy way out. this was not a story about aliens! it was a story about unexplained phenomena. i guess you could make a case for aliens being the cause of it, but it just smacked of deus ex machina, a plot device used in greek tragedies, where someone appears "out of the blue" to help a character overcome a seemingly insolvable difficulty. if the greeks wrote themselves into a corner, they would just lower one of their gods down into the situation to save the day! and that is exactly what happened in the movie. it was almost as though they couldn't think of a way out, so hey! let's blame it on aliens!

they lost me. i sat back in my seat and crossed my arms and emotionally disengaged. where they wanted me to cry, i scoffed. where they wanted me to feel a parent's anguish, i felt like laughing in derision. when they turned the aliens into angels, i thought, "do not even go there!" when the music swelled with passion, i just wanted it to be over. the words "the end" could not come soon enough to satisfy me.

i was so disappointed. so many questions that had been raised remained unanswered. i kept saying, "what about the rocks? why didn't they let the little boy finish his writing? why were there so many alien ships? why didn't they let the teacher's character provide some of the answers?" and the big question, why did they even go with the "aliens saving mankind" ending? it was just so hokey!

as rollie and i talked about it later, it got me to thinking about how a good ending is so important. a weak ending can take a story from incredible to forgetable. it can make you feel like you have wasted your time--that there were other more worthwhile things you could have been engaged in. whether it is a story, or an event, or an interaction with someone, the ending is what will be remembered.

i'm not going to live forever. neither are you. but the ending is important. who we are and how we treat people is important. it isn't a good thing to reach a point in life where you feel like you've lived your life, you've "served your time," and now you're done. i'm all for relaxing, but as long as you are alive, don't forget that your influence is affecting those around you. and that influence can be cranky, difficult, and demeaning or it can be kind, encouraging, and helpful.

i hope that as i continue to get older, i will choose to be positive. i hope i won't fall into the trap of being critical of those around me. i hope i will remember that each day i have is a gift, and i should enjoy it. i hope i will continue to look for the good in people, and overlook the things that annoy me. i hope that i will be like my grandma peabody, who everybody loved, and not like archie bunker, who everybody loved to hate. i want a happy ending!

because i've told both rollie and diandra, if i get old and cranky just put me in a "home" and leave me there. rollie says he could never do that, but i'm not so sure about diandra . . . :)

it's already 11:20 p.m.!

so today . . . it is 11:20 p.m. and i haven't even started my blog!

if you notice the time that i post my blogs, it is usually pretty late. but i start early in the evening. i write a little, i edit, i delete, i look for pictures, sometimes i go take a picture, then i write and edit some more. so i may begin at 7:00 and not post until 10:30.

however, lest you think i actually devote a minimum of three hours to my blog every night, i will say that i'm NOT blogging the entire time--i blog, i watch tv. i blog, i check my facebook. i blog, i tolerate dog kisses from milo. milo climbs into my lap and takes over my face. i peel him off and plop him on the couch and blog some more. i check my email. i blog, i farm. i farm. i farm. oops--back to the blog . . . i eat, i blog. and this is how it goes . . .

today i added a nap into the mix. i was sooo tired today. last night i went to bed and my mind just kept clicking along, so it was after 2:00 a.m. before i achieved unconciousness! but i still had to get up and go to work today, so by mid afternoon i was dragging. i decided a nap was necessary . . . then i ate dinner, and started the whole blog, facebook, farm, dog, tv cycle.

at about 9:30 i told my mom i thought i was going to make it into bed at a decent time tonight. (she worries about me and my sleep--she's my mom, so i guess that is her job. i worry about diandra's sleep too . . . ) at 9:30 i really thought i was going to make it into bed by 10:30. i was soooo wrong . . .

apparently my sense of time is not all that good. time always passes much faster than i think it will. everything takes longer than i think it will. this may be why i never get anything done, and why i tend toward lateness. yet, i am a clock watcher. so i don't get it . . .

but i just looked at the clock on my computer and realized that if i end this blog right now, i can get into bed before midnight--which is a step in the right direction. of course, i still have to wash my face and brush my teeth and collect my things for school tomorrow . . . so maybe 12:15 is a more realistic goal . . .

the value of imperfect photographs

so today . . . i was reading diandra's most recent photography blog. she takes beautiful photographs, and i always enjoy looking at her latest entry. but today, it was the story she told that caught my attention (although, the photos are certainly worth looking at!)

diandra is the most photogenic person i know. in all the thousands of photos we have taken of her, i'll bet there aren't 10 photos that could be called bad. unlike her mother. or grandmother. my mom and i do not photograph well. i don't know why. i think my mom is beautiful, especially when she laughs, but whenever we try to take her picture something happens to her face. it's like her face doesn't want it's picture taken.

and then there is my face--it doesn't like to be photographed either. the biggest problem is my bangs. i don't know why, but they never seem to lay properly when i am having my picture taken. in fact, it is pretty much a family joke now--"how are my bangs?" i will ask before the shutter is pressed. and whoever is with me will attempt to fluff them or arrange them, but they are never right . . . that is why a good picture of my mom and me is priceless!

but diandra always looks beautiful! except in her third grade school picture. she had shoulder length hair, which we had curled under for "picture day," but for some reason by the time the photo was snapped her hair looked longer on one side than on the other. and she had a cold sore on her lip--on picture day!! while she valiantly gave her best smile, you can see that she is not feeling it--i probably made her wear something she didn't want to wear or the photographer said something about her hair . . .

photographs are important. they capture a moment in time that we will never again experience. but we can revisit it through the pictures that are taken. i love photographs--even the imperfect ones, because they tell a story. sometimes the imperfect ones tell the story the best.

i took this picture a couple of years ago when we were visiting my parents. diandra, mom, and i spent the day at the portland zoo. we had a great time and took a ton of pictures. at one point i was trying to get a good picture of mom and diandra in front of these pretty bushes. so of course, since my mom was in the picture, i had to take several, because you never know how she is going to look when the camera actually clicks. this picture captures the moment during that series, when diandra thought she heard a snake in the bushes.
do you see the look on her face? this might be one of those 10 bad pictures of her . . .

but in the interest of fairness (and because i love my mom) here is a much better picture of her that diandra took earlier in the day--i'm pretty sure there were no snakes in the immediate vicinity . . .in her blog, diandra commented about how the horrible school picture resides on the wall right along with all the others. well, pictures document our history, and it isn't always pretty. if i only kept the vacation photos where i look good, we would have very few vacation photos.

this picture was taken in mazatlan last summer. we were walking down the street and saw these two huge shells, and rollie said, "if you sit there, those shells will look like angel wings." so i did. but look at my bangs!! and my bag sitting by the angel wing shells! i look at this picture, and my first thought is "delete!" but when i look at this imperfect image, i remember a perfect day! so i saved the photo, even though i wish i could photoshop some bangs across my bare forehead (it was a very windy day!)
here is my favorite school picture of diandra. it is her kindergarten picture, and it think it is adorable!so in defense of school pictures, i think it is pretty good if you can say that only one out of thirteen pictures is bad. but then again, when your subject is this cute, it isn't that hard . . .

alone on a friday night

so today . . . i am home by myself--just the way i like it. sometimes . . .

diandra is at the church for a teen overnighter. she hates those, but the kids love them (of course!) so every once in a while they schedule one, she dreads it, goes and has some fun, deals with all the drama, comes home the next day and sleeps it off, and then relaxes because she knows she won't have to go to another one for a while . . . only this time she took my crock pot for nacho cheese. i am kind of wondering what it will look like when it comes home . . . assuming it comes home . . .

rollie is at an angels' game with a friend (and it isn't me!) i love angels' baseball--especially on friday nights--because on friday nights they have a fireworks show after the game, even if they lose! but today they are going to celebrate his friend's birthday, so i guess it is good that the friend got to go . . . and yet, i know they are sitting there eating nachos and frozen lemonade and chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches . . . and i am at home eating nuts.

i have other food i could eat, but i'm sitting here on the couch like a beanie baby and don't feel like preparing anything. and when i say preparing, i really mean taking something out of a package or can and microwaving it. i could go out to eat. i don't go out to eat by myself much, and i really like to take my book and go sit in a restaurant and eat alone. but if i were to do that tonight (and i have the perfect opportunity) it would mean going out into the cold.

it was cold here today. the sun didn't shine much, and it was cloudy most of the day. it just isn't right for this time of the year! we should be able to depend on lovely sunny days and just barely cool nights--not gloomy cloudy days and chillingly freezing nights. if i wanted this kind of weather, i would live somewhere else. i mean, it was even hot in oregon today!!

i know this, because i read what my friends write on facebook. and let me tell you, my oregon friends were all about the weather today. they were kind enough not to direct their sunshine comments at me directly, but they were happy campers! except my mom--and probably wendy. my mom said the weather has turned, which means watering her flowers every day now until they die--which hopefully won't be until fall. wendy says she has planted 450 zinnias!! i find this somewhat difficult to believe--not because i don't think she would do something that crazy, but because i can't imagine how you would even get 450 zinnias home! does home depot even have 450 zinnias in their store? or would you have to go to several different stores? and once you got them home, who even has room for 450 zinnias in their yard?!?! until i see actual photographs, i am thinking perhaps she was speaking metaphorically . . .

you see, i do have friends--several in fact. but most of them don't live near me. it is a good thing i have the internet, because that is how i stay connected with most of the people i love--sometimes even the ones who live with me!! there are people here that i could have called and said, "rollie's at a ball game, diandra is at an overnighter--let's go out!" but again, it's cold outside, and my beanie baby body is pretty comfy on the couch . . .

so here i am, alone at home, with the tv and my computer and the dogs for company. just the way i like it. sometimes.

if we "plant" it, they will eat it . . .

so today . . . i'm tired. i'm sorry. i really want to write something tonight that will make you laugh, but i just can't.

i've been staying up late the last several nights. i sit down in the evening and start playing with my farm, and the next thing i know, it is 10:30 and i haven't even started my blog! so i race to blogspot to write, but then i don't get into bed until after midnight. and i still have to get up in the morning and go to work, because unlike SOME people--wendy--i am not off for the summer yet . . .

but i do have one quick story. this week joshua and jonathan have been helping me "farm." they each have two plots and every day after we find someone to harvest for us, i plow up their ground and then they plant. they always put a lot of thought into what they want to grow.

today for lunch we had fish sticks, rice, corn, and then watermelon for dessert. as i was dishing up their food, we started talking about it and realized that, except for the fish sticks, this was all food they had chosen to "plant" this week. so as they ate their lunch today, they kind of felt like they were eating the food that they had grown . . . it was very cute.

when we planted new crops later today, i noticed that they planted lots of strawberries. i hope they aren't thinking we will have that for lunch tomorrow . . .

sigh . . . ? or scream . . . !!!

so today . . . i have no profound thoughts to share. or even mindless, random ones . . .

it's been a day of frustrations--nothing major, just a lot of little stuff. i hate that, because it makes me feel edgy all day. and since i tend to be non-confrontational, this means a day of just swallowing the words that crowd my mind, and trying not to compound things by telling everyone just what i think! that's why i have no thoughts to share--my brain has been so busy controlling my reactions that it hasn't had time to wander into territory that would make for interesting reading . . .

i've had several days like this lately, and it is bothering me. this is not the way i want to live my life, but it seems to be what's going on right now. maybe i am just ready for summer vacation--but that is still almost a month away! maybe i need therapy to learn how to deal with these frustrations more positively. maybe, like one of my friends, i just need pharmaceutical aid. i don't know.

all i know is, today i am glad for my dogs (who think i am the second best person on the planet,) and facebook farm town (which gives me the illusion of being in control--even though my animals are running wild!)

prom season

so today . . . we went to rubio's at the towne center for dinner. it was such a nice day that we sat outside to eat. and soon realized that somewhere tonight, there will be a prom . . .

it wasn't hard to figure out. our first clue was the gigantic hummer limo illegally parked in front of starbucks. since we are several miles from hollywood, i was pretty sure it wasn't brad pitt's ride. there was also the constant (and colorful) parade of couples going back and forth, back and forth. it was quite a site.

each high school has their prom on a different night, so we see high school kids all decked out in formal wear for five or six saturday nights in a row, both in the fall and again in the spring. i don't know where else they congregate, but apparently the towne center is one of the places to see and be seen! and it is quite a show . . .

the girls are the ones to watch. the guys are all wearing either black or white formal wear with a colored shirt, vest, or tie--to match their date's dress. those boys, i'll bet they have no say in what they are going to wear. can you imagine a guy saying to his date, "well, i want to wear a green shirt, so you need to find a green dress . . . " oh no, i don't think that is how it works at all! those girls have probably spent weeks looking for just the right dress (and shoes, and handbag, and hair ornaments . . . )

so let's talk about the shoes. i am highly entertained by watching these girls try to walk in their fancy shoes! it is hysterical!! i remember when diandra was graduating from high school. she had a lovely black floaty tea length dress to wear. and so, she got some cute black shoes with about a two inch spiky heel--well, as spiky as a two inch heel can be. she was graduating at the crystal cathedral, and all the floors there are marble (and slippery!!) as i watched her try to walk in those shoes on our tile floors, i thought to myself, "she is going to fall. there is no way she is going to be able to walk on those marble floors without slipping and falling." you see, diandra was a flipflop girl--i don't think she had ever walked in any kind of heel before! and she moved very gingerly and somewhat flat-footedly in those fancy shoes. let's just say as lovely as she was, her movements were more tentative than graceful.

and i am reminded of that every year when i see these girls trying to walk in their new shoes! first of all, many times the shoes are either too big or too small--which of course makes walking difficult. i don't know why they don't get shoes that fit . . . and most of them buy shoes with impossibly high spiky heels--their feet have to be killing them! anyone who has ever walked in a high spiky heel knows that there is some skill involved in being able to walk in them without looking awkward--and most of these girls don't have it yet. the boys are ambling along, often in their canvas shoes, looking just too cool. but their dates are hobbling around praying they remain upright . . .

then there are the dresses. we always see such a variety, and to this point we have not seen two girls in the same dress (which of course would be the ultimate horror!) it is always interesting to see the styles that have been chosen. there are long dresses, tea length dresses, short dresses, and dresses that just barely qualify--apparently there isn't much of a dress code for these events! there are dresses in every shade and tint of color. today rollie said that when a whole group comes by together, it looks like a flower garden. the colors are beautiful--but some of the dresses are not! really!! i feel bad for some of those girls who obviously got terrible advice about what would look good on them. sometimes i wonder if the person who said, "oh yes, get THAT dress!" was either a desperate sales person or an enemy masquerading as a friend . . .

and lastly are the accessories--the jewelry, the handbag, the hair ornaments. they sparkle!! because really, why bother with accessories if they aren't going to sparkle! that is what accessories are all about. i have known this for the last 20 years, but i am gratified to see that the rest of the world is finally catching up with me on this. i wear sparkle every day, but these girls do not. unless it is in their cosmetics, they are not all comfortable with everyday sparkle. but on this night, for their prom, they sparkle every time they move.

this isn't real life--real life is jeans and flipflops. this is the ball! and for this night, each girl is cinderella. so when i see them, they just look like little girls to me--little girls playing dress up, wearing their mom's shoes and carrying her special handbag, pretending to be grown up. they aren't grown up yet, but it won't be long now . . . and as i watch the girls, one thing is clear--each one thinks they look beautiful. and so, they do . . .

and as for diandra and the heels and the marble floors at the crystal cathedral? she managed to walk in with her graduating class, walk up and receive her diploma and return to her seat, and walk out again--all without falling. she rocked those shoes!

so sleepy . . . ZZZ Z Z zzzz zz z . . .

so today . . . has been a very long day. i was up late last night preparing for my trip today, and then i got up an hour and a half earlier than usual to finish up some stuff before leaving town. i worked at school until noon, ate lunch with rollie, went home and finished packing, and then headed to the airport.

i flew out of long beach for the first time, and i loved it! it is so much more relaxed than flying from lax--not nearly as many people, shorter lines, pleasant employees (at least today.) i had a window seat, which was interesting. you see, i don't fly much. we are used to driving whenever we travel. and because of that, i am always a little uneasy in the air, even though there are things about airplane trips that i really like.

but you are not going to hear about them today, because it is 11:59 p.m. and i am exhausted! i need sleep!!! so, i will blog about my flying issues another day--maybe tuesday, since i will be flying home that day.

and as a side note, i wanted to say thanks to you guys who check and read my blog every day. i try not to disappoint you by at least writing something each day, but i know that some days you may think, "i stayed up late to read that?!?!" (you know who you are . . . ) so i wanted to warn you that i might not write much for the next few days--i may be busy with family stuff. or i may not. i just don't know yet . . . so check in. you may not find a new posting, or you may find something really fun to read--we will just have to wait and see how the next few days play out . . .