the power of suggestion strikes again...

so today . . .  i cannot blog.

i cannot blog today, but not for the usual reasons.  usually when i say i cannot blog, it is because i am too tired, or nothing blog-worthy happened, or my brain has left the building.  but none of those reasons are the reason i cannot blog today... (well, except that really nothing blog-worthy happened, but i could probably come up with something if i gave it some thought.)  the problem today is that i need to do report cards and homework letters for school tomorrow, and it is already almost 10:00!

why, you may ask, didn't i get started earlier?  well, i have my reasons!

first of all, i didn't sleep very well last night.  and it is all my doctor's fault! 

i had to go to the doctor yesterday for a follow up visit to my "annual procedure."  she is not happy with the mediocre results we are getting with my current medications, so she wants to make some changes in a few weeks.  in order to make the best decision, she started asking me some questions about how my current medications are affecting me.  "are you irritable?" she asked.  "i don't think so," i replied.  "i mean, my husband hasn't looked at me like i was a crazy person and asked what the heck was wrong with me!  so no, i don't think i am irritable."  "ok," she said, "what about sleeping?  are you sleeping ok?"  "yes," i said, "i sleep really good!  sometimes i wake up in the night, but i usually go right back to sleep.  but sometimes i go to bed really late." (i didn't tell her it was because i blog!) "so maybe i don't get enough sleep, but not because i CAN'T sleep."  "ok," she said, "i'm asking because one of your medications tends to ramp most people up."

what?!?!  one of my medications tends to ramp most people up?  where is my ramping up???  this is a side effect i could use!  it seems like i am always tired (probably because i hardly have any iron in my blood, but that is another story...) i think that if i have to take this medication, it is only fair that i get the good side effects...

now i am irritable.

but my doctor said adequate sleep is important to managing my medical issues.  so last night i went to bed early.  before 9:00!   and laid there, not sleeping.  i didn't get to sleep until after 11:00, and then i woke up every couple of hours!  all. night. long.  this has never happened to me before.  i am usually a good sleeper.  i stay up until i am tired, and then i fall asleep quickly and am dead to the world until i start smacking the snooze button on my alarm at 7:00 in the morning.

in fact once, our security system went off in the middle of the night.  rollie immediately leaped out of bed, grabbed a weapon and went to investigate.  diandra jumped out of bed and peeked out into the hall to see what was happening.  the dogs barked, and mia jumped off the bed and on the bed and off the bed and on the bed.  i was aware that the alarm had gone off, but i just rolled over and continued to sleep.  i only know what happened, because rollie told me the next morning... along with little comments like, "if i wasn't home, and that was a real burglar breaking in to the house, you would be dead!  you have to pay attention to the alarm!"  i sort of think that if i was alone and a real burglar was breaking into the house, my best defense would be to stay asleep and hope he would just take the valuables and run...

but i digress.

my point is that i slept perfectly fine until my doctor put the notion in my head that maybe i shouldn't be sleeping perfectly fine.  and so last night i didn't sleep perfectly fine, which meant that i was tired today.  so when i came home from school, i took a little nap... just to get me through the evening.  because it is thursday, and rollie teaches a class on thursdays, and usually we go out to eat before his class. and i had some errands to run after that, so i didn't get home until almost 8:00. and then it was time to farm with my dad on facebook.  and then, milo started bugging me to hold him...

which would have been fine if he would have let me hold him.  but he didn't want to lay in my lap, he wanted me to hold him in my arms.  but he kept shifting around.  he just couldn't get comfortable.  he will lay in rollie's lap and let rollie hold him for hours, but when i hold him, he wants to actually be held.  in my arms.  and he is a bit chubby, so my arms get tired pretty quickly.  

finally rollie came home from his class.  "oh good!  you are home!!"  i exclaimed.  "why?  what's the matter?" he asked.  "milo is demanding to be held, and i have stuff to do!  maybe he doesn't feel good..."  "he is probably just ready to go to bed.  usually we are in bed by now, and he seems to know when it is time."

ah yes... milo doesn't have any trouble sleeping at all!  of course, maybe that is because he lays his chubby little body on the most comfortable spot on the bed... my pillow!  

for some reason he has recently decided that he has every bit as much right to lay his little furry head (or whole body,) on my pillow as i have.  and usually he gets away with it.  because usually i am asleep!  of course, if last night is any indication, that may soon all change...

and so, here i am at 10:45, "not blogging" because it is late, and i have school work to do.  i don't think i am going to be asleep by 11:00 tonight either...  and getting all the school work done before morning is starting to look less and less likely to happen...

... unless, of course, some "ramping up" starts to occur...

plan? plan? what plan...

so today . . .  i have blogger's block.

my goal last week was to blog about diandra's wedding all week long.  there were so many gorgeous photos i wanted to share, but getting the photos onto the blog has proven to be an issue.  so my plan was to blog like a maniac this weekend and get caught up.  which was a great plan, except rollie was gone friday and saturday, which meant "project time" for me.

i thought i could do both.  i thought i could do projects during the day and then blog at night.  but that isn't exactly what happened...

... because what happened was that everything took waaaay longer than i thought it would.  of course.  it always does!

but i did attempt to blog.  in fact, i have SIX unfinished blogs in my draft folder.  (actually, i have 88 unfinished blogs in my draft folder, but only six from last week.  i should probably clean out my draft folder...)  i just can't seem to finish one!  my brain is just going in too many different directions to focus!

so.  here is my plan.  this is my blog for today (sad and pathetic as it is.)  and then i will try to do regular blogging next week.  but i will also work on finishing up last weeks blogs...

...because i can't just abandon them!  there are beautiful pictures to see, and computer glitches to complain about, and an inspiring event to share, and power tools and vacation plans and a trip to home depot...

yes, it was a busy week.  no wonder i couldn't focus long enough to finish even. one. blog.

ch-ch-ch-changes, part deux

so today . . . is the last day of 2011. i thought i should probably blog...

i have been a terrible blogger this year! in fact, i am not sure i have blogged enough to even be called a blogger!! i should probably just be called "a woman with a computer and a blogspot address who thinks about blogging but never actually does it..." but that is kind of long, and i don't really like it, so next year i promise to do better!

(oh man, there i go, making new year's resolutions already! i hate new year's resolutions! they always make me feel like a big, fat failure, because i can never keep them. ever. so forget i said that... because if i make a resolution like that, it will certainly be the kiss of death for my blog!)

2011 was a year of changes. ultimately all the changes were good, but they were not without consequences. i was tired. i was busy. i was confused and overwhelmed. i was exhausted. my brain ceased to function quite frequently. there were days i couldn't keep my eyes open and nights when i didn't sleep. and so my blogging became sporadic...

...and then i got an ipad. and an iphone. which made it worse!

yes, one of the biggest changes of 2011 was learning to navigate apple's operating system--you know, the one that is so intuitive?? yes, well maybe it is intuitive if you are a child! but for a person who has been using microsoft products for the last 25 years, i find it more than a little bit challenging. and yet, i am strangely madly in love with my new electronics. you know how in the movies the good girls are always falling for the bad boys? you know those boys are going to get them into trouble, and yet the good girls fall for them every. single. time. well, my iproducts are my bad boys...

how has this affected my blogging? it's like this... i used to spend my evenings sitting on my couch, watching tv, and surfing the internet with my cute little laptop. i would "shop" a little, catch up on what all my fb friends were doing, farm a little, and then blog. but now? now i spend my evenings sitting on my couch, watching tv, and surfing the internet on my ipad. i check my email, look for new, free apps to download, and maybe "shop" a little. but what i do not do is farm (because the ipad doesn't support most fb games,) or blog. because i can't.

i can't blog from my ipad. my blogger site doesn't work with apple's operating system. i need an app for that! and there is one for the phone, but not for the ipad. i went into the apple store for help, and we managed to figure out how i could post a blog, but it isn't easy! it is time consuming and frustrating and doesn't always work. so, if i want to blog, i have to get up off the couch and trade my ipad for my laptop, and i am sorry to tell you that there are days when i just don't have the oomph to do that! and so my blogging suffered...

and then i was busy. i was out of town in february, march, august, september, october, november, and december for 5-10 days each time. i was the mother of the bride on st. patrick's day in las vegas. i looked for a house, bought a house, packed up our old house, and moved into our new house. i hired and supervised painters, gardeners, and other miscellaneous workers. i taught school. i did laundry, walked the dogs, cleaned the house, and finally started cooking again. i shopped for family room couches, a washer and dryer, and a new front door... i am still shopping for a new front door... i spoke at two retreats and a christmas brunch. i was busy.

and then our family changed. in 2011 i became a mother-in-law. i'm not so sure how i feel about that. i always say that diandra is pretty much perfect. and she is. but "pretty much" leaves a little room for those days that we all have occasionally... and somehow, miraculously, her husband, javier knows how to deal with those days and make them better. i am very glad that my darling daughter is married to a man who is the yin to her yang. i'm glad she found a man who loves her like her dad loves me, and like my dad loves my mom. but now i have a son-in-law, a cuban son-in-law, who doesn't like to smile in pictures (although he is getting better,) who hugs everyone (EVERYONE,) who eats my string cheese by BITING it (everyone knows you have to peel the strings off to eat string cheese!) and is just a bit inscrutable. and so i am not quite sure what to do with him. our family dynamic has changed, and it is a little unnerving at times... our nest is empty (well, except for our two weird pups,) and we miss having our little chick around.

2011 was defined by changes. and sometimes chaos. it was all about just getting through the next few days... or weeks... or months... it was about homecomings and leaving home. it was about crisis management and problem solving. and yet, when i look back over the last year, i am struck by how blessed we are! we live in the land of eternal sunshine. we have good, steady jobs. we have a lovely new home (even if the garage roof does have a leak!) we are mostly happy and healthy.

i am hoping that in 2012 we are going to find some balance in our lives and get back into a routine. i am hoping that we are done dealing with major changes for a while. i am hoping that life is going to get back to normal... even if normal is going to be different than it has ever been before.

so here we go... on to 2012... let the blogging resume!

a blog... motivated by threats!

so today . . . i got this message on facebook--"i'm going to quit looking at your blog."

ok, it has been a while since i blogged. in fact, my blogging has been kind of hit and miss for the last several months. we've house hunted. we've married off our daughter. we've moved. we've unpacked... mostly. we've gone on vacation. we've had company. i've thought bloggy thoughts, but just couldn't seem to get them written down. as i've said before, i have to be in a certain frame of mind to blog, and i just haven't been there.

here's where i've been. smack the snooze alarm twice and then get up--go to my new, close, neighborhood 7-11 for a diet lemon cokesi on my way to work--spend the day trying to work with 10 pre-k kids, 5 kindergarteners, 2 curriculums, and 1 brain saying, "quit and go home!"--go home and change clothes--walk the dogs--make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner--take a shower--do miscellaneous household stuff--catch up on facebook and email--go to bed.

do you see blogging anywhere in that list? me either. but i'm not ready to give it up. not yet. here's why...

TOP TEN REASONS I'M NOT READY TO STOP BLOGGING

10. it makes me think. my friend wendy says i think too much. sometimes i probably do. i wake up thinking about stuff. i go to sleep thinking about stuff. my brain never rests. this can be a problem, but blogging makes me think in funny ways. one of my favorite things to do is take an ordinary situation and make it funny. but that takes brain power, because i can't lie--everything i write has to be true... or at least as true as my memory is acurate :-) lately my brain has been sadly underpowered. i think i need an auxiliary brain...

9. i've invested too much to quit. i've written 684 blog posts! that is a lot of hours of thinking and writing and editing. it is too much to just write it off as something i did for a while and walk away. i want to reach 1000! maybe 2000! maybe 10,000!!

8. it helps me remember my life. i am shocked at how much i forget. sometimes i go back and read my old blogs and can't believe how many things would be lost forever if i hadn't blogged.

7. it reminds me of my friends and family who don't see me every day but read my blog. i think about you when i am writing, and i think about what i think you will think about what i am writing, and i think about if i should i write what i am writing because of what you might think about it...

(...maybe wendy is right...)

6. it makes me think (there i go again,) positively--mostly. i have come to realize that i am not really the optimist i like to think that i am. even though i want to be tigger, i am really a lot more eeyore. but who wants to read a whiny blog every day? who wants to write a whiny blog every day?? so while once in a while eeyore shoves tigger out of the way and gets to write a whiny blog, i try to get tigger to do most of them.

5. it makes me feel like a writer. i never knew i might want to be a writer until i started blogging. and then i started seeing ebooks that were really just a compilation of someone's blogs. i'll probably never write a real book, but now that ebooks are an option, who knows... considering some of the stuff that is out there in ebookland, maybe i will! my ebook might not be the best one, but it would certainly not be the worst one either!

4. it worries some people when i don't blog--namely, my mother-in-law :-) when i don't blog, she thinks something is wrong, and she worries about me. and she isn't completely wrong... there usually is a reason when i don't blog, and it isn't always a lack of time. but it also isn't usually as bad as she might think it is. some days are just ordinary and offer me no blogworthy material.

3. it keeps me from quitting my day job. this seems counter-intuitive to me, but it is true. it seems as though if i didn't work, then i would have more time to do all the other stuff i do--like blogging. but, i think to myself, what if i stopped working and then didn't have anything to blog about? what if i stopped working and never left the house? what if i stopped working and my blogs were reduced to "so today . . . i watched shopping tv and ate a tuna fish sandwich. of course, i only ate a tuna fish sandwich, because i burned the toasted cheese. it's nearly impossible to burn a tuna fish sandwich..." hmmm. ok, maybe that would work... maybe i should think about quitting my day job, because that sort of sounded like the beginning of a pretty good blog...

2. it lets people see who i wish i was. actually, my blog is who i am on good days... on those days when everything is right side up and all sunshiny. all of my days are not like that. i wish they were, but they are not. but writing the blog helps me be that person i want to be. it helps me find the humor in sometimes not so funny situations. it forces my brain to live in the land of unicorns and rainbows instead of gloom and doom--(ok, maybe not unicorns and rainbows. that is a little too sweet for me. maybe puppies and daisies...) it is a risk-free way to share myself with whoever wants to spend five minutes on my blog. it's who i wish i was, all the time, every day. even when i'm not...

and the #1 reason i don't want to stop blogging?

1. because my dad is threatening to quit looking at my blog!

yes, that facebook comment came from my dad. my dad! my dad, who can barely type, left me that message. i love my dad. and for him to take 20 minutes to type those few words (ok, i might be exaggerating that just a little bit,) made me realize that i needed to get back to it! i needed to stop putting it off, put pen to paper (so to speak,) and blog something.

so here it is, dad. a blog. not my best one, but at least when you click on that icon we put on your computer desktop that takes you directly to my blog (did you all know you could do that?!?!) there will be something new to read. at least for today.

i'm not making any promises about tomorrow...

a teaser... although it sounds more like an excuse...

so today . . . i am going to bed instead of finishing my blog.

i started a blog. actually i started two--this is blog number three! but i can hardly keep my eyes open... and i have to get up for work tomorrow. my weekends are not all that restful these days. so i work all week at school, and then all weekend at home. and then it is time to start again...

i'm not complaining. really, i'm not. i'm just tired. so i'm going to bed. i will try to finish today's blog tomorrow, but you will have to look for it to post before this blog, because i am going to give it today's date. but don't look for it until late tomorrow or even tuesday, because i still have to finish writing it.

did i confuse you? sorry about that, but i think my brain has already left the building...

just check back. i would like to say today's blog was going to be a tribute to steve jobs, but that wouldn't exactly be accurate...

caution! this is what it looks like inside my brain.

so today . . . i've been thinking about making some changes to my blog. this is where you come in...

it seems like life is getting a bit more complicated for me lately. i'm trying to keep an awful lot of balls in the air. and when that happens, the ball that typically gets dropped first is my blog. but i love to blog! i don't so much love all the other balls. i've seriously contemplated getting rid of some of them, but the time doesn't seem to be right to let any of them go. i am working toward that though. i am hopeful that maybe a few years down the road i'll have half as many balls, and they will all be happily defying gravity.

do you have any idea what i am trying to say? i'm not quite sure i do either.

i'm feeling the need to simplify and focus, but in practical terms it isn't going to happen right away. moving was a huge undertaking this summer! well, maybe not so much the actual moving as the decision-making that was involved. but the result has been so worth it! hard to get rid of stuff? yes, but so glad to be living a bit lighter... and going back to work takes major chunks of available time out of my day. and makes me tired. i've only been back at work for three days, and i'm already starting to get that 'swamped' feeling. it's not so easy to simplify. or focus.

the problem is, some new balls have been added to my juggling act recently. so in my quest to keep my head above water, i am afraid that i might not be as consistent blogging every day has i have been. or would like to be. because as i said, i love to blog. but it is more time consuming than you might think. but i also know that you, my loyal blog readers, are busy too. and i am sure it is unbearably disappointing :-) to come to my blog and find that i haven't written anything new. day after day after day...

so i am thinking of adding the an option that would notify you by email when i post a new blog. then you wouldn't have to come check every day--you could just look for an email telling you that something new is waiting to be read! i kind of thought this might be a good idea.

but then...

but then i thought, wait. if i do that, then they will only come when i have written something new, and that will slow the traffic on the blog. which doesn't really matter to me at this point, but what if someday i decide to try to market it or make a little extra cash by selling ads? i need lots of hits to make that worthwhile. and if all 19 of my followers only come when there is a new post, i could be in trouble.

but then i thought, get serious. i will never have enough traffic to make any money at this. and even if i did, do i really want to subject my 19 loyal followers to a bunch of ads? (not to mention the fact that i am pretty sure that not all 19 of my followers actually still read my blog every day...) ads would just clutter up my blog! would there even be room for the ridiculous number of labels i have used to organize my blogs if i added ads? or my hilarious (at least to me) tweets? probably not. and what is more important? for you to read that i saw a pigeon wandering around in costco, or for you to have the opportunity to be directed to another site trying to pry money out of your wallet?? i like to think that you would rather hear about the pigeon. and i think i would rather have you hear about the pigeon, than make 4 cents when you click on an ad...

which brings us back to my original question--should i add the gadget that lets you subscribe by email to my new posts? or do you like the anticipation of "will there be a new blog today?" every time you type in www.jewelielyn.blogspot.com? or is the disappointment that occurs when you don't find a new blog too devastating to deal with more than once or twice a week?

perhaps i overestimate my importance in your world...

everything i have read about 'how to get traffic to your blog' says that you should always ask a question. a question encourages a response from those who read. which makes them feel connected, and gets people interested and talking, and then they mention it to their friends, and eventually those friends will come check it out. and that is how you build a large enough base of readers to support ads. but the purpose of my blog has never been to be interactive or have a gajillion followers. i just like to write. and hear myself think. and tell stories. and try to make you laugh (although apparently not today. today you are getting stream of consciousness thinking. i think i'm too tired to be funny today.) so i don't ask questions. i do, however, always hope you will just spontaneously comment. just like you look forward to my blog posts (i think,) i look forward to your comments. so maybe i should ask questions...

but the problem is, i don't like to do things the way i am expected to do them. ever. i'm not a rebel, i just think the unexpected is much more interesting than the status quo. and i would rather be interesting than predictable. so maybe i should continue not asking questions...

...except then how would i know if you want the email notification option?

what we have here is a veritable "catch 22." so here's my solution. i'm not going to ask if you all would like the email notification. i think i might just add it, and then if you are one of those busy people who don't spend your evenings clicking around websites just for fun, you can use it. but, if you are one of those random, spontaneous people who like a surprise now and then, you can ignore it. either way, the blog will still be here, waiting to be read and commented on...

just maybe not every single day.

did you miss me?

so today . . . it has been a month since my last post. a whole month.

i hope this never happens again. i love to blog, but the last month of my life has been hectic, stressful, and aggravating. it has not been funny... well, unless you are of the mindset that sometimes your only choices are to laugh or cry... then maybe there have been a few moments of laughter, but only because the situation has been so ridiculous as to almost be unbelievable.

we bought a house. we don't actually get the keys until tomorrow, but the papers are all signed and the money is somewhere on it's way from our bank to the seller's bank. it has not been an easy process. someday, i will write out the whole crazy story. but for now, let me just mention a few of the things we have been dealing with...

--a beautiful house.

--a crime committed on the property.

--an ex-wife and an incarcerated ex-husband.

--a court order forcing ex-husband to accept our offer.

--lovely wood floors.

--convicted felon's parents currently living in the beautiful house.

--very angry sister with power of attorney for jailed brother.

--an unbelievable struggle over a refrigerator.

--a huge master suite with walk-in closet and two sinks in the bathroom.

--icky bedroom carpeting.

--possible court sanctions against 401k of the man behind bars if cooperation continues to be non-existent.

--quiet street lined with messy pine trees.

--disappearing garage storage cabinets.

--a waiver of liability in case of injury during the final walk-thru?!?!?

--a misdirected email which further inflamed the situation.

--an abandoned pool table.

--dead grass?? maybe, maybe not... tomorrow we will see.

--an excellent house inspection report.

--except for termites. (hey, it is southern california. we have bugs.)

--who gets what? a final struggle over furnishings.

--an empty window replacement warehouse.

--a buried inground spa, covered up by a deck (i'm pretty sure there is a dead body under there...)

--$1000 here, $1000 there... sheesh! when will it end?!?!?!

and if that weren't enough, there were all the end-of-the-year school things that had to be done--assessments, report cards, class parties, field trips, final work booklets... i am still not finished. one of my afternoons next week will be spent not getting paid at school, cleaning up for the summer.

and did i mention that i haven't packed any boxes yet? no? well, i haven't. i'm too scared that a cock roach will hitch a ride to the new house. (thanks, mom!)

this is why i took some time off from blogging. i am telling you, if i had been blogging everything that has happened in the last month, some of you would have accused me of making it up--yes, it is that weird!

BUT, school is now over for me until next fall. and whether the family of the guy in the orange jumpsuit likes it or not, the sale has been completed. now all that is left to do is arrange to have it painted. and carpet laid in the two bedrooms. and sprinklers and grass installed in the back yard. and new windows installed upstairs. and window shutters. and the locks rekeyed!

oh, and sitting at the house on monday from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. waiting for the salvation army to come and take away the furniture that neither the ex-wife or the ex-husband's family wanted. yes, it is going to be a loooong day...

it's ok, though, because i have been waiting almost two months to get to sit inside that house. all. by. myself.

:-)

some weeks i laugh, some weeks i come unglued...

so today . . . i realized i haven't blogged in several days. again. i've been a little distracted lately...

we need to buy a house. like right now. after looking at several, we put an offer in on one that we liked. the owners finally accepted and signed our offer, but it took a court order to make it happen. and time. we have spent a lot of time just waiting. but finally their signatures are on the right lines...

this was no simple task. first the wife signed, but the husband wouldn't. so the wife took him to court and the judge ordered him to sign. so he did. but not on the same document as the wife. or on the correct line--he signed on the buyer's signature line, not the seller's...

i'm starting to think that he doesn't really want to sell this house...

but the judge ordered the papers to be signed last monday. so we scheduled the home inspection for friday afternoon. we were pretty excited. we made a plan. rollie was going to follow the inspector around so he understood all the technical "inspectory" stuff, and i was going to take photos like crazy and measure everything! because we want to have new windows installed upstairs, and some grass put in the back yard, and some carpeting possibly replaced. and we will need window coverings and a security system. so if i take pictures and get measurements, we can have all that scheduled as soon as we know when we will get the keys!

which was a great idea, until we got the call on wednesday saying the home inspection had to be postponed, because the husband's sister, who is living in the house with their parents, was sick. and apparently was planning to be sick through the weekend. so we had to put all our excitement on hold for four more days...

four more days is an eternity to me right now. patience is not one of my virtues. in fact, patience doesn't even try to hang out with my other virtues! (hey! i have other virtues... i'm sure i do...) so of course, all i have been able to think about since wednesday was the house. and not being able to see it. and mentally placing furniture in it without knowing if it would actually fit. and wondering if milo will be able to haul his chubby little body up the stairs since they aren't carpeted. and worrying that the inspection will uncover insurmountable issues and propel us back to square one! and we will have lost three weeks in the process! and we will have to live in a tent in the park!

this is why i haven't blogged. i am not so much funny right now, as sort of starting to come apart at the seams.

and i don't have time to come apart at the seams, because buying a new house is not the only thing in my life right now! i wish it was!! but it isn't...

school is winding up for the year in just five weeks. open house is next weekend, which means producing copious amounts of amazing artwork, mounting it, and hanging it on the walls. which means taking down all the stuff the kids have been randomly taping up for the last several weeks. which seems kind of backwards to me... so now i have to decide how to incorporate the amazing artwork i am sure we are going to do this week, with the "artwork" they have been producing on their own that they are so proud of, and display it all! and clean the room from top to bottom. and prepare my presentation for prospective kindergarten students. AND complete the curriculum that we have to complete this week. and then spend four hours at school on saturday morning AT the open house...

oh, and create a photo album of one of diandra's weddings for an impatient bride. i say impatient, but she is just excited to get her album. and we promised it to her by the weekend, so i have to get busy! i should have started it weeks ago, especially since i am using a new program to create it which will take time to figure out. but as i said, i've been a little distracted...

and then, assuming we get to do the inspection tuesday afternoon, you know where my mind is going to go... it is going to go into house fixing overdrive!! and then there will be the packing to do. and now i am freaked out about packing anything, because after the cock roach blog, my mom said to be careful that we didn't take any WITH us!! YIKES!! i hadn't even thought of that! so now i am afraid to pack my boxes in case those sneaky bugs (and i'm not really sure they should be called bugs, because they are waaaay to big to be squashed...) try to hitch a ride and move with us!

and so, i haven't blogged much this week. i didn't think you would enjoy hearing me whine about my life every day. so, to spare you, i just crammed it all into this one whiny blog that covered the whole week.

lucky you ;-)

diandra--my enabler :-)

so today . . . my name is julie and i'm a social media-aholic.

i am not even going to give you all the pathetic details of my condition. let me just say, if i were in a support group, i would have to go tonight and say, "it has only been a few hours since i joined a new social media platform..." say hello to tumblr.

i spend plenty of time on facebook, probably more than is good for me. i blog, and when i blog, it usually takes a couple of hours out of my already full day. i also tweet, but mostly as a quick way to post something to facebook.

and then, last night, diandra discovered tumblr.

i'm not quite sure how it happened, but she spent all evening working on her page layout and posting stuff. i was curious about what she was doing, so she said, "just go on and follow me." so, of course i did.

i was surprised to learn that i already had a tumblr account. i have no idea how that happened. i do not remember signing up for tumblr. i didn't even know what it was!!! but i was following one person. one. this was a surprise to me! but anyway, now that i had an account, i decided i should start to use it. diandra said it was very user friendly (meaning, "even you could probably figure it out, mom,") so this afternoon i tried to get it working...

first i had to get over the forgotten password hurdle. since i didn't even know i had an account, i sure didn't know the password! i tried every password i could remember ever using for anything. nothing worked. i finally had to give in and have them send me the "don't you keep a list of your passwords somewhere?" email that told me how to reset it. which i did. this allowed me to finally access the account.

and then the trouble really began, because i was suddenly faced with choices, choices, choices. layouts, colors, fonts, oh my! after viewing several free ones (because you could pay up to $49 for one! seriously?? i mean, i know designers should be paid for their work, but my page is just for fun. and probably only two people will ever bother to go look at it, so i don't think i'll be paying anything for a layout template,) i chose one that was very simple but colorful. i was pretty happy with it, but then my lunch break was over so i had to wait to finish it up...

when i got home, diandra said she had posted about 20 things to her tumblr page over the last two days. i thought that sounded like a lot. i'm pretty sure i won't be posting nearly that much, but i thought i should go finish figuring the thing out. but first, diandra went to look at it. and that is when the mocking began... because since i hadn't posted anything, my page was just blocks of color--no words, no pictures, nothing. well, that isn't technically true. because in setting the page up, it wanted me to give it a title. sheesh. i didn't know what to call it. i didn't know what kind of stuff i was going to post, so how could i know what to call it. "hmmmm, mom? really?? that's what you are going to call your page? hmmmm??" that was diandra's response. this was not encouraging to me. i had thought it was a decent title. that is the sound of thinking... it seemed like a good idea at the time...

ok, fine! i needed words. but i didn't know what to write. i'm not quite sure what to do with tumblr. i use twitter if i have an amusing thought to share. facebook is where i interact with my family and friends. (i even have two facebook pages now--one for family, one for friends. although, some friends are on the family one, because i haven't had the friend one for very long. so it is a little confusing, even to me.) and this blog is where i write, since i have discovered i love to write. (actually i'm not sure if i love to write or if i just love to tell stories, writing being the easiest way to do that...) so i don't really know where tumblr fits in...

i thought maybe it should address a particular area of my life. my blog is just about random stuff that happens to me that i think might make you laugh. facebook is mostly a response to the people who are or have been a part of my life. so tumblr... maybe it should be inspirational. i could write inspirational. i think. or maybe it should be opinionated. i certainly have opinions, but i rarely share them. or maybe it should just consist of reposting stuff i find that interests me. but would any of that be interesting to anyone else? and will anyone else ever see it? and does it matter if they do or not???

i don't know. but i kind of wanted my first post to set the tone for what was to come. how could i do that if i didn't know what was to come. i was sitting on the couch, unable to write anything. diandra was sitting next to me, whining about needing food. "we can't go until i write something," i said. "you made fun of my empty page. what if people stumble across it and it says nothing!" "we are going to be here all night, mom, just write something!!!" she said, (that was the hunger talking...) but i couldn't. i was paralyzed. but she was hungry. so she leaned over my computer, and in the title space she wrote "paralized," while i tried to push her fingers off my keyboard. "ACK! DON'T POST THAT!! I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE MISSPELLED WORDS ON MY PAGE!!!" she proceeded to write a pretty cute entry, which was quite a feat considering i was trying to prevent her. but i read it, corrected the spelling, and thought, ok, that is a good start. and then i wrote some more. and then some more. and then i decided to post hers first, and then mine. but i am still learning how to use tumblr, and i accidentally deleted hers. which is too bad, because it was cute...

and then i started my blog for today. because if i can't blog on tumblr (which technically i can, but i don't have time for two blogs,) then i needed to blog about tumblr--just this once. and then diandra said, "if you blog about tumblr, then maybe people who read your blog will come to your tumblr page. and if they come to your tumblr page, they might see MY tumblr page. and what if they follow me?" "that will be good, won't it? don't you want people to read your page?" i asked. "no," she said, "this is just my personal page." "then maybe you should make it private," i said. "well," she paused, "i want people to read it, but maybe not people i know. what if i want to post something inappropriate?!?"

ok, that made me laugh. i am following her on tumblr. she knows that. i am her mother. i doubt she is going to post something inappropriate. but i understand what she is saying. i am sort of feeling the need to have a place where i can write it all--the good, the bad, and the ugly (the ugly would probably be a gallery of photos of my bangs...)

so. tumblr. i'm not sure exactly what it is going to become. but it might not be for everyone. maybe i should call it "julie. unplugged." you know, just in case i decide to post something inappropriate.

;-)

march 2011. the month i will eventually forget.

so today . . . is the last day of march. this means my self-imposed exile from the land of blogging is almost over...

it has been quite a month. i have had ideas for blogs rolling around in my head, but i never seemed able to sit down and write...

there was the day rollie took me to the outlet mall to choose a birthday present, and the result was me sitting in a chair in the corner of the coach store with an armful of handbags, paralyzed with indecision...

there was the day i sent my pre-k kids across the hall to an empty classroom with a huge piece of butcher paper, toy cars, and paint... oh yes, and my teaching assistant... and paint shirts, which were of no help at all...

there was the day diandra and i zipped to the outlet mall after school and experienced deja'vu...

there was the day i discovered the top on my beloved convertible was 'letting the sun shine in'--even when it was closed...

there was the day my future son-in-law came straight to our house from kuwait... well, actually he went to germany and georgia and lax first... but then he came straight to our house!

and then there was the wedding...

and my wedding dress... which was nearly a catastrophe, but turned out to be something really special... and las vegas on st. patrick's day... and purple christmas balls, silver christmas balls, and clear, lucite jewels... and terrible wind... and a beautiful bride with a sparkly bouquet... and a groom with a temperature... and a dad who loved his daughter enough to step waaaay out of his comfort zone...

there was the day i took my mom to the las vegas outlet mall... and made her go into the juicy couture store... and the guess store... and the coach store... and she made me go into chico's... and the store with the elusive hush puppy shoes... and then i made her go back to the coach store... (and before you think someone should take all our credit cards away, we did not actually make purchases in all those stores...)

there was the day my brother called to tattle on my mom... which was also the day my dad had some kind of major surgery... which is why my brother felt the need to tattle on my mom... yes, some days we are still children!

there was the day i started walking the dogs again... and decided to walk them both at the same time... (let's just say, we survived, but it wasn't pretty...)

there were the days that rollie left the house at 8:00 a.m. and didn't get home until 10:30 p.m... and the hunt for the perfect couch for his new office... and the chairs that almost got away...

there was a whole week of rain... and not one single weather blog! (count your blessings!!)

there was the day i tried to play music on my iphone and couldn't figure out where the ipod icon was... (anyone with an iphone is now saying to themselves, "what?!?!? how could she not see it???" all i have to say is, you just don't understand how my brain works...)

there were days i laughed, and days i cried, and days i just felt like crying while wishing i could laugh...

and there were pink shoes with flowers that unexpectedly appeared...

and once in a lifetime moments.

yes, march was quite a month. and as i read back over this list, i am really sad that i missed all that blogging! because while i remember these incidents happening, i don't remember the small details, or who said what, or how i felt... because i didn't write it down.

i blog so that i can remember the small, funny things that happen to me... just in case, you know, my brain ever fails me. (EVER fails me?!?!? please. my brain fails me every. single. day.)

you thought i blogged to entertain you, didn't you. but i don't. i blog so i can remember my life.

april fool's to you!

;-)

hey! it isn't as easy as it sounds!!

so today . . . i was all prepared to tell you that i am going to take the rest of the month of march off. it has been crazy, between sickness and traveling out of town for business and a wedding and pre-k evaluations and helping rollie find the perfect sofa for his office... i have to say that there isn't much funny happening in my life right now--i can't even make funny stuff up!! (which is not to say that i make stuff up for my blog. i don't. everything you read on here is 100% true...) i sit down and write "so today..." and then... nothing.

i don't like to take a vacation from blogging, because i have found that if i take too many days off, i have a terrible time putting my brain back into blogging mode. but the truth is, blogging takes a lot of brain power, and right now my brain is otherwise occupied.

march 2011 is the month that is threatening to put me away. the straight jacket is dancing outside my window. there is so much going on, that my brain is just refusing to do much except keep my lungs breathing and my blood pumping. and so, i am giving myself permission to take a break until april...

at least, that was my plan. and then tonight i tried to boil water for eggs...

i can cook. really, i can. i just don't like to do it. i hate it more than i hate doing laundry--and i am not a big fan of laundry. (actually, i don't mind washing and drying the laundry, but the folding and putting away? not my favorite thing to do...) but since we eat those hard boiled eggs for breakfast most mornings, boiling them is a regular task. it has to be done almost every week. and yet, it is never easy.

i know i have written about the whole egg boiling thing before. but the problem is this--if i put water on to boil, and walk out of the kitchen, i will totally forget i am boiling water. i have boiled a 3 quart pan bone dry. more than once. do you know how long that takes?!? but if i stay in the kitchen to wait for it to boil, it takes FOREVER!!! and i lose interest before those little bubbles start popping to the surface, and wander away, only to later discover a very hot, dry pan on my stove.

don't worry. we have smoke detectors. and they work...

once i manage to actually catch the pan with boiling water still in it, i can plop the eggs in, set the timer, and the rest is easy. the hard part is boiling the water...

(i'm sure there is a joke in there, i am just too tired to make the connection.)

yesterday after church, a friend of mine was talking about how she was so excited to go home, because she had some sort of delicious, nutricious (i'm sure it was nutricious--she is a vegetarian,) soup in the crock pot. she could hardly wait to eat the wonderful yumminess. i could tell, her mouth was watering. i looked at her and said, "that's how i feel about my frozen hot pockets." i'm not sure she even knows what a hot pocket is!

my plan, when we move, is to cook more often. even though i hate it. because the truth is, i am getting a little tired of rubio's...

and yet, my plans are not always successful. i've been planning to exercise regularly for the last ten years! i think about it, i prepare to do it, i talk about it, but i still find myself sitting on the couch instead of pumping iron.

i am an excellent planner, but a mediocre implementer--as is evidenced by my plan not to blog in march. because here it is, march 7th, and what am i doing??

i am writing a blog.

so maybe i will actually cook more often after we move. maybe i will actually use my pilates machine a few times a week.

maybe pigs will fly...

;-)

the week in review

so today . . . i am going to blog, even though i have nothing to write about.

it has been a week since i last blogged! i hate that!! it isn't that i haven't had thoughts, but i just haven't been able to get my thoughts collected enough to blog them. i don't know about the rest of you, but i'm sure my mom has checked for a new blog every day. she probably thinks i have been really sick, since that is usually the only thing that keeps me from blogging for such a long time.

well, mom, i haven't been sick--except for my brain. it is fatigued.

just to sort of catch you up, here are some excerpts from my week...
--on monday i went to the doctor. and exasperated her just a little bit.
--on wednesday we went south for a meeting. i got a new phone. we went to the outlet mall. i did NOT buy a new coach purse.
--on thursday i went back to the doctor for lab work. this included an "incident" on the freeway. (don't worry mom, i wasn't in an accident.)
--on friday i played with my new phone and decided i loved it.
--on saturday i went with diandra to pick up her wedding dress. then we went to dinner with some friends, and after trying to use the gps program on my new phone, i decided i hated it.
--today i went to church and took a nap. after the week i had, i really needed one! (wait, i just read what i wrote and realized it sounded like i took a nap at church. i didn't. i never sleep at church! if i did, what would be the point of going?!? we did, however, get a late start, because several of us--who happen to be in charge--were comparing our phones, and we sort of lost track of the time... no, i'm not proud of it, but i try to tell you the truth, even when it shows me in a less than stellar light...)

there was some good blogging material in there. and i'm not quite sure how i am going to work it in, since i usually write about what happened today, but i will have to find a way...

i thought about going ahead and writing out the blogs and manipulating the dates, but then you might not find them. maybe i will just write about them like they happened this week. no one would know. it isn't like any of you are spying on me to see if what i am writing actually happened on the day i wrote about it. although, after what i just said about telling you the truth, that sounds sort of deceitful...

let's just say, if you see a blog about my doctor visit, or a freeway incident, or my new phone, or getting lost, it is a flashback... all the way back to last week... they do that on t.v. all the time, right? i think i could get away with that...

just go with me on this one.

the saga of a non-blogging night...

so today . . . at 6:00 p.m. as i was waking up from my nap (yes, i took a nap when i got home from school! i have been staying up late this week, and my eyes were itchy and my brain refused to function, so i took a nap!) i told rollie that i had several things left to do tonight. one of those things was blogging...

at 8:30 p.m. as i was watching yet another episode of "say yes to the dress" on netflix (i find that show very entertaining--not because of the array of wedding dresses, but because of the people. tonight we thought we were going to see a terrible consultant get fired! but she didn't! at least, not yet. oh, the drama... the suspense...) i told diandra i needed to get back into the habit of blogging, which meant i needed to write a blog tonight!

at 9:30 p.m. as i was having a conversation on facebook with my mom (about the new wig dying station i "bought" for my pet society pet. it is so cool! and i was telling my mom that she could send me the wigs she has for her pet, and i could dye them a different color and send them back. just another mindless evening on facebook...) i looked at the clock and realized that i had better get a blog started soon or i would end up being awake past midnight. again.

at 10:15 p.m. when i was answering a very involved email (it was from someone i don't yet know, about rollie's new job. she needed some information from me for some sort of directory. i happened to see it on my phone earlier in the day, which is why i opened it and read it. if i had seen it on my computer, i probably would have just deleted it, because i didn't recognize the name and i have had trouble with viruses in the past. but i don't think opening it on my phone can give my computer a virus. although, maybe it can give my phone a virus, which is maybe why my phone is acting all weird...) i kept thinking "YOU CAN ANSWER THIS EMAIL TOMORROW! GO BLOG!!"

at 10:40 p.m. i finished answering the email and logged onto blogger.com. (but did i start my blog? no. i started reading all the blogs that i follow that posted today. some days i only have one or two blogs to catch up on, but today there were several. of course.)

at 11:13 p.m. i realized that you were not going to get a blog today.

(you see, these are the kinds of distractions i have to fight my way through if i want to blog. most days i manage to get it done anyway, but today... it is just not happening...)

so, i'll see you tomorrow. good night.

how much is enough? part 2

so today... i have ten minutes to blog. TEN MINUTES!!!

i have never written a blog in ten minutes before. i think my quickest time to date is about 40 minutes. usually it takes me much longer. of course, that is because i write a bit, play facebook games, edit, check my email, write some more... you get the idea.

but i am determined to be headed to bed by 11:00 tonight, and it is already 10:48...

(ok, technically i know that is twelve minutes, but i have a picture to upload, and that will take a couple of extra minutes...)

so here it is--my ten minute blog. this isn't going to leave me much time for editing and careful word selection...

anyway, i am starting to think perhaps i have a problem. i tend to buy things in multiples. if i find a top or a sweater i like at a good price, i will buy it in black or white or gray, and then also in at least one color--sometimes two. i was going to say that the only thing i don't buy in multiples is shoes, but then i looked in my closet--two pair of "ugg" like boots, six pairs of sketchers, two pairs of identical high-heeled boots, two pairs of tone-up sandals... i could go on, but you see the problem.

this is true for food too. i like to have meat in my freezer and food in my pantry. do i cook any of it? no. but i like knowing it is there. and even when i am grocery shopping, i look at the shelf of canned chili and think, "how many should i buy?" one or two doesn't seem like enough, but what is enough? four? six? ten? they are small after all, and i can eat chili by itself, or over fritos corn chips, or in a chili dog... so how many should i get??

and whatever i decide, once i get home, it never seems like enough. i am constantly saying, "maybe i should have bought more..."

so today i was at walmart, buying toilet paper and tissues, and i decided to take a little detour through the discounted christmas stuff. because you just never know what kind of treasures you might find on the clearance racks. i looked at almost a whole aisle full of empty goody containers. they were such a buy! twelve containers for $1! i wanted to fill my cart with them! except, since i don't really bake much, i grabbed myself by the throat and quickly dragged myself to the next aisle... which was filled with bags of bows. this did not tempt me at all, and i was almost ready to head toward the cash registers, when i saw this:
these are the most delicious peppermint candies ever! diandra introduced them to me before christmas. they only cost 88 cents a box, and each stick only has 45 calories! of course, it is 45 calories of pure sugar, but still... so before christmas, we bought several boxes. and now they were on clearance!

i grabbed one box and went in search of a price scanner. when the red laser lights stopped dancing over the upc code on the box, it told me that each box only cost 22 cents!

haaaaalelujah!

i went back and bought them all.

i thought about only buying half. i thought about only buying $5 worth. i finally thought i should just take them all! and so i did.
when i got them home, rollie couldn't quite figure out why i bought so many peppermint sticks. of course, he hasn't tasted them--he doesn't know how delicious they are! and he is not going to taste them! because if he liked them, then we would have to share. and by my calculations, if diandra and i each eat only one peppermint stick every day, they should almost last us until walmart again puts them on the shelves for christmas 2011.

you notice i said "almost" last us. maybe tomorrow i should go to another walmart..

***(and in the interest of full disclosure, this did not turn out to be a ten minute blog after all. i am not sure that i am even capable of writing a ten minute blog. maybe someday...)

tan lines... what to do, what to do...

so today . . . i realized i am out of the habit of blogging every day.

but then, you already knew that, didn't you ;)

i'm not quite sure how this happened. i guess i can mostly blame it on my weakened physical condition, which weakened my mental capacities, which made it nearly impossible to blog!

i thought about it. a lot. but when it came time to put "words on paper," so to speak, it just didn't happen. but i did have a lot of thoughts, which even resulted in some blog attempts. which will probably show up in the future when my brain power is turned back on, and i can finish them.

but what worries me is being out of the blogging habit. i like to blog. i don't want to stop. but i am having trouble getting started again. so i am going to ease back into it by reposting something i wrote a couple of years ago on myspace, before i had a "real" blog. i chose this particular one to post today, because it was HOT! i know it is december, but it was over 80 degrees here. and let me tell you, when you are standing out on the playground, in the sun, waiting for your turn to go on a break, your mind kind of wanders...

this blog was originally posted on myspace thursday, march 13, 2008.

so today i am out on the playground, watching the kids in my class run around and annoy each other--because that is what they do. they call it playing, but it isn’t really--they just interact with each other until somebody does something unforgivable like touching someone’s hair, and then it begins: "i’m telling teacher" "sorry" "well, i’m telling teacher" "i SAID i was SORRY" "TEACHERRRRRR!!!" "SORRY! SORRY! SORRYYYYY!!!" so, you know, there are days that i just can’t listen to it, and i admit it--even though i am watching them, i mentally check out. There will be no help from the teacher today unless you are bleeding, so just go play! have fun! sheesh!

maybe i need a vacation.

ok, anyway, while all this was going on in the background, i was enjoying the sunshine. it was only supposed to get up to 74 today, but i am sure it was warmer than that, because even i felt hot. so i am standing there in my short-sleeved shirt (because it WAS going to be 74 after all) and the thought occurs to me "what if my arms get tan?" now normally you might think this would be a good thing with summer coming. but my shirt was not sleeveless--it had SHORT sleeves. so if my arms do get tan while i put in my time on the playground, my shoulders and upper arms are going to be white--and believe me that is the part that needs tanning the most! so now i don’t know what to do--do i just go with the lower arm tan and try to catch the rest up later, or do i go stand in the shade for now and wait until sleeveless shirt weather to hang out in the sun. you see, these are the sort of random thoughts that come to a person sometimes. i know there are other more important things i could think about, and maybe should, but sometimes i just don’t want to think about global warming (unless it is warming my face.) so my mind settles for dealing with the little questions that pop into my head, like should i go stand in the shade . . .

it is really easy for one's mind to wander when standing in unseasonably warm sunshine. there is just something relaxing (yes, even on a playground full of rowdy children,) and a little bit decadent about getting to wear short sleeves in the middle of december.

have i mentioned lately how much i love living in southern california...?

"closed for repairs..."

so today . . . ACK!! I HAVE TO BLOG!!!

it has been a week since i last blogged. i don't very often go that long without writing something! but my blogging brain seems to be out of commission.

it has been a busy week, and i have been trying to find time to rest and get better after my ordeal last week. stuff has happened and i thought, "oh, i could blog that," but then when i sit down to write, it all just sounds very ordinary. so i hit the save button (just in case what i wrote can someday be salvaged,) and go to bed.

tonight i was determined to write something. i started early. then i ate a banana, and my intestinal system reminded me that i've been sick. so i sat on the couch and caught up on my blog reading. then it was time to go get dinner. then diandra came home, and i lost two more hours--but in a nice way :) i looked at the clock, remembered about blogging, but instead i went into the kitchen and boiled some eggs for rollie. now it is 11:00. and i have to go to school early tomorrow for parent conferences. so once again, i didn't get a funny, entertaining blog written...

but at least i wrote something. at least you know i am still breathing. at least there is a promise of more blogs to come...

...but probably not tomorrow. tomorrow is wednesday, which is my weekly never-ending day...

home again, home again...

so today . . . we are home. from las vegas. i am sooooo tired. and there is laundry... so much laundry...

i sort of blogged in my head today as we came home, but now i am just too tired to write it all down. instead, i am going to bed. usually i choose blogging over sleep, but not tonight. tonight sleep wins.

maybe tomorrow i will blog about today. or maybe i will write the wrap-up blog to our little adventure. because there were some things that happened that didn't make it into the other blogs--not because they weren't funny, but because they would have hijacked the purpose of the blog...

yes my blogs have a purpose!! i don't just sit down and ramble on about my day!!! i know that sometimes (like now :) ) it might seem like i do, but i don't. every day i leave stuff out that doesn't fit in. surprised to hear that, are you?? well, it is true.

although now i am rambling. that is what happens when i am so tired that the thought of walking up to get into bed is almost too much to contemplate.

almost...

am i not speaking clearly enough?!?!?

so today . . . it has been a long and difficult day. so was yesterday. and monday was no picnic either. some days are like that--very busy and full of stuff that i either can't, or won't, blog.

one of my rules--don't write anything mean about anybody. ever. sometimes, that is a challenge :)

which means that today i have very little material for a blog. but i don't want to fall into the habit of only blogging a couple of times a week--i prefer to blog every day. so i am going to repost one of my old myspace blogs. i haven't done that in a while, but i remembered this one earlier in the week when i was writing about periods and commas. don't expect to laugh out loud, but i think you will at least smile...

this was originally posted on monday, november 12, 2007. that was almost three years ago. this was before i was blogging all the time. you may notice, my early blogs were much more concise :)

today was a rough day at school--wild, yappy kids all day long! but i did laugh twice and thought i would share why before i forget.

first, i was getting ready to read a thanksgiving story, so i was reviewing what we had read about last week--you know, the pilgrims leaving england, the journey across the ocean, and building a new life in america. when i asked, "and who remembers the name of the ship they sailed on?" one little girl raised her and exclaimed "the cauliflower!"

then later i was introducing the concept of a sentence during phonics instruction. i was showing them that a sentence begins with an upper case letter and ends with a punctuation mark--either a period or exclamation point or question mark. the examples i had written on the board all ended with periods, since that is the one most commonly used. so when we were reviewing, i would ask, "how do we know this is a sentence?" and they responded that it began with an upper case letter. then i said, "and what else?" and the response i heard from more than one child was, "and it ends with a pyramid!"

kids are still funny. we have been talking about christopher columbus this week, and for some reason my kids cannot say his name correctly. so while i say we have been talking about christopher columbus, the truth is that in my classroom this year, he is more commonly referred to as christopher coLUMPus.

:)

periods? or commas...?

so today . . . rollie was reading yesterday's blog on his phone while we were at dinner. (don't even ask where we were--you already know...)

sometimes i like it when he reads the blog when i am with him, and sometimes i don't. i like to see his reaction, but there is a kind of pressure present when i am actually there. what if he doesn't laugh? what if his reaction is "huh?" what if he doesn't "get" it? usually it isn't an issue. usually the only reason he is reading it in front of me is because i have asked him, "did you read my blog today?" and i only ask that question if i think he is really going to think it is funny. so here is what usually happens--

r: silently reading
me: silently watching him read
r: laughs
me: "what? what was that?"
r: reads out loud what made him laugh
me: smiles
r: reads some more
me: waits some more
r: laughs again
me: "what? was that the part where..."
r: reads out loud again
and so on...

but tonight something happened that has never happened before. tonight he paused after reading for a minute or two, and said, "why all the periods? what happened to the commas?"

huh? could he possibly need new glasses that badly?? or did i really make a mistake?

"where," i said. he showed me, and i said, "no, those are supposed to be periods." he looked at me a little blankly. "it's my style..." i continued. "i don't want you to just pause at those points--i want you to stop! for emphasis!"

he just looked at me and continued reading... sometimes i leave him speechless :)

when i started blogging, i made some conscious decisions about "style." i decided to write all in lower case letters. i wish i could say there was some artistic reason for it (like emulating e. e. cummings,) but the truth is, when i write everything in lower case letters, there are fewer mistakes to correct :)

i also decided to almost totally ignore everything i know about proper writing technique. i know proper writing technique (i had to say that, just in case there is some random person reading my blog who is looking for a writer that they want to hire. i graduated from college. i can write properly. really, i can!) but when you read my blog, i want it to sound like it would if i was telling you the story in person. and i don't always speak with proper grammatical form. i repeat fragments for emphasis. i use lots of conjunctions (conjunction junction, what's your function? ah, schoolhouse rock...) i say things like, "no, really!" and "seriously" and i use "totally" as both an adverb and an adjective. i think. and i don't just pause--i stop. for. emphasis. i do have rules, they just aren't grammatical ones.

i love to blog! i love the frame of mind i have to be in to do it. i can't do it if i am angry or unhappy or feeling really bad. my mind has to be a little bit bouncy or everything i write just sounds flat. and uninteresting. (i would say boring, but i still hear my mother's voice in my head saying, "if you are bored, i'm sure i can find something for you to do." trust me--boring is a bad word! and it can lead to things like picking up the plums in the back yard... or cleaning the bathrooms...)

so, when you read my blog, remember that it isn't meant to be great literature. it is just me, telling you a story, trying to make you laugh. and if you see periods where you think there should be commas, remember to stop. at. each. one.

because i did it on purpose :)

random update...

so today . . . i realize it has been several days since i have blogged. here's why.

1. my allergies are still trying to kill me. i am better than i was last week, but it is still an issue. every time i wake up, one of my nostrils is fighting for it's life! so i am not sleeping too well, which results in daytime tiredness. which results in a sluggish brain. which results in staring at the words "so today" on my empty blog page, unable to think what to write next.

2. diandra has been gone. i realized this week that she is one of the catalysts to my crazy way of looking at things. sometimes it is because she is part of it. sometimes it is because of the places we go together (ok, i know mostly we go to target, but stuff happens there...) but part of the problem this week is that i find i am more interested in hearing about her adventures than i am about having my own. especially since, you know, breathing continues to be an issue.

3. i've been busy. sometimes busyness makes for good blogging material, but this has not been that kind of busyness. this has been of the school work, house work, church stuff variety. it has been the "put your nose to the grindstone and get it done" type of work. it has been the "just get through the day and then flop exhausted into bed" type of work. this type of work doesn't leave my brain much room for the kind of mental excursions that make for a good blog. if i had to live like this all the time, i might be tempted to flee to jamaica...

(oh wait, i AM tempted to flee to jamaica...)

4. rollie has been busy. waaaay busy. his brain has been otherwise occupied, which means our conversations mostly consist of these phrases:
--"how was your day today?" which is usually answered with "ok" and then we hope the other one had something happen that they can talk about, because we just need a minute to veg...
--"where do you want to eat?" because that is a decision that has to be made. if it isn't, we just go to rubio's. sometimes, even when we decide to go somewhere else (like jack in the box,) if i am driving, my car just whizzes right past jack in the box and goes to rubio's--even though jack in the box was probably my choice. yes, we eat at rubio's way too much!
--"i'll see you...(when?)" because, some days we don't see each other from the time we leave for work in the morning, until the last one of us finally makes it to bed. so rollie isn't much of a source for blogging material right now either.

5. my new class is chatty, chatty, chatty. i have high hopes that they are going to be a good source of hilarity this year--especially the little ones. i think this, because as i watch my assistant, ms. claudia, work with them, i hear her laugh quite frequently. but for now, at the beginning of the year, we are learning to STOP talking while we work. and i am still getting organized. so we haven't had a lot of blog-worthy conversations. yet. but just wait...

i am going to be out of town this weekend (no, not doing something fun--just more busyness,) so i probably won't be blogging again until next week. then again, every single time i say that i won't be blogging, something funny happens and i do. so you never know...