vacation: day 6

so today . . . i am freezing! like a popsicle!!

yes, it is the middle of summer. yes, i live in southern california. but today i am in oregon, and it is cold. even in the middle of summer.

when we come to oregon at christmas, we know it is going to be cold and probably wet. we pack all the sweaters we own. we look for the elusive snow boots. we hope our pathetic california coats will be adequate. we dig in boxes in the garage for stocking hats and mittens.

in other words, we plan for it.

but in the summer we are thinking shorts and tank tops and sandals. which is foolishness, i know, because the last two summers we have arrived with our warm weather apparel only to have to make a mad dash to old navy for jeans and a sweatshirt! (not that we mind, of course, it's just that i don't like being forced to shop.) so you would think i would learn...

apparently i don't.

this summer when i got ready to pack for our trip, i went online and checked the weather, again--even the extended forecast! i was ready! i was prepared!! the forecast said hot, hot, hot, followed by pretty warm--maybe a few clouds, but still warm. so i packed sundresses, tank tops, shorts, and sandals. as a concession to possibly cool nights, i threw in a light, thermal, long sleeved hoodie. when diandra asked what i was going to pack and i told her, she said, "you are only taking one pair of jeans?"

i'm pretty sure we have had this conversation before.

"yes," i said, "i am wearing my jeans on the plane, because the airports will probably be cool. but it is supposed to be sunny and warm the whole time we are there!"

"well, i'm taking two pairs of jeans," she replied, "just in case..."

it turned out to be a wise decision. the first two days we were here were almost unbearably hot. then there was a fairly pleasant day. and then oregon realized i was here and turned her chilly face toward me...

in self defense, i put my warm bathrobe (which i leave here for just such occasions) on at 4:00 this afternoon! i got out my polar fleece blanket, which i almost didn't bring (since it was supposed to be hot, hot, hot!) and i managed to weather the cold.

according to the news, it is supposed to get hot again. in a couple of days. about the time we leave.

next year i am bring three pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts!

of course, that is probably oregon's evil plan. next year every day will probably be in the 90's...

it's june

so today . . . i am home alone.

my house is very quiet. diandra is in texas visiting her cousin. and rollie is at a lakers party.

yes, you heard me. rollie is at a lakers party. i was invited, but i declined to attend. i can think of nothing i would hate more than spending the evening surrounded by people dressed in purple and gold, cheering on a team that is my evil nemesis.

june in los angeles is not my favorite time of the year. we have this weather phenomenon called "june gloom." our mornings are cloudy and a little bit damp--kind of like when you are at the beach. on most days the sun comes out around 11:00, so it does warm up, but not every day. i guess it is good, because without those morning clouds it would get pretty hot. but it means i have to wear a sweater on my way to school, and then drag it around with me all afternoon when it heats up. and then, find it again when i go out at night. it also means the top on the convertible goes up, then down, then up, then down.

june also means nba playoff games. this creates conflict in my usually happy home. rollie has converted to the lakers, while diandra and i maintain our status as the only trailblazer fans in the southland. during the playoffs, laker talk is everywhere--there is no escape. in the interests of peace and harmony, i have learned to tolerate it, but it makes me feel just a little bit cranky. unlike the laker car flags, which make me feel a LOT cranky. and when things don't go well for the lakers? oh boy oh boy! their fans get ugly!! (not rollie, of course. he is always cute!) so sometimes it is best to just hope they win fast and get this thing over with . . .

and my kindergarteners graduate in june. this means choosing a song, choreographing a song, practicing a song, thinking up costumes, memorizing a speech--all for a five minute performance. one of the teachers has been working on her costumes for about six weeks now. each one of her 14 students will be dressed like an animal or bug. i am sure they will be very cute, but it is going to be a nightmare to get all 14 of those excited, wiggly children into their costumes in time to get on stage for their performance. and i am pretty sure the worm is going to be dancing around the floor while the butterflies smack other kids in the face with their wings, and the fuzzy bears will probably be yanking on the octopus' legs and the elephant's trunk. in fact, i am pretty sure that between all of that, and the parent's jockeying for position with their multiple cameras, no one is even going to hear the song. and maybe that is ok. as rollie said, it isn't really a performance so much as it is a photo op for the parents.

then again, june does mark the beginning of my summer vacation. and diandra's birthday. so it isn't all bad. in fact, i think i will go have some ice cream to celebrate . . .

. . . of course, that means a trip to el pollo loco. which means i will have to find my sweater. and put the top up on the car. no wait, maybe if i wear the sweater it will be warm enough to leave the top down on the car.

ah, l.a. in june . . .

14 more days!

so today . . . is the beginning of the end . . .

. . . of school :)

there is something about memorial day that always says, "summer is here! let the wild rumpus begin!" i know it is just one monday off work, but it always feels like summer has arrived. flags fly. neighbors barbeque. parks and ball fields are packed. it's summer!

and then, on tuesday, the cosmos plays an evil joke and sends us all back to work.

so here i sit, inside, trying to keep kids busy, when we all know that we belong outside in the sunshine. but we have three weeks of school left before summer vacation! no one can concentrate--not even the teacher! the talking and laughing seems incessant. we just want to PLAY!!! and yet, there are still things we have to do before the end of the year. so i try to reel them in enough to do what absolutely HAS to be done, while at the same time revising that list.

yes, while my body is still in the classroom, my brain is poolside. with a book.

two weeks, four days and counting . . .

fun at angels' stadium

So today . . . we went to an angels' game. the good news is, we got the tickets from some friends of ours who have AMAZING seats. the bad news is, it was a day game and it was pretty hot today.

every time we go to angel's stadium i have to take a picture from the parking lot. there is just something about the gigantic red hats that says, "take my picture!" usually i take their picture alone, but today rollie said, "why don't you stand there and be in the picture?" i think he thinks that now i won't ever have to take that particular shot again. boy, is he wrong . . .

since we moved to get a little different angle on the requisite "big red hats outside angels' stadium" shot, i noticed as we walked in that the big red hats were scale replicas of real authentic baseball hats--right down to the size tag . . .the angels have improved dramatically in the last 8 years. coincidentally, that is exactly how long we have lived here. hmmm--could there be a connection?the game started at 1:15. rollie likes to get there early to watch the players warming up. i like to get there early and look for photo ops. this one is rollie shaking hands with gene autry, who is apparently the founder of the angels. of course, he is dead now (gene autry, not rollie)--this is just a statue. usually there are too many people around to get a good picture, but i think because of the heat, people didn't come out to the ballpark quite as early.we got there about noon and sat in our seats for about 10 minutes. we quickly realized it was too hot to sit there for an hour before the game even began, so we found a table in the shade and shared a soda. and that is where our trouble began . . .

the 2010 all star game is going to be held in angels stadium next spring, and so they are apparently trying out the souvenier cups. i think they need to keep trying . . .

the design needs some work. can you see how the top edge is curved? that isn't a camera trick--it really looks like that. this makes it hard to fit the lid on tight. in fact, the concession people wouldn't even try to put it on--they just handed us our soda and the lid and basically said, "good luck." rollie managed to get the lid on, which amazed the concession people, but then they said, "yeah, well, it also crushes the straws!" rollie, not one to be outdone by a cup--even an all stars souvenir cup--just pulled out his trusty pocket knife and cut the little triangle pieces out so that he had an open hole for his straw. which might have been an excellent idea, but the brilliant marketing people who chose this particular cup design with this particular lid design did not take into account that the cup was too tall for their current straws. we tried several different approaches, and finally rollie thought his tongue would work as well as any of our other ideas. so he tried to make that into a straw--with limited success.
still, even with the heat and the "defective" cups, we had a beautiful place in the shade to sit. i am so in love with palm trees . . . at 1:10 we made our way to our amazing seats. and proceeded to sweat and then sweat some more. after three innings i couldn't take it--i had to get out of the sun. my heart was racing, my pulse was 140, and i didn't feel too good. when i stood up, i realized the entire back of my clothes were wet. it was kind of embarrassing! i'm sure i wasn't the only one in this condition, but i appeared to be the only one walking around this way. i headed up the stairs to the shade, found a nice breeze, and sat down on the cool concrete floor with my back against the cool concrete wall--right next the the restrooms, just in case i got really sick. the problem was, now i couldn't see the game. this is what i saw--and then i saw this in the lens of my camera, which was quite shocking until i realized it was just my out of focus knees hunched up in front of me . . .
finally the cool concrete and the breeze did the trick, and i got to feeling better. i looked at the scoreboard--we were ahead 1-0. ok, time to get another drink and try braving the heat again. but there were lines everywhere. well, i say lines--most of the concession stands had 5 or 6 people waiting, which isn't too bad, but i kind of wanted to be in my seat by the time the angels were at bat again.

i decided to try the outer concession stands. i figured the traffic would be lighter there, and it was. i got my drink, made my way back to our seats, looked at the scoreboard, and realized we were now behind 1-2! how could this have happened?! i had only been gone a few minutes . . .

it was the middle of the sixth inning. the shade was moving in our direction. there was a little breeze blowing. and then the angels got a hit. things were looking up . . .

our best pitcher was pitching and had racked up 12 strike-outs before they finally took him out to rest. our batters started doing their job, and the final score was 3-2--the angels won!

this is what i learned today--
1-if we get tickets for a day game, let rollie take a friend and stay home where there is air-conditioning.
2-if i ignore my inner voice and decide to go, wear different clothes--preferably something dark with a pattern that will not look like i had an accident when i sweat in my seat--because i will sweat in my seat.
3-take more water. and a hat.
4-sunscreen is a good idea, but i will still be hot.
5-instead of spending $5 for a tiny little hot dog and $4 for a bottle of water (and how ridiculous is that?!?! but that is a blog for another day,) buy the spray bottle/fan thing.
6-no matter how much sugar is in it, buy the frozen lemonade! it can be held it on my neck to keep me cool and then if i don't want the sugar, i can toss it when it melts. (hey, today it would have been worth the price just for the cooling effect. and it takes those things a long time to melt . . . )

it isn't summer vacation until i have cleaned out a room . . .

so today . . . my summer really began.

as i have mentioned before, i usually spend quite a bit of my summer taking care of big household tasks--all those things that can't be completed in half an hour (which is about how much energy i have left, after working all day, to spend on household tasks.) even though my summer is already half over, i really haven't been home much. we went to orlando and then to portland right after school was out. when i arrived home from that trip, i spent the next few days unpacking (which i HATE to do,) catching up on the laundry (and there was a lot of laundry after having been gone so much,) and dreading this week.

i was dreading this week, because it is the week i have chosen to tackle the scary room.

this is not my first attempt at getting this room under control. it is an on-going battle. the combination of my indecisiveness, my pack rat-ism, and the lack of storage space in our house conspires against me. it is not a job for the feint of heart.

a few months ago, i decided that i could find the floor in this room if i just dealt with tiny chunks of it at a time. my plan was to go in every day and work for an hour after school--just one hour a day--and then on saturday, maybe i would give it two hours. the whole job was so overwhelming that i thought if i just tackled a little bit at a time, maybe i could do it. it was a good plan, in theory, but something was lacking in the implementation--mostly it was hauling myself upstairs to face the mess after a long day of work. i had a hard time getting past the couch . . . and if i did make it upstairs, i couldn't put anything away, because there was no place to put anything. so i would drag some stuff out into the hallway, look at the clock and realize my hour was almost up, and then put everything back in . . . it was a major catch 22! so i gave up, closed the door, and ignored it. well, except for when i opened the door, tossed something else in, and then slammed the door quickly shut again . . .

but we need that room! diandra's photography is keeping her busier than ever and she needs help keeping up with all the paperwork and dvds and filing, and that is the only space we have to use.

so i decided this was the week to do it. diandra left for teen camp this morning and won't be back until friday. my goal is to get the room cleaned out and set up as our office by the time she gets home. this meant i needed a plan. clearly. because how many times have i tried to clean out that room only to give up and close the door. this time that is not an option, so i needed a plan.

i decided to try something i have never done before. i took my car out of the garage (it was not happy, but we all have to make sacrifices) and parked it on the street. my plan consisted of carrying EVERYTHING out of the room, down the stairs, and into the garage. i had high hopes of this working, because instead of trying to put everything away (in a room where there really isn't room for everything,) i would be making decisions about what to put back IN the clean, empty room. i thought it was a great plan! i could picture success in my head! i was actually kind of excited to do it.

and then i went into the garage . . .

it was HOT in there. i knew it would be, because every summer when i clean out the garage (you would think once would be enough, but i seem to have to do it again every summer,) it is really hot in there. i usually just open up the garage door, blast my music into the neighborhood, drink gallons of iced tea, and sweat. there is really no other way to do it.

but i had a plan. so i moved my car out into the street and left it there in the blazing sun, exposed to careless skateboarders, bike riders not watching where they are going, and teenaged drivers talking on their cell phones while singing with their ipods. i said a little prayer, and went back inside. i went upstairs and opened the door to the scary room. and just stood there.

where to begin? i decided to just start carrying stuff out. the first few things i brought out were items i knew i was going to donate to charity, so i put them in a pile in the living room to deal with later. then there were odds and ends of luggage and bags we use to pack in when we travel, so that was next, and they ended up in a pile in a corner of the family room. i made a stack of pictures, a stack of magazines, a pile of photo frames, and a huge mound of miscellaneous stuff i shoud probably just throw away without even looking at--because, really, i haven't used anything in that room in months! i could probably just trash it all and not miss any of it! but that isn't the way i do things . . . i found that as i was emptying the upstairs room, i was also sorting. and nothing was going into the garage.

when rollie came home for lunch, he laughed and said, "it's a good thing you moved your car outside--i can see how you need all that room for ONE SHOE BOX." yes, after working all morning there were several piles of stuff in the living room and family room, but just one shoe box in the garage.

well it was hot in the garage. and the floor is kind of dusty. and it was too hot to sweep the floor. so i found that i didn't really want to put anything in the garage.

so now i am working on plan b. i have removed most of the loose stuff and put it in piles downstairs. i brought the shoe box back in the house and put my car back in the garage (it is happy--i can tell!) i almost filled our huge recycle bin. when i go into the "not-so-scary anymore" room, i can see the floor and sit on the daybed again. progress was made.

and tomorrow, i am going to spend the day watching movies on tv while i sort through all the stuff that is now taking over the family room and the living room.

really, i am making progress . . .

better to be hot?!?

so today . . . it was hot. really hot, like 100 degrees hot.

i know, i spent most of last week complaining about being cold--well, maybe not to YOU, because i didn't blog much while i was on vacation. but believe me, my mom and daughter heard plenty of complaining about the freezing cold (hey, when you live in socal, 65 degrees IS freezing cold.) i knew it would be warm when we got home, but this is ridiculous! and yet i kind of feel like i can't complain about it, because at least i'm not cold . . .

yesterday, i didn't complain about the heat. but today is another story. yesterday i was glad not to be cold. today i was thinking maybe the cold wasn't all that bad . . .

in this kind of heat, keeping cool becomes the focus of the day. it starts the night before when i open up the sliding glass doors downstairs. the air cools off fairly early, but we have no wind to blow the cool air through the house, and i can't leave the doors open when i go to bed, because of burglars. really. i mean, i have never actually SEEN a burglar in our neighborhood, but they are out there. i think they are just afraid of our dogs. but once our dogs go to sleep, they are totally useless as watchdogs. in fact, one night the alarm did go off. rollie leapt out of bed, grabbed something to use as a weapon and cautiously started downstairs. diandra ran out of her room and stood watch in the upstairs hallway. i slept through it all. and when rollie came back to bed, he said the dogs were both under the covers. so you see, we have to close up the house at night when we go to bed. or there might be burglars. and that means i have to stay up late enough to cool the house down.

thankfully i can farm . . . or blog.

then, the next morning we have to monitor the outdoor temperature, and close the upstairs windows as soon as it starts to warm up and turn the air conditioner back on. the indoor temperature slowly climbs all day long, and so we move slower and slower. the dogs turn into furry puddles on the floor. the level in the iced tea jar gets lower and lower. and not much is accomplished.

(this does not bode well for my plans for next week--i have a huge job scheduled, which will require lots of time in the garage. and if it is this hot, i fear i may not be too productive.)

anyway, today our plan was to go to the movies in the afternoon. movie theaters are notoriously cold--usually i take my polar fleece blanket when i go, even in the summer--and we thought it might be a good way to beat the heat. but when it came time to go, i just couldn't face going outside. instead, i opted to sit on the couch with a cold drink and watch tivo. i am so much fun!

one of the things i love about living here is our moderate weather. it is usually like the baby bear's porridge--not too hot, not too cold. but we do have a few days of extreme weather to deal with, and today was one of those days.

it was hot, but we made it through the day. rollie braved the heat to bring home pizza. we watched two episodes of "i survived a japanese gameshow"--majide--which is always good for a laugh or two. copious amounts of liquid were consumed. and when it just got too hot, we sat in front of the fan.

and then rollie said, "maybe when i have time off in august, we should go to las vegas for a few days." las vegas in AUGUST?!?! doesn't he know las vegas is in the DESERT?!?!? which is HOT in august?!? i mean like FRY AN EGG ON THE SIDEWALK HOT??? i'm afraid that when he ventured out to get pizza, the heat got to him. either that, or i didn't complain about the heat nearly enough . . .

too hot to cook . . . or even go out

so today . . . i ate chocolate covered donuts for dinner. don't worry, they were mini chocolate covered donuts . . .

it's summer. and at my house that means we do things a little bit differently than we do the rest of the year. even though rollie still has to get up and go to work every day, diandra and i have always looked forward to summer, because we were out of school.

when diandra was little, summer meant monitoring her lemonade stands and garage sales. it meant mornings spent at the library and afternoons spent at the city pool. it meant reading books--lots and lots of books. it meant a trip to portland to visit grandparents and the zoo, and sometimes a trip to the beach.

then she got older and summer meant giving her permission to go to the pool without me. it meant she spent afternoons with her friends, and i spent afternoons with my book, inside in the airconditioning--not at the pool. it meant staying up late and sleeping in later. it still usually meant a trip to portland to visit the grandparents, although maybe not the zoo. and then we moved to the beach, so we didn't have to visit it anymore.

now diandra is a grown-up, and she has a responsible grown-up job so she has to work in the summer. in fact, she works harder in the summer than at any other time of the year, because the kids in her youth group are out of school and have more free time. so she takes them to the beach, she goes on bike rides, they go to the movies or hang out at the town center. and so, my summers have changed as well. now i clean out the kitchen cabinets, clean out the closets, clean out the garage (do you see a pattern developing here?) i try to take care of all of the stuff that i just never seem to get to when i am teaching. it makes for a productive summer, but not always a satisfying one.

so tonight i ate mini chocolate donuts for dinner. because it is summer and diandra wasn't here for dinner, and rollie ate hours ago, and i had them, and i could. sometimes, you have to find your fun wherever you can. tomorrow maybe i will eat a salad for dinner. or maybe i will have ice cream . . .

photo shoot--out of town

so today . . . was my first official day of summer vacation. yay!! and i got to go to santa barbara with diandra for a photo shoot.

i know i have mentioned before how much i enjoy getting to go on photo shoots with her, but it was especially fun today, because we went out of town. we planned to leave at 11:00 this morning, and did actually leave the house about that time. but by the time we finished making necessary stops, we didn't hit the 605 north until almost 11:45. other than the usual traffic issues that are ever present in certain parts of our city, it was smooth sailing.

until diandra uttered those inevitable words--"can we stop at a bathroom?"

i didn't mind stopping, but we were apparently on a section of hwy 101 which did not have any rest areas. so we drove on. again she asked, "do you think we could stop at a rest area?" yes of course we can, if you can find one . . .

finally the decision was made to just take an exit and hope for the best. but when you go off the highway in an unfamiliar area and you come to the stop sign at the end of the exit, you have to decide which way to go. we chose right, but it turned out to be very, very wrong.

the sign pointing right had said "business district" which said "bathrooms" to me. so we stopped at the first 7-11 we saw. diandra hopped out of the car and was back in about 30 seconds. "no bathroom," she said. we continued down the road until she spied a jack-in-the-box. bingo! we thought. but no--they wouldn't let her use their facilities unless she bought something, and there was a line! so back in the car and on down the road. next we stopped at a gas station, which had a bathroom that they were willing to let her use. but after seeing that it was completely without paper products and had probably not been cleaned since 1967, she quickly passed. our fourth stop turned out to be a winner! it was a wendy's, and the bathroom was clean and available for use--even to non-customers. the lesson we learned? don't go off the exit unless you can SEE what you are looking for . . .

thankfully we had my gps, which got us back on the freeway--no easy task from where we ended up. actually, the gps saved us more than once today . . .

we stopped in montecito so diandra could meet with david jay, a photographer she has admired for quite a while. he was gracious enough to give her some of his time when she contacted him to let him know she would be in town today. he had some great advice for her on how to build her business. i am continually amazed at how so many photographers in our area are willing to help those who are just starting out in the business. there is such a wonderful spirit of community rather than competition. i think it speaks to the character of the people involved in a very positive way.

while they talked at starbucks, i relaxed in the car. it was a beautiful sunny day, but not too warm. it was just a perfect day. i ate half a brownie, read a little of my book, and tried to nap--but people kept getting in and out of their cars, which was a little hard to sleep through . . .

after lunch, we still had about three hours before diandra's photography appointment, so she decided we should take pictures of me. now, you guys know i am not all that photogenic. and while diandra thought i looked "cute" today, i was not really dressed as i would have had i known it was going to be picture day. nor did i have on "total make-up." today i had opted for "minimal make-up." but diandra said she could fix me right up, and we did have three hours to kill . . .

here's the thing--if she can take good pictures of me, she should be able to charge whatever she wants for photo sessions! and people should pay it! i am not kidding you!! here is one photo straight out of the camera. she caught this when we were laughing so hard that she could hardly focus her camera.we had some adventures shooting these pictures, but i am waiting to tell about them until i post the rest of the pictures she took . . .

it was finally time to meet the bride and the groom. the photo shoot today was for post-wedding shots. they are going to be awesome!! the light was beautiful, the people were beautiful, the setting was beautiful . . . how could the photos not be great? check diandra's blog in a couple of weeks to see her pics. but as always, here are a few i shot of her doing her job . . .we ended the evening by eating a delicious mexican dinner with emily and sean. and we hit the freeway home about 9:30 p.m.

it was a long day, but it was also a lot of fun. i have to say, my favorite part was being with diandra when she was taking pictures. i think i am going to like working with her . . .

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.

reading is FUNdamental

so today . . . i've spent the afternoon reading blogs.

i love to read! i always have. both of my parents are teachers and avid readers. my dad would rather read a book than watch tv, and my mom would rather read than do almost anything else (except maybe eat gummy bears!) we grew up surrounded by books. one of my favorite memories as a child was going to the library every week in the summer and bringing home stacks of books to read and then lying in the hammock in the backyard reading them. i started reading mysteries when i was in second or third grade. remember the encyclopedia brown stories? i could never guess "who dunnit?" but i loved to try.

when diandra was born, i couldn't help but have hopes and dreams for her future. and of all the things i wanted for her, near the top of the list was that she would love to read. we started reading to her long before she could talk. i knew "goodnight, moon" by heart. and she learned to read early--not because her preschool teacher mom taught her to, but because she looked at books and listened to them so much that she started learning the words by sight. i was so relieved! yes, i thought, i have raised a reader!

and then she entered the fifth grade . . .

fifth grade, by all accounts, was a terrible year for her. school issues, social issues, independence issues all collided to make it "the year we would all like to forget." but it was also the year she stopped reading for fun. she would still read for school, but if it wasn't assigned by her teacher, she wasn't reading it. this was devastating to her reader mom! i just couldn't imagine that my child didn't want to go to the library with me in the summer and check out armloads of books and then sit in the swing in the backyard and read them. and while many of her issues from that year resolved themselves in the years to come, this one did not.

i have to say, i still do not like it one little bit that she won't go to the library and get a book to read. i don't think she even has a library card! and yet, i envision her reading while she has lunch (like i do,)reading to relax (like i do,) reading before she goes to sleep (like i used to, until i got a laptop--because now instead of reading a book at night, i write my blog and read my email and read the blogs that i stalk and read messages from my friends on facebook, and read . . . )

and there it is!

you see, she does read--she just doesn't read books from the library. she reads magazines, she reads lots of blogs, she reads facebook, she reads THOUSANDS of text messages, she reads her Bible. and she writes two blogs. when i think about it, she reads a lot--she just doesn't read books from the library.

i guess as times and technologies change, so does the way we interact with our world. one of the teachers at school uploads books and reads them on her iphone. the assistant pastor at our church has something called a kindle, which is apparently like a pocket-sized computer screen onto which he can upload books and read them. there are a seemingly unlimited number of different magazines from which to choose. and if it's research you need, everything is just a click away on google.

i still read books when i am eating lunch. and during my summer vacation, sometimes i will read a whole book in one day (instead of all the other stuff i should be doing.) but i find that i spend a lot of time on the internet now, stalking blogs or researching the latest techno gadget that my mom is looking at or bookmarking stuff that i will never buy. and i guess that i have to recognize that as reading time even though no books are involved.

i love my computer and the internet and technology. but for me, nothing will ever replace that feeling i get when i go to the library, check out a stack of books, and head for the backyard . . . it's probably similar to the one diandra gets when she sees her favorite blogger has posted another entry or a new magazine has hit the newsstand . . .