AAGGHHHH! summer's coming . . .

so today . . . nothing happened to me. i have nothing to blog.

this horrifies me! surely i am more interesting than that. can't i think of anything to say unless i am interacting with other people?!? and now that's got me thinking "what am i going to blog about all summer?!?!" it's beginning to worry me . . .

you see, i spend a lot of time by myself in the summer, because of course rollie is at work all day. i sleep in, do stuff around the house, read, play my computer, sit outside. usually i am pretty busy doing the big tasks i don't have time to do during the school year, but in a relaxed sort of way. and all by myself. because who else can help me clean out the garage on a tuesday morning, or clean out closets on a wednesday afternoon? everyone else is at work. and how interesting is that blog going to be?

"so today . . . i cleaned out the garage. all by myself."

see? nobody is going to be excited to read that!!

i guess i could get a part-time job or even work at the school for the summer, but as much as i love you all, i am not giving up my summer vacation just so i have something to write about! (and i use the term vacation lightly, because although i do not have to go to my job, i put in some pretty long days working at home.)

but then i thought, maybe my summer will be more interesting if i am on the constant lookout for blogging material. it will keep my mind clicking along, and maybe get me out and about more than usual. maybe i will be more observant of the things around me and look for opportunities to do things that are out of the ordinary.

or maybe not. maybe i will just catch up on my sleep.

i guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. even now there are days when i do not know what i am going to write about until i sit down and write those words so today . . . so it will be interesting to see what happens . . .

but today, nothing happened.

two degrees of separation--food

so today . . . diandra told me i blog about food a lot. i don't think i actually blog about it that much--but i guess it does frequently end up as an element of my blog. for example, i think yesterday's blog was really about how i ended up at a cash register without my wallet. it could have been a cash register anywhere--it just happened to be at el pollo loco.

if it hadn't happened at el pollo loco, it would have happened at costco. that's where i went right after school. i didn't have a lot of groceries to buy, but i will make a trip to costco just for eggs and broccoli and cheese--it's that much cheaper. although i think they need an express line. i know they don't want to encourage people to buy just a few items, but every time i am in there i see several carts in line with just four or five things and i think, "give us an express line!!!!" i'm sure it will never happen, because costco wants our carts to be filled--not pared down so we can check out more quickly. so when you go to costco you know you are going to be standing in line, while your frozen foods are melting--oops! there i go talking about food again.

or it could have happened at the skechers warehouse. i know i have mentioned how much i love those shoes!! we went to the warehouse because rollie needed new black shoes to wear to work. his last pair (which were also skechers) finally bit the dust. we could have shopped all over town looking for shoes for him, but since he is a man, that was not going to happen. he was going to buy shoes at whatever store we went to first. so i took him to the skechers warehouse. i knew the shoes there would be nice looking AND comfortable AND reasonably priced. and i was pretty sure they had girl shoes there too--maybe navy. so there we were. after about 20 minutes of shopping one of us started looking for a bathroom (giant sodas had been recently consumed,) only to find out there wasn't one in the store--the closest one was at the del taco across the parking lot. did you know, they have the very best chocolate cake at del taco? it is worth the trip just for desert! which i would mention, except that would bring me back to food again . . .

or i could have found myself walletless when i was at the mall with diandra this afternoon. she was on a mission for the perfect pair of white pants (successfully completed i might add.) our mall is currently undergoing some major construction. they have totally demolished one end and are rebuilding it from the ground up. all of this, just so they can relocate nordstrom from a side aisle to the main drag. i'm sure the new store will be impressive, but it is certainly a mess right now! and during construction they have closed the shops all along the front of the store as well. so there is no longer a rocky mountain candy store or a sorbet stand. they even closed the starbucks!!

and there it is again--food talk.

oh no! maybe she is right!! it seems as though all roads lead back to something edible . . .

maybe i need a longer lunch "hour"

so today . . . i found myself sitting at the drive-thru window at el pollo loco, ready to take my lunch back to work, only to discover that i did not have my wallet!!

how does that happen?!?! i am female, and i carry a purse. so how can i not have my wallet?

here's how . . .

it began last night--well actually, it began several days ago. i got an email from one of my favorite stores (new york & co) telling me i had been awarded a "rewards" coupon. these are given after making 5 purchases in the store (i said it was my favorite store!) and it's a really good coupon, so i immediately sent it to my printer, and received a blank page in return. i tried several times to print it, but it just would not print!

ok, i thought, i shop in that store all the time. maybe if i go in there and explain what happened they will believe me and give me the discount without actually having the coupon in my hand. i look honest, don't i? so i tried that. they said no. however, the sales clerk continued, if i could access my email on my phone and show it to them, then i could take advantage of the discount. wonderful! except i don't know how to do that . . .

i spent the next several days trying to get my email on my phone. but if you have read my earlier posts, you know that my electronics hate me and rarely cooperate with my plans!

in the mean time, the clock was ticking . . . the special coupon would expire today.

i needed a plan. the coupon wouldn't print, i couldn't access it on my phone, it was about to expire, AND I WANTED TO USE IT! so i headed for the mall. i had decided that although i couldn't pull the email up on my phone, i COULD show it to them on my laptop. (this sounds extreme, i know, but it was a really good coupon!) so i added my wallet to my laptop bag (yes, there it is) and entered the store. i was ready! i shopped! and for the first time i can remember, i didn't find anything i wanted (well, they had these cute skirts, but they were out of my size . . . ) i have gone into the store before and come out without making a purchase, but i ALWAYS see something i would LIKE to take home. but not yesterday. it was so weird. after all that effort, i ended up leaving empty handed.

i headed for the parking lot, put the computer bag in the trunk, and went home.

which brings us back to today. there i was with food ordered and no money, because my wallet was still in my computer bag. they know me at el pollo loco. i go there a lot, because it is only a couple of miles from my school. i usually use the drive-thru because i only have a half hour lunch break. the guy who works that window covets my car, so he always remembers me. at least i like to think it is because of the car, and not because of my occasional strange behavior. the last time i was there, i gave him my debit card to pay, he processed it and handed it back to me with my drink, and i left. without my food. the car in line behind me kept honking while i was waiting for traffic. when i finally looked back, i could see they wanted me to return, so i did. and he gave me my abandoned food. today when i told him i didn't have my wallet but would be right back, he didn't even look surprised.

i'm afraid i am getting a reputation--i may have to go to chick-fil-a for my chicken from now on. either that or hide my emergency $20 in the car instead of in my wallet . . .

wednesday bonus blog: "dinosaurs eat what?!?"

so today . . . i decided to post a bonus blog.

this is why. last week when i posted a blog i had previously written for myspace, i got grief from my friend albert. (i should mention here that he is one of a handful of people who actually look forward to reading my blog every day.) albert is also on myspace, so he read the blog when it was originally posted and i think he felt cheated that so today . . . was a repeat. as i explained to him, most of you are not on myspace, so it would be new to you. but i got his point. i am always disappointed when i go to one of the blogs that i read regularly and there is no new posting--i guess a "rerun" could be equally disappointing.

but i wrote some pretty cute blogs over there on myspace that i want to share.

so here is my solution. occasionally i will re-post those blogs on wednesdays (a day i don't usually blog) as a bonus for those of you who aren't on myspace. since that is a day you usually don't get any sparkling thoughts from my brain, it will be a nice surprise when it happens. and albert (and the other myspace people) won't be disappointed, because that is not a day they are expecting a blog.

i think it is a good solution. we will see what you think.

anyway, here is the first wednesday bonus blog. it was originally written november 22, 2008 and titled "dinosaurs eat what?!?!" enjoy!!

so the other day we had a little extra time before recess, and i suggested that my students look at books until we went outside. joshua always picks either a shark book or a dinosaur book, and this day he chose dinosaurs. now this was not a factual book about dinosaurs--it was one of those "cute" books where dinosaurs talk and do all sorts of undinosaurlike things. on one page the dinosaurs were eating (at a table off of a plate, of course) and the plate was covered with tan blobs of food. so, trying to teach SOMETHING during this time, i said, "what do you think those dinosaurs are eating?" Candice said, "chicken nuggets!!" and looked at me like "duh! why are you even asking us this!" while i was sitting there trying to comprehend how anyone could think dinosaurs would eat chicken nuggets, joshua saves the day (i think) by saying, "no, they didn't have chicken nuggets then." i think "aha! now we are getting somewhere." and then joshua says, "it's sushi!"