the one that got away

so today . . . i was a slug. really. i spent most of the day on the couch with my cute little laptop surfing the web. it was a lovely day. i spent a lot of time looking for a computer bag that was small enough to protect my new baby, but with very little success.

you would think that the people who make these teeny tiny machines would know that we will need teeny tiny padded bags to carry them in. at least we will if we are women. and, a computer bag is an accessory, so black neoprene is just not going to cut it! i have to say that after spending a good portion of the day clicking around online, there is very little out there that i can get excited about.

apparently there ARE small, cool looking bags out there, but they do not come cheaply. look closely at this ad i saw in vogue magazine (and no, i don't subscribe to vogue. but sometimes in a waiting room there aren't a lot of choices!)
in case the print is too small for you to read, let me translate. the tiny computer on this page sells for $400. each of the two carrying bags shown with it cost $830!! EACH!!! and they are just protective sleeves--there aren't any pockets for accessories or even carrying handles. who would spend more than twice as much as they spent on their computer for a protective bag?!? i mean, if your computer gets scratched up, just buy another one and you will still come out ahead!

i sound a little bitter, i know. here is why . . .

before my computer arrived at my house, i was at the mall. i was just browsing around, and i found a computer bag in victoria's secret. it was kind of a plummy burgundy color--the same color as the trim on my handbag--and all the zippers had golden pull tabs. it was pink and white striped inside. it was generously padded and had both a shoulder strap and short handles. it even had an outside zipper pocket for accessories. AND it was on sale for 50% off. i really liked it, but did i buy it? NO . . . because i hadn't looked around at bags much, and what if i found one i liked better? would it even fit my computer (which i hadn't actually seen in person yet.) and even at 50% off the price seemed a little high to me, (although now having looked around i realize that it was very reasonably priced.) i mean, it was victoria's secret--it isn't like they specialize in computer bags!! instead i came home and started checking around on the internet to see what other options i had. and as i said before, i found that there was not much out there that wasn't black. so i decided the bag at the mall was just perfect and went back to get it.

and it was gone. of course.

so now i am back to trying to find something online. and it is even harder now, because i keep seeing that perfect bag, and nothing else measures up--not even the $830 goyard bags . . . which, by the way, are NOT reasonably priced!

oh where, oh where has my phonics book gone?

so today . . . i lost a book. well, as it turns out, i didn't lose the book, but i certainly couldn't find it.

this year because my class is so small (only three students) i am sharing a classroom with another teacher. we had to rearrange her classroom to make room for my little group. so back in my corner, i have to keep things organized because my space is limited. i tend to keep my things ordered even when i am in my own classroom, because when you have a room full of wiggly 5 year olds, you have to be able to move quickly from one activity to another. and if you leave them with nothing to do while you are looking for materials, chaos will ensue!

so in my space, everything has a place and i try to keep everything put away. but somehow, over the weekend, one of my activity books was moved. it wasn't where it belonged. i looked in my cabinets. i looked in the cabinets in my old room. i looked in the other teacher's cabinets. i even went to the office to see if there was an extra book lying around. i looked off and on all week, but couldn't find the missing book.

and i need the book by monday. if i can't find it, i will have to make a copy of the worksheets i already have. and then the kids will complain because nobody wants the black and white copy--they all want the full colored sheets. and i really don't want to listen to my little dumplings complain for the next four months-- i need that book!

so before i left school today, out of desperation i took one last look around--and there it was--on the bookshelf with the other books--but not where it belonged! it was at the end of the row of books, with the spine partly obscured by a notebook that was sticking out just a bit. there were 10 or 12 books between where it was and where it belonged. no wonder i couldn't find it!

this reminds me of something that happened to me several years ago. i had a beautiful orange silk blouse which i loved, but suddenly i couldn't find it (and this was before diandra was the right size to "borrow" my clothes, so i couldn't blame her!) i looked everywhere, but it was just gone. a couple of years later when we moved, i found the blouse--it was in my closet, but again, not where it belonged. the clothes in my closet are in rainbow colored order, so the orange blouse should have been between the red blouses and the yellow blouses. but somehow it had been put away in the wrong place in the closet and i just didn't see it until i moved and had to take everything out.

this behavior may sound a little bit obsessive/compulsive, but usually it works for me. really. just not this week.

but today, i found the missing book! my world is back on it's axis, and on monday no one will have to use a black and white copy . . .

i thought it had to be a quarter . . .

so today . . . i was standing on the playground, in the warm sunshine (our little 6' x 3' sun spot,) watching our 4 and 5 year olds play. pretty soon, candice came to me to show me a shiny rock she had found. it was about 1/4" long, and it was white, but it didn't look shiny to me at all. however, she thought it was beautiful! so i admired it and told her she could put it into her pocket so it wouldn't get lost. which she did.

about 15 minutes later she came up to me with a sad face. she said to me, "where's my shiny rock?" i reminded her that she had put it in her pocket. so she checked her pockets again, looked at me and kind of shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. i said, "well candice, i don't know where it is. i don't have it." she crooked her finger at me so i would lean down near her, which i did. i thought she was going to whisper in my ear, so i turned toward her. she came close to me, reached her little hand up to my ear, and pulled the rock "out" of my ear! there it was in her hand, and she had this surprised look on her face, kind of like "look at that!" she shrugged and said, "i guess it was in your ear!"

i was stunned! that little girl had just done the "pull the quarter out of your ear" trick, and i hadn't had a clue that it was coming! i laughed and laughed--in fact all the teachers on the playground who had seen it laughed. it was hysterical! and the look on her face was priceless! she was still trying to look like she could hardly believe what had happened, but at the same time, she was so proud of herself for pulling off the joke.

tomorrow is going to be candice's last day in my class. the current economic situation has hit her family especially hard, and so they have had to make some difficult decisions. i am going to miss having her in my class, but i will never forget how she pulled that tiny, shiny rock out of my ear . . .

too many choices?

so today . . . i am back on vistaprint.com looking at business cards. as you may recall, that is how i got started blogging--i needed something to put on business cards. at that time, i thought i had chosen a card i wanted--turquoise blue with a bright yellow sunflower. but i was never completely happy with it, so i didn't order any.

but vista print never gives up! apparently they realized how much time i had spent working on a business card that never got ordered, and decided to plague me until an order was placed! so every few days i get another ad from vista print promising me 250 business cards for FREE! (that many cards will probably last me forever, as i have no idea who i am going to give these free business cards to.) but NOW there is an even better deal. NOW i can apparently choose from their entire line of designs for the low, low price of $3.99 for 250 cards. i think to myself, "ooohh, i wonder what the more expensive cards look like?" so off i go to vistaprint.com and find that they have over 1800 designs!! i try to narrow it down by selecting a category of designs, but since i am just a little OCD i am afraid that if i don't look at them ALL, i might miss the perfect one. so that is what i do . . .

it didn't take as long as i thought it would--94 images per page meant i ONLY had to look through 19 pages of business cards. i was astounded by the choices! no matter what your occupation or interest, there were business cards for you! and then there were several selections that were nature inspired or just very colorful abstract designs. how was i going to decide? it was easier when my only choices were the free ones!

while looking through page after page after page of cards, i started to have a bit of an identity crisis. who am i, really? a few of the cards had cool houses or architectural designs on them, but i'm not a realtor or an architect. there was one with the perfect wave curl, but i'm not a surfer. i'm not a florist or even someone who does gardening, although a lot of cards had pretty flower designs. i am a teacher, but that isn't all i am. i do play the piano and there are a couple of cool keyboard designs, but i don't think i am good enough at it to showcase my interest on my cards. i've come to realize that my cards will say something about who i am--so what do i want them to say?

i have no idea.

i don't know what i want my cards to say, i don't know what i want them to look like, i don't know who i will ever give them to--all i know is, for some reason, i want business cards (even though i don't have a business!) so i guess i will keep on working on it. and now that i have been blogging for a month, maybe "blogger" will be my business title instead of "consultant" or maybe "blogging consultant . . . "