Part One

[copied from dland]

(At school.)

I am having just the kind of day I like to have at school. Surprise! The SCM is out and I have been very busy all day and actually had a project to keep the sub busy all day as well, a project that would have been done by student aides, if we still had any, but we don't, so now it's getting done and he's not in my hair or hanging around being bored. I have been doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that and even had a class that wasn't scheduled until this morning sign up and come in and do an interesting project. (It's the Forensics class and they're learning about serial killers.) And I've helped kids individually WITH BOOKS, and with documentation questions, and checked out books and checked some in, and worked on some budget stuff, and made some signs to put up, and finished a yearbook project for an alumni group, and I even managed to get a bottle of water finished off. That's the way I like it. Uh huh.

I was supposed to go to a meeting this afternoon, what I used to call the Dreaded Monthly Meeting, but it's been canceled, which it usually is and that's why I don't call them Monthly anymore. They're actually scheduled for every two weeks now, but maybe we have one every other month. And there's allegedly a general faculty meeting today, too; I don't think we've had one of those since early December. My former principal, the Psycho, had one every other week, the maximum she could have by contract, and had us there and kept us the whole allowed time even if she had nothing to say. Even if she was out of the building, she made the vice-principal hold the meetings and keep us there, but the last VP would let us out early because really, who was gonna tell on her?

I am starving! Because my friend the Other Chai is away this week -- she takes a group of kids to Washington every year for a week to do government research projects -- I didn't bother to go down to the faculty room for a break; I just had the coffee in my little thermos here at my desk, and so I didn't eat anything. That saved me a point or two. But I sure am ready for lunch, which is coming up in ... about 25 minutes here, at noon. I should have lots of points left for dinner tonight, but I have no idea what I'm having. I'll have to wait for K to get home to figure that out.

Part Two

(At home.)

The day slowed down some, and by the end of the faculty meeting I had a killer headache, but in general, a pretty good day for having to be there. I cut my errands short after school and only went to the make-up store and then to the ShopRite for a few items, and then home, where I snacked shamelessly. Which would have been okay, but then K and I ended up going to TGI Friday's for dinner, where I ate mucho food this is Not Good For Me, and there we are. I don't care, we all know that if I lose this weight it's going to take me years to do it. Anyway, I had an unusual experience before.

We were about to leave for the restaurant -- yes, we really must eat at home more, and we will -- and I was in the bathroom washing my hands and chanced to look up at the mirror and thought "Hey! Who the hell IS that?" The amazing thing here is that I was not thinking "Who is that old fat woman?" but rather "Hey, I don't look so bad!" I rather enjoyed that. Here's why I look so different to myself lately. One, it's the make-up. I no longer look like death warmed over on a regular basis. And when I saw myself in the mirror today, I even had eyeliner on, because they had put it on me at the make-up store. Two, I am wearing my more comfortable clothes because the weather is so nice, no sweater today, and I much prefer the look of a collared shirt with a t-shirt under it, which is what I have on. But Three, and this is the big one, is my hair.

My hair is completely different from any way I have ever worn it before in my whole life. I have had relatively few different hairstyles as a grown person, which I won't bore you with the details of at the moment, but I started with waist-length hair in college, had shoulder length on and off for a while, and have mostly had very short hair for the last very many years. I like short hair because it's so easy to take care of.

But my hair now is much longer than very short, although it would probably be called short by anyone else. The layers are longer, although the length is not terribly long. But the coolest thing about my hair is this: I am turning gray. The length of the layers that I have now makes the gray show up much, much more. Most of my gray is at the sides, over my ears, and some more in the front; I have very little gray in the back (according to my hair-cutter.) The gray looks all silvery and pretty, kind of like highlights I don't have to pay for, and they make the rest of my brown hair ... well, kind of pop, if you know what I mean. I LOVE my hair! I don't think I've ever been able to say that before! Perhaps I will try to take a picture of myself and put it up here for you, although I can't promise that getting such a picture will be easy. I'll see what I can do.

Okay, day is done. All I have left to do is change my bag for tomorrow, since the one I changed to for today sucked. I have very specific bag requirements, and my perfect bag that I love is now just a biiiit too small for what I need to carry every day, so I'm testing replacements from among the billions and billions of bags I already have. (I have bag issues, which I'm sure I've mentioned before.) Our featured bag for this evening is a navy paisley SportSac that the Chum gave me for Christmas. My hopes are not high. I ain't a paisley sorta gal.


WATCHING FRIENDS :: ENTRY #1399