How the Grinch ...

I decided I had to start writing (at school) because I've been very busy all day and now it's only a half hour until I leave, so it's too late to start anything else, and I'm yawning too much to just read. I think if I could have the actual use of a secretary for a solid chunk of time tomorrow, I could get the rest of my purchase orders out, but even when she's here, she's not quite here. Which is not to say that she's not sharp, because she is. She's so sharp, in fact, that she can appear to be working while she's actually doing something else, and look quite busy at it. And it's not even that her something else isn't even school related, because her job is really two part-time jobs that equal full-time for her, and we're her second job, but she spends a bunch of time here doing her first job (which she's supposed to be doing some of at home, but I suspect is not, which is why she does it in the library.) Like anybody cares. Sorry.

So it's Halloween. I went into the faculty room for lunch and one of the guidance counselors who was there asked me in a snotty way "So, who are you supposed to be?" I was not snotty back, you'll be happy to know. I said in a kind of quiet way "I'm me," and let it go. Okay, I didn't let it go; I said "You know, I did that for a lot of years." And I did. I dressed up every year for Halloween, I was a judge at the senior costume party and I took copious photographs there every year, and so on. But I'm past that point. It's a funny thing here, that you can be up to your ears in school activities, and for a long time, and the second you stop, nobody remembers that you ever did it and they just think you're an old stick-in-the-mud. It's because of the turnover in staff from year to year, I guess. But it's strange. I'll have to see if I can find the picture somewhere of my doing a lesson one year for a physics class when I was dressed as Minnie Mouse. It was pretty funny.

I am something of a Scrooge -- or whatever you call a Halloween party-pooper -- when it comes to the trick or treaters. I have candy all ready to give out. But what happens is that these little bitty kids ring my bell, and by the time I get to the door, they've given up and left. I could sit in the living room with no TV or computer so that I could jump up and answer the door when it rings, but sometimes I don't get anyone for a half hour at a time, and it bothers me to be trying to do something in another room and have to stop it every few minutes. (Yes, it's Murphy's Law: If I wait at the front door, no one will ever ring the bell. If I leave the room, there will be a steady stream of tykes at my door.) K loves to answer the door for the kids -- or so she claims; she gets fed up with it, too -- but she has class tonight. Bummer. For me. Once it gets dark, though, I keep the porch light off and then no one comes. (Except I'll have to put the light back on at 8 tonight so K doesn't kill herself between the driveway and the front door.)

My newest little passion here is Burt's Bees stuff. I keep looking for lotions that don't feel icky and that I like the scent of, and I think this may be the place to find them. I even stopped at the Rite Aid this morning on my way to school and picked up a little sample set so that I have tiny sizes of things to take on the plane with me.

I stuck a little widget over there >>>> with various RSS feeds from Google Reader for some of the weird stuff I find when I obsess browse there every day. I didn't put everything I save because then you'll all have me put away, but I may in the future. Then you'll see what a real nutcase I am. Or maybe not. I save a lot of feeds that relate to various Bush articles and other conspiracy theories. And some other stuff, too. Check out the Creation of the World in Geek Terms, if you haven't already. It's cute.


Okay, so now I'm home and the Halloween crap has begun. Yes, first time the doorbell rang, the greedy little suckers were onto the next house before I got the door open. So that's one.

Second time, I start handing things out from the bowl. One kid reaches into the bowl for a second helping, so I said "No, I gave you one." Another kid gets a Starburst and says "Can I have a Hershey's, too?" No, I already gave you something. Jeez. Another kid, I give her a Hershey bar, because her little pumpkin looked pretty damn empty, and she looks up at me with puppy dog eyes and stands there, waiting for me to give her more. "Have a nice day," I said, and stepped back into the house and closed the door. I assume she's not still standing on the porch because the gaggle of parents on the sidewalk would have gotten her by now. (Oh, and these kids were gone too by the time I got to the door, but their parents were slower, and were still on the sidewalk when I opened the door and stood there with the bowl of candy, and they called the kids back. I hate Halloween.)

Just as an aside -- I'm not answering the doorbell anymore-- and by the way, the SCM said something about high blood pressure, and one of the semi-younger teachers who loves to hang out in the library (bless her) said "Oh, how can librarians have high blood pressure? It's so peaceful here." (Okay, she's a library lover, I get it.) I said, "Yeah, but my father wasn't a librarian." right? Because I got it from him? Okay.

Okay, I can't find my Minnie Mouse picture, which means I've never scanned it and it's somewhere deep in the picture trunk, but I came across these two, which I'm posting to show you that I have not always been the Halloween grinch. First, this is K, but I made this bunny costume for R's first Halloween -- it was very big -- and each of my kids got two years out of it, and it was borrowed by numerous others. (See? I do have some domestic skills.)



This one, though, was my ultimate. This was R's costume for her senior year in high school. It was her idea, and I think she'd been planning it for years. (Planning for me to make it, too.) And no, there was no Batman. That wasn't the point.



Okay, I'm off for more doorbell ignoring.

WATCHING NEWS :: ENTRY #1618