Yeah, Frightful, or Something Like It

The weather outside is not especially frightful, certainly not as frightful as we were led to believe. It seems that we -- B.Town and a few surrounding neighbors -- are in a small strip that did not catch the brunt of the storm that is raging everywhere else on the east coast.

I just watched Up, and please do so if you haven't already. It was quite wonderful, but more than that I cannot say.

My feeling crummy during the day Thursday turned into a full-fledged Crohn's attack, intense pain included, by late afternoon, at which point I was sitting in a gymnasium in a county facility waiting for my swine flu shot. I got the shot, and then allowed myself to *ahem* release my pain all the way home by screaming my guts out, so to speak. I mananged to sleep fitfully all night and did not go into work on Friday. I'm better now, but still wrung out and sore. And nauseous often, now, in fact, so I think I will sign off and post.

Thanksgiving News

First, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, as we did. We assembled this year at the home of Wonderful Niece and her Wonderful Husband, who were delightful hosts, and we all brought food and all of it was kick-ass. My sister sat somewhat in a fog, but she was there. Sitting across the table from her, I could really see that she is not in good shape. She says it's the fibromyalgia that makes her foggy; while I don't doubt that, I have it too and it's just manifesting differently in me. I'm not in a fog, I just have pain, and I'm limited in what I can take for it. She takes meds that eliminate most of the pain, but it's as if she's always moving through molasses. We all need time to work things out, I guess.

The big news, which R shared with us all Friday morning, is that after she and her Gentleman Friend got home from our Thanksgiving dinner, he proposed and gave her a lovely ring, an aquamarine, which she wanted in place of a diamond. My baby is engaged! YAY! WOW! We could not be happier. They're thinking of a wedding next October or November, so we have a long way to go with that, and knowing my kid, it will be non-traditional in many ways. She's already looking at non-traditional wedding gowns. That's my kid, all the way.

My FIL is still in the hospital, although improving, I believe; I think he's now in a room that's the last step before being released to a rehab facility. Even so, it seems that he still thinks he's in charge, and tells them that he won't take certain meds or do certain exercises, and they let him get away with it. In the meantime, yesterday the Hubs and I and his sister and her husband took the MIL to see a new community to consider moving to. It's twenty minutes away from us and fifteen minutes away from them and it is GORGEOUS. I would move there now if I could. I'll go into more detail should they decide to go there, but let me just say that it is perfect in every single way, other than leaving their current friends behind, but this new place is all about community, and the ILs are very social people, so they'll have no trouble making new friends, as they did when they moved to where they are now. I hope hope hope it all works out and they go there. It would be the perfect place for her to be when his time comes, and she's without him.

We were having the most perfect weather, not a bit of cold, all through Thanksgiving night, and then we woke up yesterday to chilly wind and lower temps. It's nasty outside, although it's beautifully sunny today, unlike yesterday. On Thursday, I didn't even throw a jacket over my t-shirt/denim shirt uniform, and I didn't even need it when we left to come home. Today, not so much. I go outside for a minute, and my short, short hair is all standing up, like I'm in a Little Rascals movie and I just stuck my finger in a socket. Not attractive.

Okay, so I'm going to change a wash and see what else is going on. No stores for me this weekend except the supermarket.




watching L/O :: ENTRY #2136
READING: New York by Edward Rutherfurd

Day Late, Dollar Short. Something Like That.

I wrote this yesterday at school and totally forgot about it when I got home.

When I put on my jacket yesterday morning, I reached into the left pocket and there was a genetically altered Jolly Rancher deep, deep in the pocket which had morphed into something only recognizable by the shredded remains of the wrapper. It was bright blue, and I couldn't imagine at first what this sticky goo on my fingers was, but now I know, and I think I have to spend the weekend figuring out some way to get it the hell out of there.

I don't want to move to Arizona, or anywhere, really, which brings up something I've always wondered about: why do we all live where we do? Even where there are extremes of weather or frequent natural disasters? Is it inertia that keeps us where we are because we're already there? I get it that people move for jobs and like that, but what keeps us where we keep?

As for me, New Jersey is where my parents moved when they left the city -- the Bronx, in New York City -- in the mid-fifties. And most of the family is still relatively close, so I suppose that's why I'm here. But let me talk about the weather some.

It's hot in the summer, and humid, but not deathly hot and humid like Florida. It's cold in the winter, but it's not the Yukon. Hey, it's not even New England. We get their nor'easters here every so often, and a few times each decade we wake up to two or three feet of snow. But then life stops, no one has to go out in it, and we move on. Hurricanes? Yes, we do get hurricanes, and have had several severe ones in my fifty-plus years, but nothing like they get farther south. Earthquakes. I may have told my earthquake story before -- I'm not telling it now; I'll save it for another time -- but the reality is that although there are occasional mild earthquakes, I have only ever once been aware of one happening. Tornadoes have happened in north Jersey more in recent years, but again, never close to me and I have never seen one. Floods. Yes, there are many places here that flood, just like everyplace else with rivers nearby. B-Town is in a little pocket between two rivers, one of them very small, and so parts of town get minor flooding all the time, and bigtime flooding with evacuations when there's a hurricane. Forest fires? Way too humid for that, most of the time, and not so much in the way of forests left around here. New Jersey's biggest forest is the Pine Barrens in south Jersey -- you may recall this from The Sopranos; it's where they disposed of bodies -- but it's too humid there for a serious conflagration.

So the funny thing is that weather-wise, it's not so bad here. And no, it does not smell. New Jersey does not smell, despite the popular belief to the contrary. Of course there is somewhere in New Jersey that smells, just like anywhere else. Unfortunately for our reputation, that stretch of nasty smelling road is on the New Jersey Turnpike, where there are lots of oil refineries and swamps just before you get to New York City. The rest of the state smells mostly like pine, or tomatoes and strawberries, or here in B-Town, oreos. (We have a big Nabisco factory in town.)

And so. I met with the boss this morning and progress is being made on my library situation, although I'm not sure exactly what or exactly when. Our new vice-principal was involved in some part of it, and let me tell you, he is absolutely a sweetheart, but he is in so way over his head, he won't see air for years.

My neck is very sore from the exercises I've been doing, but sore like after exercise, not sore like my vertebrae want to go on vacation and not hold my head up any more. An improvement, perhaps.I'll be taking my second dose of the new medicine tomorrow, so maybe then I'll start to see some improvement there.

It's Friday, something I very much enjoy, and R and the GF are coming by for a visit tomorrow. And maybe I can sleep in a little.





watching ---- :: ENTRY #2126
READING: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
READING: Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi

It Was A Dark and Stormy Afternoon

We've actually had something like sunshine for the last couple of days, but around four this afternoon, it turned dark and started to monsoon. I had to take off my hearing aids, because I hear a burst of static with every flash of lightning, which is annoying. It's passed, for now, and let's hope it doesn't come back, because R and the Gentleman Friend are flying to the U.K. tonight. They'll be there a week, but they're actually going to be at a wedding of a close friend of her from when she lived in Cardiff. And K is house/cat-sitting for them, so, although she'll be home here and there, she's basically away for the week, too. Which means I can do the Wii Fit when I want to, and not when I think she won't be wanting to watch TV in the family room. I did about 20 minutes of aerobics this morning, pretty good for me.

I seem to be having trouble creating paragraphs here today.

I also made sure that I didn't take my standard two hour nap this afternoon so that I sleep better tonight, which may or may not happen, but I'm a little brain-fried at the moment as a result. I'm also really, really hungry, which shouldn't happen, since I made a very nice meal for myself. So now I either need to eat or sleep, I don't know which. Probably eat.



watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2078
READING: ----- by -----

What're You Doing This Summer?

This is a question that teachers routinely ask each other during the last week of school. I guess it's a normal making-conversation kind of question. Sometimes people ask me if I'm "going anywhere." I usually answer that I don't go places, I just go to doctors. Although this summer, I am going to Disney World. We have a couple of bachelor guys in their fifties who always go to exotic places during the summer -- not together -- and in September, those of us with houses and children (aka, no money) get to see pictures of them in front of pyramids, or in the rain forest. But I digress.

The question implies, to me anyway, something like a New Year's resolution, except for the summer. In the past, you've seen me declare my intent to clean the basement, which simply does not happen. Maybe it will this year, since the Hubs is around to carry the stuff out, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not even thinking about it.

I don't want to make resolutions. I would like to exercise more, sleep better, eat properly, and relax. Read a lot of books. There you go, my summer in a nutshell. And Disney World, of course.


Okay, so my library has this alcove with windows that overlooks the new main entrance to the school, and out into the parking lot:


My car is just out of sight on the left, and this little red roof under the window is the overhang that shelters the main doors, directly beneath it. I drove into the parking lot at 6:45 this morning, came up the stairs, turned the lights on, started working, and so on, and at about 7:30, I glanced over at the windows and saw this:


which, of course, reads "Seniors 2009" on the outside. How did I not notice that when I drove in, or when I turned on the lights? No clue.

(This was not put up from inside, btw, and was certainly put there by kids who climbed on the roof of the main building and then down to the little red tin roof outside the window. Swell.)


In other news, the weather was unbelievable today: sunny, dark, monsoons, beautiful sun showers, and more. I caught this right after the rain stopped at some point:


This is in our front yard, and is certainly the clearest picture I've taken with the iPhone. It looked so pretty. I have another one that's even better; I thought I had rotated it, but it didn't save, so maybe tomorrow.

And now, perchance to sleep, or something like that. I can go in a little later tomorrow, so I set the alarm for seven. Excellent!




watching TWO AND A HALF MEN :: ENTRY #2073
READING: ----- by -----

The Sun Shone

for five minutes today, long enough to remind us that it exists. And then, poof. This is the weirdest June ever.

I'm going to follow up yesterday, but first, two articles. Here's one. Is this the coolest app ever? If only they would deliver.

Next. We are living in a topsy-turvy world for sure. I'm worried that they won't let me on an airplane because of my middle name, but it's okay for people on the terrorist watch list to buy guns. Can you believe it?

I got some comments about people with name discrepancies who never had a problem, and in fact, I've never had a problem; I just don't know if I will because the rules have changed. Even so, I tried to think about why this is bothering me so much, why I'm obsessing over it. (I'm not anymore. I got over it.) The therapist I used to go to, when we discussed my fears, would ask "And what would happen if ..." for example, I saw a snake in person. (My greatest of all fears.) And I said "I would die." She said, "Would you really? What would cause you to die?" and so on. So the question I asked myself was, what am I afraid of?

I am not afraid of some things that other people are, reasonably, afraid of. I am not generally afraid of or made nervous by having a mammogram, and I'm the only woman I know who can say that. Why not? What will be will be, I guess. Am I afraid to fly? A lot of people are. I don't enjoy it, but I'm not afraid of it. I'm more afraid when my children fly than when I do.

What will happen if I am at an airport and my ID is challenged because of the not-matching middle names? There's the question. I am, apparently, afraid of getting stopped at airport security. I need to make everything as smooth as it can possibly be so I can just breeze through. If there's a hiccup of a doubt about anything about me, and it slows me down, I'm scared. Of? I'm afraid of getting stopped and sent aside for further screening. I'm afraid of being detained illegally. I'm afraid of being questioned closely, and not hearing them. I'm afraid of the whole loss-of-civil rights potentiality that the TSA has at airport security.

(I'm not saying I live in constant fear of this stuff. I'm just saying this is what I came up with when I analyzed the name thing.)

Ultimately, what I'm afraid of is facing a situation where I lose any and all control I might even have seemed to have had. It's the whole loss-of-control issue, which is a big issue for me (and for many others, I would guess.) Airport security has tremendous potential for a loss-of-control experience of the highest caliber. That's it. That's why all I want is to make sure that I breeze right through without a hiccup.

I'm glad we had this little talk.




watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2071
READING: ----- by -----

It's a Quarter to .... One

No, not a quarter to three, no singing me from me. It's a quarter to one, which means school ended for the kids twenty minutes ago (although I hear voices down the hall), and it's the teacher lunch hour. But I'm in the library, just in case any of the little dears have books to bring back to me, which means I can leave for home at 1:35.

A word about the teachers and their inability to do relatively simple administrative tasks. One, it's actually worse today. Two, in most cases, I don't think it relates either to their intelligence or to their teaching ability. There are plenty of people who are not good with paperwork, and if they're lucky, they have a spouse who does it all for them at home. As far as teachers go, there is a lot of paperwork, and everybody gets it done somehow, sooner or later, but being knowledgeable about your subject and being able to teach it are not connected to that kind of chore. In fact, for many people, there's a real disconnect. Some of the ones who are always late with their attendance and grades are the people who are so intellectually gifted, and so passionate about what they know and teaching it, that they light up the kids in their classes, but they can't always make it down the stairs from their ivory towers to do all that other stuff on time. They sometimes have trouble following relatively simple directions, but ask them to explain a chemical process, or something in The Great Gatsby, and their eyes light up; they practically glow, and every kid in the class can see what they see and feel the passion they feel. It's just real annoying for me to be on the receiving end, waiting for the paperwork. But I don't hold it against them (not most of them, anyway); it's just a pain while it's going on.

It is raining yet again. I expect to leave here in 45 minutes and find my entire car mildewed. Everything in the house smells, and it's just from the dampness in the air. It's disgusting, and seriously, cannot be good for the health, for anyone's health.

I forgot to bring something to eat or drink with me today, which is unfortunate; I can't even take my pills. I did have coffee earlier, but it was too early then. I'm gonna be really hungry when I get home. And I'm going out for dinner tonight with people, so I won't get real food until at least 7:30, so I guess I'm going to have to feed myself something when I get home.

Oh, NEWS ALERT NEWS ALERT! I got my hearing aids back ... and they work! Well, they have worked for about six hours now, anyway. Everything seems okay, but I've been in the library all day, which has its own atypical sound situation, so I won't know for sure until I leave, and hear what it sounds like in the car, on the TV, at the dinner tonight. But I'm hopeful. I did, however, look up the name and email address of the CEO of the company that makes my hearing aids, because I may want to drop him a line. I just don't want anything to reflect on my audiologist, who is THE BEST. I'll talk to him about it before I send anything.

I'm going to walk around the library a little bit now. More later.




watching L&O :: ENTRY #2069
READING: ----- by -----

Let Me Tell You About My Day

We had a very icky day here today. Most of it was rain, and all of it was humidity. The sun actually came out for about three minutes, but otherwise, it was unpleasant to go outside, and when I did, I came in feeling like I needed a shower.

I slept relatively well and woke up with the wherewithal to get some stuff done, but I let that peter out pretty quickly. I did hit two supermarkets today, so I guess that was something. I tried to nap this afternoon, my usual Saturday or Sunday afternoon three-hour rest, but only got a half hour out of it, so now, of course, I'm dragging again. The Hubs has gone out to pick up the Chinese food, so at least I have a meal coming.

We got our annual invitation to the Hubs' sister's father's day barbecue for next weekend, and, as always, the decision was up to him, and we are going. We had a lovely time last year. I talked to R, who is away for the weekend, and she says she will definitely be joining us, but the gentleman friend may spend the day with his father, as is certainly his choice to do. They're not married or even engaged, so, as she says, Mother's and Father's Days are still not necessarily spent together. They have time ahead of them for those arguments. All I have told her is that Thanksgiving is mine, and Christmas belongs to her grandmother for as long as she lives.

Tomorrow is for paperwork and laundry. Oh boy oh boy.

Oh, in answer to a comment, managing the list of who owes what to the school has nothing to do with being a librarian. It's my non-teaching duty. Years ago, it belonged to a guidance counselor, and when he became head of his department, they gave it to me. It has to be done by someone who doesn't give final exams at the end of the year, because there wouldn't be enough time in the day. It's also my graduation night duty, which means once the kids march out of the building to the football field (which means they have all cleared their obligations), I can go home. It works for me.

Who am I kidding? I am not getting through that Andrew Jackson book. I have a few nice ones in reserve (as well as a stack for the summer), but I haven't made a choice yet, so no book listed below.)



watching MARRIED WITH CHILDREN :: ENTRY #2065
READING: ----- by -----

Holiday Over, Back to Work

Doncha just love a holiday weekend? We had nice weather, too, although a little hot yesterday, still. Rain tomorrow, they're saying. Won't matter, I guess, if I'm indoors all day.

Five weeks to go, roughly. Which would be truly wonderful if I thought we had any source of income this summer. Ah, well. Not worrying about it has been working well for me since September, so I think I'll keep it up. Nobody else seems to be worrying about it, so I guess that's the general plan here.

It was such a nice, relaxing weekend, marred only by the only TV I could find to have on the background yesterday was the Jon and Kate marathon, and that's all so strange and sad, isn't it? Will I watch the new season start tonight? I don't know. I'll record it, and probably watch ten minutes of it tomorrow. I'm not generally drawn to trainwrecks.

R came for the afternoon today, which was lovely. Next Saturday is the day we picked for the MIL's birthday present. (Her 80th was in March.) We're taking her to lunch and shopping and having her pick out her own nice Vera Bradley bag. Ooh, I hope the weather is nice for that.

Anyway, four day workweek coming up, and those are always nice. CAT scan tomorrow for a change, no big deal.



watching TWO AND A HALF MEN :: ENTRY #2052
READING: American Lion: Andrew Jackson by Jon Meacham

Ice Floe? Party of One?

I slept for about three hours last night and I was beat when I came home. After sitting at my desk for about an hour with my eyes glazed over and my jaw hanging limp, I thought I'd have a little snack. I made some microwave popcorn, which was tasty until I heard that horrible crunch that told me I'd broken a tooth.

Altogether now: EEEEUUUUUUWWWWW.

And it isn't even a tooth, it's a crown. And it isn't even a crown, it's part of a permanent bridge. This does not, I'm thinking, bode well. But it doesn't hurt or anything, so I'm not going to rush to get it looked at. I've got bigger fish to fry, like going to the orthopedist on Friday. In the meantime, I'm trying not to self-diagnose, because I'm prone to do that and it's just a stupid thing to do. In the meantime, I'm doing my best not to limp when I walk, because that throws off everything else.

I found out today that the bully administrator who scolded me the other day told someone that I was "mean spirited." I may be lots and lots of things, but I am not mean spirited -- he is, which is what makes him a bully -- but I think this is a case of a)he doesn't like me and that's how he interpreted it, and b)he doesn't understand my sense of humor and thought it was mean. And still today, people on the staff were thanking me for what I did. (I replied intelligently to a moron's email.)

It's still raining. It's going to rain forever and ever. Sometimes you can just tell.

I'm still smiling, just too tired to remember why. I spent most of the day today working on the revision of the library website, which is a pretty enjoyable activity. And one of the few websites that's working, since students and staff alike are currently barred from things like google, aol, and so on. I can't read any diaries at school -- no personal websites -- and a whole lot of things that we should be able to get. Once again, idiots are running this show, top to bottom.

I'm going to slide that knee brace off now and see what happens.

(Oh, the ice floe thing; you know, I heard once that among the people of the north, whom we used to refer to as Eskimos, that when their elderly couldn't function anymore, they'd be set off alone on an ice floe to die. A ridiculous story, I'm sure, but the first indication of the old Eskimos nearing ice floe time was that their teeth would start to break. Not an old wives' tale, exactly, more like an urban legend, if you will, or a kids' legend from the 1950s.)



watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2036
READING: American Lion: Andrew Jackson by Jon Meacham

Here I Am Again

Oh, I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere. I've just become very tired and very lazy lately, and, being who I am, I also feel guilty about not writing more, as if anyone cares. I'm just rolling along.

School has been somewhat stupid this past week, with one thing or another, ultimately leading up to the administrator/bully I can't stand calling me on the phone Friday morning to scold me for something that essentially someone else did. Whenever I have to talk to this guy, my blood pressure goes up and my self esteem goes down, because I always let him get to me. (I'm saving the big F- You for him when I retire, if he's still there.)

The weekend zipped by, somehow, and all I really did yesterday was laundry and grocery shopping. Today, K and I took the ride down the Parkway and visited with R and the GF for a while, which was very nice. But it's an awful day, very rainy, and rain predicted for the whole week. Not something to look forward to.

So I said to my sister the other day that I was thinking of getting t-shirts or hats made for the four of us going to Disney World, you know, something printed on them to commemorate the trip, and she tells me that she only wears v-neck shirts (as do I) and always wears the same hat because it shades her whole face. Oh. Well, then. So I think I'll get something printed on tote bags (but not tell her, because I don't want to hear why she only uses some particular tote bag she already has), but I can't decide what to print on them. I could go with a picture of our grandparents, or of my mother/their father (sister and brother), but I need some kind of words to go with it. I thought about my grandfather's last name, since that unites us as a family, sort of, but it actually is both of the cousins' last name. (And my older daughter's first name, which just makes it all more confusing.) What could I have printed on a tote bag? A picture? Words? Mickey Mouse? (There are actually no photographs of the four of us together as children, only movies, which don't make clear prints.)

In other news, it may be time to see an orthopedist about my knee, since walking around on it in DW won't be easy, not to mention that it hurts a lot now. I hate getting involved with the orthopedist; it's always a long, drawn out thing, weeks and weeks and months, and physical therapy that never helps me.

Well, I came, I saw, I wrote.


watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2035
READING: American Lion: Andrew Jackson by Jon Meacham

Hot. Hot.

It's about 92 degrees at the moment, which is most unusual for April, I have to say. What's not particularly surprising is that the central A/C in the house worked for about an hour yesterday and then died. It's producing cold, but it's not blowing through the vents. We have fans running everywhere and let me tell you, it's damn hot. So I know who my first call is to tomorrow morning.

This past week, on Tuesday, all the school districts in New Jersey voted on the school budgets. I understand that this is unique to New Jersey; every spring, our Boards of Education present their4 budgets to the public and the public votes yea or nay. Shockingly, about 75% of the the districts in my county passed; everybody expected budgets to go down this year, as they do from time to time even in good economies. The upshot in my house is that many districts posted openings for social studies teacherws in today's paper, so K has spent the day writing cover letters, assembling packets, emailing or applying online every place she can. Sadly for me, this makes her cranky, and the heat doesn't help.

Disney plans are underway. The Sibs and I have decided on the restaurants we need to make reservations for, and I'll call those tomorrow.

As of today, I'm officially giving up bringing my lunch to school. If I happen to have leftovers one day, or the mood strikes, I will, but I'm not counting on it. I'm not even taking my clothes out tonight; I'll decide what to wear in the morning. It;s like I've got senioritis.

Well then, my tasks for the day are done, except to get the laundry out of the dryer. But I think I'll shut down the computer for a bit and let it cool off.


watching ODD COUPLE Marathon on DVD :: ENTRY #2033
READING: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Two

Here's the beginning of the entry I wrote yesterday but never got to post:

The week is rushing by, for some reason, but today is just dragging. In a sense, it's the last day of the school week, since tomorrow is an In-Service day, but not one I'm dreading. For one, I won't be hear at the high school; I'll be at the middle school which is at the end of the street I live on. For another, I'll just be with the district's librarians, no keynote speaker or anything. I get to sleep an hour and a half later (since we go by the elementary school schedules for a district-wide in-service), and most unusual of all, I'll be learning about something I really want to know about. (Using Wikis in teaching.) And I don't even have to bring my lunch.

Truth be told, I suck lately at bringing my lunch. I've been buying at the cafeteria all week, and I may continue to do so until the end of the year. (That would be 44 more days.) I've slept very well the past two nights, but when the alarm goes off, I am just pissed. It's all I can do to shower and get dressed and get out of the house. I don't have breakfast, I don't want to carry a lunch bag. I stop for coffee and drink it at school. That seems to be my limit these days.

Seriously, I think of wonderful things to write to you all about all day long, and then I come home and I'm like "Wha ...?" and all my brain cells have stopped functioning. And tonight I have to stay out late since I'm going to the retirees' dinner, which I know I will love going to. The Sibs is home from her California trip, so we will be going to book DisneyWorld tomorrow or Saturday. My Cousin -- the smart one -- called both of us yesterday to make sure we were on track with this all. Why, yes, yes we are. Settle down.

And here's today's big finish:

The retirees' dinner was wonderful, as anticipated; apparently there are different people there each month (other than the core group), so I got to see some really long-missing faces. Lovely.

The in-service was okay today. I did learn some things I wanted to know about, and learned that unfortunately the damn state education standards are being revised yet again, which means next year's curriculum has to reflect that, so there's some new lessons and plans I've got to work on. Which is fine because I do really love doing that kind of thing, but I'm afraid stuff that is not really in my area is going to get dumped on me. We shall see.

And we did indeed go and book the trip after school today, so that is all taken care of. August 17 through the 22. The Sibs and I are flying from Newark and the cousins will be flying in from Denver; we'll meet in the airport or at the hotel. In Chai-time, that means it's time to start packing!

Looks like a quiet weekend coming up. K and I were going to go visit R on Sunday, but she has plans, but she may drop by briefly tomorrow. The Sibs brought back her eldest's newest CD, a collection of children's songs, which is a little scary coming from him, but I'll try to listen tomorrow while I'm out and about doing errands in the morning. We're expecting temps close to 90 tomorrow and Sunday -- !!!!!!!!! Astonishing for April.


I'm going to Disney World!

It's Friday.

watching FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2032
READING: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Excuuuuuse Me

I really thought I had posted on Saturday, and was surprised just now to see that I didn't. The memory is going, going.

As is the hearing, since I had to take my hearing aids in for repair. A little piece chipped off the left one, and since that was going in, and my warranty expires next month, I asked them to take apart the right one and get rid of the battery that got stuck in there some months back and that rattles around a little when I bend my head down. They'll also let me know about extending the warranty, because anything that costs that much ought to last more than two years, and I know they'll die the day after the warranty expires, and new hearing aids aren't in my budget at the moment.

So my world is a little quieter for the next week or so. Too bad there's a retirees' dinner on Thursday; I guess I'll just listen to whomever is sitting next to me.

We had some nasty cold rain yesterday, but today is surprisingly pleasant. (It was supposed to rain all week.) You just don't want to leave the house in that kind of weather.

The Sibs is coming home from California late tonight, yay! We should be able to go book the Disney trip Friday afternoon, or Saturday. The dates are all worked out, since it turns out that the Sibs' commitment and the Cousin's are both at the same time, so that leaves a a good week to work with. Even so, I won't believe it until I see it. I won't even start to pack until I know that we're really going, and that's taking will power.

I did remember to jot down three smiley things today, which follow, along with a picture. That little signature area down there is getting to be longer than my actual entries.



Seeing Mary and Sue (two teachers), who are buddies, greet each other in the morning, which made me think of E and the Chum, and I smiled, remembering, instead of being bummed because my besties aren't here anymore.
I came into the library from the hallway and saw the line-up of kid-friendly books on top of the first bookstack.

Leaning over to put something away at the side of my desk, my face came right up close to the picture of my parents I have framed there.

watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2031
READING: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It was just a perfect day today. Temp in the low seventies, bright sunshine. My car was ready to picked up at the service station early, by 10:30, so I walked over to get it. A lovely walk, although I should have put on the knee brace before I went, since my knee is in that not-behaving mode it goes into sometimes, but this was a flat walk, no hills, so I was okay.

I did some errands here and there, some cleaning here and there, finished a book. Listened to some music.

A few years back, when Oprah started her whole gratitude journal thing, I tried to do that, to list three things I was grateful for at the end of every day, but I couldn't get it. For one, being grateful, unless it's to someone specific, doesn't ring true for me. For another, I would just end up being grateful for the same things day after day: my children, things like that.

But this smiling thing that the therapist put me onto works out very well for me. For awhile now, I've been putting the smiley faces at the end of my entry as a kind of marker for me of how smiley a day I had. I'm going to try to add a reason for the smiles, if I can. Not that I have to, certainly, maybe more as a diary-like reminder that I can look back on and remember what made me smile on any given day. Today was a good smiley day but I can only remember one particular thing that I smiled about, so I guess it's one of those things that I have to train myself to do.

Speaking of which, I must also get myself into a good eye-care routine every night, which I almost never remember to do. Maybe I can make it a post an entry-why I smiled-eye care routine thing. Uh, yeah. I'll let you know how that works out for me.

As for now, I'm going to finish the entry and seriously do my eye wash and eye drops and stuff and then see if I can get into a new book (which I think I may have already read once.)

My car was ready way earlier than I expected to be.


watching TWO AND A HALF MEN :: ENTRY #2030
READING: Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene

Back To My Regularly Scheduled Life

Thanks to all of you for your comments on my last few entries. It was not my intent to make fun of my cousin; you know that's just how I speak, and write. It's mostly just hard to know what to make of her. But I know we'll enjoy the time in DW, assuming nothing comes up that makes us unable to go. I like knowing that we're going to be expanding her little world a bit.

It was a beautiful day today, and tomorrow is supposed to be outstanding, over 70 degrees. And then rain, and then back to work on Monday.

I got a haircut today, and asked to have it styled curly to see what it looks like. I'm not posting a picture, because it looks pretty much like the cat lady on The Simpsons. And with lots and lots of product in it, so a shampoo is my first order of business tomorrow. Also, I have no car tomorrow since mine is in for service, so I guess it's chores around the house for me.

I really have gotten a lot done this week. Most of all, I got software and a little scanner that scans and saves receipts, and reads them and puts them into categories and such, and I have shredded all the originals, so I am not drowning in paper for, like, the first time ever. I got a better desk organizer, so my desk is very neat. I haven't read much, only this YA (Young Adult) novel I'm working on, which is cute. And looking more and more into the Disney trip.

I remembered today that I have concerns about flying regarding the Crohn's. I actually remembered yesterday, when I read a news article about a man who was arrested on a Delta flight because he was insistent that he had an emergency and had to get to the bathroom. (Of course, there was a bit more to it than that.) But this is my big flying fear, that I'm going to need to get to a bathroom and they won't let me go. So I ordered a kind of medical alert bracelet, which I only intend to wear when I fly, and not all the time.

I may have finally slept like a normal person last night. Even so, I slept until nine this morning, when the phone rang, a wrong number that thought we were a fax machine. I got the same wrong number twice again during the day. There's a trend I hope doesn't continue.

My sister is in California, and called me the other night at about 11:45 pm because she got the time difference mixed up. I was awake, so all I did was laugh, because I would probably do the same thing.

And now I'm getting sleepy, not that it means anything.





waiting for PARKS AND RECREATION :: ENTRY #2029
READING: Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Ironic

I reeeaally, reeeaally want to put on my jammies and climb under the covers, but it's light out, and I can't quite bring myself to do it yet. The ironic part is that I remember clear as a bell those summer evenings when Shirl would pack my into my little seersucker jammies and force me to get into bed even though it was light outside and I could still hear all my friends playing out there. And I wonder where the insomnia came from. (And those seersucker jammies were the suck, btw. I've always been very sensitive to the texture and fit of the clothes I wear; why would she think I could sleep in that scratchy, stiff seersucker?)

The news of the day actually is that I kept myself awake all day at work despite the hour of sleep I got last night. The key, apparently, is to be busy. I was very busy all day and kept myself that way, since the big fear was that I would hit a lull and nod off. I even managed a quick trip to Barnes and Noble after school to get some books that a teacher cleverly put on a required reading list but neglected to mention to me ahead of time.

I want spring. I saw buds on the trees at the ILS' yesterday (about an hour and a half south), but we don't have any yet, just the crocuses and such so far. No forsythia bursting yellow everywhere. And still damn cold in the mornings, although light now when I leave a little after 6:30. (I've become addicted to McDonald's coffee, and the drive-in window is the icing on the cake. Ooh. I could go for some cake.)

R is basically moved to the new place, except for the big furniture and a few random things, which are moving on Saturday. She brought the cat to the new place Friday, which I guess is the indicator of where she's living. I'm told that my grandcat is very happy in her new location, more rooms to explore, and happy to be with her people there.

It may be dark enough by 7:30 for me to respectably call it bedtime. One can only hope.


FRIENDS :: ENTRY #2013
READING: Fool by Christopher Moore

WEEKEND!

We had freaking SNOW this morning, nothing sticking, but a real heavy flurry that was not welcomed by anyone. It turned sunny later in the afternoon, and I think is supposed to go up to the fifties for the weekend. Looks like a good one. We will be spending Sunday on the Garden State Parkway and with the ILs, for the MIL's 80th birthday, which is actually tomorrow.

The retirees' dinner I went to last night was SO MUCH FUN. (I'm all about the capitals today, apparently.) I'm told it was one of their smaller dinners, only about fifteen people, but it was so wonderful to see happy, familiar faces who were happy to see me, and to get caught up. The drive there and back in the car with E, was, as expected, also wonderful. I can really, really tell her anything, and vice versa.

I got home around 10:30, which might as well have been three a.m. I did sleep after, but I was incredibly tired all day. I went for a pedi with the Sibs after school and almost fell asleep in the chair, and did sleep for two hours after I got home. Now I'm just hungry; my leftovers from last night, although delish, were not filling. I'm thinking about going out for ice cream, but I already have my slippers on, so I'm pretty much done for the day.

Not so much enjoying the book I'm reading, but it's a teen thing and I'm going to try to finish it. I've got a few more lined up, which I'd rather be reading. I may *sigh* try some Toni Morrison again. So far, I just don't see what all the fuss is about.



FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2011
READING: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray