A Room Wish List

Kathy over at The Junk Drawer http://www.junkdrawerblog.com/ often has me in stitches. Today she wrote about houses and it got me to thinking of the perfect house for me.

I would have rooms for:

1. one room completely dedicated to wrapping presents/gifts, with organized hanging sheets of colored tissue paper, bags of assorted sizes hung on nails, by occasion of course, a ribbon holder similar to a thread spool holder, scissors attached to heavy chain (so they couldn't run off and be used for other things by other people!!!)

2. a library - I am in desparate need of one - we have books in EVERY room in the house. Of course the library would have to have one of those chase loungers (settee?? - I don't know exactly what they are called) and a fire place, lots of sunlight, and my favorite blanket

3. a crafting room with all the different crafts stored neatly in their rubbermaid boxes and a super large table for getting it all out and leaving it whenever I felt like (of course this room must come with a lock on the door so no one else could see it)

4. a room large enough for ballet/karate with exercise equipment to make it look pretty (hehe) - and a whole wall of mirrors so I can see how stupid I REALLY look

5. a really good acoustic room for music, again, with LOTS of chairs

6. a greenhouse room, to keep indoor plants and me alive during the cold dreary winter months

7. a room lined with shelves for shoes, organized by color, then heel height - wouldn't that just be dreamy???

So honey, get the hammer and saw and get building! HA!

Live a Little

Last night, after 4 months of kind and patient emails, I met up with a few people I had gone to college with. VERY uncharacterstic for me. I love being home and hate being away from hubby. (I even invited him to come along)

I was a bit nervous - but it was so fabulous! We laughed and chatted about now, what we do, and about then, what we did! OMG! We remembered places and people. When I left, I felt very young again. We hadn't seen each other in almost 20 years.

The personalities were still the same. The fun, the silliness. I am so glad I went.

Yesterday morning I wondered why I had agreed to go. I didn't know and didn't have an answer for my hubby. Why would I want to see people I hadn't seen in so long? Today I still don't have an answer, but have a refresher of that part of my life (which is actuallly kinda hazy anyway- it WAS college!)

And besides, it felt good to get out of my routine and stretch myself. And remember myself.

What REALLY Happened

Okay, so this morning was NOT my problem. I was up - about a billion times last night. Couldn't sleep. I'll tell you why.

My loving, grieving husband invited my dog's spirit in the house after he died (the dog). (Where else would he go? Dogs aren't in heaven so I've been told.)

So last night was my first night in the house alone. With the ghost dog.

He huffed, and sniffed and tap, tap tapped on the floor.

Needless to say, I was scared s word less (see previous post).

I was GLAD to go to work today. (which I always am, but I am also a homebody and love being at home piddling)

So now I know we gotta fix the fan on the furnace, need to get some limbs away from the house, and ask the neighbor NOT to start his weed eater after dark. But in the dark, things can sound awfully different.

I told everyone at work about my harrowing night. As I left, I explained that if I didn't show up to work tomorrow, it meant I died of fright. So at least now I have a good reason to be late to work tomorrow besides "I had to make my lunch AND the coffee."

A Bunch of Tidbits

Of course, in list form.

1. I have to make my own coffee tomorrow and pack my own lunch. I have to get myself out of bed on my own. I'm just so not good at these things.

2. Tomorrow one of my pictures, along with a prompt, will be at this site for creative writing. I'm excited and nervous. I don't even know what picture it will be! I will check it in the morning to see if I can use it with my students. You can check it too :)

3. I am knee deep in writing a book, and loving every minute of it. I love my characters, I love the story. It's why I have been so "absent" from here lately.

4. I am teaching about poetry to my students. I am tired of hearing about puppies and rainbows. They (not the puppies, the students) are banned from writing acrostic poems. I told them that poems didn't have to be "pretty." They could be ugly, painful, and nasty. One of the kids pipes up, "Can we say blood?" I said, "No" and someone cut me off, saying, "It still has to be appropriate." And I continued, "Yes, appropriate." Another little guy, Mr. Perfect Student, adds, "Yeah, you just can't use the s word or the f word." Well, what do I say to that???? I just said, "Yes. Right."

So, in honor of my Mr. Perfect Student, I will write a poem about what I HOPE doesn't happen tomorrow morning.

S word! No alarm?
It was set. On.
AM? PM! F WORD!
S word of a B word -
Run. Faster. Yep, clean there, move on.
A 3 car accident? I'll never make it.
F wording S word! Where's my F wording coffee?
I'm guessing that isn't blood running down the windshield.

Things You Don't Want to Hear

Things you don't want to hear your date say

That's the topic of the blog today, largely due to last night being "date night" for hubby and I. I set aside one weekend each month and then he picks the night for our "date." He has my complete and undivided attention (which is actually pretty hard for me because of the whole attention thing).

So last night, for date night, we decided to get the ACDC rockband CD and play all night long. (Yeah, easy, cheap date, but we knew we would have fun)

After one particularly difficult song on the drums, I commented, "That got me sweating."

Of course, hubby came back with the sarcastic line, "That's what you want to hear from a date. Very romantic." We had a great laugh, and then I got to thinking what else you wouldn't want to hear from your date.

1. Watch my scab. Careful.
2. I had a spider in my ear once.
3. Can you do this with your toes?
4. Do you smell that?
5. I need to shave my back.

Okay - add to it folks :)

A Real Pain in the Eyes

I'm here today to talk about my eyes. I'm getting ready to go crazy.

Off and on for the last three weeks I have been coughing. Ok. Fine. I can deal with it. But what I absolutely cannot deal with is stuff coming out my eyes that looks like it should be coming out my nose. It's so attractive in the morning.

Now I have a new symptom. The evil red eyes. I had them one day about a week and half ago. They were REALLY bad, but they didn't bother me.

Today, well, I'll make a list of all the things that they felt like all day long.

1. Someone splashed fingernail polish remover in them.

2. I ran through cedar trees with my eyes open (yep, did that one in real life so have something to compare it to)

3. Every time I blinked, someone who thought they were funny, rubbed sandpaper on my eyeballs.

4. Like I opened the little pop up lid of the toilet cleaner and it spouted into my eye at 2 in the morning (yep, that happened in real life too, and the memory is pretty vivid)

5. The cat tried to claw my eyes out while I was sleeping (I don't own a cat)

6. Like I swam 5 miles underwater in a heavy cholorinated pool, being pushed by a motor boat going 60 mph.

7. After staring at the sun for 11 hours, the eclipse finally happened.

8. The mascara I have had bacteria in it and it is eating my eyelids away (another true one, although my eyelids stayed intact) (And no, I just bought new mascara about a month ago.)

I'm getting ready to go pirate. Arg. Where's me patch?

And yes, they really hurt that bad. How will I read about Bella and Edward tonight before I go to sleep?

A Teacher Who Doesn't Teach

That was me today. What a messed up day.

I had a meeting at 8 am (30 minutes before school starts) that lasted until 9:20. I got back to my room just in time to take the kids to library and drop them off for another 30 minutes. They came back in at 10 and for a wonderfully glorious 30 minutes, I got to teach. I read to them and we talked about the story and they wrote about it.

At 10:30, all but 4 of my students left to go to violin. They returned at 11:20. We continued to talk about the book and I gave them some time to read their own reading books ( and they are reading some really good ones - historical fiction :)

At 11:55, I took them to lunch and then picked them up at 12:25. At 12:30 we headed off to an afternoon presentation about bullying. It lasted until 2:45, and I don't even know how it went because at 2, I had to leave for another meeting and didn't get out until 3:30. (30 minutes after school ended)

I hate days like this. I LOVE teaching, not meetings. And I have to say, I am pretty selfish. I want to teach my own students, not let other people teach them. It's almost like I didn't even see them today :(

Do I think that everything they did is important? Yes. But that isn't the point. The point is, well, I guess I need to go back to kindergarten and learn how to share.