Early, Even For Me

I'm awake and ready for the day ridiculously early. This means I was wide awake at 4:30, ready to attack the day. I have to WAIT to eat breakfast simply so I'm not crabby with hunger by 9:00. It's silly.

I'm excited to start my long weekend. I decided to take tomorrow off from work and I'm finding that a two-day work week is really quite manageable! I wonder if I could live off 40% of my income?

Any way, it's glorious and I'm excited to get the relaxing started!

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving (or weekend if you are reading this outside of the US).

Movie of the Day: Dream For an Insomniac

A Poem

I ran across a poem that I wrote. I'm not sure when it was written.

A Prayer

May you find kindness and love.
May you be safe and warm.
May you find home, laughter, and joy.
May you find someone to share your sorrow
and someone to lift you up.
May you find peace within your heart
and light within your soul.

I'm a Slug

I have down time tonight and dreams of mustering up the energy to clean my house. In reality, all I want to do is curl up with my book and try to fight my adult-onset ADD. Can I read more than 5 pages in one sitting? I'm not sure.

I'll go give it a try.

Movie of the Day: Herbie the Love Bug. Slug Bug White!

Stream of Consciousness: Let It Flow

It's Tuesday. It's dark out way too early for my taste. My driveway is like semi-set cement and my cute decorative flag ripped off my garage this weekend in the wind. Tore the holder off too. Sheesh. It's like the wind doesn't want any fun. Yesterday, I drove behind a truck that had two American flags on sticks attached to the windows. All I could think of was the drag and how much gas they would save by taking them down. No offense, Flag. I'm in the mood to make jewelry, but I'm antsy too. Then, I feel groggy and like "Hey, maybe 8:00 is an acceptable bedtime." I'm starting to act old or 4. Oy. I have some plants in my livingroom that are getting out of control! They're snaking along the carpet and having a grand ol' time. I suppose the people with green thumbs would suggest splitting them and getting bigger pots and such so they can propagate even more. Might be good. I glanced at an article in Sunday's paper about having plants at work to help with the air quality. I've had plants at school before. I wonder if the kids would leave them alone. Maybe. They don't seem to mess with much this year, though I have gotten rid of some of the distractions: cartoon calendars and the cd player, to be specific. How much fun can they really have with a plant? Well, a legal plant.

Movie of the Day: High School Musical 3. Cheesy goodness. The previews made me laugh out loud.

Uber Fun on a Sunday

I spent the evening with my friends L, G, Goofy Boy, and Wee One. They were in town for a little R & R before L goes back to work in a week.

It's amazing how a person can be friends with someone for 24 years (Crap, that makes me feel old) and maybe not see them for years and years, but just fall right back into place like it's been a week since the two of you hung out. It's very, very nice.

We laughed. We giggled. We gossiped. We remembered lots of random stuff from junior high and even some stuff that I forgot about. G wanted to know what L said about him when they started dating in 1989. Unfortunately, I don't remember much beyond the general drama of it all.

Now, they have Goofy Boy and Wee One, both delightful young men.

Movie of the Day: The Edge. A creepy movie. A nice hotel water park.

Linger

It's raining and really all I want to do is curl up with a book, a movie, a blanket, and some loved ones. It's the perfect day to hunker down, to gather in the warmth and linger.

Argh

Raise your hand if you're stressed out. I've been the kid in the back waving her hand vigorously for weeks now and I finally couldn't take it any more yesterday. Things at work are overwhelming. The election, the economy, the weather are looming. Luckily, things with my family and friends are good, or I'd be in the loonie bin for sure.

On a lighter note, here's a shout-out to little Baby M, who was nearly born in my livingroom last week! M and her mom L are going great!

Movie of the Day: Water.

Mix Tape

Remember mix tapes? For the young ones out there, it's like a mix cd only on a tape cassette. Instead of drag-clicking a playlist and burning the cd, you sit and switch either tapes or cds for each song and then wait while it plays and records. You have to plan the songs so you don't run out of time on one side before the song finishes. It's a serious labor of love.

I ran across a mix tape that my friend K made for me in December of 1991. I know she reads this blog, so I'd like to thank her and find out if she remembers it. For everyone else, count up how many of the following songs you know and feel free to drop a comment....

"Tape for Becca Dec. - 1991 'A Collective Accumulation of Classics' - Love K..

Side A

Tocata and Fuge in Dm- J.S. Bach
Up the Ladder to the Roof- The Nylons
The Obvious Child- Paul Simon
Under the Sea-The Little Mermaid (Sebastian)
Donna- Ritchie Valens
From a Distance- Bette Midler
Feelin' Groovy- Simon & Garfunkel
The Sound of Silence- S & G
Juke Box Hero- Foreigner
Ballads + Blues- George Winston
Loud/Soft- Bert (Sesame Street)

Side B

"W" Lovers- Bert again
Mack the Knife- Louis Armstrong
Penniwhistle Jig- Jamse Galway
Otto Titsling- Bette Midler
Hotel California- Eagles
Piano Man- Billy Joel
Duelin' Banjos- James Galway
Bert's Girlfriend- Bert (SS)
Bop `Til You Drop- The Nylons
Sabre Dance- James Galway
The Friendship Theme (From Beaches)

Nice mix, eh?

Movie of the Day: Made of Honor. Fluffy, but okay.

Community Ed Classes

Okay, I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. Let's blame school starting, shall we?

Every Fall, I look forward to getting the Community Ed Classes flier in the newspaper. Over the years, I've taken quite a few classes: Joy of Soy, self-defence, photography, Norwegian, and even bellydancing. I haven't seen any in recent years that have just jumped out at me and made me want to rearrange my life to attend. So, I've decided to create a dream list of classes that I would enjoy:

Classes Becca Would Like To Attend Through Community Ed.
How to Introduce Yourself to a Neighbor Six Years After Becoming Neighbors.
How to Get Your Contractor to Do His/Her Job.
How to Cook Without Getting Injured.
How to Map Routes Through Duluth to Optimize Gas Usage.
How to Stop Drinking Pop: You Can Do It! Or Not Do It!
How to Find Organic Fair Trade Clothing That You Can Try On Before Buying.
How to Make World Peace a Reality.

Yep, that's my list. Now, I know I've been AWOL blogging. Please forgive me. What Classes would YOU like to see offered through Community Ed?

Movie of the Day: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I didn't think this movie would hit me just as deeply as it did. I really liked it!

Here We Go

Yesterday was the first official day back for teachers. It's a time for staff development, catching up with friends, hauling books from the bookroom to my room (on whatever cart I can find), and pretty much trying to get as much squared away as possible.

Today, we have a two hour staff meeting at 10, with room prep before and afterwards. Some years, it's enough time and other years I'm scrambling to finish things up as the kids are coming in the door on Thursday morning. This year, I think I'll be okay.

Movie of the Day: What Happens in Vegas. It's silly and doesn't have a lot to do with Vegas and more to do with learning to get along with people.

One Minor Step

The foundation of my house needs redoing, as I may have mentioned in JUNE. It has yet to get started, except that an electrician has moved my powerline to a better entry spot. That's it.

My theory is that the contractor will want to start on the first day of school, because that will add just the right amount of stress to land me in a padded room.

Movie of the Day: Persepolis. A grown up cartoon. It's in French with subtitles. Be able to read quickly. It's about a girl growing up in Iran. It's very good!

Okay, Okay. I Won't Travel.

You may recall that I was whining about not getting out of town much this summer. It's true. After blogging, I thought of one trip to the Cities in June and then did make a day trip to Little Fork, MN.

Then, planning as all good planners do, I plotted out a nice little two-day trip to Mankato and the surrounding region starting tomorrow. Nothing too wild, but at least a little bit of a trip.

All of that is tossed out the window. Why? Why would Becca cancel her chance to see new horizons? Pneumonia! Yes, that's right. I have pneumonia. Crazy, huh? My highest fever went up to 104.6, but has broken now. Whew. I spent Monday afternoon in the Emergency Room getting poked and prodded. I was so sick that I didn't even bother showering before going there (it's significant). Yesterday, I realized I hadn't brushed my teeth in over two days.

It's been a rough week. Luckily, I'm on the upswing.

Movie of the Day: Wit. Very good. Sad. Funny. Kept running through my head as I sat in the hospital.

Clean Drugs

In an effort to sort out some of the junk in my house, I decided to take advantage of the up-coming "Drug Recycling Event" that WLSSD is putting on next week. They are collecting and disposing of old medications instead of letting people flush them, pour them down the sink, or throw them away!

When was the last time you cleaned out your medicine cabinet?

Movie of the Day: How to Deal. ha ha ha.

Hurricane Becca

I am in this bizarre mood to just cull out so much stuff at my house that I'm opening closets and drawers and then just pulling out stuff I don't want any more. Then, I leave it in the middle of the floor and keep moving on. I'm not doing it consciously, but the place is starting to look like a storm has been through the house.

I better go start clean-up efforts.

Movie of the Day: Dark Knight. It was very dark, but good. Not as violent as I feared, but still pretty bad.

Must Travel. Now.

Okay, I'm the last one to eagerly admit that school is starting soon. "Soon" is a relative term, I keep telling myself. If it were March and someone said, "I'm gonna give you 3.5 weeks off right now" I would do a happy dance. So, I should be thrilled to still have 3.5 weeks of vacation and not focus on all that will happen at the end of those 3.5 weeks, right? I mean, there's preparing, but not worrying....

Any way, I haven't done a very good job of getting my carcass out of Duluth this summer. I went an hour and a half away. Once. For an afternoon. That doesn't count for much.

Therefore, I am hoping to make a couple short trips around the state in my 3.5 weeks: 1) Twin Cities, or "The Cities," 2) Up North to see relatives, & 3) Mankato to see friends (and Belle Plaine, L.).

Any suggestions on what to see when I'm in any of these three places?

Movie of the Day: Nancy Drew. Very cute movie.

Books

I have recently been invited to join two "informal book clubs." Really, this means two friends thought about how much I like to read and would maybe like to get more books in the mail. These were chain letters. I'm not good at chain letters. I just never send them and used to get freaked out by the gloom and doom of what would happen if I didn't pass them along.

So, since I do like books and I do like my friends, I thought I would just give my friends six of my books. Yes, I have that many I can spare. I met one of them for dinner last week and it had been a couple months since I received her "club invitation" so I surprised her with a huge bag of books and asked her to give one of them to the one person I was supposed to send a book to (her coworker). Technically, she got more than six books, but I don't care.

It was liberating to get rid of some of the books that I've either read or don't think I'm going to read any time soon. Ah....

What else can I cull out?

Movie of the Day: Mamma Mia! Good, silly fun!

Vampires

I try to stay up on what the kids are watching, reading, and listening to these days. I don't watch horror movies and only like music whose lyrics are decipherable, but I try to know the names of things, what slang means, and read the books that seem interesting.

This year, I noticed that a wide variety of kids were reading Twilight. It's the first book of a f0ur-book series by Stephenie Meyer. It's about a teenage girl who moves to Washington and meets an interesting boy at school. He happens to be a vampire and she happens to smell delectable to him. Hmmmm.... It's a four-book series, so I'm guessing she doesn't bite it any time soon. (He doesn't bite her any time soon??? Tee hee.)

If you like vampires and chaste reading, check it out.

Movie of the Day: Wall-E. No vamires, just robots.

Summer

I've been thinking about my favorite Summertime activities. There are a lot of things I still need to do to feel like I've experienced "Summer."

Star-gazing
Eating lots of watermelon
A picnic on the shore
Gooseberry Falls
Walking the Boardwalk (I haven't done this yet this summer. What is wrong with me?)
Visiting Portland Malt Shoppe
Playing with sidewalk chalk and bubbles


There are other things that I'd like to try this Summer or try again this Summer.

Rock climbing (indoor for starters)
Kayaking
Biking (It's been so long, but I hear it's "like riding a bike")

I'm forgetting stuff. Help me out? What am I missing?

Movie of the Day: Touch the Sound. A woman goes deaf as a kid, but can still feel the vibrations of different percussion instruments and be able to tell the difference between the notes. The music is beautiful and haunting. It's maybe not something you would play at a dinner party, but definitely wonderful.

Bugs, Tar, and a Pale World

One of my friends has been talking about red food lately. Not a lot of food is bright red, at least not naturally. So, to make it so, people add dyes. The problem is you either go synthetic or natural. Synthetic is stuff like Red 40 and Red 3, which I guess involves tar. Natural really means bug parts.

I'm a vegetarian. Does that include bugs? I thought so, but it might be harder than I thought to avoid tar AND bugs.

I thought the best solution was to Boycott RED! But on further inspection, that is going to take a lot of work. It's in ice cream, popsicles, lipstick (I'll have to investigate further), and other random things that I hadn't thought of before devising a boycott. Oy.

Bugs or tar? Bugs or tar? I'm leaning towards bugs, I guess.

You?

Movie of the Day: Penelope. Sooooo cute. Lots of vibrant colors. Even red.

Podlet Podlet

When I was in college, I lived with 9 other girls with a total of 6 rooms around a common room. These living quarters were called "pods" and we called ourselves Podlets. (Go figure.) Any way, the 12 years since graduation has produced at least 14 kids (I've lost touch with a few podlets and I'm not sure just how many kids they have, sad but true.)

Our newest Podlet podlet is R., the son of J. Here are the cutest shoes ever that R. will get in the mail shortly.