A Reason to Smile

Okay, maybe it's just me (and my coworkers), but we are all smiling now that our four nights of conferences are over! WOO HOO!!!!!! No more 13 hour days until the Spring!

I'm in the mood to see some plays and take in some live music. Am I finally resurfacing from the chaos of the beginning of the school year? Oh, please say it's so!

Movie of the Day: Away We Go. Such an endearing movie. I want to be friends with this couple, well, one of their sane friends, at least.

Oh, I Get It!

I went to a training for three days this week and while it was tough to be out of school that long (I dealt with it better than the kids), I learned a lot. One thing that our presenter talked about was the Zeigarnik Effect. It's the phenomena when you can't quite remember something and then it suddenly comes to you. Your brain works on it "behind the scenes" until it figures out what you were forgetting. That takes energy that you might not know you're spending.

Well, I had a moment this week when many of my stressors suddenly made sense. "Oh, I get it!" All at once, so many things clicked. The sad thing is that it took me a LONG time to figure it out and quite a bit of energy. What a relief! I'm being deliberately vague, but if you want more details, I'll tell you individually.

Movie of the Day: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Civic Stuff

I just heard of an interesting seminar that I can't go to because of conferences, but wanted to let people know about: Being Web Wise: Helping Keep Kids Safe in the Internet Age. It's a seminar from 6 - 8 PM on Thursday, October 29th at the Inn on Lake Superior. You have to be 18 + to attend because of the appropriateness of the content. The presenters are Detective Thomas Champaigne and Sergeant Nicholas Alexander. It looks really good.

Also, if anyone would like me to give them my opinions about who to vote for in the school board election, let me know. I was at a forum this summer and interviewed the candidates that attended.

Movie of the Day: The Net.

One Good Thing

Well, one good thing about having so much homework every night is that a night of conferences didn't seem out of the ordinary. Usually, I'm dragging after each night of working a 12 hour day, but this morning feels like any other day. Weird.

We have Friday off for MEA which really means they compensate us for working conferences. I am super pumped and looking for ideas of how to spend my day off.

Some options:

SLEEP
massage
make jewelry
go to a museum or two
read for fun!
go to a movie
teach my friend Kim how to Skype and then talk to her and her sweet sons (Kim, are you reading this!?!?!)

Anyone else on Skype?

Movie of the Day: My Life in Ruins. Funny, funny movie. Motivating me to plan my trip to Europe!

Fortune Cookies

I brought fortune cookies to a potluck on Wednesday and they had really cheesy fortunes. I think the boxes should have categories: Cruel, Silly, Gross, etc. Use your imagination.

A few I've thought of this morning:

Watch your back.

You will have a booger incident in the next three days.

You and chopsticks will never mix.

Your car is about to run out of gas.

Duck!



Any more you would add?

Movie of the Day: Only You. She went to a fortune teller and then quite a trip.

Bewitched

Remember the show Bewitched? I'm sure I've discussed it before, but I'm back to wishing I could wiggle my nose and freeze time for everyone else. Just for about 15 minutes a few times a day so I could catch my breath, run to the school office, do a little meditation, and then hop back into the fray. Is that so much to ask?

I was also thinking about Napping Centers. Not hotels where you stay all night and have a TV, etc. Just a clean, safe environment to get a quick nap. I wonder what would be a reasonable price to charge.

Movie of the Day: Point Break. In honor of Patrick Swayze. I could use a break. Maybe not a breaking wave...maybe that's what this feels like....

Do You Hear the Bells?

Wedding bells are in the air. My friends M & S are getting married today at Gooseberry Falls. It looks like it's going to be lovely weather and a great day! I hope things go off WITH a hitch.

Congratulations, M & S!

Movie of the Day: The Proposal

Energy Rollercoaster

I have been riding the energy rollercoaster this week. I'm rested. I'm comatose. I'm hyper. I'm accidentally falling asleep on my couch for 2.5 hours. Last night, I had a "Third Wind" and cleaned my kitchen at 9 PM. What the heck?

Today, I woke up wide awake at 6:15 AM and walked 2 miles on my treadmill. One hour later, I'm ready for a nap. I hope things even out soon or I'm going to get whiplash.

Movie of the Day: Adventureland. Theme park. Not for everyone.

Oh, boy!

Well, it's the final evening of my summer and, of course, the weather is lovely. I have a workshop all day tomorrow and then I'll hit the ground running on Wednesday to finish up all of my prepping. I might sneak in a little work tonight, just to get a bit ahead.

I'm envious of the kids who have just a few more days of vacation. When I was a kid, our youth group leader took us to Valley Fair the Saturday after school started. It was perfect because I could survive two days of school, knowing the fun was right around the corner.

Maybe I should gather up some friends and go!

Movie of the Day: The Reader. Intense.

Snakker du norsk?

I've decided I want to learn Norwegian. I took a community ed class in 1999 and then let it fade away. Now, I'm excited to pick it up again.

Quite a few words are the same or close, which is convenient!

Anyone out there "snakker du norsk?"

Movie of the Day: Kitchen Stories. Swedish scientists observing the cooking habits of Norwegian bachelors. Subtitles.

Warm

So, it's a wee bit warm out lately and I'm ready for some cooler temperatures. There is a reason I live here: it's cold or cool most of the time! I did some digging/hauling/dumping of clay (aka "my yard") today and it doesn't matter how breezy it is, it's still nasty out. My dad came over at 6:54 AM to start our last day of digging and it wasn't SOOOO hot. Luckily, we were done before it really heated up outside.

Do I need to move farther North? Become a snowbird who flies "south" to Duluth for the winter? Weird.

Movie of the Day: I've actually seen quite a few lately. (They have air conditioning and I do not.) Julie and Julia, Aliens in the Attic, and (500) Days of Summer. 500 was my favorite, but J & J was good too. Aliens had it's moments: Ninja kicks from Doris Roberts (the grandma on Everybody Loves Raymond) and a rotary phone (raise your hand if you remember those).

Two in One Evening!

If you scroll down a bit, you will notice my list of things I'd like to try. Tonight, I went kayaking AND geocaching!!!!!! Both were great!

The kayaking was a Wednesday Women's Kayaking on Fredenberg Lake. There was a little training and then we just paddled around the lake. So beautiful and relaxing. We saw two adult loons and two baby loons.

Then, on the way home, we looked for AND found a geocache. It was in the woods off of a gravel road. Very interesting. I was with experienced geocachers, so that helped. Now, I'll need to see if I can borrow my folks' GPS equipment. Very cool.

Time to try rock climbing....

Movie of the Day: Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Silly. Funny. Sometimes it's okay to check your brain at the door. He drives a Segway. I should try one of those too!

Grrr.....

So, I have a few magazines that arrive at my home periodically. During the school year, I will breeze through the stack and rip out articles that I would like to read at a later date. Just now, I had the second incident of only ripping out half of the article! Grrr...I hope I can find the second halves online later. That'll teach me!

Movie of the Day: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. They worked for a magazine.

To Do List- Scribble Scribble

I'm having one of those weeks where you accomplish a lot of things on your To Do list. You know what I mean.

To Do
Call to make doctor appointment
get hair cut
exchange some purchases
go to library
call _____, _____, & _______

It's a good feeling. There are things that I've been meaning to try for years. Things that don't necessarily get on a To Do list: try geocaching, try kayaking, try rock-climbing, hunt for agates.

Yesterday, I went agate hunting and found 20. Yes, 20. In a brief amount of time. If you want in on any of the "Things to Try" activities, let me know.

Movie of the Day: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. SOOOOOOOOO good.

Livin' the High Life

Here are a few photos from the Becca Lift. I'm sorry some of them are blurry. It was windy that day. Swaying.....Swaying....



Nice purple plant (neighbor's).

The upper window was the room I shared with One in a Million Saras.

Need a Lift?

My folks are painting their house this week and their wonderful daughters are helping them. My dad isn't allowed to use a ladder any more (he's not allowed to fall). So, Sara joked about renting a "man lift" for the project. Well, my dad jumped at the idea and suddenly there is heavy equipment in their yard.

So, we started calling it the Chick Lift. Then, since it made Sara sick to be up there, I've started calling it the Becca Lift. Yes, that's right. I'm up there the whole time. Driving the little bucket thing and painting in the sky. And yes, I'm the one who freaks out walking down the stairs at Dewitt-Seitz because you can see through on the vertical parts of each step.

Any way, it's great fun. I'm getting proficient at maneuvering the bucket and only hit the house once (just a little dirt smudge on a part I needed to paint any way).

If you're in town and wanna check it out, stop on over.

Movie of the Day: Knowing. I liked it. Everyone else in the room didn't. (Two other people) There were lots of numbers and puzzles, but some creepy stuff too.

Weird

A few years ago, I signed up to sponsor a kid in Haiti. When I got the material, it was anti-gay and that really didn't sit well with me. It said that the family pictures could not depict a gay couple and had to support "Christian" beliefs. Well, I couldn't decide what to do. Do I quit and not let this kid go to school, get books, etc. or do I "let it go."

Well, a few months ago, they upped the monthly price again (a second time). I was horrible about writing her letters (worse than my driest blogging spell), and since she's "in" the program once she really started and it was still bugging me about their hate tactics, I decided to cancel my sponsorship. It was remarkably easy and they didn't ask why. I should have told them that I can afford the $38 a month (up from $32 recently and like $28 when I started), but didn't like their philosophy.

Since then, I have gotten multiple mailings as if I'm still a sponsor and then yesterday, received a letter saying my sponsored kid was dropped from the program for non-participation. WHAT?!?! The letter was written in April. So, where did May and June's money go? Grrr.... So, now I don't feel bad at all about stopping except now I'm worried about the kid. Now, I feel compelled to write. Weird. I guess I pray for her and hope she's okay.

Art Day

I've decided to give myself a day to futz around with some of my art supplies and see what happens. Mainly it means I flit from one thing to another and nothing actually gets done.

However..... for months I've had a project in mind that involves using a coconut shell (auditions for Monty Python?). This meant buying a coconut and figuring out how to open it. So, the coconut sat and sat and then, finally I decided today was the day.

I went to YouTube to see what to do. I tried what the dude did. Didn't work. Maybe my knife was too small? Any way, I switched to a hammer, but my hammer is old and the head likes to fall off. So, I had to be careful not to whack more than just the coconut. Then, a chunk flew up at my eye. Not good. There might be a bruise tomorrow. I made a hole, but it wasn't splitting like the video guy's example.

I needed better tools. So, I headed to the garage and finally won the Becca vs. Coconut battle. The innards were not-so-fresh, so I left them for stray animals and then tried to get the shell into pieces (by smashing it with my hammer).

The process would make a good tension reliever, with the proper safety gear.

Now to clean the hammer and work with the shell....

Movie of the Day: Beaches.

Inspiration

One of my earliest friends was instant messaging me this evening and has inspired me to blog. It was essentially like she was saying "hop to it." She also gave me some topics to pursue. However, this evening, my brain is too wonky and tired to focus on one topic, so I shall give you some random snippets and think more clearly at another point in the near future.

So, let the randomness begin:

1) What's with the Chicken Dance at wedding receptions? Is it just that anyone who doesn't even like to dance will do it? (Think Becca).

2) Why are directions from internet sites so wrong sometimes? I was 40 minutes late for the Chicken Dance event because of my directions. Okay, I was only 30 minutes late because of them, the rest was my fault, but still....

3) What's a good thing to do when there are couples' dances and you're there alone? Hit the washroom, pretend to look at the art on the wall (that's what I did)? Suggestions?

4) Why is my desk at school spotless and my desk at home looks like an aisle from Target exploded on it?

5) Why am I addicted to Cherry Coke Zero?

6) What's the best way to encourage a friend to write a book when they have a good idea for one?

7) My neighbor is trying to sell her house, but I don't want her to leave. Do you think it would be evil to add a couple marks to the "handouts" on the sign and make it look like she wants $80,000 more than she really wants???? (I wouldn't do it, but I have thought of chasing some people away. Tee hee.)

8) Eight (8) is a nice number because it's 2 cubed (2 x 2 x 2) and it's a good age, too.

Movie of the Day: The Hangover. Saw it Friday night. Dumb humor. Funny, but dumb.

Stuff

I have too much stuff. So, in an effort to lighten my "load," I'm going through cabinets, closets, and shelves. This is Round 1. I think Round 2 will be more cutthroat, but for now I just want to get rid of some things that I KNOW I don't use.

There have been some surprises too! I found a little coffee pot that I forgot I had. All the people who had to drink instant coffee at my house, I'm sorry! I've also found quite a few new journals. Now, I used to write in journals every day for years, but stopped for some reason a few years ago. Is it my subconscious trying to tell me to pick up the pen again? Maybe. Or, am I a compulsive journal collector?

I'm going to visit some college friends (and other good friends) in a couple of weeks, so they will be getting a few random things too. I don't plan to dump all my junk on them or they'll never invite me back! T, don't worry, it's mostly kid stuff.

Movie of the Week: The Proposal. Saw it last night. Good movie! Very sweet and funny.