Yo

Greetings, Salutations, and Happy New Year! How the heck are ya?

I survived the first day back at school. The kids were super excited to talk to each other and not so excited about radical expressions (the math not things like "DUDE!"). Oh well. We'll all get into the swing of things soon.

I saw two great movies in the theater in the past 3 days: Blindside and Sherlock Holmes. They have completely different "speeds" to them, but both were great.

Did any of you see any good movies?

A Field

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

~ Rumi

What if we all lived in this field?
Movie of the Day: Field of Dreams. tee hee.

In Honor of Winter Soltice

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Seriously?

I was at Michael's the craft store today with my mom. The checkout lines were very long. As I'm about it get in one line, I notice that there is another one that is only 2 people deep. I ask the person ahead of me if the other line is actually open. She says "Yes." I said, "You don't want it?" "No."

I go to the new line and proceed to wait as a woman is correcting an error on her receipt or whatever. I stand. I stand.

Then, the lady from the other line, walks by, done checking out. She stares at me and smirks with a "ha ha, that's why I didn't go in that line" kind of look on her face.

Now, she could have said "That line isn't moving." "That lady is taking a long time." "You're better off here." or whatever. No, she let me go to the other line. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! So, I decide to switch lines and notice that the next person is finally up in the "short" line. I also notice her basket is full of tiny stuff. Lots of tiny stuff. And, the aisle my mom and I switched to was now about to be empty. So, I went to the new lady behind the basket lady and told her that our line was about to be open. She gave me a huge smile and hopped to the other lane.

Whew. What's the reverse of paying it forward? Absorb, don't deflect? I don't know.

Karma, baby. Karma.

Movie of the Day: The Shop Around the Corner.

Inbox (1)

If you have an email account, you know that when you get a new email, a message appears somewhere on the screen that says "Inbox (1)." Every time I see that message, I get a rush of endorphins. Am I waiting for a specific email? Sometimes. Am I a little let down if it's some sort of "Your cellphone bill is ready online" type email? Yes. Usually, I'm happy enough just to see "Inbox (1)". I guess it's the little pleasures that we need to enjoy, right?

Thankful

What I'm Thankful For:

friends who are willing to let me ramble on and on about my life
family who connect me to the past and future
things that strike me funny JUST when I need a good laugh
little kids who like to give hugs
being able to take a trip to a warm place in February
vibrant colors
almond M & M's
sappy songs and silly songs
authors who write and feel like my new best friend
my house
students who push me to be a better teacher
quotations
fuzzy blankets
the public library
supportive coworkers
my covenant group

Movie of the Day: A Christmas Carol. I'm going today with friends. "God bless us, every one!"

One in a Million

It's my little sister's birthday today. For the next two weeks, her age looks like she's gaining on me. I remember standing at the top of the basement stairs when I was little (like 5?), trying to understand why her birthday came first even though I'M the oldest. I have no idea how my dad explained it or if he just tried to distract me. My grandma was nice and gave us both gifts for both birthdays (at least something little to open). That was sweet!

Movie of the Day: Two Weeks' Notice.

Wake Up!

I read some scary medical stuff this weekend and it's sort of snapped me awake. I need to make some changes in how I'm spending my time and what I'm shoveling into my mouth.

I feel like I'm in quicksand and I've finally grabbed a stable branch.

Movie of the Day: August Rush. We watched it at Movie Night last night and it's such a good movie.

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!