If You Don't Like Me, Then....What's Wrong With You?

Hello my loyal readers (all 2 of you).....


Busy, busy weekend here. I really thought that after my class was over this semester that I'd be a lot more relaxed. Didn't happen. I think that maybe I might be what people call "tightly wound" and pretty much I find stress in even the smallest of things. I say...not so people....if you don't believe me, buy me a gift certificate for a massage and I'll show you how to relax! But since I didn't do that, I did the next best thing---


Anyway....I had lots of fun this weekend. On Thursday night (not technically the weekend but it's my favorite week night) I watched Survivor and The Office. These are two of the best shows on TV. Survivor I just enjoy watching but not enough to buy the show on DVD. The Office....well, that's a different story. What's that you say? You don't watch The Office? Well....if you'd like to be my friend, I suggest you start watching this show immediately. Even if you don't really love it, you should at least be familiar with it and have a healthy respect for it, because if we hang out even a little, I'm going to be quoting it. But I digress....


Friday night, I went over to Shannon's house and spent some time with her and her family and some of their friends. I've had two of Shannon's kids (for two years each-back to back) so this is the first time in awhile that I've not had any of her kids. Demi and her family was there...I currently have one of her kids. So presh.....they really made me laugh.


On Saturday, I went to birthday party at the Sanderson Center pool for one of my students. She invited the entire class and Raelynn was real excited about swimming. I saw lots of students there and had a good time. One student did splash me on purpose though....I don't think he had any idea how I'd take that....I think he'll find out tomorrow.


Raelynn and I then went to the store and then I went to dinner with my friends Kathy, Wendy, Kamille, Jennifer, and Demi. I just have to say here that these incredible women are more than friends....you see.....I teach their children. I will be teaching them again next year in fifth grade so our friendship bonds should only grow stronger. We had a blast and closed down Harvey's. It's really neat when you can get so many funny people together. It was some welcome relief for the stress that I'd been feeling the last week or so. I hope we'll all be able to get together again soon. If you feel upset that you didn't come, all you have to have is the following things to join us-- 1) Wicked sense of humor 2) Undying love and devotion to me (Ha!) 3) a love all things food 4) a supportive husband or family member to watch your kid(s)!!!


Today, I went to church and then spent some time scanning and posting pictures on facebook. That took a lot of time and I was successful at avoiding all the work that is currently waiting for me. Aren't you proud?


I'm trying really hard to think of something witty to talk about but somehow I don't feel it tonight. I didn't want anyone to think that I was slacking on my blogging responsibilities, so I thought I'd check in with you and let know what I've been up to.......


May your work week be stress-free and may you spend quality and quantity time with wonderful friends this week.....You know you deserve it! But if they can't hang out with you....give me a shout out...I'm up for most anything!

There's A Ghost In My Phone

There has to be some people out there that have also experienced this. For those of you that may not know, I am hard of hearing. Long story short....I have Meniere's Disease. So it would make sense that I put my phone on vibrate and ring. Most of the time, I can hear my phone ring. I dropped my phone last November and lost a lot of my cool ring tones. Thanks to LT, I was able to at least recover my favorite one. But back on track...when I got my new phone I recorded Raelynn on my phone saying "Mom, you've got a text message!" and "Mom, you're phone's ringing...pick up the phone...it's still ringing.....answer the phone...." It's real cute. But....when I'm outside or in a large crowd of people I can't hear my phone and I rely on the vibrate mode to help me know when someone is calling or texting.


But the reason of my post today.....I usually wear pants to work and carry my phone in my pocket. If I put it in my purse, I won't hear it. A lot of times, I don't hear my phone ring, but I do feel it vibrate in my pocket. I will pull it out and no one has called me. I also feel the vibration of the phone ringing sometimes even when my phone isn't in my pocket. That's really weird....does that have some scientific name or something?


Anyway, I think I feel my phone going off.....gotta go and answer it, even if it is a ghost.

I Hold Many Titles, But This Ain't One of 'Em....

So how many of you out there can relate? Yeah, that's what I thought...I'm not alone in this feeling.





Let me get some things clear though......I am domesticated. I can live just fine indoors, I don't hiss, claw up the curtains and furniture, I respond when called (well, maybe most of the time), and if you pat me on the head, I won't bite you.




Another thing you should know....I am also a goddess. Once upon a time, when I worked at the local movie theater in Key West, I worked with some pretty fun people. Add to that lots of down time, and we learned how to entertain ourselves. My friend and co-worker, Jeremy, gave everyone titles regarding our status to the theater. (The theater was called Cobb Cinema 6 at the time.) Everyone had a royal title...Marquis De Cobb, Duke of Cobb, Princess of Cobb...you get the picture. My title, however, was different. Apparently I embodied the true essence of the theater because my title was Goddess of Cobb. The others were mere mortals. That was my first goddess title. And if I didn't already believe that, the paperclip holder on my desk at school says "Goddess....formerly known as Princess." So that settles it.




I must tell you, dear readers, that there is one goddess title that I DON'T hold. And that, of course, would be the title of Domestic Goddess. I think I've always known this, but it was very clear to me this morning how very lacking I am in this department.


I've always been an indoor sort of person. I used to claim my allergies kept me from doing yard work. Side note here....Key West is basically a big piece of coral rock and not much really grows there. Hence, there's no pollen to be allergic to. When I was eight, I was in a bad car wreck while riding my bike, so I've not been a fan of riding either. I have been know to walk and run, but only because I was trying to lose weight, not because I was communing with anything outside. Now you'd think that I would just walk/run indoors on a treadmill. And you'd be wrong. I do have a treadmill and am happy to report that no clothing is hanging from it presently. I just don't like the feeling of walking or running but not getting anywhere. I think I'd rather run in the rain than run inside on the treadmill. I'm also accident prone and have fallen off the treadmill more than once. Funny...now that I think about it, I don't like to sweat and if on the treadmill, I'm in the comfort of my AC unit and can position the fan just how I want. But I still don't see the appeal of running indoors. Also, I refuse to pay money to join a gym. I can lift heavy things and walk at home. I can do those things, I just choose not to right now.




Having said all that, you'd think I'd take some of the pent up energy that I wasn't spending doing outdoor stuff and apply it to things in the house that need to be done. Again, you'd be wrong. I think that many years of conditioning myself to grade papers and do lesson plans has made me oblivious to the fact that my house needs some serious attention.




I'm not saying I'm a dirty person, there are just a few things that I don't enjoy doing around the house.








1. Washing Dishes-

This is a strange one if you know me very well. I really like to eat, but I don't like to cook and I really don't like to do dishes. When we moved to this house, it didn't have a dishwasher and I hadn't lived in a place with one since I moved out of my parents' house, so I was looking forward to getting one. Our kitchen isn't really set up correctly for a dishwasher without doing some major remodeling and diverting of water pipes. We got around that problem by buying a dishwasher that was on casters and could serve as part of the counter top until we wanted to wash dishes. Then, all we'd have to do is push it over to the sink, hook it up, and let it do its work. Sadly, we haven't used it much. Not that it doesn't do a good job, but I also have a problem with putting things away at times. There's no telling how long clean dishes have sat in the dishwasher, waiting for me to put them up. You might be thinking to yourself that David also lives in this house and likes to eat as well. Let me tell you about him. He is one of those people that washes the pots and pans after cooking before he eats. When he's done eating, he goes directly to the sink and washes his dishes. He's real good in this department. I'm the one that's a little slow in catching on.





2. Putting Away Clean Laundry-


This is interesting because from about the age of eight or so, I did all of the laundry for my family every week. That doesn't mean that I like it or anything, it just means that I've got the skills needed to accomplish this task. I used to neatly sort the clothes, wash them, dry them, hang them up, and fold them. I think I even put them up for my parents and myself and laid my brother's on his bed. So I don't really know what went wrong here. The thing is....I really like washing the clothes. The soap smells so good, and I feel sorta like a mad scientist using all the different products: Spray and Wash, bleach for colors, bleach for whites, soap, fabric softener, dryer sheets....I like that part of it. Once the clothes are dried, they tend to stay in the dryer a little longer than they should. Usually, I either get tired of fishing matching socks out of the dryer or David needs the dryer to dry his clothes. **Side note....David washes his own clothes. I sort my clothes into colors, whites, towels, jeans, etc. David tends to do his clothes in a more "college-like" style. His clothes get washed in one group. And he's got particular dryer needs.... but more about that in #3.** So what I usually do is take the laundry basket out, put the clean clothes in them, put the basket on the floor in my bedroom, and resolve to get back to them later to put them up. Later rarely gets here. I think if I had all my clothes that I wear regularly in a basket or baskets, I could happily live out of it. At least until I need the basket for the next load of clean clothes. And so the cycle of insanity continues.






3. And the Mac Daddy of all domestic chores that I hate:


Ironing Clothes-

Okay, first the disclaimer. Not liking to iron is not a result of the way I was brought up. My mother tells stories about ironing the family clothes as a girl. She even ironed the sheets and towels. So, my mother has a hang up about wrinkled clothes, and would stop me frequently growing up to tell me to give her the offensive wrinkled garment and she's iron it so I could go out in public. I think this may be why I never really learned. I did try to iron my own things along the way, but I am sadly lacking in this skill. So, you can only imagine that if I live out of the clean clothes basket, that my clothes are often wrinkled, right? And they are. I understand the physics of it all....if I were to put the clothes up immediately after drying, the need for ironing would significantly be lessened. Somehow, this knowledge holds little relevance for me. So thank goodness for Downy Wrinkle Releaser spray. All you have to do is spray it on the wrinkled garment, smooth out the wrinkles, and lay it out to dry a little. Sometimes this is all I have to do. There are some times that using the spray doesn't put a dent in the wrinkles. My backup plan (also used in the morning when I don't lay out clothes the night before) is to put the clothes in the dryer with a clean, damp towel. Usually, this works. However, as I mentioned in #2, there are lots of times that the dryer is already full of clean clothes. So I have juggle and switch around laundry baskets to get the dryer empty sometimes. Just know that I go to work looking presentable. I will say this though, before moving to Mississippi, I never really realized how much people around here iron. I work with some ladies that have professional creases in their jeans. I know these people take their clothes to the cleaners to be ironed. I've never taken clothes to the cleaners and I don't plan on starting now.




David, on the other hand, used to be in the Army. He learned how to iron and he does it well. He irons his work shirts once a week. He's got the system down: iron, spray bottle, spray starch....and he even under dries his shirts just a little so they won't already get the wrinkles baked into the shirt from the dryer heat. That's another reason that he does his own laundry and I do mine--our drying needs differ. And there have been times that I've asked him if he could iron something for me while he was ironing his stuff and he obliged. I try not to bother him much during ironing because he's holding a very hot iron and he hates to iron as much as I do. Not a good combination. :-)




So, there's my dirty laundry....literally aired out there for you to see. Most people don't willingly divulge the things I've just told you. I'm not sure if that's significant or not, but at least that makes me more vulnerable and human. After all, I'm an immortal goddess, walking around trying to not be found out. So tell me, how am I doing?

Purple Hair Is a Wonderful Thing

I need some more topics....anyone have any ideas??? I'm feeling the great need to blog but currently have writer's block. Those of you that know me, know that it is a rare thing that I have nothing to say. David says it's because I'm tired. I think I was born tired. Or at least it feels that way.

I don't know why I'm posting this picture. It was taken awhile ago by my across the hall teacher friend Jana. She bought me the gorgeous hair....you can't see it but it's really a headband with two little bobbers of cute purple hair. I love it. Most of my fabulous head ware and costumes were gifts from friends. I am loved. I need to remind myself of that more often.

Well, it's Tuesday. I'm going to head out and 1) pick up my wedding rings from the jeweler. He said he would fix them for no charge. Let's hope it takes this time. 2) I'm going to my mom's house for supper. I love my mother's cooking. 3) Grade more papers. The snowball effect of teaching is a harsh one. The work never ends.

Enough complaining. I'm really going to sign off now and look forward to tomorrow....I feel a "pink hair" day coming on!

Easter at the Rosamond House

So I googled hot trends again for a good title for today's post. In the top ten was "zombie jesus" and "obama dog." I didn't think I could put either of these in my title, so I'll just stick with a generic Easter title. There were also Easter related words googled too....one of which was "is walmart open on easter" but hopefully this will get read by exactly the kind of people that need to read it.


Enough intro and on to today's topic: Easter at my house. Raelynn was very excited of course. She's been talking about Easter and the impending visit of the Easter Bunny for a several weeks. So I'll now break it down for you....


*First, I can never remember how to boil eggs. Every year, as part of a tradition of sorts, I call my mom and ask her how to properly boil eggs. She is very sweet to keep telling me instead of politely asking me to write it down for future reference. So once I've gotten the official instructions of how to boil the eggs, I get right to it.


*This year I bought two and a half dozen eggs. We only used eight of them for dying. You see....no one at our house eats boiled eggs. We do eat them in other foods, especially deviled eggs. The other eggs were used for just this purpose. But anyway, David came into the kitchen wanting to know why we were dying eggs since no one would eat them. I told him it's more about the act of dying the eggs instead of actually eating them. As a kid, I remember my mom using our Easter eggs in the potato salad for Easter dinner. My mother still does the cooking for Easter dinner, but since I no longer live with her, she uses her own boiled eggs.


*Raelynn chose to use dye and glitter on her eggs this year. Truly a girl after my own heart. We had fun dunking the eggs, timing them, and then adding the special glitter to them. At the end of the evening she had eight lovely eggs to be put into her basket and even more dye and glitter on herself than that on the eggs.


*I don't know how the Easter Bunny works at other people's houses, but at my house growing up, we laid out our dyed eggs on the dining room table next to the baskets and the Easter Bunny kindly moved them all of 1o inches from the paper towel to the basket. He never hid the eggs. Is that what he does for other folks? So of course, that's how we do it here.


*Raelynn took it a little further this year. This year she created an Easter card and matching envelope for the Easter Bunny. She didn't use an envelope we already had, she folded one out of paper and made a fastener for it. In addition to the card, she also laid out a snack for the Easter Bunny in case he needed more energy to complete his journey. She laid out carrots, lettuce, and radishes. Cute. She didn't say anything this morning when she found the remnants of the snack and there was no response note. I figured that if she asked why the Bunny didn't write back I'd tell her about the importance of having a thumb. She didn't ask so we'll save that discussion for another time.


*After scolding her for eating too much candy this morning for breakfast, I made the family's deviled eggs to take to my Mom's this afternoon.***Side note: Raelynn has been know to overdose on Easter candy and get so sick she threw up.*** Since I was about eight, I've made the deviled eggs for our holiday meals. I have this really great recipe and every time someone outside of my family tries it, they agree that they are, indeed, the best deviled eggs they've ever tasted. There were just a few of these left over from dinner and I brought them home since David doesn't eat carbs and this is one thing he can eat with no fear of ingesting carbs.


*We did a short egg hunt at my mother's house after dinner. The Easter Bunny wisely left her some plastic eggs (filled with candy of course) that she used in the egg hunt. I know from experience how unpleasant it is to find rotting eggs awhile after the hunt is over. David hid them for her to find and then Raelynn hid them for me to find. She did better than I did.


*Now we're back at home and I'm putting off my research proposal paper. I've used every excuse I can think of to keep from doing it. However, looking to the horizon, I have this paper, 5 article annotations, and a final exam all a week from tomorrow. I think I'm going to get a move on and just finish it. I can always go back and edit later.


To finish up, I'd like to say happy Easter everyone! We serve a risen Lord!


P.S. If you'd like to either eat some glittery boiled eggs or help with a research proposal paper, I'm right here....waiting for some excuse to stop working.

An Explanation

Just to explain to my loyal (all two of you) readers...


The weird thing with the title of my last post was to encourage more "hits" on my page by including hot trend words in the title. So I googled hot trends and got a list of the most googled phrases used yesterday. I chose two random ones (the megamouth shark and Chicago White Sox) and put them into the title.


Sorry for the confusion.....I'll now go back to using the hot trend words in my title....basically what I'm saying is to ignore the title and just keep reading.

:-)

The Megamouth Shark Is Joining The Chicago White Sox

So I was reading one of my favorite blogs and she wrote that her husband was "encouraging" her to make better use of her blog. I'm not sure why. Anyway, she said that for the next week, she would title her posts using "hot trend" words so she could get more hits. I googled hot trends and you'd never believe some of the stuff that appeared. I figured I'd try that too, since I like looking at my ticker to see who visited me and how they found me.


So that explains the title--it has nothing to do with my post.


What is the topic of my post then? Good question. I'm not sure I have an answer. There seems to be so much that's rolling around in my brain right now that I feel like I need a good shake. Perhaps in the shake (very much like an Etch-A-Sketch) I can start over. Mind you, I don't mean start over my life or career or anything...just start over in my daily thinking. It's really hard to stay positive and loving and kind and patient with all the crud going on around me. I try...I really do. And some days, I actually make it.


I'm not really sure how today is going. Here's what I'm currently thinking about:

*What is Mom cooking for dinner? (She cooks for my family every Tuesday since David and I are in grad school...I must admit I really look forward to Tuesdays.) How sad is it that food tops my list?

*What am I going to take with me tomorrow to my interview for the Writing for Thinking Summer Institute? (They want samples of students' writing.)

*If I could figure out what to take with me, could I even find it? (I'm trying to get organized...it's just really hard. Teaching is about snowballing....I don't even know if that's a word but nothing stops....The snowball of work just keeps getting larger.)

*When will I have time to write my research paper? It's due in two weeks. I don't want to put it off, but I don't really want to write it either. Anyone want to help?

*Should I send a "special" message to the Easter Bunny this year about not leaving any candy for Raelynn? Perhaps some nice carrots will do. (I've found several old stashes of wrappers and candy in her closet where she snuck it. I get the need for candy. All she had to do was ask. Instead I'm battling the mess in her room and ants. Nice.)

*Work--lots of decisions are on the horizon in that department. What will happen next year? What kind of year will I have???

*Will I have time to grade papers tonight and watch The Biggest Loser and get Raelynn ready for bed and actually speak to my husband?

*Will the scheduling problems I'm having with my last graduate class get resolved? (I sent an email today and haven't had a response. I'm not sure where to go from here.)

*Who actually cares about my blog? Why do I even write it???

I think I know the answer to the last one....I write for myself and for you. I'm bad about wanting to be the center of attention. I know there must be a reason for this but do I really want to go there when I have so many other things on my mind?


I don't think so.


So have a great day.......If you see me wandering around in a haze, it's probably a result of my head being full. When I get home I'll be sure to give it a good shake and hopefully set things right.

This Post Was Supposed To Be About Something Else....

This picture has nothing to do with today's post...I just thought it was funny. So it's Sunday and of course I have tons of things I should be doing. I may get around to some of them because I feel like my mind is needing some organization to make things more clear. I really can't explain it, but I can't sit down to write decent lesson plans unless I clean and organize the room I'm writing them in. This may sound incredibly OCD, but I think that I suffered from that at one time and am now in full recovery. I like to think I'm organized, but sadly, I lack in this department. Perhaps if I just claim it...I can own it. It will sound the same.


I also have trouble with continual follow-through. For example, I know I should moisturize. I've got the ashy skin to prove it. I really try to do that on a regular basis and I do well for awhile but I eventually fall back into my unmoisturizing ways. There's a part of me that thinks that's incredibly decent of me....like maybe I'm not as vain and as self-centered as I know I am. I think what holds me back from doing all the things I should is the fact that I tend to have way too much on my plate all the time. A few friends have told me that there's never been a time when they didn't see me buried up to my neck in some type of stressful and self-imposed situation. Please remind me of this the next time you read a post where I'm talking about undertaking some huge project.


It would seem like I could talk myself of doing all the things I should be doing by simply stating that I'm not picking up any more stressful situations. But let's be real....if you know me, you know that I live on stress. It would be hard to untangle the core of my being with the stress, but it's something I'd like to try. Outside of living in a hut on a beach somewhere, I'm not sure where to begin. I don't like sand all over me, and I've never been a big fan of clothing made from coconuts. Any suggestions????