Dan & I have a hot date.

We are going to Shopko. Shopko is my favorite store in St. Cloud. Here is my traveling list. It has been traveling around with me for a couple of days:

1) Quarry park. This is NOT an item to purchase. It is a reminder that I want to swim there once before school starts.

2) Salmon colored paint. Again,this is not a Shopko purchase but a reminder to look for paint for the living room. Mom suggested this color. She is good with color, but I don't always listen.

SHOPKO:

3) Cotton underwear. My nylon granny pants make my butt sweat.

4) Accu therm- reusable cold/hot compress. I need another one for my right knee that bothers me some when I get off of the elliptical. NOT serious, but the compress def helps.

5) Beach Towels. They are usually on sale & I like a BIG towel after a shower. And since Jessica has been home...... well..... towels have been disappearing. Which is AWESOME!!!! Because I can't wait to get a few BIG beautiful/ colorful towels! And she will be warned. My towels Jess, DO NOT TOUCH!

6) Shower curtain. Our $2 shower curtain needs to be replaced by a $2 shower curtain.

7) Disposable razors. BIC disposable razors. Dan is picky.

8) Comet cleanser.

9) That's it but since Dan wants to come along he must have something else in mind. It is always interesting to see what he has in mind:)

Later,

Flash.

Heat sucks.

Hate is a powerful word but I hate you heat. You suck the life right out of me. I loath you & if you show up in September I will very likely, quite literally, bawl like a baby.
And then get the vapors. And then faint. And then secretly steal someone else's fan because hate will make a person do such heinous acts.

Then I will come home and pass out on my bed naked with a fan on me and wail to Dan like a crazy woman possessed with demons.

And he will get scared out of his wits ( as usual when these symptoms appear... I use them to my advantage) , & he will dote upon me with a worried expression on his face & then agree to come to my classroom and follow me around with a wet rag soaked in ice water. Seriously. He would do that for me. But I would never ask.

Even I have scruples.


f

What drove me the most nuts

when Connor & Grace were here ( I just realized this) was the background noise from the TV. Beauty And The Beast - Jamie herself watched this movie repeatedly into her teens- Snow Babies ( think that's right...dogs were in it I think), & Happy Feet were all watched in the 3 days here. Half the time no one was watching them but they were on. Annoying.

Jamie & Ryan are going to Hawaii mid- August for 10-12 days. They will be gone over the weekend of the 14th. Ryan's folks are going to stay at their house during the week days & Dan & I ( and hopefully Jessica) are spending the weekend. The kids will go to daycare during the week.

Plans aren't firmed up yet..I mean the trip & tickets and everything are, but our stay &/or length thereof isn't. I've heard through the grapevine that George ( Ryan's Dad) has a shoulder that is bothering him.

So my post was about how things will go & everything but I have something else weird to tell you.

George is a retired Industrial Tech teacher but he has been teaching at Messabi East HS & a community college of some sort. Something TERRIBLE happened in a shop where he was working in April. The welding teacher stepped out for a bit & asked George to watch his class & while he was gone a kid's shirt caught on fire while welding.

The 17 year old kid got burned pretty badly & died in the hospital, not from the burns but from undiagnosed Addison's disease. But what is REALLY weird & coincidental is that JESSICA'S roommate, who works in the county morgue for the county this accident happened in , told Jess about this case in May waaaaaaaaaay before Jamie mentioned it to her last weekend. Jessica's roommate assisted in the autopsy ( she is in Med school in Duluth). She told Jessica that her boss, the M.E. told Josie ( roommate) before they even started the autopsy that he knew it was an Addison's case just by the color of the dead kid's skin (orangish).

Poor George. If I were him I'd be sweating bullets in worry. Apparently the Mom worked at the school & was called to the scene before the ambulance came. Bet the hospital is worried too. The kid wouldn't have died from the burns , although serious enough to have needed grafts taken from his thighs to cover his chest. Josie said that his adrenal glands were virtually non-existent... the Addisons. The hospital never caught it.

On that strange and rambling tangent I shall leave Snoidsville. Poor George. My shoulder would be bothering me too if something this horrendous happened in my classroom. I will give him a big hug when I see him:)

Flash.

If you google "mesabi east welding accident" you can read about it.

Poems? Musings? Fake writing?

I find myself with time on my hands while sitting in a German classroom teaching science to 4 classes of between 3- 20 students. If the kids think that I am very busy they are less likely to cry & writhe in pain fighting for my attention. So yesterday I jotted down some thoughts about my students with a very thoughtful, busy look on my face.

The first set was very negative. I'll post them in the near future. Once I wrote (and read) the first set, I decided to change my point of view & be positive. So here are the positive musings from SS 2010.

1) The light on your face is eternal....my hope for your sacred self is eternal too.

2) Funny, fun, bright & capable. Life so short but future so long. Bright. Remember that.

3) Concentrated effort so determined in nature. Put to good use, you could carry the world on your shoulders. Will you?

4) That line you step up to every single day- do you peer beyond it, shield your eyes and see how beautiful you are? I do. Every. Single. Day.

Many of my SS students have the sniffles.

Muaaaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaa. Maybe you should bring your OWN PENCIL instead of me handing you one EVERY DAY!!!!!!

Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Flash

Connorisms:

1)Casual conversation

Me: Connor, do you think that your mom is pretty?

Connor: long pause. Well, my DAD thinks she's pretty.

Me: Does your Dad tell your Mom thats she is pretty?

Connor: Wellll SOMETIMES he tells her that she is pretty.

Jamie glowed as if a wonderful prince had just complemented her. pretty cute :)

2)While looking at their collection of movies to decide which one to watch

Me: Hey Connor! We have the movie Transformers!

Connor: Wellllllllllll. My parents won't let me watch Transformers. I am too young. Long pause... but I can PLAY with transformers. I am old enough for that but I have to wait until I am OLDER to watch Transformers.

3) While he was sitting in his car seat ready to go home after their visit.

Me: I love you Connor. You are a good boy. I especially like how you say please and thank you.

Connor: Welllllllllllll I don't ALWAYS remember to say that. But everybody makes mistakes SOMETIMES.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I miss everyone. A "balanced" life continues to elude me. I am not fool enough to think that it will suddenly find me , or that balance will suddenly appear. I understand ( an have for awhile) that I will have to actively seek it by studying tai chi, Zen meditation, zuòchán or (坐禅), Feng Shui.

But wait. Dad & Cigdem Onat ( his nut case 2nd wife ... google, her but don't be deceived...fruitcake) followed this guy : Meher Baba & attended his retreat here. Uh. Dad found peace & balance at the end of his life & I think Meher Baba helped, but not until AFTER heart disease nearly took my Dad out & finally it did him in.

I think I'll just get on my elliptical, count my plethora of blessings and then take a nap. Yeah. My feng shui. Sorry Meher Baba, no offense, but your image just freaks me out.

Flash!