love note

Today I drove billions hundreds of miles to visit my parents & sister here:

This is where I grew up and someday I will tell stories about that, but right now I have to reassure my darling husband that I do, indeed, love him. Because I forgot to leave little messages around the house like I usually do when I go away. Because I was working myself into a MUST GET ON THE ROAD frenzy of packing snacks and drinks and pillows and GameBoys and oh, children. Only to stop .25 miles away at Chevron to give a pint of blood and Starbucks to sell the rest of my blood.

ANYWAY.

To the best husband in the universe, I give you my heart and then some. I love you love you love you. And thank you for putting in my new bath tub.

photo courtesy of this great place

a lazy day like today maybe?

1. On my laziest day I like to nap often, read trashy magazines, watch E! and eat New York Super Fudge Chunk from the container.

2. Staying in motion makes me feel like I'm being productive.

3. I love little obligations and big bargains.

4. This summer I want to delight in every moment.

5. Cabin fever during snow days made me start my blog.

6. Red is fiery hot and orange is juicy retro.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to girlfriend time, tomorrow my plans include driving 3#&%*($)! miles to visit my parents, and Sunday, I want to scour garage sales with my mom!

Oh Friday Fill-Ins, how I love thee.

gosling love

On my way home from school today, I did not see multiples of this:

Alas, if only.

But rather a gaggle of these adorably gawky maize-colored babies, crossing to the lake with their mom. I had a strong physical impulse to pull over and pet them but a) there is no good shoulder for pulling over safely and b) the woman directly behind me [read: Might as well have been in my backseat yelling "DRIVE FASTER ON THIS DANGEROUSLY CURVY BACK ROAD!"] would have crashed into me and probably wiped out the little family of geese, too. All badness. Surely resulting in worse karma than me not putting a quarter in the newspaper box.

nerdy suburban mom seeks edgy tattoo design

Now that I have committed myself to inking up this summer in Amsterdam (after telling not only my husband and best friends but also 150 teenagers, there is no backing down), I'm busy trying to figure out what I want drawn onto my skin forever.

I know I don't want anything cutesy sweet - that seems just plain silly unless it has a fascinating story behind it and even then I would feel compelled to tell everyone my fascinating story which, eventually, would not sound so fascinating after all.

Words could be cool - I've entertained "Carpe Diem" since it was the subject of my speech to the seniors last year and [most days] I sincerely try to embrace the philosophy. If I go with this, I then have to decide what kind of font would be most awesome FOREVER. Cursive? Too girly. Lower case? Too casual. Calligraphy? Too hard to read (back to the explaining thing). Argh.

I also thought about an Escher drawing - he's Dutch like me, I'll be in Holland, and I love the intricacy of his work. But I don't think I can sit still long enough for this baby.

The woman who does my hair (oh, I told her, too) said the one thing she immediately thought of for me was a book. I like it. Reading has always been a passion - I used to read by passing streetlights in the backseat on road trips; I take or seek out books & magazines everywhere we go (including our honeymoon); I read while brushing my teeth or eating lunch or waiting at traffic lights. But it seems no one else in the history of tattooing has considered such a design. I have entered all of these search terms: book tattoo, book tattoo design, edgy book tattoo, edgy book tatoo design, stack books tattoo, cool book tattoo. To no avail. There are lots of books available showing tattoos, and many people with tattoos of comic book characters & Children of Men book covers.

Really? Am I seriously that geeky? Please feel free to submit your best ideas. They can't possibly be any worse than some of my students' suggestions - A dragon! A pot leaf! Flames would be cool! Apparently I'm teaching Beavis & Butthead's children.

english major humor

Man, I laughed out loud. It's okay if you need Dictionary.com; go then come back to chuckle with me. (I love the giant bows, too). *sigh* Good times.

Thank you, Mrs. Chili, for leading me to yet another delightful diversion from all things I should be doing...

expecting bad karma any minute now

Portland, Oregon

May 2008

Wordless Wednesday is upon us.
Deposit a comment or suffer curse.

let them eat...whatever

I'm pretty sure that when one is baking a cake as a loving [very belated birthday] surprise for one's husband, one should not get inordinately angry about clogged beaters, globs of butter, spattering milk, and quite unsmooth and unshiny batter. I believe I muttered FUCK in my mind at least 25 times in the ten minutes it took to whisk up this masterpiece:

We're going to eat it anyway, by God. And it will be good.

glad moon rising

Usually I am supremely wary of the full moon. People tend to be in peculiar moods and by "people" I mean everyone but me.

Yet I faced the day, even substituting for the teacher who uses my classroom first period (meaning I had to get out of bed and be at school at least 45 minutes earlier).

I wore a new skirt confidently, not even minding the stark surprise in a student's tone when she said "You look so pretty today!"

I boldly required Leadership groups to present their projects to the class - and there was no balking. There was even, dare I say it, introspection.

My room actually has air conditioning that works, I found out today.

Stu took the kids to Science & Math Night while I stayed home and cleaned like a lunatic. [Do lunatics really clean stuff? That seems very unlikely] Laundry sorted and half finished; basketfull of lingering clean clothes folded and put away; kitchen counters cleaned; dishes in sink washed, dishwasher loaded; items dusted; floors swept; random bits of this & that put here & there [where they're supposed to go].

And while I was home growing pleased with myself, a former neighbor called to ask if her daughter could stay at our house for the night. I haven't seen the girl in five years - she was 13 when they moved far away - and now she's going to the community college in town; something uncomfortable is going down at her current residence and she needed to get away temporarily. Not only am I glad to help out, it's a joy to see her again as a grown-up young woman. And rewarding, too - I used to tutor her in math and now she tutors kids.

SHINE on, O moon of summer.
Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak,
All silver under your rain to-night.
An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an accordion.
A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next month; to-night they are throwing you kisses.
An old man next door is dreaming over a sheen that sits in a cherry tree in his back yard.
The clocks say I must go--I stay here sitting on the back porch drinking white thoughts you rain down.
Shine on, O moon,
Shake out more and more silver changes.
~ Carl Sandburg, "Backyard"

portlandish behavior

Stu drove us in the Cobra because - surprise! - it was sunny this weekend.

I know most of the United States understands that it's almost summer, but the Pacific Northwest has always been a bit rebellious about the seasons.

Over the river and across the bridge(s)

into Portland we went.

Here is a couch in our hotel room that we never used but isn't it super cute?!

Adorable kitchenette, also never used.

But I looked through all the cupboards anyway and kind of wished I felt like baking something.

It was really hot and we had to walk a bunch of blocks to our massage.

But we stopped on the way back for iced coffee & a crepe with bacon.
Everything's better with bacon.

There was a garage sale RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOTEL!

I got a stack of Thrasher magazines [FOR FREE!] for my boy students and a cornucopia of Sharpies in every color.

Stu had to hold all the Thrasher magazines, and wait in the sun.

We changed into our very fancy "going out" clothes to hit as many Happy Hours as humanly possible. (Only two, as it turns out).

Then this morning? The angels sang.

Seriously, there was some kind of "Hallelujah" music playing when we went into the store.

My cupcake was like a piece of heaven.

And there was much rejoicing.