November 30, 2007

1. After a coffee shop stop yesterday, I headed out to my car to go to weigh in, and it would not start. After getting a jump I took it to the dealership for a new battery (I’m sure they will call with a multitude of other needed repairs) and ended up not getting home until 9:30.  On the plus side, I didn’t have to weigh in and got to have dinner with Brian and Michelle. On the negative, I hate my car.  The only thing that makes me feel somewhat better about my beater, is driving the van.  Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to have the big old behemoth Chevy band van available as a means of transport, and have driven it many miles and enjoyed it, but it is so big that it makes city driving stressful.  I’m generally convinced that some kid on a big wheel or an old lady with a walker is trailing along behind me, having gotten entangled in my bumper as I back up.
2. Am unable to go to meet some friends from my old school today, because of the aforementioned car troubles. Also must produce more sleeves and get a prescription filled.  It is all very busy.
3. Still hate my car.
4. Going to the Army-Navy Game tomorrow with AB, Ali and John.  In Baltimore which is much better than that four hour drive to Philadelphia, where it usually is.  I went with Richard years ago, and it poured the WHOLE TIME.  Soaking wet and cold.  The weather looks more promising this time. Go Army! Beat Navy!
5. The car has been retrieved, although then there I was with two cars.  I drove the Saturn to Great Harvest, parked, walked back to where I parked the van, and was going to go park the van near the house in its usual space and walk back and get the Saturn, but decided I just needed to get myself home and have a yogurt, so I’ll go fetch it later.  Perhaps after some delicious sushi.

November 29, 2007

1. Grinch that Stole Christmas was on last night.  Outstanding, as always.  Preceding the Grinch was an attempt to make a Christmas classic by putting out a Shrek Christmas special, which was a miserable failure.  In addition to just stinking up the joint (figuratively and literally, there was an extended farting sequence) notable was the constant “what is Christmas all about” question, and never a mention of, you know, Jesus.  I understand that for many this is a secular holiday, but it just seemed so awkward.  I wonder if a Charlie Brown Christmas, where Linus recites the whole Gospel of Luke story, would have been made now.  Speaking of, there is a great Hallmark ornamentwith just that moment, and I love it, but have looked at every Hallmark store I know, and they are all out! Out online too!
2. Three minutes left until lunch is over. Here come the children.  Nooooo! Make them go away!
3. The temptation to bail out of here before the workout, and then bag weight watchers is very very strong. (late note:  The others don’t want to go either, so now this means we all have too.  Dammit!)
4. I shall away to the Starbucks during my break in between classes and the workout for a large iced tea to sustain me.
5. For this project the kids had to come up with a slogan for their job and one group of Suburban Housing Developers had “Cheap Houses, Cheaper Prices.” Nice!

November 28, 2007

1. Note to self: No coffee after 5 PM.  Also no staying up til midnight, then getting up at 5AM.
2. Who ever is in charge of keeping my desk in order here at school is doing a crappy job.
3. My coffee sleeve craft is getting better, but I think the crookedy finishing seam is here to stay.  We’ll just call that “handcrafted flair.”
4. I’d like to apologize to all the teachers I ever had for the following: looking at them like I was listening, and then asking them a question that they had answered exactly ONE SECOND before; writing notes so quickly that they OR I could not read my handwriting; getting a handout describing an assignment in detail and NEVER LOOKING AT THAT ASSIGNMENT AGAIN and then wondering why I missed some major element of said assignment; not absorbing every nugget of knowledge they offered; and finally, not pushing in my chair.
5. This TV strike needs to end.  Also if they don’t release season 3 of Battlestar Galactica soon, I am going to have to rumble.

November 27, 2007

1. I don’t have a problem with 97.1 playing holiday music from the moment I bite into my Thanksgiving turkey, until Christmas, but I do have a problem with their seemingly limited playlist.  If you have a whole month you need to play a wider variety.  I always seem to tune in to the billionth repitition of “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” or “Rocking around the Christmas Tree.”  I used to like “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree,” but I have been disappointed too many times, when the intro comes up, because it starts the same as “Everyone’s Waiting on the Man with the Bag” (which is awesome!) but they NEVER play that, always R.A.t. C.T.  I’m going to work on 3 lists: Outstanding Christmas Songs (Current #1, The Barenaked Ladies version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”); Christmas Songs that Should Never be Played (“Christmas Eve in Washington”, I’m looking at you.); and Christmas Songs that are Awful, but Still Make Me Cry (He gives her his drum!  It’s all he has!)
2. Sean Taylor of Washington Football was murdered which is tragic, and totally annoying around that are the people that point to violent incidents in which he was involved, as if to find some sort of explanation.  I don’t care about that.  No one deserves to be murdered and then have people say “well it’s not a surprise given….” No.  Murder – bad, wrong, never deserved.
3. I managed to maintain my spirits and get the cat food and have tea, and clean the kitchen despite my two hour delay yesterday,  but the laundry remains unfolded.  Our Hero Paul volunteered (nay, demanded!) to do the vacuuming.  Hooray!
4. Today is the horrible meeting day.  County teacher representative meeting from 4-5:30, then church school board from 7:00-(only 8:00 I hope!)
5. My feet hurt. 

November 26, 2007

1. I have a list of home chores that seemed really pleasing (vacuum, clean kitchen, fold laundry, do combo stop on way home of cup of tea at Paul’s shop and buy cat food at nearby vet) when I thought I was leaving school at 3:30, but then I got here and remembered I am in charge of homework club today, so I won’t be leaving until 5:30.  Bummer.  These are still good activities, so I must consciously adjust my attitude and just do them two hours later right? The fact that it is all dark and cold shouldn’t make any difference right?  Damn you once again daylight savings!
2. Must run out during my planning period and mail Melissa’s special requested coffee sleeves, and pick up some snack for Homework Club, and perhaps some lunch and a bite of something for breakfast for me.
3. Sweet Lord, these glasses are something else.  Between them and my new shoes that match my grey pants (I had been wearing the brown ones, because they are better for my feet, but I finally found some black lace-ups (I call all these shoes my “corrective shoes”)) and a nice red sweater that Melissa gave me, I actually feel dressed somewhat like a grown-up.  And a superhero in my mild-mannered Clark Kent spectacles.
4. We begin our unit on Urban Sprawl today.  This is particularly exciting, because last year I used a stapler banged against a desk to signal the group changes, but now I have a little hotel bell, that I carefully purchased off the internets, just for this sort of thing.  I’ve used it for other projects, but this is the event that inspired me to buy it, so it is a circle of life sort of moment.
5. I’m about to enter a moment of intense concentration over the number of copies for each role assignment for each class (The roles are Planning Commissioner. Smart Growth Advocate, Suburban Housing Developer, Environmentalist,  and Citizen for Affordable Housing.  The formula should be number of roles in in each group = 5, take the number of students in each class, divide by five.  this should now be the number of groups.  If there is an over or under I must double up on some roles in some groups, and so need the proper number of each for each class.  Then I need to put group letters (a,b,c etc.) onto each paper, and would also like to put each role onto a different color paper.  No matter how carefully I do this, I always end up with too many of one role in some groups and too few in another.  Maybe this is the year I’ll get it.

November 25, 2007

1. I am wearing a costume.  My new glasses create a different face.  I like them alot, and also on the plus side, I can see much better.  I normally wear contacts all the time and the glasses are only occasional, but for a little while these things may see heavy rotation.
2. Went to Tuna Christmas with AB, Ali and Susi.  Campy show, very good dinner following at Capital Grille.  Talk of families, marriage, pets, and how much it would take (dollars) for one to lick the bottom of a person’s shoe or kiss a dog. My price is lower for the shoe than for the dog.
3. No church for me today. Slept in. Lolled about.
4. Lunch with my friend Tonya,, who is moving back to Oklahoma soon.  She is going back to school to get a degree in accounting, with the hope that being a CPA, will allow her more independence, and to never have to supervise people in a job situation again.  She found in her packing, her old OU ID.  I know mine is around here some where, and that I look as young as she in that 1984 picture.  We met in the dorm when I told her I knew a cure for her hiccups, and dragged her to the bathroom to have her drink a glass of water upside down.
5. Goals for the week, walk more, drink water, eat less.

November 24, 2007

1. At the Mess Hall there was a table at Thanksgiving in the corner of the breezeway.  Set for one and left empty, it was the table for fallen comrades.  The war is very present at Ft. Benning.  This is not surprising of course, but made me very aware of how the majority of Americans need not think or sacrifice at all.  We can do easy sound bites, and feel bad from time to time, but it is not constantly with us.  M talks as if C will go there after this assignment.
2. The Coke Museum in Atlanta takes the position of wide eyed wonderment and innocence at their success, but the whole place is disney-esqe manipulation and indoctrination. ”Love the Cola!” “Drink the Cola!”
3. Waiting for the train in a Border’s Books across the street from the station.  I bought a book of Jennifer Wiener short stories, that are a step beyond the usual “Chick Lit.”  It reminds me of a book of short stories by _?_ McKelvey, which was one of the first books that I read where I felt that I took a chance and discovered a book was good by myself, rather than being told so by someone else.  I wish I could find that book again.  Another book I purchased was “Drunk Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair”, which is shaping up to be funny, but also thoughtful.
4. I think my family really wants to please others, but we don’t always wait long enough to hear what people want.  I am very guilty of this, I will spin out 5 suggestions before the person has had time to even consider the first.
5. I’ve visited Chris and Melissa in so many places that I sometimes forget where I am.
6. The train ride back was exceptional.  I lay in my top bunk with the curtain open, watching the land spin out in the dark.  The moon was a huge ball, chasing me.
7. At the moment I feel without purpose.

November 22, 2007

1. Several good walks from Chris and Melissa’s to the guest house and back.  Michael and I just walked down to see the war dogs monument.  There is a large one with a very impressive German Shepherd statue, and then another monument, for a paratrooper unit that has a small sausage dog.  He was noted as missing in action in Belgium.
2. I love walking on posts.  Very quiet, with the occasional rattle of gunfire from the training ranges. (Yes, even on Thanksgiving.  The troops came to the mess hall with their guns slung over their arms, even while eating.)  But I do mean it when I say it is peaceful.  It reminds me of my youth.  It has a very safe and protective feel, and also years and years of tradition and history.  The houses that I pass have been there since the 20s, and have had hundreds of families pass through them.
3. We are about to embark upon the second thanksgiving meal, the turkey sandwiches after dinner.
4. I happened to walk in on the Macy’s Day Parade just as the OU band was playing.  They sounded excellent.  Tradition again, every note they played in Boomer Sooner and Oklahoma, I played on so many years ago.
5. Michael and I are making a gingerbread house, and there are some structural difficulties with the alternative, open design (see in side and outside of house) that we have chosen, so we made some Lego supports to hold the structure steady.

November 22, 2007

1. This is going to have to be fast because Melissa and Michael are waiting for me to play Monopoly.
2. The ride was excellent, about 14 hours over an evening and a day.  Stayed in Wilson, NC.  My parent’s criteria for a hotel is that it needs to be a Holiday Inn Express, because they serve warm cinnamon rolls in the morning.  We had no trafficc to speak of.  We traveled the back roads, and though last years super long trip may have been a fluke, and this route may have been an over correction, It was still neat to see a perspective other than that of the main highway.
3. We are staying on post in the George Marshall House.  Apparently, if you drop Pop’s title, you get the good digs.  I am not in favor of dropping titles, but it is a nice place.  George Marshall lived there, just down the street from Patton’s old place.  You know George Marshall of the Marshall Plan.  Huge house, fully furnished including china with the Infantry Shield.  The place even comes with a Master Sergeant who is the steward.  We hope he doesn’t show up, what with us being poseurs and all, but are worried, since there is a steward’s fridge with all the makings for breakfast.
4. Always lovely to be with the family, but I miss singing “We Gather Together” at Grace on Thanksgiving, and being with the coffee shop gang for dinner.
5. So it must be noted that in the guest book for the house there are all sorts of notables and interesting people, but very sadly a few entries before ours is a family from Ohio, that in their note thanks the Ranger Battalion for the “memories of their son.”  I am guessing that he was killed in Iraq, and they came here for a memorial service.

November 20, 2007

1. Paul drove me to work this morning, since M & D are picking me up here.
2. I really am confused about food lately.  I want things that are very fatty and then immediately feel sick upon eating them.  What sort of torturous game is this? And the holiday of large food in nigh.  Self control, where art thou?  I will make a concerted effort to walk a lot in the coming days, not just because of the eating, but because: it makes me feel good, I like walking around Ft. Benning, there are all sorts of monuments, including one to war dogs (that’s right, war dogs) and it makes me have less of the old lady “stiff hip” that I have been having.
3. I went by Stelmos last night and 6 of the 11 coffee sleeves have been sold!  Woo!
4. Much of the school is out on the hill overlooking the field,  watching the Turkey Bowl, the upperclass Flag football game.  They make themselves shirts.  The Freshmen, the class of 2011, are “11 Angry Men,” the sophomores (2010) are ”inTENse.” I didn’t see the juniors butthe Senior Class of 08 are “The Ocho,” which you may remember from the cinematic classic “Dodge Ball.”
5. I’m looking forward to the ride with Mom and Dad, they are fairly entertaining, and my mom makes nice sandwiches.  Ahh the call of the open road.  I hope this year the traffic will be moving a wee bit faster!