I love this world, even when I'm extra tired...

I've been out for a few days and now I have 180,000 alerts to get to.
I got a good start tonight, but it's almost 2 a.m. and I'm losing steam...I have to work in the morning...
I earned a promotion at work (yay!) which means now I'm making more money (yay! yay!) but it also means that I'm the one who's expected to handle T's special accounts when she's out on disability next month.
So I've been training on these accounts for the past week and work isn't NEARLY as fun as it used to be!  I hate training on new things...accepting change isn't one of my strengths, AT ALL.
huh...
I was going to write something about my struggle with my checkbook today and how I finally was victorious and BALANCED it...
but I just now fell asleep in my chair.
sheesh...
G'night...

I know there's more to life...

...this week than STAR WARS.
But I can't help it!  The madness has taken me...
My Geek Quotient rose dramatically when I went to see the movie again Saturday night with D.  Suddenly I was one of those crazy people who saw it two times during its opening weekend.
And I couldn't stop thinking about the conversation I had with my daughter's science teacher when I ran into her at the geek-fest Wednesday night...she asked me if my daughter was upset that I came to see the movie without her, and I was dumbfounded...C has never shown any interest in these movies...she's a total 'Lizzie McGuire' girl...
All day Thursday and Friday I thought about my daughter and her American-ism being in jeopardy by not seeing these movies...I concluded she was never interested in watching them because I WAS and it was some kind of backward pre-teen rebellion thing...
So this weekend I set out to introduce her to Luke, Leia, Han Solo, and the gang...
She refused to leave her computer.
I had to hook up a laptop in the living room.
I put the movie in.
For the first half hour, she was online and pretty much ignoring the movie...
I don't know at what point she started watching it...she never moved from the laptop, but she was watching the movie more than the computer.
When the movie was over, I asked if she wanted to see 'The Empire Strikes Back', and she didn't hesitate..."Yes!"...
Hooked, she was...
By the time we finished up with the trilogy today by watching "Return of the Jedi", we were curled up on the couch, eyes glued to the screen, as Luke and his father saved each other's life, and then we were sobbing as Anakin took off his mask, and died...
SHE'S A FAN!  SHE'S CONVERTED!
Now she wants to see 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones', poor thing...

Episode...Three!

I just got in from the 12:10 a.m. showing of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith...
I have to get up for work in, oh, about three hours, but that's okay...
Because the movie was SO. GOOD!
Way better than Episodes 1 and 2...and I would also say way better than 6 as well...maybe even better than 4...
And the good thing is, D refused to go see it in the middle of the night (because he's so old, you know) and so I had to go see it with my sister-in-law instead...and so now I get to go see it again this weekend, with D.  I'll have to remember to take extra tissues this time.
Note 1:
There were six different midnight showings at the theater we went to...and inside our showing, I saw a former friend and co-worker of mine...and also my daughter's science and homeroom teacher, and her school counselor.
I went down and said hi to my daughter's teacher and asked her how she was going to hold up in class tomorrow...she said we all have to make sacrifices and she'd do the best she could! LOL! I can't wait to tell my daughter in the morning...
I was just imagining three people in that showing, times six showings at that theater, times five other theaters around town showing the movie at midnight times six...does that mean that possibly ninety people I know were watching Star Wars tonight at the same time I was?
Note 2: 
I saw a grown man dressed up like Chewbacca tonight.  And another dressed up like Darth Vader.  And lots of grown men with light sabers. 
My life is now complete.

Teachers Worth Remembering...

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #59: Teachers Worth Remembering...
We've all had teachers who have made a difference in our lives.  Tell us about one of yours.  It can be a teacher from any level of education, from kindergarten to graduate school.
Mrs. Donsky, my high school German and English teacher...
My freshman year in high school, I chose German as my foreign language because I had just come back to the States after living in Germany for three years, and I already knew the language.  It didn't occur to me to take something else! 
It didn't take long for Mrs. D to single me out...I don't know what she saw in me!  Maybe it was the German connection...
I had her for a second year in German...and also a third and a fourth year of German (no one else took four years of a language!).  She made me go to foreign language competitions all the time...and win! 
She also taught honors senior English, and expected me to be in her class, even though I wasn't in the honors program.  Explaining that little glitch to her didn't help.  I had to go to my school counselor and humbly request entrance...and of course, I got in, based on Mrs. D's request and also my perfect ACT score in English (somehow Mrs. D had found about that).
She made us memorize the prologue to Canterbury Tales, in the original Middle English.  She made us memorize Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' speech, and Macbeth's 'Tomorrow' speech.  I still have all those speeches rattling around in my head!
She went crazy on my English papers, correcting my grammar...if I ever commit the unforgiveable sin of a tense shift, please God don't let it get back to her!
I was also her teacher's aide my senior year...that last year of high school I think I spent more time with her than a lot of my family!  She was so brilliant...she knew not only German and Spanish, but also less common languages like Russian and Hebrew and Yiddish.  With a mind like that, why was she teaching at the same high school that she had graduated from, even though it was considered the best high school in the state?  Who knows, but I was so grateful...
She was the only Jewish person I had ever known until then...she was kosher, she taught me all about what she could and could not eat, and the holidays when she wouldn't be at school...she was the only diabetic person I had ever known until then...sometimes her blood sugar would go all haywire during class and she would have 'episodes'...start not making sense...no one would know what to do...except me, I had learned what to do...cookie trips to the cafeteria...
I had always been the underachiever...that's why even though I was at the best school in the state (a magnet school, you had to apply to get in and keep up the grades to stay in), I was doing just what I needed to stay there...but she wouldn't let me continue to do that.  She created high expectations for me and expected me to meet them.  And because I adored and admired her so...I did!
Thank you so much, Mrs. D...
  
Mrs. Donsky and me at my high school graduation, June 1991

My ABC's

I don't know where they started, but I got these from Anna:
A is for Age:   32
B is for Boyfriend:  That would be D. LOL! He hates when I talk about him...we're on year 9, and counting...
C is for Career:  Three careers...I'm a mom...I work full time in brokerage (international) accounting for a corporation...I have a degree in Philosophy but I'm still a student at the University of Louisville pursuing another degree.
D is for Dad's name:  Ray
E is for Essential item to bring to a party:  I try not to go to parties...when D makes me go, he always does the calling and asks what to bring (he's so nice and polite), usually we bring ice.  Oh wait, I have the answer!  Whenever I go to someone else's house, I always take my own Diet Pepsi...just in case they don't have any...
F is for Favorite song at the moment:  I have lots of favorites, I can't choose just one! 
G is for Girlfriend:  Sorry, I can't choose just one here, either... 
H is for Hometown:   Louisville, Kentucky
I is for instruments you play:  Piano.  Guitar.  Middle school clarinet.
J is for Jam or Jelly you like:   Strawberry.
K is for Kids:  C...she's 12...my everything...
L is for Living arrangements:  Small house...
M is for Month you were born:  February.
N is for Name of your best friend(s):   D.
O is for Overnight hospital stays:  Jaw surgery when I was 15, and then when my daughter was born.
P is for Phobia[s]:  Bugs.  Tornadoes.
Q is for Quote you like:  Easy... "The enemy's gate is down!"
R is for Relationship that lasted the longest:  See B for boyfriend, above...
S is for Sexual position:  Ewww, too much information, I'm skipping this one!
T is for Time you wake up:  Weekdays 6:30 a.m.  Sundays 7:30 a.m.  Saturdays I wake up about 7 a.m., realize that this is the day  I don't have anything to do, and then go back to bed until afternoon.
U is for Unique trait:  Nah, don't have one.
V is for Vegetable you love:  I don't eat vegetables...
W is for Worst habit:  Oversleeping. 
X is for X-rays you've had:  I don't know!  Chest, hand, arm, jaw...
Y is for Yummy food you make:  I make a good pasta...
Z is for Zodiac sign:  Aquarius

Small...

I had an appointment at my doctor's office this morning...
I got there at 10:20 a.m....
I was still sitting there at 11:20 a.m....
And 12:20 p.m....
It's not like this was an emergency appointment.  I've had this appointment scheduled for three months!
Fridays, incidentally, are my sleepy days.
I dozed off in the waiting room, through some show called 'Starting Over'? and through 'The Price is Right'...
When they finally called me back to a room, and said, "He (the doctor) will be here in a minute (Yeah, right!).", I was just relieved to get out of the waiting room with the staring people and the bad TV.
I fell asleep in the room waiting for the doctor.  This time, not dozing...I REALLY fell asleep.  I don't even remember the first ten minutes of our conversation after the doctor came in and woke me up, because I was, um, still trying to wake up...
I went to work after that, worked late to make up for it, and came home, took another nap, ate dinner...D and I started to watch last night's CSI but when I turned on the TV that Elvis thing was on.
So you know we had to watch that...well, I had to watch that...
Did I ever mention that I have an Elvis umbrella?
I DO live in the South End of Louisville, you know...
I tucked my daughter in bed and now I'm trying to write my entry and I have my left eye closed and my right eye open, that's the only way I'm getting this done. 
I'm so tired, the waves of sleep are crashing over me...and all I can think about are the hours I spent at the doctor's office this morning. 
Lack of sleep does strange things to your perception...

Gifts...

Someone forgot to take my daughter shopping to get me something for Mother's Day.  D thought my mom took her out, and my mom thought D took her out...
My daughter, being who she is, asked once for someone to take her (the request got lost in the excitement of Derby Week).  At that point, she figured she was on her own, and proceeded to make a present for me.  With her camcorder....
Yes...
She made me a...VIDEO.
I wish I could somehow post the video here so everyone could see it, I'm so proud...
On the video, I got flowers, and dancing kitties that sang 'Happy Mother's Day', and pictures, and plaques, and trophies, and cakes, and balloons...
and over and over on the video I was told, "I love you, Mommy."
Wow...
It was the absolute, best present, EVER.

Mommies...

Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #58: Post one of your favorite mother/child pictures...
The most important thing in my life is the special bond between my grandmother, my mother, my daughter and myself. I'm so blessed! My daughter feels it, too...she went on a school field trip one day this week and I didn't go...her grandmother didn't go...no, it was her GREAT-grandmother who sucked it up and chaperoned the seventh-grade field trip! My daughter is so lucky to have THREE mommies to depend on...
My favorite mother/daughter picture is of my beautiful mother and grandmother, but unfortunately I can't post that one with this entry. Why not? Well, because my mother is shy and she would kill me...and my grandmother thinks the internet is evil, and she would help kill me...
So instead I'm going to post my favorite picture of my daughter and me...circa 1992, just a couple of weeks after she was born.
The first few weeks after your baby is born, what do you remember? Being TIRED, boiling water and bottles, sleeping five minutes, feeding your baby, sleeping ten minutes, walking the floor with your baby, sleeping five minutes...
But mostly you just remember holding her and staring at her in wonder...she's so small...she's so beautiful...and even though she's asleep you don't want to put her down...
And so sometimes you doze off on the couch with her in your arms...

Unsuspecting, while another family member takes your picture!
EXTRA CREDIT: My daughter is 12, I'm 32, my mom is 52, and my grandma is 71...we have 'em young in Kentucky! LOL! No, that's not the extra credit, I just had to say it... The real extra credit fact about my mom is that she has NO sense of direction, AT ALL. She is extremely well traveled, in Europe and the United States, and I have no idea how she ever manages to make it back home! She's the only person I know who can go the wrong way out of a parking lot...in her own city...

Sleep

My alerts aren't working again...bummer...
I called D today from work to ask his opinion on how I should drive home from work, since Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs (big horse race the day before the Derby, just as crowded but more fun, kind of like the Golden Globes compared to the Oscars...) was going to cause all my feasible exits to be blocked on the expressway...
When I got him on the phone, he told me that:
1. He had talked to my brother today and I needed to call him later, to talk about Mother's Day stuff...
2. He had talked to my mom today and she wants us to set up a tent in her backyard for her Derby party tomorrow...
and
3. He had talked to my daughter today and she was at Kentucky Kingdom with her friend...
OKAY...LOL!...whose family is it again?  Mine?  His?  It is mine, right? 
They like him SO much better than they like me...

Wednesday...sheesh...can it be next year already?

24 comments on my Hubble entry...wow...stop the madness!  I'm SO not used to people visiting so much, but it was great fun while it lasted... :)
I need a pep talk...I'll give it to myself...
Self!  Stop sleepwalking through life...stop living in a fog...WAKE UP!
Since I'm sleepwalking lately, there's not much to talk about...or not much my subconscious wants me to talk about...is there a difference?
I can't find the film for the NY trip.  I put them on top of the piano and they disappeared.  No one has any idea what happened...
I read the book Angela's Ashes this week (yes, I know the rest of the country read it years ago!), which then led me to read the book 'Tis...it was very enjoyable reading 'Tis, which was set in NY.  Now that I've been there I can envision where everything is, it makes everything so much more clear!
I also just finished reading Angels & Demons, which was very very good...okay, I couldn't put the book down, it was THAT good!
I also took a break from serious reading and read a couple of my daughter's teen Meg Cabot books...I like Meg Cabot's grown-up books and since my daughter's teen books were just laying there, I just had to read them...they took about 45 minutes to read but hey! they were still good...stop laughing at me...
My daughter has slept in my bed the past two nights, because she saw a spider on the ceiling in her room.  The spider got away.
I have conflicting emotions on this...on one hand, I can TOTALLY sympathize...if the spider had been in my room, most likely I would be sleeping somewhere else, as well.  On the other hand, it is SOOOOOOOOO uncomfortable and crowded when C sleeps with me...she kicks me and elbows me (in her sleep!) and finally I get up in the morning an hour early just to get some rest!
I did a lot of talking and finally convinced her the spider was long gone and she could sleep in her room again tonight...
Sometimes it seems like being a parent is all about doing fast talking!

My list...

Here's my list, better late than never...I don't know where it started, but I believe I took it from Julie...
() smoked a cigarette 
() smoked a cigar 
() made out with a member of the same sex
(x) been in love 
(x) been dumped
(x) stolen
() been fired
() been in a fight
(x) snuck out of my parent's house
() had feelings for someone who didnt have them back
()been arrested
() made out with a stranger
(x) gone on a blind date
(x) lied to a friend
()had a crush on a teacher
(x) skipped school
(x) slept with a co-worker
() seen someone die
() had a crush on one of your journal friends
() been to Canada
() been to Mexico
(x) been on a plane
() thrown up in a bar
(x) purposely set a part of myself on fire
() eaten Sushi
() been snowboarding
() met someone in person from journals/online
() been hxc dancing at a show (I have NO idea what this is!)
() been in an abusive relationship
() taken painkillers
(x) love someone or miss someone right now
(x) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
(x) made a snow angel
() had a tea party
(x) flown a kite
(x) built a sand castle
(x) gone puddle jumping
() played dress up
(x) jumped into a pile of leaves
(x) gone sledding
(x) cheated while playing a game
(x) been lonely
(x) fallen asleep at work/school
() used a fake id
(x) watched the sun set
() felt an earthquake
(x) touched a snake
(x) slept beneath the stars
(x) been tickled
(x) been robbed
(x) been misunderstood
() pet a reindeer/goat
(x) won a contest
(x) run a red light 
() been suspended from school
(x) been in a car accident
(x) had braces
(x) felt like an outcast
() eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
(x) had deja vu
() danced in the moonlight
(x) hated the way you look
() witnessed a crime
() pole danced
(x) questioned your heart
(x) been obsessed with post-it notes
() squished barefoot through the mud 
(x) been lost
(x) been to the opposite side of the country 
(x) swam in the ocean
(x) felt like dying
(x) cried yourself to sleep
() played cops and robbers
(x) recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers
() sung karaoke
(x) paid for something with only coins
(x) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) made prank phone calls
(x) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(x) caught a snowflake on your tongue
() danced in the rain
(x) written a letter to Santa Claus
(x) been kissed under a mistletoe
() watched the sun set with someone you care about
(x) blown bubbles 
() made a bonfire
() crashed a party
(x) gone rollerskating
(x) had a wish come true
() humped a monkey
() worn pearls
() jumped off a bridge
() screamed penis in class
(x) ate dog/cat food
() told a complete stranger you loved them
(x) kissed a mirror
(x) sang in the shower
() have a little black dress
(x) had a dream that you married someone
(x) gluedyour hand to something
() got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
() kissed a fish
() worn the opposite sexes clothes 
(x) been a cheerleader
(x) sat on a roof top
(x) screamed at the top of your lungs
() done a one-handed cartwheel
(x) talked on the phone for more than 6 hours
(x) stayed up all night
() didn't take a shower for a week
()pick and ate an apple right off the tree
(x) climbed a tree
() had a tree house
() are scared to watch scary movies alone
(x) believe in ghosts
()have more then 30 pairs of shoes
()worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
() gone streaking
() played ding-dong-ditch (I don't know what this is, either...) 
() played chicken [in the pool]
() been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on
(x) been told you're hot by a complete stranger
(x) broken a bone
(x) been easily amused
() caught a fish then ate it
() made porn
(x) caught a butterfly
(x) laughed so hard you cried
(x) cried so hard you laughed
() mooned/flashed someone
() had someone moon/flash you
(x) cheated on a test
() have a Britney Spears CD
(x) forgotten someone's name
() slept naked
(x)French braided someones hair
()gone skinny dippin in a pool
()been kicked out of your house
Pretty tame answers, really...