Locked in a vault with a TV and my favorite shows...

Could there be anything better?
Patrick's Sunday Seven, Episode 3:
You will be locked in a tape vault for six months and you can only have seven choices of television programs to watch.  Name the seven shows - present or past - that you'd want to make sure were accessible by your remote control.  Don't worry about listing them in any particular order...just pick seven you wouldn't want to be without for six months.
Here's my seven:
1.  All the different incarnations of Star Trek...is it cheating to list them separately, or is it cheating to lump them all as one show?  Regardless, give me 'ST: Deep Space Nine', 'ST: The Next Generation', 'Star Trek' (the original series), 'ST: Voyager', and 'ST: Enterprise', and I am one happy girl...
2.  'Buffy'...
3.  'Charmed'...
4.  'The Pretender'...(ssshhhhh! Don't interrupt my fantasy, please...)
5.  'MASH'... this is my most recent discovery...I avoided watching this when I was growing up - I was an Army brat and I already had quite enough of Army life, thank you...I only started watching it in the past couple of years because of D's addiction to it and, wow!, why didn't I know before what a great show it was?!
6.  'Survivor'...don't you like to record the whole season and then, after the winner is announced, go back and watch it from a different perspective and see masterminds at work? ... What, no one else does this?  Oh...
7.  I don't know what to put for #7!!!  So, when the time comes and I'm put in the vault, I will close my eyes and pick between 'Alias', 'CSI', and 'MacGyver'...I'm thinking 'MacGyver' will win!

Fuel pump...

Fuel pump gone bad...
$819...
$819 to fix a car that is three years and one month old...
$819...
The mechanic gives me the price like it's no big deal...
Like I HAVE $819 just lying around in case my car needed to get fixed!
My sister-in-law took me to work yesterday, and my mom picked me up.  Maybe in about a month, I'll have saved enough on gas to be able to pay to get my stupid car back...
:(

!@#$%^^&*!

My car broke today.
Of course, right AFTER the 3-year/36000 mile warranty goes out on it...how do they plan that? 
D came and rescued me of course (my hero, my knight, my love), but my poor car was towed off in the opposite direction to the dealer.  I don't even want to think about how much it's going to cost to get it fixed...
BUMMER!
I have lots more to discuss, but my throat hurts and I'm depressed and I really just want to go to sleep...
At least my kitty is still. so. sweet...

Adolescence (sigh)...Can I hang on?

We're late for school and work in the morning because my daughter can't put the kitty down.  She's late going to bed at night because she can't put the kitty down.  The poor kitty has to grab her sleep where she can...the minute C leaves the house, I swear I can see the kitty heave a big sigh of relief...
But seriously, my daughter at 13 is sooo much harder to deal with than she was at 12.  How many more years of this do I have to survive?  I looked in the mirror the other day and nearly died, I suddenly have WRINKLES, thanks to her...
For the last month all I've done is work, get into arguments with my teenage (oh. my. goodness) daughter, and play with my sweet adorable kitty...at least MY KITTY doesn't talk back to me!
Here she is:
  
My innocent little kitty, who NEVER gets in trouble... :)

I've been tagged...

The wonderful Anna tagged me, so here goes...

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die (in no particular order)
1. Visit where I used to live in Germany...
2. Go to Disney World...
3. Go to Alaska...
4. Learn to speak Spanish...
5. Get married (someday...)
6. Watch my daughter grow up into a beautiful woman...
7. Act the way I want to act instead of how I'm expected to act, and do what I want to do instead of what I have to do.

7 Things I Can Do (in no particular order)
1. Read really fast...
2. Type really fast...
3. Hike in mountainous terrain...
4. Play the piano...
5. Edit papers...
6. Swim...
7. The Vulcan 'Live long and prosper' salute...

7 Things I Can't Do (in no particular order)
1. Lose gracefully...
2. Admit when I'm wrong...
3. Face conflict and confrontations...
4. Be around any type of insect or spider...
5. Stop myself from blushing...
6. Act normal in a social setting...
7. Return phone calls...

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex (in no particular order)
1. Sense of humor
2. Kindness
3. Intelligence
4. Thoughtfulness
5. Humility
6. Hands (they must be MANLY...)
7. Sports affiliation (e.g., Team preferences MUST be compatible with mine)...

7 Things I Say Most Often (in no particular order)
1. Cool...
2. Wow...
3. Huh.
4. My goodness...
5. PLEASE get in the shower / go to bed / go to sleep / wake up / brush your hair / clean your room / clean up your mess...
6. I love you...
7. Where's the kitty?

7 Celebrity Crushes (in no particular order)
1. John Cusack
2. Ed Harris
3. John Cusack
4. Ed Harris
5. John Cusack
6. Ed Harris
7. John Cusack

7 People I Want To Do This (in no particular order)
1. I don't think I KNOW seven people who haven't already done it!
2. Um...
3. This particular tag might have to stop with me...
4. How about, anyone that reads this that HASN'T done it...
5. just go ahead and do it?!
6. And then leave me a link to it...
7. Yay!

Your turn ...... Tag!  You're It!

Katrina's...

Our city has currently taken in about 1,100 people from New Orleans...I live in a wonderful place, but, to those people, it won't be like home. 
     "Say this city has ten million souls,
      Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
      Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us." 
I can't imagine what it would be like to have everything taken away, and, even worse, not knowing where my family is... I can donate goods and money, but I so wish I could do more...
     "Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
      A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
      Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours." (W.H. Auden - March 1939)
I wish I could give them back their place in the world, and take their pain away.

Slacker...

Why haven't I been online much?
1. Because I've been too busy playing with my new kitty.
2. Because my daughter is now a social butterfly and SHE has to be online all the time, IM-ing her friends...when she's not talking to them on the telephone, that is...
3. Because I'm lazy lazy lazy...
Yes...all that...
oh, and...
4. My arm hurts.
Saturday is D's birthday and I have NO idea what to get for him...for nine years now, I have gone through this same dilemma.  What do you get for someone who works seventy hours a week and has no time to pursue outside interests?  (except for me...he likes me... :) )   (and there's also that whole WWE thing that he has to record twice a week...which I try my hardest to ignore and not make fun of...)
Right.  The answer would be...a watch.  And also clothes, since everyone needs those...
He has something like, oh, nine watches, I think?  All from me...
:)

Despite my best efforts...

I still didn't manage to get back in here in less than a week...
But I was busy!
1.  Playing with my kitty...
2.  Fighting 'THE MAN'..., the bank, who thought it would be a good idea to charge me 17 overdraft charges in two weeks.  That's $32.00 apiece.  I believe that makes the total right now at $544.00 and climbing...So I called them and sat on the phone for an hour and spoke with several different people and still didn't get my money back.  AND IT WASN'T MY ERROR!  I'm furious and hurt and I'm changing banks.
3.  Watching my kitty sleep...
4.  Fighting 'THE MAN', Part 2...in this case, my prescription insurance...I filled my daughter's monthly Rx, as usual, and when I went to pick it up from the pharmacy, I was informed that the insurance wouldn't pay it until they got some form faxed to them from her pediatrician's office...I had to spend an hour on the phone with them and speak with several different people and my daughter ended up going a whole day without her medicine.  Ooooooh, I was mad! 
5.  Luckily, when you have a kitty, you can pet them a lot and it makes you feel better...
6.  Fighting 'THE MAN', Part 3...Or not, actually...Part 3 is avoiding the man...I have to turn my car back in since my three-year lease is up.  But I haven't got it fixed yet from last year's accident.  I need to call the car place and find out...if I keep the car, do I still need to get it fixed?  Will I be allowed to keep the car?  (The howls of despair in the background are from D, who is dying at the thought of me keeping the car since I only got the oil changed on it twice in the three years that I've had it...)
7.  Kitty kitty kitty!
(sigh)
Today (Monday) was C's first day of eighth grade...all weekend, instead of one last relaxing time, she had a terrible cough and cold...on top of the fact that she finally got her braces on her top teeth on Friday...so she was UNHAPPY about starting school with new braces AND the chronic cough.  But she looked so pretty and grown up, in her blue shirt and her blond hair...right up until she refused to take her medicine this morning, and then we walked out of the house to the car and my grandma was outside, next door, waiting to take pictures of C's first day, and so then my daughter turned around and stuck her tongue out at me.  Several times.
Sooo grown up!  LOL!  What a reassurance! 
I dropped her off at school, came back home, and hugged my kitty some more before I went to work.

The World Crashes All Around When Michelle Comes Back to her Journal...

...only, I think about it all the time, but things are so out of kilter right now.
ANYWAY, enough about that...
I started watching Animal Planet recently...I thought my kitty might like to see the animals, so we watch it together at night before we fall asleep.
Only, she falls asleep right away, and I've become hooked on 'Animal Cops'. 
Right now, both my daughter and my kitty have fallen asleep on my bed...so where am I going to sleep?  There's no room! 
My daughter has a very cool room, with her TV and her VCR/DVD and her computer and PS2 and her floor to ceiling bookshelf...so why does she always want to be on MY computer, and then watch TV on MY bed, and then fall asleep there?
I guess I could sleep on the couch... :(
and I guess it's obvious who rules the house...and it isn't me...

A hush...

I'm trying to type quietly so as not to wake the kitty, who's sleeping on my desk.
She was sleeping on me, and I was typing one-handed.  Then I moved a little.  How dare I?!  She showed me...
We took the kitty back to the vet for the umpteenth time Friday because her cough is worse worse worse, and the vet said she has pneumonia and it was very serious and she could die from it.
That was enough to send me into tears...the vet quickly backpedaled and said that because she's gained weight in the past week and she's still alert and playful, they're not keeping her.  They just changed her antibiotic (for the third time) and sent us home with a prescription and we have to take her back in a week, but keep an eye on her if she gets worse.
Even her 'meows' are hoarse.
We did get a laugh out of the pharmacist at Walgreens, when we dropped off the kitty's prescription...she's on Zithromax now...I think the pharmacist must have been new because she asked for the date of birth, and I said, "She's a cat," and the pharmacist just looked at me, and looked at her computer...then went into the back...
When we picked up the prescription later that evening, I said, "I need to pick up a prescription for 'G------'", and a different pharmacist working then, "First name?," and I said, "Well, my name is Michelle, but the prescription is for my kitty...," and she said, "Your cat's name?"...
So I brought home the prescription that had been filled for 'Josie The Cat G------'.
:)
Took my daughter to Holiday World for her birthday on Thursday.  It was so HOT AND HUMID!  My daughter had a great time.  I tried my hardest not to whine and whine and whine, because usually that's my daughter's job...let me just say sunburn...on my right arm and shoulder...ouch ouch ouch...
I finished reading the Half-Blood Prince...the world is a darker, sadder place...the end of the book raised many questions I'm hoping the last one will answer, and until then, I'm so :(

No lines...

I keep waiting for things to return to normal...HAH!...what's normal?
I gave blood at the blood drive at work on Friday, for the first time in five years, because they've finally changed that rule (I've been eliminated since 2000 because I had lived in Europe for more than six months since 1980...they have finally changed it from six months to five years, so my three years are finally okay! Yay!)
I didn't used to have a problem giving blood, but I guess because it's been so long, I've gotten rather attached to it...I felt really faint and queasy, seeing it go away from me in that BIG BAG...bye blood...
My daughter's volleyball fundraiser was Saturday morning at 7 a.m.... yard sale/car wash... and oh boy, THAT was really fun, sitting in the 100% humidity for hours and hours while your daughter is her usual cheerful and not at all rude self (I'm being sarcastic there)...
And then we had her birthday party that same evening (her actual birthday is on Thursday)...
My grandmother graciously allowed me to have the party over at her house, because my house is trashed while we're redecorating (and now that I'm writing this I'm not sure if I even said 'thank you' again after it was over? oh my gosh I'm as rude as my daughter, obviously that's where she gets it from...)
The combination of losing a gallon of blood the day before (okay, a pint or whatever it was), and a gallon of sweat that morning, and sitting in the heat all day, and getting a sunburn, and running ALL OVER town between the yard sale and the party, resulted in a very exhausted me and I totally crashed at the party.  I think I slept for at least two hours on my grandma's couch...
My family spoiled C, as usual. 
And D, always the ultimate in spoiling her, bought her a portable DVD player. 
Oh. My. Gosh.  Maybe she'll let me borrow it...
Whatever.  Maybe THEY spoiled her, but I don't see THEM subjecting themselves to what I'm going to have to do...
I bought her two tickets so that we could go see Hilary Duff in concert next month. 
HILARY DUFF!
It's what C REALLY, REALLY wanted...
I tried to convince D to go with her instead, but he said...well, I can't write in print what he said, but it was along the lines of a very firm 'NO'. 
I've banged my head at Metallica and KISS concerts...I've clapped my hands at Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks concerts...I've mellowed out at Rod Stewart and Beach Boys concerts...
but this one really has me nervous!  How do you act at a concert THAT YOU'RE TAKING YOUR THIRTEEN-YEAR OLD TO?
THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME, I'VE REALIZED THAT I AM OLD.
Good night... :(

Tales of the kitty...

Our new kitty is four months old.  C has named her Josephine Haden, or 'Josie' for short.
I LOVE MY KITTY!
She's taken over our life...our house...my checkbook...
The vet gave us a ton of medicine for her, which she doesn't like at all, at all, at all...
I'm having trouble convincing her to sleep in her bed...every morning I wake up and guess where she is?  In my bed, lying either down on the corner by the window, or up on my pillow...
My daughter is in heaven...she brushes Josie's fur every day...gives her a bath with 'kitty wipes'...she even is cleaning out her litter box without complaining.
She's also vacuuming every day, at my insistence...she IS complaining a little about that!
I've learned the real meaning of 'scaredy-cat' - all we have to do is walk by and the kitty jumps a mile and runs away...and 'curious as a cat' - if it's there, she will find it!
She's got black and orange fur, with a tiny bit of white and cream mixed in on her paws and belly...you can brush her fur all day but the moment you let her go it's all crazy again.
SHE'S SO CUTE!
And she's awake right now, playing...(that may be a euphemism for trying to tear up the furniture and the carpet with her cute little claws...the cute little claws may be a problem...)
(BANG*CRASH)
(just a minute)
She just knocked over all the books on the bookshelf by my window, and so is now lying on my bed, pretending like she's asleep.
(sigh)
Even so, I STILL LOVE MY SWEET, NOT-SO-INNOCENT KITTY...

Cautious dreams...

Thursday evening, we came home from C's school volleyball meeting and she went out in the backyard for a little while.

She came running back in a few minutes later, ALL excited about the stray cat she found in my grandma's backyard (next door).

"That's nice," I said, and went back to reading my book.

But then twilight came and she still hadn't come inside.  I went out to retrieve her and found her sitting on the ground by the fence that separates our backyard from my grandparents.  She'd been playing with the cat for all that time.

"I can't leave her, Mommy.  She's lonely...and look how skinny she is, she's obviously hungry.  Can't we just feed her something?"

I've heard variations of this from her over the years.  I never had a pet growing up...and C's never had one.  I wouldn't even know where to start.  But standing there in the backyard at twilight, I made that life-changing decision...

"C, stay here...I'm going to the store to buy some catfood!"

Obviously, the years and years of begging has worn me down, as well as the ELEVEN stuffed kitties that now occupy our home, and not to mention the endless pictures of adorable kitties I see from colleagues at work and my friends online, most especially my dear friend Julie, who I know is rolling on the floor laughing now!

Our new cat's name is Josephine...we've decided that she's a girl even though we're really not sure yet.  We're taking her to the vet this week.  If she turns out to be a boy, her name is... Joseph!  LOL!

I'm going to look at my new cat now.  She's really C's cat, but I'm sharing in the excitement, as this is my first pet also...it's lovely and scary and entertaining and, oh yeah, PRICEY!

Pearls...

D called me today, as C and I were on our way back from the orthodontist.
D: "What are you doing?"
Me (very tersely): "Oh, I'm sitting in the car with C..."
D (laughing): "Oh, is she full of happiness and joy..."
As he said that, she was in the passenger seat, grumping and grumbling under her breath about how I was mad at her no matter how much I assure her really, I'm not, and how much her teeth hurt and how no one understands her...
So D gets on the phone with her and, VOILA! she's a different child, talking about her new braces on her bottom teeth and how she got to pick out the colors (lavender, sparkly purple, and plum, thank you very much!), and how we're going to Fazoli's so she can have spaghetti since that's easy to chew...
I live with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Sometimes she's still my little girl, like today when she took not one, but TWO stuffed kitties with her to the orthodontist's office, to guard against probable pain...
And sometimes she's an insufferable almost teen, like today with her patented "Are you mad at me...Yes, you are!  I don't see why, I didn't do anything, whine whine whine..."
LOL!
No, really, life is so much fun here!  That whole split personality thing really keeps me on my toes! 

! ! and did I mention !

I took off work early to take my daughter to her doctor's appointment...
Only to hear my voicemail, after I get home, telling me that the doctor's office will have to reschedule today's appointment for some other time.
Normally, yay, I rejoice in getting off work early...but I'm still on special assignment and until it's over, getting off work early just means more work the next day...:(.
But I'm also not driving all the way back there, either! 
My mother and grandmother had a yard sale Saturday and roped us in to helping.  My daughter made $24 dollars.  My mom made $9.  I think my grandma made about $15.  Obviously, the answer is to let the child do the selling! 
My brother and sister-in-law and nephew came AFTER the yard sale and heavy lifting was over.  Why do my daughter and I have to help ALL DAY with the yard sale, and why do THEY get to show up after?  It's one of the great mysteries of life...
My four-year old nephew is so cute.  He came in the kitchen the other day and saw the puzzle that's been sitting there for two weeks and said, "Oooh, can I help?  I'm really good at puzzles, Aunt Michelle!"  And then he proceeded to really help me...for seven minutes before his attention span fell apart and the puzzle pieces started flying.  I had to dispatch him to the living room to play at that time...
Then my brother came in the kitchen ten minutes later and it was sooo funny...he saw the puzzle sitting there and said, "Oooh, can I help!"
I nearly choked with laughter...like father, like son!
The stupid puzzle is still not done, though.  It's gotten to where I close my eyes and see puzzle pieces on my eyelids...it won't go away...
(subject shift)
(light bulb)
I'm thinking this unexpected free hour is the perfect time for a nap!

So glad it's almost midnight...

Father's Day.  Bah, humbug, I'm very glad it's over. 
Okay, my morose moment is over, too...
Went and saw 'Batman Begins' last night...I loved it!  Batman's always been my favorite...he's just your average emotionally disturbed human, like all of us are (except for that whole billionaire thing...) - ANYONE can be Batman!

(Except for that billionaire thing, again...Batmobiles don't come cheap...)
:)
Took my daughter with me to work on Friday for 'Take Your Kid to Work' Day - she had a great time!  She sat next to me at my desk, and for about half the day sketched pictures and generally had no interest in my job at all.
Probably because all I do is sit in front of the computer all day...she can see me do that at home! LOL!
Then she went in the breakroom and read her book and watched TV ('Lizzie McGuire', of course...), until we left for the day.
SHE says she worked hard all day, because she 1) stapled some things for me, and 2) got some things off the printer for me.  She told me today she wants to work where I work when she gets older.  I'm thinking she's imagining work being like Friday, where you go and draw and read and watch TV and get paid for it!
Doesn't that sound like a wonderful job?!  She's definitely on to something...

Peace...

My daughter and I went to the drive-in tonight, to see 'The Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl', and 'Madagascar'.  This was the first time she'd ever been to the drive-in, and she was VERY mad at me when she saw all the other families there, pulling out lawn chairs and blankets..."Why didn't WE bring lawn chairs, Mommy?"...
Because I didn't know that was the thing to do! But now that I'm fully versed in the drive-in experience, I'll be sure to bring supplies next time - apparently your CAR is not enough...
'SharkBoy' was okay...we left halfway through 'Madagascar' because we kept falling asleep - not that it wasn't good or anything, it was just too late...
So of course I get home and I'm still not asleep!
I finally got C's report card in the mail today...thank goodness!  It's such a relief to finally be able to put this year behind us and determine that next year will be sooo much better.  How many times was she absent this year? Fifteen. FIFTEEN!  Between her illnesses and doctor visits (and doctor bills) and surgeries (well, just that one), I'm so thankful that now she's healthy and doing better and she managed to pass all her classes even though she wasn't there half the time. Goodbye, awful terrible 7th grade!
(Remember 7th grade?  I started my 7th grade year in Kitzingen, Germany, and ended it in Louisville, Kentucky.  I remember EVERYTHING about that year - the culture shock of being back in the states after a childhood in Germany will probably stay with me forever.
But the bad thing is, remembering everything, I remember well doing things I wasn't supposed to, and the stuff I was exposed to...and here my daughter is, at that age!  She'll be thirteen next month.  I need some amnesia, I think...)
Sheesh, it's 2 a.m., and I have to be up by 6:45 a.m. ... WHY do I stay up late and write nonsense when I should be in bed? 
And why do I get up at 6:45 a.m. when I don't need to be at work until 8:45 a.m.?  Because I have to be in and out of the shower by 7 a.m. - that's when 'the pretender' comes on.  I have a new addiction...

I hope this Thursday will be better than the last...

Work...last Thursday...
Supervisor called a meeting...
Passed around an anonymous letter she received about one of us, accusing one of us of unethical behavior, stealing company time, etc...
Wow.  Talk about a huge downer in the workplace.
Nobody (except our supervisor) knew who the letter was about, or who it was from. 
It's been a horrendous week since then.  Everyone feeling guilty, even those who are not...everyone wondering who wrote the letter, and no one trusts anybody anymore.  Not to mention expecting to be cut off/terminated/booted out at any moment.
It's kind of like we're on Survivor.
Next week is 'Take Your Kid to Work', and my daughter has been looking forward to it all year, after the fun she had last year.  SURELY the awfulness will be over by then...please please please...
I seriously need a day off!

A way...

My daughter woke me up at 1:30 a.m. to tell me she couldn't sleep...
Oh, the drama that ensued...
I finally got her settled down and not crying any more (don't ask me why she was crying, I think it has something to do with being almost 13)...
She finally went to sleep...
But here I am, still awake.  Have to work in the morning.
And can I wake anyone up and tell them I can't sleep? Nooo...
The joys of parenting...:)

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...

I'm losing my Friday night!...

Friday night is MY night...I go to bed early, or stay up reading...there's no fighting with my daughter about my bedtime, and if I'm not too tired from the week I can catch up on computer time...
I love my Friday nights...quiet, restful stay-in nights...Sunday through Thursday are full of stress and Saturday nights are full of fun but Friday nights are MINE...
Except tonight...
Tonight I have to take my daughter and go over to my brother's house so that we can sleep on his floor, all because of where we live...

You see that enclosed circle where the Derby miniMarathon starts?
That's my neighborhood...
(sigh)
Every year, those of who live here either try to make it out before the roads close, or just sleep in that day, because otherwise we're stuck making circles around our neighborhood for a couple of hours waiting for the 7,000 runners to go by...
But this year, I don't have the luxury of sleeping in, because my daughter has to be at Saturday School at 9 a.m...
Delinquent child!
So since the roads will be closed unless I choose to leave my house at 6 a.m. (I don't think so!), my brother's house it is...
I'm taking my laptop anyway, just in case...

Happy 15th, Hubble...

Monday Photo Shoot: Hubble's 15th Birthday:

Finally one I can do! Space geek that I am, I don't even need to look for any Hubble shots because I already have my favorites on my computer...and my very favorite is one that I've posted here before:
At the time this was taken, it was the furthest glimpse into deep space that we had ever seen...space so far away, and so long ago...
It boggles the mind...

I need a blanket...

I think I'm done writing about the trip, for now...at least until I get my pictures developed.. I had a very productive week...I caught up on the laundry...worked overtime and finally caught up at work...and I gathered up all the disposable cameras we took to NYC and put them on top of the piano by the front door.
I'm trying to avoid a repeat of the shame that I have over last year's field trip to Chicago...I'm sure we probably have very nice pictures of that trip, but I wouldn't know, would I, because I've NEVER GOTTEN THOSE PICTURES DEVELOPED, EITHER...
I have just a tiny little problem with procrastination.
Whatever.
Moving forward...for the past month it's been 70-80 degrees...everything is in full bloom...it was summertime here!  Then this freak cold front moved through...high winds...thunderstorms...hail...a funnel cloud touched down in downtown Louisville...and behind the cold front, oh no, it's so cold!  It's like I'm back in New York!
30 degrees yesterday and SNOWING, when it reached 80 the week before.  That's the Ohio Valley for you...
I'm standing in my living room yesterday, and I hear this airplane flying low over my house, and I think, "Hmm, that's weird."  It wasn't until I got in the car and turned on the radio that I remembered it was THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE, the kickoff to the Kentucky Derby Festival, starting with the air show downtown over the river,and culminating in the largest fireworks display in the country last night.
We never go down there...last year, roughly 750,000 people flocked to the riverfront for the festivities..the crowds and the traffic getting home always seem just too daunting.  This year, though, because it was SNOWING, there was not that big of a crowd at all...I tried to convince D that this is the year we should go, since there'd be hardly any traffic getting back home, but he told me off pretty good...something about freezing to death/am I crazy/what's wrong with you...we didn't have one of those silver survival blankets like one of those crazy people down there...LOL!
So we were at home, watching it on TV, as usual...my favorite part is the music...my daughter likes to watch out the window, because we live close enough to downtown that she can see the sky glowing even though she can't see the actual fireworks...
"I see green, are they doing green now, Mommy?"...
"Yes, honey..."
"Ooh, red, I bet they're doing red now, aren't they..."
"Yes, sweetheart..."
"Ooh, yellow..."
This is the point where I break down and say, will you please come and watch it on the TV? Please please please... LOL!
After the show's big finale, it lives up to its name, as the shock waves from all the explosives downtown move through the city...it really does sound like thunder, and as it moves through the house, it actually shakes the walls...
Thus the annual two week party that my city lives for is kicked off...
All this for a two-minute horse race.
Here we go...

Spaces and the Lady...

We drove the rest of the way through Pennsylvania.  We drove through New Jersey.
In the distance we could see a skyline...
Yes, our leaders said, that is New York City.
Everyone oohed and aahed...the kids got their cameras out and started taking pictures, while the parents gazed thoughtfully into the distance...
It's like we were seeing two different things.  The kids were seeing the Big Apple, the Empire State Building, and an exciting adventure at hand.
All of us adults, having grown up seeing pictures of a very familiar New York skyline, could only gaze at it and think, "That isn't right..."
We couldn't see anything but the empty spaces.
Ground Zero was the first place we went to in Manhattan.  The area where the World Trade Center once stood is surrounded by buildings still being repaired...or buildings still standing but were so damaged that they're still in the process of coming down, piece by piece, all these years later.
But mostly you can't see anything but the empty space...
...
We went to the Statue of Liberty after Ground Zero...
that was a very good idea...
if Ground Zero made my heart hurt,
well,
the Statue of Liberty made my heart swell with a wonderful emotion...
What is it about her?
Is it because she's tall?  Is it because she's beautiful? 
Is it because she's GREEN?
Or is it because she represents freedom and a safe haven to oppressed people everywhere?
Yes, that's it! 
Those ideals that she stands for are pure and good, regardless of politics and borders and nationalities (I threw in that nationalities part because there were an awful lot of Japanese tourists on the ferry with us...they were just as excited about her as we were!).
Well worth it...

Excitement and such...

Kentucky-Ohio-West Virginia-Pennsylvania:
The first day we made it three-fourths of the way through PA before we stopped for the night...I LOVED that first day of traveling.  When else would I get to just sit, and listen to music, and stare at amazing scenery, and think deep thoughts...and the best part was, one of my daughter's friends actually came on the trip and they sat together the whole way (seat to myself - YAY!).
That was the first day, though.  I was so sick of sitting on that bus by the time we got back home!
Notes from day 1:
1. Winston Churchill called Cincinnati the 'most beautiful of America's inland cities.'  Hmph.  I guess he never made it as far as Louisville.
2. John and Annie Glenn have a State Historic site WAY UP AND IN Ohio...I know because we passed it...I have to go there!  We like to visit Dayton, OH, anyway, to the Air Force Museum, and it's just a few hours beyond that.  If I mention it often enough to D, I'm sure I can wear him down enough and we'll go, just so he can shut me up...
3. We stopped at a shopping center on the OH-WV border for lunch.  C and I were faced with many options...should we go to Taco Bell? Wendy's? Steak n Shake?  Or, if you wanted to walk really far to the other side of the parking lot, you could go to the McDonald's inside the Wal-Mart-
It was NO CONTEST - we were already on our way...we ALWAYS go to Wal-Mart when we go out of town!
I found some great pens I've been looking for...she bought a hundred different kinds of markers, coloring pencils, and sketch pads.  Because, you know, she doesn't have anything like that...(LOL! LOL!).
4. The drive through Pennsylvania was my favorite, it was so BEAUTIFUL!
5. I now officially know what a 'hex' is and have a much better understanding of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker (I'm just a tiny bit embarrassed about this point - I didn't know that I didn't know, if you know what I mean...)
6. In PA, I started seeing more and more barns with green roofs, or cute little red barns...it finally dawned on me that I was seeing the transition from my part of the world to what is called 'New England'. 
Wow!
More coming...:)

I'm back...

...where all things are green and leafy and most importantly, WARM...
...someone forgot to tell me that not only would the trees not be leafed out yet in New York...
...it was also at least twenty degrees colder there than it was here (I'm thinking now that I actually live in The Deep South, and just didn't know it.  Is Kentucky The Deep South?)
As my daughter says, "New York was SO COOL, in both ways!"
More to come...:)

I am not EVEN ready to go...

But I work best under pressure...
I have to be there at 6:45 a.m., with two suitcases, two carry-ons, and one daughter...
I can do it...
So why am I sitting here in front of my computer instead of, you know, PACKING?!
My city has turned into the most beautiful place in the world this last week and a half...all the trees are green now, and pink and purple and white and yellow...TREES RULE in LOUISVILLE!  (That rhymes if you say the name of my city correctly...LOL!)
Okay, now that I've avoided the packing thing about as long as I can and now I'm getting kind of worried, I guess I have to get to it now...I've already packed the important thing (my laptop)...I do have priorities!...now comes the clothes and stuff...
I'm not sure about this, at all, at all...
Here we come, New York...

Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #54...

Mr. Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #54: Tell us all a single piece of wisdom you've learned from personal life experience.  It can be a small thing, it can be a big thing, a simple tip or trick or the most important thing you've ever learned from life.  But whatever it is, you should be able to state it in one sentence.  That way people will remember it easier.
Extra Credit: Tell us: Would you have listened to your own bit of advice as a teenager? Be honest, now.
Here's my 'wisdom'...I actually felt I could contribute something this week!:
When you're approaching an intersection and the light turns green, SLOW YOUR CAR DOWN ANYWAY, AND LOOK LEFT AND RIGHT, to make sure some idiot hasn't decided to run their red light...and right into you...
I learned this one the hard way, of course...that was the only car accident I've ever been in that wasn't my fault!
Would I have listened to this advice as a teenager?  I WISH someone had told me this, since I was a teenager when it happened...Yes, I would have listened!

Summer?...

My pear trees erupted and have pretty white blossoms all over them...but what I really like are those pink trees...what are they?  They're all pink and flowery and beautiful, and then just a couple of weeks later the pink blossoms are falling off and have made a pink blanket on the grass underneath the tree...
It's like we skipped spring and went right into summer, with the temps in the high 70s and low 80s this week.  We went into daylight savings time...I stayed up all night Saturday...I've got the air conditioning running now...all of that means SUMMER to me!
My iPod is my new favorite toy ... I'm trying not to love it TOO much, because usually, you know, you love your new favorite toy so much it usually gets lost, or broken, or some other bad karma-type thing...
But I'm loving taking my music with me wherever I go...even to work...it doesn't even feel like work anymore!  Hopefully that's because it puts me in a good mood, and NOT because I'm slacking off...
...okay, this is serious, I'm going to New York in less than a week and I really don't have anything to wear.  I'm not joking.  Unless I want to do laundry at the hotel every night, I have a big problem.  OR, I guess I could slouch around the city wearing my FORD sweatpants, which I don't think will go ever well on Broadway...it might fit in okay at the ball game, though... :)
I guess I'm going to have to go clothes shopping this weekend.
Darn it. 
The only thing I hate worse than clothes shopping is, um, ... I can't even think of anything I hate worse.  All that money that could be going towards new books, being wasted instead on clothes!
It's a good thing I have a brand-new iPod to take shopping with me, so I can take the edge off!