The Spirit of Something

So, Christmas shopping has already resulted in the deaths of at least three people. Two men shot at Toys R Us and one employee trampled to death at Wal Mart. Um, pardon me, but did you all miss the part about Peace on Earth?

I did not shop today. First off, I worked 7 to 5:30. Secondly, I am doing Christmas for $50 this year and pretty much have everything bought already. And the traffic at 6:30 this morning was insane.

I did take my very first phone calls on the job today and lemme tell ya, it rocked! My job is so much fun! Even the people I can't make happy are fun, lol. And boy does the day go faster when you are talking to people than it does in the classroom.

Btw, the power stayed on all week long and all is well...eh, except the dirty dishes that have taken over because Nate worked part of the week, as well. Thanks to those who prayed!

Re Figure

Having a rotten day.
First, I have an ear ache.
Secondly, I had to spend all of THREE breaks on the phone with a government official who has the power to make my life very difficult, and I believe intends to do so.
Thirdly, because of the time I spent on the phone with said official, I forgot to pay my power bill and my understanding is they will be turning the power off in the morning.
Yes, the day before Thanksgiving.
Yes, it is cold and rainy.
Yes, we will be putting a note on the meter informing them that my check IS in their drop box, but somehow I don't think it will help.
Fourthly, I have a terrible crush on someone I should NOT have a crush on, and he totally wore exactly what he should not have worn today, and of course looked very good in it.
Fifth, I have to make a big batch of cinnamon rolls and a pair of pajamas before I can go to bed tonight.
Sixth, my son was decidedly NOT proud of my ability to pick out Pierce Brosnan's chest from a chest lineup on TMZ.
I can't remember the rest of my complaints. Which is probably a good thing, as I decided on Sunday after our sermon that I need to be more thankful and obviously I am already failing at that.

On the flip side, they are not changing our shifts after all, so that is good news.

It Figures

It figures that about the time I get adjusted to, and even excited about, my new shift schedule...we find out that our shifts have all gone out the window. Or not. They aren't sure.

I am so exhausted that I really don't have much to say. Sad, isn't it?

5:45

I got the shift I asked for. This means that in three weeks, I will be working at 5:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. No, really.

I know that I can do this, because we had that paper route for a year and a half, and so we were up at 3:30 every morning, with only five days off in that amount of time. But it still seems like a terrible, fearful thing. I am trying to figure out how to work this one. Do I get up at four and do my usual morning routine? Do I go to work in my pajamas (this is allowed. Now, if you are late three times they will fire you, but you can come to work looking like you are still in bed, and there's no problem with that!)? Do I shower the night before so that I am clean? If I do this, may hair usually looks awful. But hats are allowed. Do I eat breakfast at home, or start packing them like I do my lunches, and just eat at my desk to shave off another 20 minutes? How low should I allow my standards to sink?

The good news is that I will be off before three every afternoon. Of course, I will be in bed by 4:30 in the afternoon...well, maybe not that early, but I am sure I will WANT to. And definitely, no matter how much Nate begs, there will be no more staying up late watching movies!

Brrrrrring!

I was awakened this morning by my phone ringing. Far earlier than I would have liked! In my dazed state, when I looked at the caller ID I thought, 'That number looks kinda familiar' but could not place it. The caller sounded quite baffled.
"Hello?"
"Um...huh...uh...who IS this?" (I always love it when people call you and ask you who YOU are)
"Jennifer"
"But...um...well...never mind!" *click*

Once I was fully awake, I looked at the caller ID again and realized the number was 1 digit off from my own. Poor guy thought he was checking his voice mail and was a tad surprised to find it had a life of its own!

Tuesday

It is dreary, wet and cold today. It's also a holiday of sorts (I can't figure out what is running and what isn't today. The college is in, but the schools are not? No mail or library but the gov't employees at the plant have to work? Who makes all the rules and why are they falling down on the job?) and one would think we could take the day off schoolwork and do something holiday-ish, but that's not how it's going to work. We didn't get nearly enough done yesterday, and Nate is about to take his final-final-last-ever Key to... end-of-book test. I don't want him to break right before a test, for obvious reasons, even though no one but me will ever see the score. And even though Teaching Textbooks Math 7, which he is also working through, is about to review the same subject matter.

Fortunately, Nate and I found a Geometry book that will last him a couple months, since the thought of doing only one math program at a time is a bit foreign to him, and he keeps saying he needs more challenge. This Geometry book is very hands-on, no proofs or anything, just fun with shapes. I want that for him before he goes on to in-depth Geometry. He is considering doing TT Algebra and TT Geometry at the same time, and Mr. Pevensie, who was once a PS math teacher, said that is perfectly acceptable. Nate will begin TT Algebra in Feb. according to our current schedule. I already have that program, since we used it with Brandon, so I would only have to buy Geometry with tax refund money.

I loved Geometry when I was in high school. My teacher, Mr. Presto (is that a cool name or what?), had a great policy. You could choose to be graded in one of two ways: 100% of your grade from the test scores, or 50% from test scores and 50% from homework. Quite a progressive PS teacher, IMO. Since I thought homework was basically useless and I always got good test grades, I went with the first option. Mr. Presto stuck me in the back corner of the room with the following year's math book and left me to myself. He was a really thoughtful guy. We had an assignment to draw a pictures using only a straight edge and a compass. I still think it was the best piece of art I ever produced. He hung all the pictures on the wall without names and had the class line up and go from picture to picture rating them on a 1 to 10 scale. I got a 10. I would NEVER have been given a 10 if the kids had known whose picture it was, but he did it in a way that mostly avoided popularity as a grade.

Mr. Presto also let my mom sit in on his Alg. 1 class when she decided to go back to college. I thought that was a very brave thing for her to do. Only two problems--my boyfriend at the time was in the same class (and boy did I give him strict instructions to behave!) and Mr. Presto called me by my mom's name for the rest of the year.

So, I think schoolwork, hot cocoa, and maybe a movie is on the list for today. And maybe I will grab Nate's straight edge, compass and box of colored pencils and make some memories.

Is It Cold In Here, Or Is It Just Me?

For the last few weeks I have worked with real, live scientists. It was cool. Brought back memories of my days working in the high school chem department, wearing a powder blue lab coat (because I couldn't figure out where to buy one that I could tie dye!), turning down dates with guys who only wanted one thing from me (access to chemicals), and finding new freckles when I went outside after spending the morning reclaiming silver.

Anyway, the other day I overheard one of the real, live scientists say something about polar ice levels being very high, as high as they have been since I was kicked out of preschool. I was fascinated. It sure SOUNDED like this real, live scientist was saying something that I had been very careful not to say in that building...manmade global warming is a hoax!

I tentatively broached the subject with him and indeed, there are lots of crazy people like us in the world, many holding science degrees. He shared some links with me that I, in turn, am happy to share with you. That last one might be especially fun, if you can figure out what it says (set your homeschooled middle-schoolers on that).

Greenie Watch
Watts Up With That
Solar Cycle

Downsides of Working

This time of year is especially hard to be working full-time because I am at work during all daylight hours. Very frustrating when you want to go for a walk, shoot hoops with a kid, etc.

There is a house behind mine. I can see it through nearly every window. It is green. A terrible shade of acid green, to be frank. I have absolutely no idea when it became this awful color, because the last time I saw it, it was white!

Life goes on while I am at the office. I hate to think of what else I am missing. I don't understand why women worldwide long for this. My longing is to be home. I really wish I knew how to do that.

You May Say I'm a Dreamer...

Apparently a lot of my frustrations in life come out through my dreams. I don't mean Joseph-in-Egypt dreams, I mean, well, weird dreams. Like once I dreamed that my kids were pregnant...my male children, ages 4 and 6. That was my oddest dream yet...until last night.

Last night I dreamed, and I cannot quite remember the order these events happened, that:
I was on a trip.
I ran into my friend, Mary.
Mary's hair was long (I have never seen her with long hair). When I said, 'Mary, your hair is so long!' she said, 'Of course, I just got it cut.'
I ran into her in a hair salon/hotel/restaurant.
She proceeded to give me a very LARGE bottle of wine, pouring one glass for me, and told me to drink it (the whole bottle).
Oddly, I very much wanted to. I thought it would be fun. (If you know me...you know this is SO not me)
But, before I could give in and become an instant alcoholic, Mary's car ran away. On its own.
We all ran outside to chase down the car, and when it got to the bottom of the hill and stopped, I looked up and saw the Aurora Borealis in the sky. I yelled, 'Look!' and when everyone looked up, the Northern Lights turned into a fireworks display that looked like microscope slides of bacteria. Still moving.
After this, Mary and I went back to the hotel, where we inexplicably shared a room, and even more inexplicably had to enter through a series of doors that kept getting smaller and smaller like in Alice in Wonderland, until finally I thought I would never be able to fit through!

At this point, I woke up, and found that my blankets were all over my bedroom and I had to go to work. I have given up on trying to figure out this dream, but you are welcome to take a stab at it.

I emailed Mary and told her to set her parking brake. She said she had a dream about me last week involving a large, uber-cool new house that had all glass appliances so that we could see the electronics working. Now THAT makes sense!

Take Your Kid to Work Day

What? You say it isn't Take Your Kid To Work Day?! Well, it was at my house. It was now or never!

Today was my last day working at this temp job. Unlike 'the hay place,' this was a job Nate wanted to visit, so he took the bus out and got a personal tour through the labs from a forensics expert. Way cool, huh? And now I will have a week home before the next job starts, which is a mixed blessing (time home is good...unpaid is not! LOL)

A MOMENT OF SILENCE

The Daily Grind

Since I have started working again I have begun to notice that not only is it difficult to feed myself when I am hungry, but it is difficult to notice my hunger. Recently I have begun grinding my teeth-something I have never done!-and finally figured out that it almost always occurs when my body needs food and isn't getting it. This is carrying over into the off-work hours, as well, much to my annoyance. Somehow I have GOT to learn to notice these signals before they reach that point, and I also need to be more diligent about having food on hand while at work. The only stuff available there is a snack machine with almost nothing in it that I like or that would help my tummy, and the school cafe, which is across campus and also doesn't have much in the way of good food (good here meaning enjoyable food, since food is morally neutral in my kingdom).

Intuitive Eating is turning out to be a much longer process for me than I thought when I began and made so much progress so quickly. It seems every week something else pops up in my path. That's ok, they are learning experiences, right? I am grateful that I can eat at my desk (if I am prepared to do so) at this job, although I still struggle with feeling like people will be saying to themselves, "Look, that fat girl is ALWAYS eating!"

I was talking to someone who mentioned that Halloween candy can be kept in the freezer and handed out the following year. This may be fine for some people, but I simply cannot do it. When I was a girl, my mom couldn't 'control' her own eating, and so she spent a lot of time controlling mine. One of her tactics was to take away all my Halloween candy, put it in the trunk of her car, and eat it herself. It would be perpetuating that dysfunction for me to do something similar. Nate didn't trick-or-treat, so the candy we have leftover from the goblins who visited is the only candy around. Interestingly, he has declined the opportunity to purchase gummy bears (his fave treat) or take candy from grandparents' leftovers--his reasoning being that he has plenty of Starburst and Skittles here at home to eat still. His attitude is so normal that it stuns me sometimes. Of course he doesn't have to horde and grab. No one is trying to take his candy away!