Two Days Till Turkey Day...

So tomorrow morning I am catching a way too early flight back home. Don't get me wrong--I cannot wait to get home and see the family and sleep in my old bed with flannel sheets and have my mom cook for me again. But let it be known that I will really miss not being with Matthew for Thanksgiving. And I will not be there for his birthday either--poor boy. But my WHOLE family is getting together at our house for this BIG thing--which has now kinda turned into a small thing, seeing as how two branches of the family tree have the flu. Oh well...c'est la vive.

Anyways, Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday. It outranks Christmas and New Years and even the Fourth of July. Why? Because it is centered around your best friend and mine, Food. And amazing, mouth-watering, once a year kind of food at that.

So I raise this question: What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

Obviously, mine is pumpkin pie with a side of whipped cream. Mmmmmmm.

AMAZING, huh? I thought I had lost this picture, but it was just hiding inside my computer. This is right off the interstate in Phoenix, AZ. Not only are we taking over Mississippi, but Arizona too. Next, the WORLD!

This is the power chair: The State Car of Arizona. The city sidewalks are buzzing with them. Men, women, and children of all ages are driving these things all over town --to the grocery store, the bank, the Circle K, church. Everytime you turn the corner at a major interesction, you narrowly miss mauling a family of four on their way to the mall. The other day I saw a very "non-disabled" middle-aged man letting his son steer the power chair all the way around the apartment complex. Another very "non-disabled" woman walks her dog three times a day on her power chair. Maybe it's time I trade in my Camry...

But round IS a shape...

It's amazing: In an average week, I spend 45 hours working, 50 hours sleeping, 10 hours at the gym, 59 hours doing various other activities, and only 4 hours eating. How am I not skinny?!! I will tell you why. What is the cheepest things to buy at the grocery store? Macarroni and cheese, ramen noodles, peanut butter and jelly, bread, eggs. Carbs! Carbs! Carbs! With the prices of groceries these days its almost like I have to take out a loan to eat healthy. Lean meat, fruits, and vegtables are expensive!

Just thought I would share...

Public Speaking....

Jerry Seinfield said that the number one worst fear among Americans is public speaking; number two is dying. This means that if you had to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.

There is something truely terrifying about reading something that you wrote in front of other people. I have no problem standing in front of a classroom of eighty-something high school students and threaten to take away there breaks for forever if they don't shut up. And I don't even mind the suprise principal sit-in evaluations while I am teaching a class on compound-complex sentences with adjective clauses and gerund phrases. I can even handle, with a fair amount of composure, telling a co-worker that they need to do their job. Believe it or not, I can hold my own when an abrassive and irate parent wants to talk to me about their baby's grade in such-and-such a class. But when it comes to reading a piece of writing that I wrote, I totally freak out.

Tonight in class I shared a vingette that I wrote. (Keep in mind that "class" consists of 6 people including the teacher) My heart was pounding, my armpits were sweating profusely, and my voice was shakey. After it was all over, we had a short break, and I went into the bathroom to see that my neck and chest were covered in viscious red splotches. Reading a 600 word short story literally stressed me out to the point of heart palpitations and hives.

I guess its just the feeling of thinking "What if they dont like it? What if they don't get it? What if they think I am a weirdo? ...I should just stop right now."

But everything turned out okay in the end. I feel it was a success. Everyone liked it and I got some very positive feedback. So if anyone wants to critique it and tell me what you think--I would love it. Just don't ask me to read it to you.

There is no household chore I despise more than doing the laundry...

Ten Reasons Why I Hate Doing The Laundry:

1. Community Laundry Rooms: Some machines work; others don't. You never know which is which until you try it out. Every load is a gamble.

2. Laundry Is Heavy: Nothing is more annoying than the cross-complex trek to the laundry room, with a laundry basket digging into your hip, a duffle bag cutting off the circulation of one arm, and a gallon of detergent dangling from the other arm. And all the while you are struggling to hold doors open with your spare toe.

3. Dry Clean Only: What the hell?! Does that mean gentle cycle?

4. The Wait: 46 minuets to wash; 46 minutes to dry. This is an ALL DAY affair. You can't forget to transfer the laundry, so you come back to the apartment and risk falling into a nap. Now it takes an hour to wash and a hour and a half to dry.

5. The Drying Rack: If you are a girl, you know that you can't just lob all your laundry directly into the dryer like boys do. Some things cannot be dryed for whatever reason. So you have to sort through all the wet clothes to find those items, carry then back to the apartment, and neatly hang everything on the drying rack.

6. The Dampness: It never fails--you go to get the clothes out of the dryer and every third article of clothing is still damp. Instead of wasting an extra 75 cents that you don't have with you, you decide that everything that is damp must be hung up on the drying rack that is already full. Before you know it, you have damp laundry hanging up in every room of the apartment.

7. The Lost Sock: You put 6 pairs of socks in and only come out with 5.5 pairs of socks. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!!! Math was never my forte, but I feel like this is a mathematical mystery.

8. The Wrinkles: Now half of your clothes need to be ironed. That is another top ten list in and of itself.

9. The Folding: It is not so much the folding that bothers me, it is the putting away of the clothes. I usually fold laundry in front of the TV and stort and stack my folded clothes on the coffee table, but then they never make it to the desser. Sometimes I just get dressed in my living room.

10. The Endless Cycle: The sad part is that there is always going to be dirty laundry. You can spend your whole day washing and drying, but in the end, there is always going to be a little something left in the bottom of the hamper.

Man, there is nothing like a two hour phone call from Fiona to pick a girl up when she is feeling down! I know what you guys are thinking "What could one possibly talk about for two hours straight?" and the answer is, "I don't know." Sometimes we don't talk about anything at all, and it's still great! Oh, fiona, you are the best girlfriend a girl ever had!

Whoa!

First of all, ...WHOA!...did you see LOST tonight? I did NOT see that one coming!

Second of all, Veteran's Day Weekend is just around the bend. Eventhough, I have no exciting plans for my long weekend, I will share with you what was going on this time last year: The Grand Canyon. What a great road trip. That weekend, there was a snow advisory, and when we finally got to the G.C., it actually start to snow!...well, flurry....but it was still exciting. Here is a pic.

Monday night was session #3 of Writing the Short Story. I am rather pleased at how things are turning out. Next week we are having a "sharing session" so that everyone has a chance to workshop their piece. I am excited!

PS-No School on Friday!!! Yay Veteran's Day!!!

Date Night

What a great weekend! Matt and I had a for-real date for the first time in what seems like forever. Saturday night we put on our good jeans and went out on the town. We ate dinner at Red Lobster and later went to see Jarhead. It was not quite the blood-and-guts war movie that I expected, but it was very good! I recommend it. Four and a half stars.

Familiar faces

What a wonderful suprise! Jenny's parents, Johnny and Ivy Weeden, are here in Tucson!!! It was so wonderful to see a familiar face from home and hear a fellow southern drawl. We ate lunch at Bison Witches, a great little sandwish shop. (Little did i know, On Sundays this hole-in-the-wall version of McAllisters turns into the hippie/stoner college student capital of the world.) The wait was a little long, but the food was well worth it. And in the meantime Johnny and Ivy and I talked about the world of teaching (Johnny is the superintendent of a school district in Mississippi). He was talking me up about trying to start a charter school down South. It's not a bad idea, Johnny, not a bad idea at all!

Ah, Corndogs.....

Note to self: never go to the grocery store when you are hungry. So there I was in the frozen food isle and there they were: Corndogs! I couldn't remember the last time I had one. Needless to say, I couldn't resist. Boy, was it mmmmm-mmmmmm good! .....and now I need a Rolaid.

So this is my brother, Michael. He is so wonderful; by and large the best brother ever! Until just recently, I thought he felt the same way about me. And then I found out that my brother, in cahoots with my own MOTHER, handed out ALL of his senior class pictures. (I only recieved this via an email attachment) Can you believe it! And to make matters even WORSE: Michael tells me that he gave one of his school pictures to a certain calculus teacher, but not to his own SISTER! How does this happen?!

But just look at that mug! He makes me laugh just looking at him!

...Michael, I miss you.....