Brain-Be-Gone
Today I was buying weed killer at Lowe’s. After loading my cart with weapons of dandelion destruction, I decided I wanted to go outside to look at the tomato plants. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to take my unpurchased chemicals outside. I noticed a man coming toward me purposefully pushing a big cart. “Excuse me,” I said, gesturing to my Weed-Be-Gone, “Am I allowed to take this outside to look at the tomatoes?”
“Do you think that I care?” the man replied.
“Well, some Lowe’s worker needs a nap!” I thought. It was only when I was checking out that I noticed all the Lowe’s workers wear bright red vests with name badges, not tailored polo shirts with embroidery like the man was wearing. Duh, I asked a customer! No wonder he was so peevish!
Other than feeling like a total dork at a hardware store, the rest of life has been going well. This weekend, I was one of the chaperones at Talents for Christ, a teen competition in all sorts of categories. Hunter placed second in male voice and public speaking. Ghosty took first in female voice and 2-D art, and Kleinekatze took second in strings for her beautiful harp playing. Countrygirlatheart took second in 2-D art, and Wit’s lemon pound cake was delicious, even if it failed to beat out the chocolate cheesecake.
Life is slowing down a great deal now. All we have are baseball games and practices (only one boy playing this season and two umpiring!) and Pride and Prejudice practices. (And school and voice and music lessons, but those are all-school-year things and don’t really count, right?)
Does life slow down for you in May, or does it get a lot busier? Or, are you too busy embarrassing yourself in stores to even notice?
Month: April 2007
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Teen Revisited
Memof6 said that she/you should ask me all sorts of questions. Feel free! I like to jabber about myself. The questions can be her happy-birthday-on-Friday present.
A new thing has happened here on Xanga. People who don’t have Xanga accounts can now leave comments! Woo! Now, all of my non-Xanga friends who faithfully read can chat with me. You have to leave your name and an email. I know some of you aren’t keen to leave your real email. I bet you can leave a fake one. And, for your name, just make sure I know it is you. Biscuit’s Mom, I’ll recognize. Wrestling Maniac could be too many folks (all you B’s!), so you’ll have to let me know which one you are. Peep I’ll know for sure! If you want to leave a comment, click on “Add Comments” at the bottom of the post. Click the bubble for “Anonymous” and fill in the required boxes. Once you type your comment, just click “Submit.” I hope someone will try out this new feature!
I have become a fan of the band Reliant K now. They are a contemporary
Christian band, and they have lyrics which really tickle me. What I
like about them is that I often get the jokes and the kids don’t. In one
song, In Love with the 80s, they say, “When you’re president of the Breakfast Club” which my kids totally didn’t understand. The chorus of that song is catchy.
And I’m only gonna pierce my left ear.
And I’ve been working on this mustache all summer long.
And my favorite band will always be Tears for Fears.
And I’m gonna wear a pink tux to the prom…
Now, my date my sophomore year wore a pink ruffled shirt to the prom. Does that count? Do you remember Tears for Fears? The Breakfast Club? What is your favorite 80s memory? Band? And for all of you youthful readers who will sarcastically quip, “My birth” or “I wasn’t born,” what things did you like about that awesome decade?
Teacherperson goes to the prom–1985, age 15.
P.S. Yes, I still have the dress.EDIT–I was going to leave this bit as a comment, but I decided to edit instead.
Since we are yapping of bands–The Police, Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Stray Cats, Huey Lewis and the News, Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Cutting Crew, Wham, Billy Idol…Plus, my favorite high school song (or one of them) was actually by Tears for Fears–Shout, shout, let it all out, these are the things I can do without… I also had a copy of a cassette by The Dead Milkmen and The Beastie Boys (No sleep ’til Brooklyn!) Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls was a must-listen.
Songs stick in my pea brain more than anything else, it seems.
INXS (in exceess–remember?) did this one I liked because it had my name in it.
Mary, Mary you’re on my mind,
The folks are gone and the place’ll be mine,
Oh, Mary, Mary wanna be with you,
And this is what I’m gonna do,
I gonna put a call to you,
‘Cause I feel good tonight,
And everything’s gonna be right, right, yeahI’m gonna have a good time tonight,
Rock n’ Roll music gonna play all night,
Come on baby it won’t take long,
Only take a minute just to sing my song.Golly, we were lame, eh? Oooh, Top 40! Casey Kasem! I didn’t delve in to Pink Floyd, the Who, and Queen until I hit college.
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Failure to Concentrate
Hunter
had his orchestra concert tonight. It was a great performance (Yeah,
flutemom38!). But, we are all saying, “Oh, goodie. No more orchestra
practice! One more thing off the list!”
Can
you tell I am eager for school to be finished? We have thirty or so
days left of school, and I’m more antsy than the kids are to be over. It’s been lovely weather, which never helps me to stay
focused on schooling. I’m not the only one, I know, but when Mom isn’t
setting a tone of diligent work, how will the children ever manage?Ah,
I think this is a dull post. It need enlivening with jokes. Here are a
few that the jester told during scene changes.What do you do with dead elements?
You Barium!Why did Mickey Mouse get shot?
Because Donald Ducked!Can you imagine a world with no hypothetical situations?
Why did Beethoven get rid of all his chickens?
Because they kept saying, “Bach, Bach, Bach!”What do you call a cow that just had a baby?
A decalfinated cow!
I
made crepes tonight for supper. It was nostalgic. A friend of mine made
me crepes with strawberries many years ago. I’ve thought of them with
fondness ever since. I loved every bite, but the kids didn’t find them
so appealing. (TGD and Hunter escaped the crepes.) At least it was an
inexpensive failure.
What was your most recent failure or perhaps your “grandest” failure? -
Sorrow
When the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech came out, I read the list thinking, “Oh, don’t let any of my former students be on that list.” None were. Today I got this email from a fellow AP teacher about Zach Weber, a wonderful student from my first year of teaching:
“Zachary went into the Air Force
right after graduation from high school, and had been stationed in
Italy for almost 2 years now. He was
due to come home in just 2 days for a brief furlough before changing his
assignment (I can’t remember if he was set to head to Iraq, but that
is possible). He had a few days off before heading home, and had gone with a
good Air Force friend to do some hiking in the Italian Alps, and in a freak
accident he lost his footing and plunged to his death down a very steep and deep
ravine. The family just got word of this horrible news yesterday afternoon at
5:30pm, when 2 Air Force officers showed up at their door.”
Oh, how my heart aches for this family! They have a married daughter and a younger daughter at home. They are faithful, close-knit, homeschooling family.
If you could remember the Weber family in your prayers, please do. If you knew Zach and want to send a card or email to his family, let me know and I can get you their addresses. -
So, It’s Over
And they clapped a whole lot for me. It was sort of embarrassing. But, I bore it well. (hee hee) Tonight’s performance was better in all senses. The entire play shut down, even the people on stage, when Princess Anna snorted in laughter. I laughed until I had tears dripping onto my skirt! Perhaps you had to be there, but if you were, you’d have been laughing, too.
Here are some random shots–The King and Queen of Veritas
Sir Gavin, Sergeant at Arms
The Best of Jesters
King Pierre DuCompte Cheverdeux
from Chevrotin
Duke McTavish MacDougal
The Whole Cast
The Directors: Abby, Teacherperson, bkroeker, flutemom38
Hunter hangs out with Laughsalot12 and Sadie
RansomOfThulcandra and Teacherperson
Have a blessed Sunday! How do you usually relax on Sunday? -
One Down…
Performance One is now done. I was pleased. If you were there, what did you think? What was your favorite bit of the night?
And, if you weren’t there, how did you spend your Friday night instead?
King Christopher of Veritas and William Winsor Charles Briley Spencer
Our Good Neighbor, Nan
Old Betty, looking like a courtier instead
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Happy Birthday to Gockle420!
He wasn’t particularly small for a newborn. The box of cornflakes was rather large.
Already working his charm
Aw, what a smile!
Let’s wash some dishes!
Raggedy Ann wig and a cheesy grin
He really fell asleep just like this. Look at what’s on the book he was “reading.”
Already a computer lover. He made his own!
Another super-huge block tower, a Michael specialty!
Starring as Peter Rabbit (a musical solo, even)
Let’s catch a fish at Scioto Hills
Crabby? Not Michael!
Michael loves Max cat
Way cool…Bulldogs rule
Happy, happy birthday!
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Secret Xanga Man
19 hours and counting until the play.I read The Men Who Stare at Goats last night. What an interesting book. It’s a true tale of the history of the American military’s psychic operations units. The author, Jon Ronson, a British fellow, is an engaging writer who interviewed a ton of people and presented their stories. As I read, I wondered, “Is this for real?” But, I think it is!
The title comes from one of the projects where military guys tried to stop goats’ hearts by staring at them. One guy actually could do it.
If you like military books, quirky books, or want to read more about subliminal messages, warrior monks, or how one can paralyze a hamster by staring, I’d recommend this tome!
Since we are on the theme of secret programs and things, I was wondering, how many of you have multiple Xangas? How many have “secret” Xangas? (If you want to share the other blogs, feel free!) I have a “secret Xanga,” but since it’s a secret, I won’t tell you what it is!
(Okay, I could tell you as it’s no big deal. It’s where I’m posting my book chapters as I write it.)
Tomorrow, April 20th, is Michael’s birthday! (It’s also WesJanson‘s) -
Text Me
The play is zipping along at a zippy pace. Well, at least I’m pretending it is! I helped Hunter review his lines today while we spread crabgrass preventer and fertilizer on the lawn. I trailed him around reading the other parts while he said his line. Across the yard, across the yard, “All eat and drink in joy for tonight is the bridal feast!” Across the yard, “Why, why did you marry me?” Refill the spreader… What must the kids getting off the school bus have thought?
Speaking of this play, in case some of you do not know, it is an original work. In 1995 or so, a man from my church in Ohio (Bob) approached me about writing a musical suitable for Christian high schools to perform. I suggested that we write one based on the fairy tale, King Thrushbeard. I wrote the play and many of the lyrics (and hummed a few tunes). Bob wrote both the tune and the lyrics for the song Hunter sang in the previous video clip. The play was never performed, and none of the music was written down. All I had was an old cassette tape of Bob playing the piano and singing some of the songs, one paper copy of the script, and my memories.
This past fall, bkroeker and flutemom38 said, “Hey, would you like to do a musical?” I said, “Sure. Want to do mine?” Bkroeker took the sketchy outlines of songs and wrote all the music for them. He changed them around and added choruses. We scrapped two songs and wrote another in a ski lodge while chaperoning a youth group snow tubing event and another for a new character. I added six or so parts so that everyone who wanted to be in the play could be in it.
Now, it all comes down to this: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
I did a brand, new thing for me this afternoon. I sent a text message from my cell phone! Also, I got my first personal text message. I felt like an old fuddy duddy as I couldn’t figure out how to type it. Every time I’d press one of the keys, it wouldn’t go to the next letter. I finally figured out something, but I had a few funky characters. Forgive me, CheesePuff!
Do you send text messages? Have you ever sent one?
