Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Psychic

I went to see Phyllis the Psychic today. It was really awesome. Among other things, she told me that in a previous time and personality, my soul belonged to a military man who sacrificed his family for his career. In a weird way, that made sense.

She also told me that my spirit guides wanted me to know that although I always feel like I'm studying for final exams, there actually are no exams. There is no final test or final judgment. Instead of worrying about holding myself to some imaginary standard, I should just breathe and remind myself that I have lots of time. A single moment can be stalled and expanded if I breathe. This was the first thing she said to me after she got in contact with my guides.

I laughed out loud after she gave me the initial message because, omg, acting like life is a series of exams to pass with flying colors is exactly what I do and how I talk about it.

The truth is, I loved seeing the psychic. I'll be seeing her again, for sure. It was like therapy except much cheaper and your spirit guides just tell you what to do instead of asking you how you feel all the time and encouraging you to come to the answer on your own. Your spirit guides give the advice freely, and I felt like the advice was really good.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Protest Report

When we were in Madison, Kari and Jackie and Rachel and I walked up State Street to join the protesting.

I took some footage on my Flip camera and promised the gals I'd edit a little film together.

Today at lunch, Jackie wondered how long it could possibly take me to get it uploaded.

"I keep waiting for that video!" she exclaimed.

"It takes a long time to edit video," I said defensively.

"Well, don't make it good, just get it online!" she admonished.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

ROAD TRIP!

Tomorrow I'll be picking up Rachel, Jackie, and Kari in the minivan and driving us all to the NCTE-AR conference in Madison.

We'll probably join in solidarity with the protesting workers while we're there.

We'll also probably go out to dinner a couple of times.

Most likely, we'll spend a lot of time congratulating Rachel on her awesome talk.

What I don't know is whether I'll say something idiotic to a famous literacy researcher. So far, I've only done that at 50% of my NCTE-AR attendances.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Dump

Dan and I spent the morning and early afternoon loading up a rented pick-up truck full of useless and broken crap we've collected over the years and taking it to the dump. We did this twice.

We also went to the hazardous waste dump with lots of old paint and batteries and aerosol cans.

The low light of the day was dropping the Senegalese purse my sister gave me in the sludge at the dump. I found out later that it came out okay in the wash, but at the time, I was really annoyed and disgusted.

The other low light is that we had McDonald's for breakfast AND lunch.

The highlight sounds so lame that you won't believe it's a highlight. It involves accidentally calling Dan a "stupid idiot." What a dumb and juvenile thing to call someone! Especially over the innocuous practice of not eating chocolate eggs on Easter like you're supposed to, but instead saving them in the refrigerator for years, only to throw them away two days before you close on the sale of your home.

We laughed a lot over the "stupid idiot" comment for some reason, so that's why it was a highlight.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Why Can't I Blog? I Can't Blog!

Last night, we went to a seminar at Mac's school called, "Independence in the Montessori Home." As part of the course, we watched an inspirational video about how Mac could do everything all by himself in the house all the time without any help from us.

All it takes to achieve this idyllic lifestyle is lack of concern about basic safety, hours to spend on even simple tasks, and millions of stick-on hooks.

One Montessori kid in the video gets up before his parents and prepares perfect omelets by standing on a stool in front of the lit stove. Then he grinds coffee and prepares his mom a latte. That kid is 8.

Another kid makes her own homemade lemonade and gardens for hours each day.

The littlest kids dressed themselves while smiling broadly and assisted their moms in sweeping, vacuuming, and dusting.

None of the kids watched televisions or ate processed foods. Did any of the parents actually have jobs? Because it seemed like they were spending all of their time watching their children trying to button their shirts for hours at a time.

Friday, February 4, 2011

This Has Been a Long Week

I'm currently eating olives and cheese.

My children are at my mother's house.

In an hour we're going out to dinner.

I'm watching my new obsession, What Not to Wear.

Am I happy?

I'm pretty much happy.