don't ask for any lowlights; just sing along

I had a bad day. The highlight was probably hearing my favorite jingle on the radio, for the poison control hotline.

If you think that you've been poisoned and you don't know what to do,
Call 1-800-222-1222.

It's so peppy.

fifth time's a charm?

It's been a while since the days of Flat Tire Wednesdays, as you may recall. Could Thursday be the new Wednesday? It was, yesterday!

I had noticed my tire was a little low on air, but being that it was freezing outside and I didn't have any quarters, I decided the tire could wait a day or two for some more. Within my 'day or two,' period, however, my tire blew out. I was driving a coworker home from a training, and I immediately knew what was wrong. The all-too-familiar "thwap thwap thwap" I felt under the car gave it away. My first thought was, I am an idiot! Why didn't I just give it some air yesterday!? I didn't even know if this would have made a difference. As I told my friend (who, did I mention, is pregnant?) that we had a flat, I pulled over into the nearest place out of the way of traffic. It was a church parking lot.

I didn't have a lot of luck at the last church parking lot I pulled into with a flat (Ever read that Good Samaritan story? Well, they were like...whoever passed by before the Samaritan). However, I felt a spark of hope when I realized this was my chance to prove myself. All previous attempts to change my own tire had ended in failure. I would not make the same mistakes this time. I knew what to do, and I wasn't going to forget any key elements...like putting on the parking brake.

I set to work with purpose. Parking brake: on. Jack: ready. Hub cap: off. Wrench-like thing that comes in two pieces: assembled and about to take the bolts off. And that's where I got stuck. I used all my strength, but I couldn't make a single one budge. My coworker, who regularly and good-naturedly makes fun of me for being a skinny blonde kindergarten teacher, got a kick out of it as I started jumping on the wrench, trying to make it turn. "I want to be an independent woman, but I'm (jump) JUST (jump) TOO (jump) SMALL!!!"

In the end, my friend's husband came with a borrowed car, which was a good thing, because she had to pee. He also could not get the tire off, which relieved my bruised ego a bit. Hey, it wasn't just because I'm a wimp. Also, he had Triple A, so they came to the rescue. The Triple A guy, Ernesto, easily removed the affected tire with his power tools, put on my spare, told me "no" when I asked him if I could have prevented this blowout, and wished us (and the baby) a blessed day. Hurray for Ernesto! My car was temporarily repaired, and my guilt was assuaged. A good ending to a familiar situation.

Next time....next time.

I don't live in the past, I just keep the past alive

RNOTM, in chronological order:

• listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and the Everly Brothers every car ride to Massachusetts
• the overnight train from Rome to Paris and all it entailed
• when our guests were a seagull and some bees on my own version of Brian Fellow's Safari Planet in senior English (as a teacher, it still shocks me to think of our many glorious uses of 'instructional time' and how that would never fly in a public school)
• dissecting life and Jack Johnson songs over toffee nut lattes in the middle of Safeway
• falling asleep to Austin powers 3 regularly
• Snowshoe...what with the snow football and can crushing and homemade birthday cakes decorated with pretzels ...oooh good times good times
• getting my roomies hooked on The Office...and consequently YouTube clips of John Krasinski...and watching it nonstop all winter long
• all my aunts and uncles giving us a "Norwegian goodbye" as we drove off in a rental van
• dumping red wine on the beach when we saw the police headlights coming our way, only to have them take a good 10 minutes to arrive, and then not care less what we were doing

Maybe it's cheating to have this many at one time, but hey, I'm greedy. "Happiness is" most definitely the common thread between these things.

"what movie is that from!?"

I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Taking a bath: one unit, watching Countdown: one unit, web-based research: two units, exercising: three units, having my hair carefully disheveled: four units. It's amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I'd ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?

Thad Thacker and William Wonka

Every day in my classroom, the kids come in, and there is a general chatter as many little conversations go on at their tables. The other day, however, something sparked one large conversation in which only one person spoke at a time, in a very serious voice. It went something like this:

kid 1: But God can save us.
kid 2: Yeah, God can.
kid 1: Cause if there was no God, the devil would rule the world.
kid 3: So that's why God has to save everyone.
kid 1: And you know how Satan gets his power? He gets it from the devil.
kid 4: But the evil people killed God, on the cross. And they put nails in his hands and blood came out. He was up there with those bad guys.
kid 1: And God was dead for 3 days and he went to the devil.
kid 5: No, he was only playing dead!

And then they kind of repeated the same things again. Makes me recall my own kindergarten days of evangelizing the neighbors.