That's Right

...it's The End.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

that triggers...a rrred light challeeeeeeenge!

If I never start my own drive-in theater in Maryland...

and if I never become a host on Globetrekker...

and if I never become an Olympic rock climber...

and if I never work at Charm City Cakes...

I think I will start my own Baltimore chapter of Cash Cab. Of course, I would have to overcome an insecurity of driving strangers around as a profession. I would probably have to undergo an intensive internship with Ben Bailey. That would be okay with me.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

4-year-olds on spirituality and/or magic

highs:
  • beautiful days
  • my intern telling me she wrote a paper about how awesome and calm I am (Honestly, I breathe a sigh of relief anytime someone describes me as calm.)
  • coming home to see deer munching branches in my backyard
lows: My kids were particularly oppositional today. That is my least favorite of their moods. I prefer 'affectionate,' 'helpful,' and 'silly.' I'll take what I get though.

huhs: this conversation:

Little Girl: Do you want to know what magic words you have to say? I will tell you. You have to say "Jesus God please may."
me: Really? What do those magic words do?
Little Girl: They make you turn into what you want. Then you have to close your eyes and say "unicorn."

Friday, March 13, 2009

I have the measles and the mumps, a rash, a gash, and 40 lumps

I write you this in the throes of death. It's 4:30 in the morning, and I just woke up after a fitful 4 hours of sleep. I felt very restless, and in my mind, my skin must have resembled a green screen weather map, with cold fronts and heat waves shifting all over the landscape. My eyes feel too big for their sockets and all of me is a little shaky. I tried to swallow some water, which for some reason is very difficult for my stomach to digest. Swallowing is a feat in itself, as this whole thing is no doubt caused by the routine rebellion of my tonsils, lungs, and sinuses against my general well-being.

Naturally, I managed to heave myself downstairs in order to check my temperature. My resting temperature is somewhere around 98 degrees, so anything is feverish for me. The highest reading I got just now was 101. Seriously, that's it? At school, that's our limit for sending children home. If they are under, we might wait and check again. For real? You're telling me that a 3-year-old little body feels like I do right now (give or take .6 of a degree), and we have them chill for awhile instead of going straight to bed? Madness.

Well, that was enough of a distraction for now. Perhaps I will be able to fall asleep. Peace out, well people. I might be taking my uninsured butt to the clinic for some urgent care today.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

currently

I'm not usually one to advertise the music I'm listening to. It makes me feel pretentious. However, I want to test this out...




Music makes me happy. As does technology that allows me to listen to it for free.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

who wants to take me rock climbing?

I am in a very good mood right now, for no particular reason. I was in a very uncomfortable and awkward meeting for what feels like most of the day, and you'd think that would throw me off mentally and put me in a bad mood. But, when we went outside, it was really warm. Suddenly, my whole outlook shifted. When we came back in and my kids were being antsy as usual, I didn't lose my patience at all. I started acting silly and redirecting them with 'magic spells.' I danced with them. I had fun.

I came home. I laughed at lots of things. I watched American Idol, and I usually don't care about it, but I started jumping up and down when Anoop was brought back. He made me so excited I had to listen to some old school R&B. I laughed at The Office instead of criticizing how untrue it is to season 1. Just a night of TV watching, but I feel good.

I think it's the weather. Does it really affect us that much? I believe the suicide rate is much higher in northern countries with long winters and dark days. Sorry, Finland. Am I that much happier in the spring? I hope it stays so warm!

Sunday, March 01, 2009

41 days to go

It is day 5 of my facebook fast, and I can't exactly say it's hard - it's more an issue of suppressing a reflex. I have started typing in the URL on several occasions, until I realized my fingers were betraying me. There are several reasons I am taking a break during Lent, but none of them are "it wastes too much time." I honestly have a lot of free time, so I don't feel like I'm misusing it. The real reason I gave it up is because it feeds a lot of negative dependencies and motivations:
  • I like to feel connected to people, since I don't see my friends that much during the week, and since I don't see a lot of family members...ever. However, facebook is not a real connection. You see a lot of superficial things about a lot of people, like who wrote on whose wall, but you don't usually use it to have any meaningful kind of coversations.
  • It's an easy way to project an image and get attention. Everyone gets to see all the fun things you do in photos and all the awesome music you listen to and whether or not you profess certain political or religious beliefs. They can even comment on all your witty status updates. Ultimately, this is dumb. We do enough image projection in our culture, and we don't really need one more outlet for it.
  • I guess I like to feel in control by keeping tabs on people. If I know what someone did on a particular day or see pictures of a certain gathering, I feel a sense of control. That is just plain unhealthy.
Hopefully this fast will lessen some of these tendencies, since I won't be giving in to them. Altogether, I will not quit facebook entirely, because it is still awesome:
  • I DO use it to keep in touch with friends and family members who are far away.
  • I have actually been able to fill in some of my genealogy through family groups.
  • It's a good way to maintain some contact with friends with whom you just aren't close enough to call.
  • It's fun to look at pictures.
  • It's the supreme stalking tool, and sometimes stalking is necessary.