Details of life as I find myself changing my life for the better. Sure I could be mature and even tempered, but slightly crazy and an emotional car wreck are more fun.
This is the day I'm supposed to sleep late and squander my time. Oh, sure, I knew I was going to need to unpack some more boxes and do some work on getting all of my crapola to fit in the house, but it would nice and lovely and no spazzing.
Today is the day my editors said that we needed to work if we were going to get everything done. Now, how can I possibly look into the eyes of my overachieving UNPAID editors and say, "Hell no, I'm not coming in on a Saturday. Are you nuts?"
I'd also like to add that by the end of the day Friday, I had a doc to proofread for counseling, a syllabus to write for a course that I may or may NOT be teaching next year, and a nice little stack of stuff to do that I have been avoiding.
Of course, the editors won, and I set the alarm to be at school. I started this post at 9am when I got there. I thought what the heck, while they are working, I can at least start working on my school to do list. That went to hell by about 9:30 when they started rolling in for me to proof read pages. And they kept coming, and coming, and coming. So I got ZERO done on my house Saturday.
I did, at least, manage to get the syllabus done with quite a bit of help from Blondie (Thank you, Lord, for Blondie if I haven't thanked you recently.)
So, the day ended and I took everything home. Haven't actually gotten any of it done.
I have to be at school at 6:30 am 'cause the newspaper staff is on deadline and (again Thank you, Lord) Blondie and I are a team - I take mornings, she takes afternoons. Maybe I can get some actual work done Monday morning.
Today, I did manage to unload two batches of storage stuff today, I got Cat and brought him to the new abode, I hit the grocery store, and I managed to do my laundry, although it isn't folded or ironed. Oh, and I walked the dogs and washed my hair. I need more hours in the day if I'm going to actually get real work done.
Why is it that life can't work in such a way that only one freaking bad thing happens at a time? Why is it that it ALL hits at once? Like baseballs at a dunking booth, they keep flying at you till you are underwater head to toe.
Well, 300 pages of ad proofs arrived on Wednesday afternoon. For the uninitiated, that means that 8 ads managers have 72 hours to check all of the pages, work on all of the corrections that need to be made (and, yes, there are quite a few), and then print all of the pages (that takes forever because the files are huge because of the photos).
I've really been working towards getting my house sold. It has not gone as I had planned. (Translate that as house not sold. Grr) And that means my finances . . .they just get more and more dismal. I'm running out of things to give up. Why does money have to be such a monkey on my back?
I am, without a doubt, totally ready to get my life under control. I'm giving up credit cards. Let my screw ups be warning to everyone else. Credit cards are evil. The companies are even more evil. Credit cards are a sucking cesspool of trouble. I realize many might have thought I'd learn this particular lesson much earlier in my life, but hey, glad I am learning it now.
None the less, this is totally demoralizing. I wish I had never gotten myself in this position, I am still praying that I can sell the house which won't totally solve the problem, but it will absolutely help. I have made a budget (not pretty) and I am working like the devil to stay within it.
I'm moving back home next weekend. I am totally ready to be back home. I miss my little house, and my little existence in it. And, as it turns out, the dogs are not particularly good at behaving when left to their own devices for 10 hours at a time. I should have gotten photos but they only lasted two days before destruction began.
I came home Thursday to find they had eaten a book, done serious damage to a pillow and before the evening was out, Buddy sniffed around a plant, got the vine caught on his tail or paw or something and dragged it off the stand when he walked away . . . breaking the pot and getting dirt every where.
Came home the next day and they had killed an orchid and dragged dirt everywhere. Freaking fabulous. Every time I open the front door I hold my breath and pray whatever they have done I can fix.
I clean up, they destroy. Quite a symbiotic relationship.
Yesterday, my throat started hurting. I'm now taking Vitamin C like there is no tomorrow and gargling with salt water. Oh, and drinking lots of TheraFlu cause I believe, when in doubt, medicate.
Last night was the Hi-lites dance which I usually enjoy chaperoning. FYI Hi-lites is a girls' organization and the dance is a Sadie Hawkins. Last night? Not so much. The boys have begun this new thing where they dance by bouncing up and down like pogo sticks. And then they start running in to each other. It is really annoying. They bounced into me and now I have a lovely bruise on my right foot. I basically spent the night breaking up a mosh pit.
On the up side, once it was enough of a problem to cause us to tell the DJ to stop playing "bouncy" music, he played a song that got them going again, we said to stop, he changed the song, the kids got mad, they were all gone by 10:45 - woohoo!! (Dance didn't actually end until 11:30.
School in general has been beating me down. It is hard to describe, but basically I spend my days being beaten my ants. One by one small annoyances and itchy, but in masse horrifyingly painful. I have lots to do now, but I just had another cup o Theraflu so I'll be taking a wee nap very soon.
Good news: Things with the drummer are actually going well, but I don't want to jinx it, so that's all I'll say.
Ok, that sums up the greatest of my life. Back to your usual program.
So, I work in a high performing district. The kids are go getters, most of the teachers are pretty high-end professionals. A by-product of that is that we seem to find new trends, old trends? and jump on bandwagons. Well, our current one is a doozy. Most of the high school went through this "training" process for 2 days this summer. Those of us unable to go this summer got to go this week and then some are going in January.
So, I have been, a little . . .bitter. The "training" is about making the class "engaging" designing a class/lessons/etc that the kids have ownership of, are committed to and paying attention to. Hmm, sound like a yearbook class anyone? I'm pretty sure I would have to totally screw my job up to NOT have all of that going on in the yearbook room.
At any rate, I've been twittering my lack of enjoyment. . . So, at the end of today our district's people got together to write "what we learned." Best part of that? Everyone agrees we've learned nothing, but we sit and work on coming up with dribble that they want to hear.
It is my educated guess that the people in charge of this conference went on to Twitter and maybe other "social networking sites" looking for comments about the workshop. Turns out they found some . . . but maybe not the warm-fuzzies that they were looking.
Turns out after most of the high school teacher's left the middle school teachers were talking (one almost in tears) about how the people leading the conference went up to them and said someone from our district was twittering negative things about their conference and it was unprofessional and it made all of us look bad. Really?
They knew it was me. The post that said, " Things went downhill suddenly when website I went to started playing country music loudly and I couldn't turn it off" EVERYONE in the room heard the music. Two presenters came over to help with sound. Trust me. They knew who I was.
My thoughts? If they want to go looking for comments, they should prepared to get said comments, good, bad and indifferent.
They have something to say, bring it. I didn't write anything I would say to them. I do think the conference is hellish. I'm not having any fun. Such is life.
Really? Picking on middle school teachers? Of course I got calls from 2 of the high school teachers that stayed to hear the middle school teachers letting me know. It's good to have friends.
AND the worst part is I made my posts private which plays right into their hands. I'm sure that is all they really wanted. For people to NOT find negative comments when they type in the name "schlectinheimer" (name changed to protect the whiney.) Bugger.
Best part: once again I started confession to those in charge because I dont' want them to find out from someone else that I did something. So, let the middle school AP know and the high school AP. Both laughed. Neither seemed surprised that I had gotten myself in trouble.
Totally annoying and stupid. That is how today was. Can't wait for tomorrow . . . twitters should be priceless
I would love to write about all sorts of exciting things happening in my world, but sadly, or more accurately strangely, there has been a pause in the action.
Car: I have it back. Hooray! (Did I mention that Blondie and I both have Ford Escapes. Her's is yellow, mine is blue. We have more school spirit than everyone : ) AND we have matching dents on our back left bumper. - we were meant to work together.)
Directories, although still not done, they have receded from the forefront of my troubles to being a slight bother waiting to torture me more but not at this moment. If that makes any sense at all. This probably deserves a post all of its own. I'm not even sure how I ended up in charge of all of the online student registration information getting from online to a format and design that worked for each of the 6 schools in the school district. I am eternally grateful that the Drummer, besides being a drummer happens to be one hellofa computer guy and could help me. I sucked him in by saying I thought I needed help with excel. Turned out to be a whole freaking lot more than that. He spent about 35 hours in one week on this stuff. Still shocked he didn't run like hell when he got the chance. Speaking of which . . .
The Drummer. Oh, he is confusing yours truly, that is for sure, but he is still around, still charming, still no action. I'd give details, but there are none to give at the moment. Technically I guess you could say we have only had 3 dates at this point. The last one being Saturday night, dinner and movie, but we spent a lot of time together working on the directories. I can't decide if that totally screwed the timetable up or what. Hard to tell.
The job. Ah, the job. Still adore Blondie cause she totally rocks, kids are doing great, but the adults still annoy and plague me. Same. As. Always. I do have my laptop back (finally) but we are having all sorts of problems with the computer lab which is annoying and might send one of my editors-in-chief into a total conniption fit if it doesn't get fixed soon.
The house. Well, still in my possession. It is getting showings, but no one has thrown a contact my way yet. It looks utterly fabulous and smells really good to boot. Pray, people. Pray. I would really, really like to move on. Not that my parents aren't lovely and doing an amazing job of tolerating the two dogs, the cat and me, but it is difficult none the less and I miss being surrounded by my own sheot.
Sabrina and Buddy are fabulous as always, although as mentioned the parentals aren't always totally convinced of that. They were boarded at Pappy's Pet Lodge last night to give M @ D a break (The non-stop rain combined with big dogs not getting exercise, not kind to anyone's nerves, I'll tell you that much.) At any rate, I pick them up and they got a little doggie report card. Behaved well, ate most of their food, were a blast : )
Cat is happiest when the dogs are gone, what else can I say.
My main goal this weekend is to find the keys to the storage unit. They have to be somewhere . . .now I just need to determine where somewhere is.
WARNING: The following post is really just sad pathetic whining about an existence that is totally and completely of my own making. I know this, I'm just whining, cause I can.
How can I possibly put into words how utterly crappy everything is going? I take one step forward and two steps back. I am so tired I can hardly think. Just when I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel . . . it flickers and goes out. I feel like a little beat up puppy on the side of the road looking around trying to figure out who is going to kick me next. Pretty much the whole post is this whiney so you might now want to keep reading. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The list of things to do does appear to be getting shorter, but I tell you what is left on the list is a total beating, and everytime I turn around I see more that needs to be done. I can't put the house on the market until I have things like the front door looking good and, say, DOOR HANDLES on the doors. I realized two days ago that I have a corner of a kitchen cabinet that Buddy used to work on his chewing techniques. So, that has to be fixed.
So, yesterday was day 3 of long torturous meetings. I have a coworker who I swear is determined to get into power plays with me and exert her authority. I have no idea of what it is about but I know that Scooby is now gone, Blondie (who I love is in his place). So why now do I have to deal with someone new who appears to just want to jack with me?
At the end of the day I headed home. Of course I had to take a trip to Home Depot, make some exchanges, get more mulch for the backyard and that kind of thing.
I got to the parentals at about 8:30 or so. (Once the house was cleaned it was just better to not be here to keep it clean.) Mom had left me a message earlier that Dad had gone by my house and set off the alarm. Ok, no problem. Except that Dad was PISSED and vibrating with unhappiness that I had the audacity to forget to tell him the alarm had been set. So we got in a bit of a screaming match at which point I started crying. And crying. And crying.
I went to sleep crying. Clearly, I was getting close to the end. I got up early and headed out to school so that I could try to get some work done before heading to meetings again. As I sat in the morning meeting, again started spontaneous crying. Really a little creapy and kind of scary, I'm sure.
I left school at about 11:30 so I could go to the bank and get the money to pay the painter and house cleaner before heading over to a store to pay for the rest of my handyman's bill.
I left the bank and headed down Mockingbird Lane. . . wait for it. . . wait for it. . . so I don't know where my brain was, but light turns red, first car stops, second car stops, third car with driver not paying attention (yours truly) nails second car. Airbags pop, air is filled with smoke and I think, wow I'm screwed.
So, first driver et al, totally ok, second driver a little whiney, not even driving his car, P.O.S. and my car . . . evetually towed away. I have pictures, but I'm too tired to figure out how to get them over to the blog now. My diamond bracelet broke. I'm totally bummed about that, and, of course the airbags exploded and the car now sounds funny.
On the phone for an hour sweating as the really, really nice lady with Farmers took my report and then stayed on the phone as we called 5 different Enterprise rent a cars and the tow company. (I pretty much cried through all of this too.)
So to the rent a car place and then to Service King where my lovely service person reinterates what the Farmers lady said which is due to the damage that appears to have occurred a claims adjustor will look at the car and then determine if it will be considered totaled. I, of course, can't afford for the car to be totaled because I don't have any money, and I sure as shit won't qualify for any loan. Spectacular.
Headed back down to Dallas to take care of my debts, back to school to get some stuff done (Yeah, I guess I could take it as a positive that I missed the afternoon meetings, but I bet I get punished for that some how) and then back to my house to work, water and wait for Lorenzo the painter to meet me. He said he would be here between 7:00 and 7:30. . . I'm betting that he doesn't show on time.
Cause that is the way that my life is going right now. Ok, that's about all I got. Still tired beyond all recognition. Only now I have added my entire body is completely sore. It was sore before the accident so it is hard to tell how much of it was just from everything I've been doing, and how much is new. There is a ton that needs to happen before school starts on Monday. There is ton that needs to happen before I put the house on the market (obviously not today as I had hoped). And I am nothing but a mass of exposed nerves and I am standing dangerously close to the cliffs of insanity.
Oh, and I can't really bear to talk to anyone because I just want to start crying. That's just a fun little sidebar to my existence.
I mean it. I am exhausted. I had two dates with 10, but he has gone back to Lubbock, and I am confident that I will never hear from him again. What. A. Bummer.
I have been working on a project at school that is slowly sucking the life out of me. Ironically, I raised my hand and threw myself at this one. Oh, why, Oh, why, do I do these things.
At any rate, it is turning out to be a beating of a job. I thought that I could get the kids to do most of the work, but they did crappy jobs so I've had to take it back over and try to correct what they did. Blahhhh.
In the meantime, the principal sent an email out that a new dept has been created at good ole HP. Media, Information, Technology, (It makes me giggle every time I think about it being MIT, don't know why, I'm just goofy.) At any rate it is the 5 people in the technology dept, the librarians, the speech teacher and the journalism teachers . . . I'm not sure of what it means yet, but I'm pretty sure it means something.
I got my hair cut yesterday and to celebrate its fabulousness I got dinner and a drink at Kirby's. I celebrated my way to a guy next to me getting my number which would be fine, except I know he doesn't really have a shot and I don't want to go out with him and have it ruin a perfectly good bar setup. (You know, mean ass cosmos from my dear bartender, Tony) Besides I'm so cranky right now it would be a mistake to go out until I get better rested.
School gets out next Friday, so I am peddling as fast as I can to just make it to the end. Dear Lord, please, let me make it. Amen. That's all.
My morning began at about 3:30 as I woke to the internationally known disgusting sound of Sabrina barfing. Since I woke with a headache, and it was the middle of the night, I just dropped one leg to the floor and opened her kennel and Buddy's so that they could sleep on the bed. Hell, that's where they would prefer to sleep anyway.
The alarm actually went off at 5:50 which then began the 20 minute process of convincing myself to get out of bed despite the headache still pounding at the front of my head.
Oh, and the barf is still there waiting to be cleaned up this afternoon. I'm pretty certain I saw pieces of the kitchen laminate flooring which means that I might have to finish pulling up the floors myself in order to prevent more dead of night barfing. Crap.
I'm going to go downstairs and get some hot water for my Theraflu daytime cold and cough medicine.
I have a confession to make. Our administration decided we would have book studies this year. The book is Doing School. (No you can't click to look inside, I snagged the image from Amazon.com ) I haven't read it. We are having a book study 7th period.
OK, being a fairly quick reader I made it half-way through the book. It has 5 studies of individual students and what school is like for each. I read 3 of the 5. Probably didn't matter because a. the principal, leader of our book study, was sick 6th and went home. b. I was in a room with 7 coaches and a special ed teacher. 6 of the coaches clearly hadn't read, and that left the special ed teacher and me. . . c. One of the coaches (had read) volunteered to lead the discussion for the p. The rest of the coaches basically said nothing. The p's assistant came by and said something to the effect of not taking attendance. One of the coaches IMMEDIATELY stood up to leave.
I totally get not wanting to read the book or not having time or feeling pressure to do too much . . ..like soooo many of the kids, but this was pathetic. Book studies are about intelligent discussion, the exchange of ideas, learning from colleagues. NOT sitting with a bunch of jerks who can't be bothered to even discuss what the book was about whether or not they had read it. Un freaking believeable.
as I write into the abyss that I wonder why I do it. I do think it is a relief to write about the ridiculous stuff that happens to me, but there are times I'd really like to let loose and can't just in case this sucker gets found by just anybody. sigh.
I got a new laptop which I have to say is just in time. My current laptop has a button that has popped off, the I doesn't capitalize very well. In generally, it was time for a new one. Of course I need to be able to add a bunch of stuff to the new computer for it to be functional and I really need Chuck to come over and help me.
The Photographer Shawn disaster continues to grow. I'm not sure of what to say. I'm keeping the emails because they just seem to point to the insanity.
His latest email says and I quote,"Does hphs know that you left your workday repeatedly to work at another job? I don't have the luxury to defraud my employer to work for someone else on their dime. "
So, when I responded, "I'm sorry you feel it is appropriate to threaten me. I would expect if you had learned anything from working with me it is that I will not ever cower from the truth. "
To which he responded, " I have never threated anyone that I have ever worked with. Please quit misrepresenting me."
Now, did that sound like a threat to anyone else?
I believe he is referencing the times I have left at lunch, done an interview and gone back to school. Just to reassure any one who actually thinks there is any credence to what he said: 1. I think I work long enough hours and produce a good enough book, no one at HP feels defrauded. 2. Even if someone decided taking lunch to interview people was horrifying, then I would stand up and take my lumps. Like I'm going to let some putz threaten me.
Well, first I want to say since sending the letter to D&D, it has been radio silence. I can't begin to describe how nice it is to not hear from them.
Shawn Northcutt . . . I don't even know what to say. His lack of response is shocking. He finally responded to an email Robert sent. He then sent a separate email to me that I forwarded to the committee. The email he sent to me was blah, blah, blah, it's not my fault, blah, blah, blah, it is really your fault, blah, blah blah, I am a victim, blah, blah, blah it's not my fault. I so desperately want to respond, but I keep reminding myself that none of it will do any good.
Robert responded to the email I forwarded. While I was meeting with the committee this afternoon, Shawn sent an email to Robert suggesting he no longer work on the Book. I could hear the hallelujah chorus playing in the background. Robert asked me to respond. I sat staring at the screen thinking of all the responses I wanted to make. Instead I just said, the committee appreciates and accepts your proposal. Please send a bill after all photos have been delivered.
I received a phone call today from one of the inductees. He said Shawn was supposed to be at his house at 10am to take his photo. At 11am they got a phone call saying he had a flat tire, was waiting for help and would be on his way. At 2pm when I got the call, Shawn had neither made contact again nor shown up. sigh.
Now, as far as the yearbook pictures go, I'm still waiting on those. He is supposed to be at the high school on Friday to shoot the last 30 kids or so that haven't been photographed. He is supposed to submit the disk of senior photos to the plant by Friday, December 7th. Shall we take wagers on whether or not that happens?
The meeting with the boys lasted about 3 hours. We got through a ton of stuff. My brain hurts right now, but all I can think is, Wow I may actually get this sucker done.
Today at school, I worked with the editors on the people pages. In ten years at HP I have gotten a call every year from the plant that some portion of the people pages are wrong. All those head shots and we have to have the right number of pages and boxes for all the little heads. Toooooo many numbers. Aaauuugggghhhhh
Did I mention that Sabrina and Buddy are now sleeping in kennels at night? They are really funny. I put Buddy in his, and then Sabrina tries to hide under the bed. So I turn the light out and act like I'm going to leave her under the bed. Within thirty seconds she comes hopping up on the bed, silly girl. Then she goes into her kennel.
Today was a hell of a day. I worked madly on my English I calendar most of the day. I rushed home 8th to feed the dogs and give them a quick hello. Rushed back to school. Mark came by to work with the girls. Linda came by to work with me on the flipchart for Wednesday. Chuck and Shelly worked on the projection computer so that when Linda and I do the virtual classroom that works. In the meantime the computers started to not save work because the server is full . . . so again the yearbook bought a 40,000 server that still isn't connected. I'm ready to kill someone.
Then rushed over to Cisco Grill to meet Fred and Jack (two other teachers) before we went to the UP Library for the book club. 6:30 heading to the library and I see Dave (next door neighbor from HELL) calling. I don't answer but call Emily and leave a message.
I listen to Dave's message which for the first time doesn't contain his usual over the top niceness and is a little snotty. "I don't know if you are home or not, but your dogs are barking and you really need to let them in."
Emily calls me back a view minutes later and tells me that she and Gene were out front yacking it up. She said that she thinks that they are the reason the dogs were barking and to not worry about it. Emily would have told me if they were being horrible.
I am sooooooo pissed. Thank heavens MaryBeth was home and able to talk to me off the cliff. I am already so stressed out and so freaking busy I don't have time for these nut jobs.
I need to remember that this is their deal not mine. The dogs aren't bad, the neighbors are crazy. This is their deal. I can't buy in to the insanity.
I laid down for a nap and slept for four hours. It slowed down my progress on the book, but I think I really needed that nap.
School was fine today. In photography, we had a guest speaker, Greg Watermann, who shoots lots of rock-n-roll stuff. That was fun.
I spoke with Robert, one of the book committee guys, and told him about the deal with Shawn. At least they know now. I meet with the boys tomorrow at 11am. Can't wait to hear what they've got for me now.
It is quite chilly tonight and I have my little space heater going full throttle.
It is amazing that I think I am keeping up with the blog, and then I realize it has been four days since I last posted.
Let's see . . .
Monday morning I got a call from Dave, very politely, letting me know that the dogs had barked that morning and that they had barked the evening before after 10:30. I'd like to once more point out that when they bark literally that is what they do. Bark. Like once or twice. Not incessant. At any rate, I didn't get the call. He tried to be tricky and call from the home number, but I didn't recognize it, so I didn't answer.
Later, he called that night to very politely let me know that he had a very early flight, so he would be going to bed early, would I keep the dogs in. Sure, no problem. I didn't let them out after 8. Now, I did get to clean up a gawd awful mess, courtesy of Buddy, in the dining room.
I was up really late Sunday and Monday working on spreads for The Book. I met with the boys at 11am Tuesday. I think they were pleased with what they saw. They had a lot of stuff they wanted modified, so I told them I would make the changes and submit to them as pdfs.
My 1pm yesterday my head felt like it was in a vice. By 2pm when my friend Roseanne strolled by my room, I had the lights out in the office and my head hanging over the trashcan. She said she would watch my class the last part of the period, so I headed home. I took a bath (always a requirement) and went to bed. I woke up at about 7 . . .nearly had a heart attack thinking I was going to be late for work. I woke up enough once I was moving to think, it could still be night which thank heavens it was.
I have another headache today. Started about an hour ago. I hate this. I had a message from my friend Cindy that she was reading about sleep apnea and having slept with me more than once, she feels that I might be a candidate for it. Headaches are also caused by sleep apnea. I think I'm going to make an appt to see my doctor about my sinus issues and then talk about the sleep thing.
At any rate, I may be loosing another night of work if I go home and go to bed again. sigh.
I had a headache today. Took one of my headache pills. About an hour later realized that my head still hurt, so I took another. Still hurt another 40 minutes later which is weird because two always does the trick. At any rate, I took a third. Woooweee was I whoozy. I could feel that third one hit, that's right as the school day is ending. At any rate, I had a meeting at the admin building at 4. Luckily one of my students was going to the same meeting, so I told her to sit by me and if I started drooling to whack me. Turned out ok. I was pretty much ok by 5:30 when I finally started home.
English I - the kids are really good. I have about 26. They are talkative, but really good. I've already had 2 kids let me know that they would be absent the next day. A cheerleader came in early to start her quiz because she had to leave early for the pep rally. I'm impressed. I am not going to be able to keep up with Lisa's (the other teacher) schedule. She covers so much each day it is crazy and she gives too much homework (read that as stuff I need to grade).
Yearbook - I actually taught all week. I have powerpoints that I got from Jostens when I taught this summer. They are really good. We have a lot of work that needs to be done, but I really want to make sure to cover the basics and be sure the kids really know what they are doing. Mark, a creative accounts manager with Jostens and an all around cool guy came Wednesday and Thursday to work with the editors. I love the fact that he used my promethean board just like a white board, but the cool thing is that I have notes from his visit because I just saved his work when he filled the board. I'd like to add as a side note this is the first time that I have tried to upload video directly to the blog. It is taking freaking forever. It may not even post. grrrr I thought I was going to get a lot more done this weekend on the book than I did. Friday night my neighbors and I grabbed a bite to eat at the local Mexican restaurant down the way. Gene , on the left , is married to Linda, on the right. They live across the street from me. Emily, in the middle, lives next door. I got a lot done, just not as uch on the book as I thout I would. I took my comforter to the local washateria to be cleaned. I got my laundry done (not at the local washateria.) Mowed the lawn, I'm sure I did other very important stuff too.
But I knew you would want to get caught up with my babies. They all went to the vet last week, and they all got a clean bill of health. I saw Sabrina and Cat sawing logs. Couldn't resist getting a photo. I keep trying to get photos that show how much bigger Sabrina is than Buddy. If I could get a photo of Buddy sliding under her legs when they are chasing each other around, I would do it. But this does kind of show how he is under her. Then, what I call oh aren't they so cute. Buddy looks to Sabrina to see what they should destroy next. Isn't this a great photo????? I took the dogs for a walk Saturday morning. Sabrina got stung by something. Her back foot got all swollen so I took her to the vet. Doesn't she look sad and woebegone? Trust me it didn't last long, although a couple of Benedryl made me think she was about to fall into a coma. I haven't seen her be that still for that long . . . well . . . ever. Open house is tomorrow night. Yuck.
For the last Saturday of freedom before school starts, I have failed to use it properly. I worked from 8-12:30. I'm impressed that most of the girls did show up and they worked hard. I left early, but they had to leave by 3. The janitors get really cranky if we don't leave in a timely fashion.
I finally used the Spa pass my editors got me at the banquet in the spring. I went to Red Door and got a massage, facial, manicure, pedicure and make-up. Probably could have done without the make-up, but it was all super nice. Diane and I made plans to do something this evening, but she ended up going to dinner with her daughters and doing stuff with them. Oh well, so much for a final hoorah.
I am now committed for the next four months to staying on a schedule and working on the book. I have to be dedicated and focused. No accepting invitations to do stuff. Hard core. If I have friends at the end of the four months, it will be a miracle. But there will be a book at the end of four months, there will be a book.
I walked the dogs as sweat poured off of me. Yikes. Emily is out of town, so I have been grabbing her papers for her. I threw yesterday's in the house after walking the dogs. Looks like I should have walked them farther. As you can see they had some energy left to destroy the paper. How sweet. They aren't always naughty. They play like mad things in the yard. You can see the pool in the top left corner, Sabrina is really too big for the pool. They also get the pool dirty and nasty because they get in and out so much. They fight to see who gets to stay in the pool. Silly doggies. I looked out the kitchen window at one point, and they were actually sitting quietly! I'm not sure if you can see how much bigger Sabrina is than Buddy, but she is about twice his size. I have to be careful coming out of the bedrooms. When they start chasing each other circling the house, they are as likely to knock me down as not. Of course, if Buddy stops suddenly and Sabrina is too close then she skids over him because she is so much taller. If I could catch that on film, I would post it in a heartbeat. And then there are the moments I live for . . . they wear themselves out and sleep! I tried to get video of it because Sabrina makes a lot of noise when she sleeps. Snores, snorts, barks etc., but as soon as I started to try she got quiet. Rats. Time for me to go to bed. I have a schedule to keep!
Tues: I met with the boys. Have I mentioned what a beating they can be? At least I got them to agree to create a ladder. That will help me immensely.
Tues pm: Met with most of the editors. I think they are on board. So we will have one group working from 10-1 and another from 4-7. Sucks for me, but at least they are ready to work.
Wed: up at 5:30 to walk the dogs. Wanted to yak the whole time. Crack of dawn and so hot and humid, it was disgusting!
Wed: Interviewed Angus Wynne. I had down that we were to meet at the Stoneleigh Hotel which it turns out is under renovation. I was quite flummoxed, so I went across the street to the Stoneleigh P which is a restaurant. He shows up about ten minutes later. Turns out that is where we were supposed to meet, but he had it down as four and I had it as three. I can't believe that it actually worked out! He was really nice and I enjoyed getting to talk with him.
Thurs: Up at 5:30, but back to bed for an hour. I'm not fond of 5:30. I finally started cleaning out my office at school. Yikes what a mess.
Fri: Tried for the 3rd and final time to be up at 5:30. There is no getting around it. 5:30 is the crack of dawn, and I don't want to be up that early. Went back to sleep until 6:30. A much more dignified and respectable hour. I can do 6:30.
I had lunch with Pam! She is really skinny but doing soooooo much better. Her doctor told her last Friday that not only had the tumors shrunk. . . they were gone!! Holy Cow. She is still doing chemo just to be sure, but how cool is that?! She too has read Eat, Pray, Love. Such a great book. When I get it back from MB, I will pass it along to whomever wants it next . . . speak up if you want it next.
It is 8:07 and both puppies are laying at my feet. My eyes are burning, and I'm ready for bed. (It's all those attempts at being up at 5:30 that have messed me up.) I had planned to mow in the morning, but it has been raining all evening, so I'm not sure that is going to work out for me. Rats. I have to be at school by 10, maybe I'll do a little house cleaning or I could be really edgy and work on the book!!
Yesterday I got up bright and early and went to the 7:30 service. Then I walked Sabrina, mowed the lawn and worked on The Book.
Met Kimberly and then Laura and Buddy came over.
That is an exciting Sunday.
I tried to get up bright and early this morning, but I was having difficulties. I did drag my butt out of bed and eventually managed to walk the dogs. They did great except for one small incident when Sabrina was so excited about visiting Hank, and Buddy was excited because Sabrina was excited. They pulled so hard I fell down and went boom. Small gash in the knee. I wasn't going to include a visual aid, but it looks so disgusting I had to. ewwww yucky.
After that I headed over to Childress Fabrics to take the material I'm using to have Grandmama's sofa reupholstered. I was able to go back and see the repair job on the back leg. It is amazing. You can't tell that the leg had been broken at all.
At any rate, they said it would take about four weeks to get it all fixed up. It is going require extensive repairs, so I'm not surprised. Another fun note is that the guy at the fabric store said that this type of sofa is a Duncan Phyfe. (They are named after the guy that originally made them and quite valuable these days!) Not that I would sell it, but still nice to know. I found an old picture that has the sofa in the corner.
I also went up to school to start working on getting all of my kids in the right periods. That is always a pain. I did find out that I have English I 1st period and yearbook 2, 3, 6 and 7.
Now I am back home getting organized for tomorrow. School may not officially start until next Monday, but if the number of emails I'm dealing with regarding school are anything to go by, I'm already behind!!
Turns out I wasn't taking any of the girls home. Score 2 more points for communication among the Highlander staff.
I left baggage claim, hit the parking lot, realized I had no clue of where my car was, turned around, went back inside and got a ticket agent to tell me what gate the flight on Sunday took off from.
Back to the parking lot and found the car. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way home and got more antibiotic.
I'm now trying to get all of my laundry done. auuggghhhh
Almost done. Got up this morning and just came down to the hotel lobby rather than wake the girls. I don't want to talk to them enough to be willing to wake them. My throat is killing me. I've called the pharmacy to try to get them to reorder the antibiotic that the Dr. prescribed two weeks ago. Hopefully I can pick that up on my way home from the airport.
The boys sent me an email earlier this week that I responded to today. I've had to craft the response, if you will. They are choosing the wrong week to get on my nerves.
At any rate, we should be at the airport at about noon, on the plane by 2:30, in Dallas by 7:30, stand around and wait for the luggage for a little while, drop two of the girls off (third one her parents are getting her) and get my prescription, I should be home by about 9:30 or so. Then I can do laundry.
