I guess I am teaching something

During the snow storm, I discovered that I had trolls. Sounds like some sort of disease, I know. I was talking with my big sister about her blogs (actually she has two blogs, but only one was under attack so to speak.) She had trolls. Someone had come to her site and started going back through the posts writing basically mean stuff. My sister is a researcher at heart. So, she began trying to figure out from where the trolls came. Lo and behold, they came from the last blog post on my old blog that said "Gone."

Four women (I swear they might have made up names) posted. ALL posted mean stuff about me. In fact, one had started her own blog and the only post was a picture of me saying how I tried to steal her husband away...Yeah, cause in addition to every OTHER reason that would never happen, some time during the crapfest 2010 of Sabrina's life, I was out looking for a MAN. sigh.

At any rate, I deleted my one post. My sister then did a post on "Trolls." It was awesome. Part of the awesomeness was due to the fact that the troll is really an idiot. Sis's blog is clearly about developing self awareness and thinking about how she has messed up parenting in the past, and she's learning from it. Perhaps she uses too many big words cause it is obvious the troll, she didn't understand a bit.

Under comments, my sister had given me a shout out because some newspaper had done a poll, and I was runner-up for best teacher in the district. Sure it is a really small district, and sure, I was runner-up to a 1st year 4th grade teacher at one of 5 elementary schools in the district, and yes, it is very likely only 5 people voted. But it was sweet of my sister. The troll wrote a mean comment to the effect, I shouldn't be allowed to teach. That is A LOT of venom to have inside.

A week ago, one of the women sent me a facebook message "Hi." That's it. Nothing else. I ignored it, but it seems like a lot of energy to put into someone when I don't recognize ANY of their names or anything. Who are they???? I was starting to feel a little down. But THEN, one of my editors-in-chief let me see her college essay. It made me cry. She let me attach it. (Mostly because she knows only 5 people read the blog. Hooray for censorship and fear of the machine.) Any way - here you go.

An Unforgettable Character

Perkins: Like you’re mom but worse. She stands 5’4” in her pink sparkly designer Christian Louboutin stiletto heels—a gift from our journalism class last year as a token of our appreciation. Everything about her is asymmetrical; it is no surprise when she stands with her left hand extended, her right hip cocked, with a semi-fisted hand saying, “This is Perkins,” circling that fist with her right hand through at least three revolutions, she continues, “and this is the world…!” All the things my mom tried to teach me are acted out on the journalism stage every day of high school. The starring role is played by Ms. Elizabeth Perkins, my journalism advisor.

Lesson #1: Dress to impress. “Don’t dress like you are going to work on a street corner.” When dealing with inappropriate dress choices, most teachers avoid confrontation by passing the student on to the administration. Not Perkins. She deals directly with each of us, and we are quick to learn what is and is not appropriate attire for school. Because of Perkins, I am increasingly aware of the small range of appropriate clothing in dress—especially when I am relating to teachers or students as yearbook editor-in-chief. She takes her position seriously and demonstrates her self-respect with a flair for fashion by playing the “Diva” role with confidence and aplomb.

Lesson #2: “Do as I say, not as I do.” Perkins never sets herself up as a perfect example—quite the opposite. She always admits when she is at fault and actually wants us to do a better job in respecting authority. Last week, during the school mandatory lockdown drill, Perkins opted to send students out to take pictures of the event. Once again yearbook “is more important than pseudo student safety.” Unfortunately our school resource officer did not agree. He captured Perkins and Company and officiated at our in-class criminal lockdown lasting three days. By letting us in on her escapades, we become comrades in crime with a worthy cause of surviving the school day and publishing our annual yearbook, The Highlander.

Lesson #3: Be good humans. “If there is one thing I want to teach you in this class, it’s how to be good humans.” Last month we had an incident with stolen money from the yearbook fund. Perkins appealed to our sense of humanity and justice by asking for our help. Because she believed and trusted in us, we were successful to use our student web of contacts to find the thief. As she teaches us to be good humans, she models it by standing up for the staff. Recently, an anonymous group of girls created a Twitter account to slander several of us on the staff. Not only was she determined to find these “mean girls”, she was “out for blood.” Her lasting advice about our emerging humanity always mentions the necessity to, “bring each other up with your words, not tear each other down.”

Whether Perkins is delivering a light message on fashion, or a serious message on what it means to be human, the thing that I’m going to remember forever is the delivery itself. She preaches her message with the humorous characterization of a Diva mixed with the high drama of a philosopher. Her obvious lessons are represented by the quotations above, but it is the subliminal undercurrents that I will take with me to college. I want to define my own character by taking risks for the people I lead; laugh not only at others but myself; and most importantly, create a character for my life story who makes people want to be better. Underneath all the bravado, Perkins lets herself be vulnerable so that her students rise up and help her. Her leadership style allows us to feel valuable and needed as we develop mutual empathy. Whether it’s dealing with my college roommate, my professors, or future boyfriends, I know on some level, I will be modeling Perkins, or as she is otherwise known, “The Dallas Diva.”

Snow Day #3

It's hard to remember back to Monday at this point and know I was practically on bended knee PRAYING for a snow day. Just one Lord, just give me one day. And, I say again, things like this are how I know that God has a sense of humor. Because he didn't give me ONE snow day, but three. I'll admit, Tuesday was delightful. My car was snug in the garage, which was fine except that the gate out of the property was broken, so in the event of an emergency, I would have been walking. Buddy and I snuggled all day. I had food, hot chocolate and Baileys. I knew my original plan involved getting stuff done, but what the heck, it was a snow day.

Wednesday I went ahead and got a couple of things done, but mostly hung out. Towards the end of the day, I was starting to get a little bored. Feeling a little trapped. I knew by 5pm that school was cancelled for the next day, and I admit I was a little worried. No food. No Baileys. No exit. No good could come from this.

Thursday. Called the landlord immediately about the gate. Love them. They called back immediately they were sending someone. So bored, I decided to do laundry. That was a mistake as it turns out because I went out to the garage aaaannnndddd it was totally flooded. Oopsy. So, I got to spend a good portion of the morning moving stuff around in the garage and trying to sweep up the water. I now have blankets and towels all over the kitchen, none of which can be washed just yet, the garage is a total mess, so my car won't be going back in any time soon.

I realized as I was cleaning that I was feeling mighty crampy because nothing goes with a bad day like having cramps.

Good news: the gate did get fixed and Buddy and I took a little trip. I got crawfish etouffe for lunch and stuff to make "special hot chocolate for mommy" ...for the rest of the day.

By 2pm I had bathed to warm up my body, eaten lunch, and re-situated my happy butt on the big comfy chair with Buddy.

Dare I confess that I am ready to go back to school. It will be INSANE tomorrow, but one more day here, and I'll be insane.

P.S. saw Reds last night (Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malcovich, Mary Louise Parker) very cute. Glad I saw it. You should see it.

Senior Wall 2011

Some of you might remember that two years ago, my seniors did their portion of the senior wall by quoting me.

This year they decided to quote me again. I have to say...it's totally true.

From the plane

With at least two hours to go on this leg of the flight home, I thought I would do a little blogging. Sure I’m gonna have to catch you up on the fashion faux pas parade of Europe. (You know how I love to get photos of what I see. If I didn’t find Walmart abhorant then I would hang there and post to the Peopleof walmart website. All. Day. Long.)

Almost all of my students watch Glee, so I have decided that I must see the show that they love so. I have now seen 4 episodes, and, although they are a bit over the top at times, I have to tell you there are people I recognize in this show. (That Cheerios sponsor…used to work at my school.) It is totally funny, and it certainly helps me to remember why I love teaching. If you aren’t watching it, you should.

The trip was good. We had a few problems with kids choosing to drink, but nothing out of hand which is really good. It rained a ton. In fact, it rained more than it has on any other trip and by a pretty darn big margin. Europe in the rain, not as much fun as Europe in the sun, FYI.

When I get home, at about midnight, I will be more than ready to go to sleep in MY OWN BED. Oh, how I miss it so. I realize for those of you without a deep love of a pet think that I am insane, but I am here to tell you I missed Sabrina, Buddy and Cat TERRIBLY. I am quite excited to see them.

Then it will be down to work. I’m afraid my to do list is quite long, and it is really going to make me nuts if I can’t start making some headway.

Wow! You have a lot of stuff

This is the usual comment made when people peer in my garage. It's a total crap fest of stuff.

It's not like I have a parade of people passing by and peering in, but when they do, that is the usual comment.

One, I do have a lot of stuff, but two I moved from 1700 square feet with a big ole attic and a back house full of stuff to a 1300 square foot duplex with the world's smallest attic and no back house. To say the least, I've had to reduce inventory. In fact, a fair amount of what is in the

garage is going to leave this place once I have my much anticipated garage sale. At any rate, I had a goal to get the garage cleaned out enough to get my car into it while I am in Europe. I know, looking at that photo you would think it was a total impossibility. AND considering that I was sitting on my butt all weekend contemplating cleaning the garage but NOT actually doing it, it would seem a further impossibility. But I say to you. HA

That's right. I still have the dang think stuffed to the gills, but by netty jingo the car is in there! AND once I have the garage sale, I'll be able to dance a jig in there cause there will be so much spare room.

Dear World,

This week has been a total beating, and it has driven me to Kirby's for another round of filet (yum for steak) and cosmos. (By the way, if Tony, my favorite bartender didn't make them so effin' good, I would not be losing feeling in my cheeks and contemplating the odds of turning into a raging alcoholic.) Of course, if Kirby's didn't provide me with a kickin' kids steak for $10.00 I might not be here so much either.

I really shouldn't complain. Although I have received one email (copied to me but sent to the superintendent and the principal of the high school) that is certifiably crazy, there really have been no complaints.

I responded to the complaint, but I sent it to my friend PR first to approve, yeah,

And although I have to completely empty the yearbook room by Friday, the kids have been great about helping. Today we put the two computers at my desk away. Cool except that it turns out the phone is attached to the computers so now I have no phone in my classroom. Probably a good thing cause it seriously reduces the crazies abilities to harass my ass.

Ok, so we also are having fun and games with co-workers and the remodeling of the TV studio and stuff. One of my favorite people is leaving the school, and, I might add, leaving a vacuum in his place. Blondie is so excited at the idea of teaching video though it's hard for her to control her enthusiasm (She is controlling, but barely, her intense desire to dump the newpaper and just do the video/TV.

In the meantime, we are having a little trouble with the mayor of meantown. It's weird cause it is almost like she wants to jump in and be in charge because she some how fears my being in charge, but I can't really be in charge because I know diddley about video. So, Blondie is in charge, I follow her like a puppy in love. My only contribution is really that I know lots of people and the yearbook has money.

AND what is even better, Blondie and I realized that between all of the accounts, we think we have enough money to get the stuff we want to get before school starts to make sure that all of our programs are ready to go. BAM.

Weird things are also going on with the Europe trip, but I don't dare discuss before the trip for fear of jinxing the whole damn thing.

P.S. So Mike one of the waiters commented on the fact I am blogging. So, Mike, if you really did note the site, I say "hello to you. Welcome to the gawdawfully boring world of your friend the Diva. "

Oh, the irony

This week was spring break. I am on my last "official" day of spring break, and today, I have done, well, nothing. This is pretty much what I did yesterday, and every day this week. On the list of things to do in addition to cleaning the garage (which if you have a brain, you know I did NOTHING on), I was going to blog. Many interesting and fun things. That hasn't really been happening either.

I am managing to keep up with reading some of my favorite blogs, including Miss Britt. Ironically (this is where the irony comes in for those paying attention to the post title) she writes about people using the phrase "this is just like high school." Since I recently had an incident in which this came up, it galvanized me into action or typing as the case may be.

So, last weekend was the infamous Greenville Ave St. Pat's street party. Mr. Potential always has a party of his own to coincide with it. It's a good size party. He has a posse of friends that he has had for many years that come to this party. At any rate, the long and short of it: the girls, not so nice. It was literally shocking to have these women basically brush me off and ignore me all. day. long. There were lots of other people there, so it wasn't as if I was sitting in a corner by myself, but it was still a weird experience.

Someone else actually noted it was a bit high school - the whole clique thing, and perhaps they needed to be reminded that they aren't in high school anymore. I appreciate Miss Britts comments about it NOT being like high school, but as someone who will actually be spending most of her life in high school before it is all said and done, I can tell you that when as an adult I find myself having some type of high school drama; it is always startling. I totally get that high school is a microcosm of life with everyone trapped together learning to exist. I absolutely believe that as an adult I have a lot more choice and control over myself, and how I respond to situations and people. That doesn't change that there are people and situations that just smack of high school.

I think recognizing behavior as being "so high school" is the ability to see someones behavior as being a throw back to high school and recognizing that we don't actually have to put up with it. We. Aren't. In. High. School. Shouldn't we be behaving better than we did in high school? Shouldn't we use better manners as grown-ups than we did when we were hormonal teens trapped in a building against our will 8 hours a day 186 days a year?

One of the interesting pieces to the story for me is that Mr. Potential invites his niece, Missy, and her friends to the party too. In fact, his niece had a birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and we joined up with Missy and her friends. Then and again at the party, her friends were all extremely nice. They really had no reason to be nice, I'm just the girl dating their friend's uncle. But they were, they included me in their conversations, they smiled and spoke to me as they passed by. And that, in part, is why it was even more obvious that the "bitch coalition" were just badly behaved.

In the end, I did say something to Mr. Potential about the girls. He was very sweet about it, and he said that he has been the go-to guy for these girls when they aren't dating or need a date for something, so maybe there was weird possessiveness in play. I'm really glad that he acknowledged it, I think a lot of guys might have tried to put it off as my imagination or just girl stuff. I don't know why they behaved that way, there is no telling really, but I'm too old to mess with girls that don't have good manners. And that is all I have to say about that.

I'll take that with a side of bitchy

Last night, I went over to Mr. Potentials to watch the BCS football game with him and his friends. I started out ok, but I could feel myself getting a wee bit, well, catty. Sure, I had a grapefruit juice and some thing or another, but I still kept the catty thoughts inside (hooray for me, using the inside voice.)

I did at one point note to Mr. Potential that I was feeling catty but keeping it in. For instance, the girlfriend of one friend really likes to show her girls, if you know what I mean. Another girl was very proud of her boyfriend (10yrs older) covered in tattoos managing a bar/pizza joint but still getting recommended by the people at The Mansion. Really? The whole conversation just made me tired. . .

I could feel myself getting cattier as the evening progressed.

This morning? I was crampy and realized that it was Dia de Mensa. Seriously, I was like "Oh, thank God, I'm not a total bitch, I'm hormonal." Well, let's be honest, I got de bitch in me but I try not to let her out with people I've just met.

Randomness is my life.

So, Tuesday morning I woke up and walked into the TV room (behind Cat, the blur at the bottom of the picture to discover that my shelves had fallen during the night. Books everywhere. Quite the mess. That was the beginning of my crappyass day.
On the other hand, at least I'm not this poor woman. I went over to the parentals for Mother's Day. As I was getting out of my car, I saw this woman getting her FOUR children out of the car. I'm pretty sure they were born in one fell swoop. That woman must be very tired. Of course, she probably doesn't have the mother of all head wounds because while it was pouring down raining she ran to her car, flung the door open and wacked the Sheot out of her head.

Luckily the head wound was gone by the time I got to go to Jim's dinner party. His dining room looked fantastic, and the food was fabulous.
He didn't have cosmos but luckily I live near Kirby's which truly has the best cosmos in all of Dallas. Trust me. I've been doing A LOT of research into this to be certain. Speaking of restaurants in Dallas, if you go to Sevy's on Preston road (the place where I have been meeting the real estate boys once a week for freaking forever) you will see their copy of the real estate book on the wall, with a plaque with our names. Cause I'm a BAMF like that. In fact, my futures so bright, I gotta wear shades. Conveniently I have a lot of pairs of shades. Some might even suggest I have too many since currently, I can only comfortably wear one pair at a time. Is this some kind of weird obsessive compulsive thing? What is wrong with me that I have so many pairs of sunglasses? I should not need to ever buy sunglasses again. Please remind me of this should I be in your company and shopping for shades. Stop me. Please.

ships and more ships

Many topics plague the mind of the Diva these days. Certainly dating. Anyone who reads the blog would know that. The gall bladder (yes, lack thereof) also fills many posts.

In addition, I’ve been struggling with ideas regarding relationships. What makes a good one, how they last, the ones you can’t escape, and then the ones that I would never want to escape.
Relationships are difficult. All relationships. It doesn’t matter how much love is there, how much history exists or how often sex occurs. As we get older, it gets even more difficult. Everyone knows this, right?

I started blogging about 3 years ago. In the beginning it was so family and friends could keep up with the “search for a home” and then the “trip to Japan.” Eventually, I blogged to get things off my chest. I liked it. Writing into the abyss about all sorts of topics and issues, I have relieved all sorts of stress. Recently, I realized that blogging can be difficult when I find the issues I want to get off my chest involve the very people that read my blog. Awkward to say the least.

It is difficult when I want to write about things that I have no desire to discuss. If I write it, I take a chance of someone wanting to discuss it. Usually I talk to the people closest to me about the same stuff I blog about because, well, I'm a talker, but sometimes I want to write without talking. I could start a new blog, but I don’t really want to do that.

So, what I find is that I have periods of not blogging and I have to think about what the crux of an issue is before I write. I can’t just tell the tale, I have to distill the issue and really figure out what I need to get on paper, as it were. There is a bit of finesse required as I write about the things that matter to me.

We begin and end with the family. These are the relationships that define who we are and how we operate. I love my family. I have very strong principals and values because of them. They are also capable of driving me totally and completely insane. I’ve had a really good time Twittering lately because I’m getting to keep up with both of my sisters this way. Sure we could talk on the phone, but then what would I twitter? LOL I am a youngest child of a wildly intelligent family. I proudly say that I am the dumb bunny of the family because that still makes me smarter than a whole hellofalotta people; just not any people to whom I’m related.

I think I’ve pretty much beaten the romantic relationship study into the ground, so I won’t waste time on that dynamic here.

Friendships are a very powerful type of relationship, especially in the life of a single girl in the city. There are all types of friendships. Wikepedia even defines friendship for us.

Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for many, friendship is nothing more than the trust that someone or something will not harm them.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:
• the tendency to desire what is best for the other,
• sympathy and empathy,
• honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart,
• mutual understanding.

In a comparison of personal relationships, friendship is considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association can be thought of as spanning across the same continuum.

The interesting statement for me is that a friend is someone who you trust will do you no harm. I think of the friendships that I have had that ended abruptly, and I can say, almost down to a one, that they ended because I felt that they would do me harm or had already done me harm. I don’t mean physical. I mean mental. Close friends, like family, know the weaknesses and fears that we usually keep hidden from the world. When they push those buttons and strike out hatefully, it is painful. I will say what I have always said. If I want someone to be mean to me, to hurt my feelings, to treat me like trash, I can go to the family. No need to go outside of the bloodline for that.

Family is forever, friends don’t have to be. And sometimes they aren’t. I am lucky as hell that I have a best friend who has truly been the very definition of a friend to me. I hope that I am able to do friendship justice for her too. Frequently people begin a relationship with high hopes that it will become a true friendship, but perhaps they aren’t able to maintain a mutual understanding or they don’t end up being truly empathetic for each other. So, although they start well, they can’t maintain.

I think there are times that we try to demand more from an “association” friendship than the relationship can bear. Everyone cannot be our intimate friend.

Work friendships certainly help make the work place more fun, but it is always important to remember that they are work relationships. Push comes to shove, people will put their own work interests above friendship. That’s ok. It is just important to remember that is how it usually happens. Work relationships can work as friendships as long as work and the friendships don’t intersect. It is important to not expect a work friendship to be more than what it is. I’ve had some great work friendships through the years. Some have managed to transform themselves into a different kind of friendship, but most exist for a time and then fade or the friendship keeps the same low intimacy level but lasts for a long time.

Geographic friendships are usually neighbors. I’ve lived where I didn’t know a single neighbor and I’ve lived where I love all of my neighbors and where I’ve really enjoyed most of my neighbors. Rather be where the neighbors are fun, friendly and part of my support system. Again, most of those friendships end when you are no longer neighbors, but every once in a while you will manage to remain friends past the geographic relationship.

Certainly, the BFF is a driving force in my life. This girl knows ALL of my secrets. She reminds me of why it is important to think before I speak, the benefits of showing good manners in all situations and how lonely I’d be without her. Even though we haven’t lived in the same town in years (and not in the same country for 24 months) we talk regularly (loosely translate that as every day please) and she is always there for me the same way I will ALWAYS be there for her.

We have often discussed that having a BFF has saved us, but also perhaps made us more willing to walk away from a bad relationship. I look at that and think over and over, that I am lucky to be in that position. When a relationship goes bad, it is a painful and awful thing. It is sad and heart wrenching at times. However, keeping a friendship that isn’t working is like keeping a man who needs to be gone. It is a mistake and it is our various fears that make us keep people in our lives that aren’t doing us any good.

What life has taught me is to follow my heart and try to keep it simple when I can. I’m not saying that relationships of any kind are easy, but that relationships should be simple; straightforward. Trust in God and believe that I am following the path for which I am intended even when that takes me in a different direction than I might have imagined. Sometimes I intersect with someone else’s life and run parallel, sometimes we merge and then part. Some have been with me from the beginning and will continue to be a part of me for as long as I live.

So, on this my 570th post, I am grateful for all of the relationships in my life and all of the people that have come and gone. I am glad that I have been able to learn from almost everyone who has entered my life and that I continue to learn from the people most important to me.

Senior Ads Meeting

So it is almost 5:30. I have been to Michael's (needed some stuff to get myself organized), the dry cleaners, home to feed the dogs, and, now, I find myself back at school.

First side note: this morning I decided to go downstairs and get some breakfast (school breakfasts aren't the best, but they aren't horrible). At any rate, after eating it I realized that I had failed to take my girl without gall bladder medicine. Sigh. Paid for that about an hour later. Then Daisy brought a super yummy cupcake from this great bakery on Greenville Ave. I had half. It was good. I did ok. So, what did I do? ATE THE OTHER HALF. NOT OK. NOT GOOD. Paid for it about an hour later.

The 2nd of 2 Senior ads meetings is tonight to teach parents how to do senior ads. For the first meeting I was deathly ill, and there weren't many parents there. I am healthy (but tired) and really hoping they all come tonight because it is going to be a total pain in the ass if they don't come.

For those who do not know what a senior ad is: In the last 20 years or so yearbooks have changed from having mostly commercial ads from companies in the area in the back of the book to mostly ads from parents to their kids saying how precious they are and how much they love little Johnny, etc etc. We, the yearbook staff, make OBSCENE amounts of money from selling these ads. This money in turn buys lots of fun toys for the yearbook staff, computers, laptops, cameras etc. We have over 300 pages of ads. It is a lot of ads.

So, I'm tired, still cranky and trying to psyche myself up for this evening. Although skinnier because I'm pretty sure everything I've eaten today has passed through my system. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

My latest addiction

I tried to go back and find the post that I knew I had written after I had an energy drink this past fall. I drank it too fast, my face turned bright red and it started burning like no other. I hauled my ass downstairs to the school nurses and tried to not freak.

The post is nowhere. I can't believe it. Afterwards, one of the kids drew a photo to help me remember the magic moment. Really. I looked just like this. The energy drink in question is Slam. It is really good stuff. I have to confess frequently when I write about being a whirling dervish it is, in part, courtesy of my little magic potion.

The addiction part is that I can't stop drinking the stuff. ('Cause that is, after all, the very definition of an addiction . . .can't stop.) Every day I have to have my Slam! Sometimes I yearn for a second one, but since I think I can't sleep at night cause of the first that I sometimes drink a little late in the morning, it is probably better to not succumb to my desire for a second.

Please note the photo below is a little blurry. That is because I took the photo right before drinking it, and I was starting to get the shakes from withdrawal.

Jewelry making

So, in July or August I went to a cool bead store called Splendor in the Grass, got caught up in the thrill of beads, but a totally expensive necklace, a bunch o beads to make a necklace for my mom and one for me. This is how I spend money I don't have. sigh.

Ok, so at any rate, I failed to do anything with the beads. My friend, Roseanne, actually made the necklace for my mom. (It was two necklaces that could be worn separately or together. Very cool.)

I finally attended a bead making class Saturday morning. There were six of us. I was definitely the youngest one by a good bit.

First, I would like to discuss the supplies. There were quite a few required.

1. Some kind of pliers. Very specialized and absolutely important.
2. Pointy thing for pulling out "mystery knots". Turns out this actually is important especially if you are prone to bad knots.
3. Small pointy scissors. Very specialized and so terribly important. (Pretty certain small scissors can be bought anywhere, but maybe that's just me.)
4. Another pair of pliers. Also terribly important, blah, blah, blah
5. Two wooden sticks used for "stretching" the string. Absolutely fabulous and a must for everyone to own. Sigh.
6. Six ft of string post stretching and with one knot. I am very good at knot making I would like to add. I feel it is because as a young child I had deep love for buttons. So much so that I would sew buttons onto clothing for hours on end. If you don't believe me, ask my mother. She'll tell you.
7. So small you can hardly seem them . . . even in reality. The little hooky things that go on either end of the bracelet to hold the thing together.
8. Pages and pages of instructions. Most of which even after the class I don't think make a lot of sense.

So, as you can see, the class seems to require a lot of specialized stuff. I think that is tiring. I know it is in the store's best interest to suck us in and get us to buy a lot of extra supplies etc, but first, I'd really like to determine if it is something I really want to do. Know what I mean?

The knotting process is the basic knot but it has to be very tight and right against each bead. See exhibit 1. I had to draw attention to the specialized gold small sharp scissors because although I was fairly certain I had a pair of sharp small scissors at home, I couldn't resist purchasing the pretty gold ones for myself. Besides, if I ever decide to poke my eyes out, this is the pair I'll be using because they are really, really sharp. I had to get a close up shot of the string with knots. It was a two hour class and basically the entire time was spent on learning how to knot properly. Then, voila it was done. The beautiful bracelet. I would like to add a small note at the bottom. The entire reason I took this class was so that I could make a necklace just like the one I had bought. When I went in the store in December I clearly told them that is what I wanted to do. So, when in class I asked how to I make an endless necklace that doesn't have a clasp or anything, I was informed that she couldn't teach me that because that was taught in the NEXT class. I would need to take the next class to be able to do that. To say the least, I was pissed. I spent a ton of money on the stupid beads. I paid to take the stupid class. I bought SOME of their stupid supplies. I went ahead and bought some stupid clasps that can make it somewhat endless since I don't know how to do exactly what I want. Bastards want even more money?????

So, I studied other necklaces and I think I have figured a way to make it work. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Lavender Closet

There are many things I love about my current residence. The charm of the wood floors, the many windows, the neighborhood and the front porch. There are also many things that I am not keen for such as the condition of the wood floors, the stupid crappy kitchen (even if I don't use it) the sucky bathrooms AND the total lack of closets.

I can only solve one problem at the time and currently I am working on the closet issue. So I took the old breakfast nook and turned it into the master bedroom closet.

Scott, my handy dandy fix-it guy, did the work. He called to let me know that he had bought some paint that he thought would look brown on the walls. Then he called later to let me know that in actuality the walls turned out purple. Well, actually lavender. It's hard to see that, but trust me, they are lavender.
I hung all of my shirts and skirts, and they look lovely. This weekend, Scott continued work putting up shelves. There is a bar for dresses in front of the window. The shelves haven't been painted yet, but I'm going to paint them a dark brown to match the mood veneer on the front of the ones I already did. He also put up the back brackets so that I could put up a gazillion shelves for my shoes. ooohhhhhh but it all makes me so happy.

True Beauty

There have been previews for this show for weeks. I have anxiously waited for it to start. The premise is that these ten people think that they are on this show because they are so good looking. They actually are being "tested" on their inside beauty.

I think this is a great idea. This is a reality show I can get into. Many years ago I was out with one of my very favorite people in all the world, my cousin GK. I saw this guy that was sooooo cute. Gk turns to me and says, pay attention to how he treats people. There are a lot of pretty people in this world, but you need to make sure you choose to associate with people that are beautiful on the inside.

I've had this thing on the DVR for about a week now, but I am finally getting to see it.

In the first show, they have several challenges (that they don't know are challenges)
1. Waiter falls and pushes a chocolate fountain onto the group. Several girls are awful as they get upset about the chocolate. One of they guys starts helping to clean chocolate off of the other people. I think that is a good test of inner beauty. How do we react when bad things happen? I would like to think that I would do the right thing and make the waiter feel better.

2. They are left in an office with everyone's files. They passed/failed based on whether they looked at anyone else's file. I'm not sure that I would pass that one. I am a snoopy monkey. Hmmm. Maybe I would choose to do the right thing. . . not as sure about that one.

Side note: They go to be "tested" by a doctor on their physical beauty. One of the guys says no he doesn't believe you can measure beauty. I was impressed he was willing to say that.

Feeling Urban

Yesterday Randy and Diana and I made plans to meet up in old Plano. This is big fun for me because I take the DART train up to Plano, walk over to the pub, and then when I go home, I have a 45 minute period to contemplate life, if you will, before getting back in the car to drive home.

As always, Diana was dressed to the nines. She got the very cute dog purse for Christmas. The interior of the purse matches her jacket, or should I say, her jacket matches the purse. We have been to this pub before, and I say with great confidence that they make the BEST cosmos that I've ever had. I mean, ding dong freaking good. I'm slightly flushed from sun and cosmos cause it was like 80 degrees yesterday and I had a couple of their yummy drinks.

Do I look bowlegged in this picture? I'm thinking I might.

This is probably my last hurrah for a while since school starts tomorrow. sigh. I thinking I'm sliding into a funk as I write.

PJs and TV

So, if part of my "Time to get a life" plan is to actually go out in the evening, then I am going to have keep my arse up past 8pm and maybe, just maybe stay out of my pjs until later in the evening too. . . and I might have to cut down on the tv time. Of course if I REALLY get a life, it might cut down on the blogging, and then we'd all be sad. So maybe I'll only somewhat get a life.

The problem with addiction

Well, I'm certain there are multiple problems with addiction. Today, I discuss the problem with the HGTV addiction. And, I'm not even going to focus on the HOURS that can be lost watching HGTV. Sit down Saturday morning, perhaps to put my shoes on to take the evil precious dogs for their morning walk and find myself FIVE HOURS LATER still in front of the TV trying to determine if I could spray paint a roll of gauze enough to turn it into a hard backed lamp shade.

Sorry, back on topic. So, I was watching the Top 25 mistakes people make in decorating (mostly just to be certain that I wasn't on the list not to laugh with amusement at what the foolish and untalented do with their homes.)

Sure enough, there I was. Decorating with fake flowers (well, if you've seen my gardening abilities you would understand this one.). Multiple famous and somewhat famous decorators remarked on the horror of the fake flowers anywhere in the home. Sigh. Fine, so off I go to find "dried flowers" and such. . . Michael's? Nope. World Market? Nope. Target? Nope. NOWHERE. I was finally forced to go to . . . . GARDEN RIDGE. That's right the first ring of hell. (What is so bad about Garden Ridge? It's almost impossible to describe but briefly, it is huge, full of stupid slow moving people and very long lines to check out. Wretched.)

So, I packed a lunch and headed off for the very distant Gardenridge. I guess on the plus side of this sad tale, it did have the dried stuff for which I searched. Please feel free to ooh and aaahh accordingly. My front door is now beautifully graced by the totally acceptable dried stuff instead of the terribly gauche and suspect fake stuff.