Blah, blah blah

It's been a while and I have a lot to write. But right now, I just have to make a quick confession. I don't know what BlogHer is. And...the really bad part, I'm not sure that I give a flying f...I mean that I don't care. I keep reading about it on the various blogs I read. People are tweeting about it. To me, it sounds just like another freaking cult. Heaven knows, I am just barely dodging the freaks in the "scholastic journalism cult," pretty sure I don't need to start hanging out with a whole nother cult subgroup.

Am I missing something huge here? Actually, I'm not even sure of why I'm asking y'all. Odds are good, you don't know what it is either. Well, except for Fran. Odds are good she knows. She might even care now that I think about it. She recently tweeted that she found something that let her know when people stopped following her. She's keeping track of who's reading her and who's not. It almost makes me nervous, but part of me just thinks it's her OCD side acting up. At any rate, the amount I don't care about BlogHer is only exceeded by the amount I don't care if someone stops following me on Twitter. Well, unless it's one of my sisters, or the BFF or Truett. But other than that, don't care.

And BlogHer? Well, if there is some kind of convention for the 6 of you following me, well, let's party down, but other than that... I'm good.

Ok, at some point I'll blog about my week with the BFF, why school is going to kick my ass this year, the challenged issued for me to get a date before the end of August, why it is possible for my parents to make me totally insane, helping a former student pass a college summer school English class and, as always, my darling pets. (Think of these things as topics to look towards with excitement and expectation...feel free to throw down your preference for which story to tell first...)

NaBloPoMo writing prompt

Why am I choosing to respond to this? Well, because my other choice is to actually work on the stuff that I have promised will be turned in TUESDAY. Oh, and that I have done nothing with so far. So, I still have plenty of time, and not enough pressure yet to actually get me busy writing on that.

The prompt is what is the first thing you notice when you meet a man/woman. Hmm, interesting.

I think this is an interesting question because it ties into my recent contemplations regarding Honesty. As in everyone says they want honesty but people don't seem to be comfortable being honest. Also, I think there are things we have convinced ourselves are not ok to say, for instance, "The first thing I notice is his ass."

Honesty. We all say we want honesty, but I have to ask, do we really? As a society, have we trained our loved ones and friends to lie to us? When a girl asks her guy, "Does this make my butt look big?" Is she really looking for an honest answer? Have we so trained our friends to not be honest with us? That is a totally depressing thought. I pray that I have friends that will be honest with me. That will tell me when an outfit isn't my best, that will let me know when I'm in the middle of making an ass out of myself, and that will look me in the eye and say you are screwing up when I am.

In the dating world, I am trying to be understanding that guys are scared to be truthful with girls. To say they don't want to go out again, to say they like you but not that much. What must they fear? Our crazy reactions? Crying? Screaming? Feeling guilty for hurting someone's feelings? Personally, I would so much rather have someone be honest with me than anything else.

First thing we notice. I HATE when people say the first thing they notice is anything other than PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. Cause they are full of shit. Unless you are blind, you can't help but notice the physical cause you really can't notice someone's intellect or sense of humor on first LOOK. Let's just say it: we notice physical. Maybe we notice butts or hair or eyes or pecs, but we notice what people look like. It just is the truth.

Now, I will say that many, many years ago, I went to a bar with my cousin (and one of my very favorite people). I was googly eyed for the DJ. My cousin told me to look at the way he was talking to the people. That he wasn't being very nice. It was a good lesson. Beautiful people can be ugly inside and ugly people can be surprisingly attractive because they are such good people.

My friend, PhD, was asking me about what I am looking for in a man these days. I have to tell you. I have no idea. I know in my 20's I had a pretty damn long list. These days, it is pretty short.

I want honesty; no matter how hard that is to find. I want someone who is honest. And who thinks I'm funny. Ok, it would be cool if they were funny too. And they need to be good with money. Not necessarily rich (sure, I'd like to win the lottery, but let's face it, if I was really after money, I would have snagged someone by now, I am way pickier than that), but they do have to be able to balance a checkbook. We know I suck with money, and it's best if at least one person in any relationship can count. That's all I'm saying. I'm not sure if I can even come up with anything else.

I know there are things that are important that I'm not thinking about. So, you my friends, need to help guide me. Help me think about what really matters in a relationship. What am I not remembering that is important?

P.S. If you don't answer, I'll assume you so enjoy my disasters in dating so much you can't bear to help guide me and make dating easier!!

OK After going to dinner with my friend AP, I've realized I forgot faith. I definitely want someone who will go to church with me, and compentent. I'm not saying he has to make a ton of money but he needs to be competent at whatever he does career wise. Sounds like a no brainer, but I'm adding it anyway.

I'm gonna let you go now"

First, I would like to say, although I am about to go on a total rant, if you are one of the people I love that does this, simply know that I love you despite the fact you do something that drives me totally effing nuts.

So, recently I was talking to a friend of mine who was ready to get off of the phone and let me know that by saying these 6 little words, "I'm gonna let you go now."

Why? Why do people say that? As if they are doing us favors. Because they care so much, they are letting us off the phone. Warms the cockles of my heart when it isn't making me totally and completely insane.

Why not just say, I have to go now, or even the slightly harsher, you bore me and now I'm done talking to you or I need to go clean my bathtub. I don't care. Just don't do me any favors. Sheesh

"Welcome to Nuts"

When last we caught up with our heroine, she was flying back from her trip to Europe. It was June. And she had a long list of things to do that she declared would make her nuts if she didn't get to doing them... hence the welcome to nuts, cause I have not actually been the productive machine I needed to be.

For instance, this was supposed to be the week of working on the latest material for The Book aka the bane of my existence. To date, I have done nothing. Well, I went to lunch with the boys on Tuesday to tell them I would have everything for them next Tuesday. Huh. Kinda wishing I hadn't done that.

I did get to go over and hang with my friend Anonymous. She made the huge mistake of thinking pregnancy was going to have a soundtrack of happy music and flowers...yeah, turns out her body is not as enamoured with being taken over by a growing lizard as others. We're praying that everything settles down soon, but as always we had a marathon talk session that made me delightfully happy.

I have seen Knight and Day (totally cute movie) and Killers. Sense a theme do you? So I like my love stories mixed in with a little humor and bang, bang shoot 'em up.

I got to get together with my friend PhD, PR, Sergio and a couple of others. So, on the social front I guess you could say I've done a lot.

But on the getting shit done list, not much at all. I can hardly get out of bed in the morning. I get like 2 things done a day. AND there are only 45 days left of summer. Ok, when I see that I think it might look churlish to those of you with yearlong jobs that I'm whining about having 45 days before I go back to work, but trust me when I tell you I need each and every day to get the stuff done that I have to get done so that I can go 9 months without getting anything done.

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.

Going to Europe

Ok, it's been a crazy week, and instead of cleaning I'm blogging. What is wrong with me??? At any rate, I'm almost done with my checklist, and I'm pretty sure I remembered underwear and I definitely have the hydrocodone, so really, it's all good.

This is the "blog" for the trip...you'll probably be able to tell which posts I add and which ones skip adds.

http://morans.ontheroad.to/europe2010

42 kids, 4 adults, 12 days and 6 cities or so. Pray for me. That is all I ask.

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.