Gifts of the Heat

Last night, before squirting Alex with the water nozzle connected to our hose (an annual tradition in our family that opens water-gun season, which will continue into November), George poured some lighter fluid on a section of overgrown grass in our backyard and tried to burn it with a lighter. (!) He claims he got the idea from me, since I’m always pushing for the purchase of a weed-burning torch. Unfortunately, the grand erroneous-grass-burn-off didn’t happen because, according to George, the grass was too green. I’m thinking that maybe the guardian angel sent to watch over our house by Liberty Mutual had something to do with the failure…but naturally, I can’t prove it, so it’s just a theory. Still, I’m pretty sure Liberty Mutual (and the Peoria Police and Fire departments, for that matter) would frown on this type of creativity with fire, so it’s a good thing his experiment didn’t work.

 

This particular incident, paired with today’s discovery that Alex really does have A LOT of socks despite what I think in the middle of January when I am unable to find any and my sort-of meltdown when I found wood chips in about half of the aforementioned socks (I HATE WOOD CHIPS! They are the bane of my existence.), makes me think that maybe the heat causes the logical/reasoning portions of our brains to malfunction. Alex just now tried to bit off his big toe, providing me with yet another piece of support for my assertion.

 

It’s been a big day of insanity for Alex, who learned this afternoon that yes, if you announce you have to pee but don’t move, you WILL have an accident. He also unearthed an amazing property of scissors (they’re sharp!) when he tried to use them to open some mail. I’m hoping that lesson will stick with him, especially after the fun mother-son bonding time we had as I practically sat on his arm to keep his hand still enough for me to clean and bandage his scissors-related wound. We had so much fun today; I sincerely hope tomorrow is NOT fun.

 

As if trying to burn grass wasn’t crazy enough, George announced that we’re having another child because Alex needs a sibling. Huh? Though I have been known to go through I-want-a-baby phases, I kind of like that I get to sleep a lot more. The fact that my largest concern about bringing another child into the world is that I won’t get enough sleep sheds enormous light on my readiness for this.

 

It’s hot here and people (mainly my immediate family and ME) are going insane. Good thing it’s not going to rain and/or storm to clear the air…..

 

 

 

Sunday Morning Blues

It started on Friday when I checked my school e-mail...the antsy frustration that is all too familiar during the school year due to an insurmountable to-do list and not enough time in which to accomplish much. School is coming. School is coming! I've already spent a significant amount of time brainstorming and mentally forming a classroom layout. I'm already worried about how I can have 1st quarter grades and everything done before I leave for Disneyland (in October). I'm behind, and the race hasn't even started yet!!

On a completely different note, I read a women's health blog this morning (written by an average Jane Doe) that covered such topics as vaginal odor (apparently, it's a serious problem in the summertime, and here I was totally unaware...) and bra washing (somebody's survey found that on average, women wash their bras six times a year....but that's not what was interesting to me, though that is pretty riveting. What fascinated me is that whoever did the survey also figured that the average woman owns 15 bras. What? I'm singlehandedly bringing down the average. Must go purchase 5 or more bras pronto!). I just noticed that I'm using the word average an awful lot. But I can't think of a synonym in my beginning stages of panic and meltdown.

So to summarize, I'm not ready for school and have roughly two more weeks before I have to get into full-teacher mode, but I'm running behind a bus that hasn't even left yet; and I don't have enough bras. Wow, and I haven't even really thought about the fact that NAU classes start sometime in August...

I'm sorely tempted to return to bed and figure out a way to stay there for the next 14 days in order to store up enough energy to make up for the certain deficit I will experience too soon.

My Favorite Bedtime Prayer

This has been my favorite since I read it somewhere back in high school.

 

I thank you for this day of life,
for feet to walk amidst the trees
for hands to pick the flowers from the earth
for a sense of smell to breathe in the sweet perfumes of nature
for a mind to think about and appreciate the magic of every day miracles,
for a spirit to swell in joy.
--Marian Wright Edelman
From the book Guide My Feet

Random Thoughts in Random Order on a Random Day

• I have all kinds of brilliant thoughts when I'm driving, in the shower, sitting on the toilet, or anywhere else where I can't get to pen & paper or a keyboard. This explains why none of my genius ideas have made me rich or famous. It also explains why I now carry a memo book in my purse at all times.
• I have the attention span of a kindergartner most of the time. If I'm not actively engaged in conversation (nodding, asking questions, etc.), it's a key sign I've moved on to other thoughts/pursuits. I am also a slow auditory processor, meaning that sometimes what feels like minutes to me will pass before I "get" what is said. I find that my processing speed slows down in direct proportion with how much sleep I haven't gotten.
• My childhood pet, Arioso, took her last breath back in February. I was there. She literally took one last breath, and let it out, and she was gone, just like that. Since then I have mourned her everytime I hear Bach's Arioso played on the cello (it's the song that gave her the name) because the piece seems to tell the story of Arioso's life. I have also seen three dogs since February who I could've sworn were Arioso...but I honestly don't know if I was just seeing things.
• I am a technophile. I have always been fascinated by computers and the Internet- I am the reason why my family signed on to the Internet in the first place, when I came home with a free trial of a program called Prodigy and insisted my dad install it. My very first job had to do with computer programming (really, this sounds much more impressive than it actually was!). I met my husband on the Internet (AOL, actually), back when it just wasn't done! So you'd think that my husband would understand this and not be so dismayed when I start hyperventilating because I have no Internet access while on vacation (true story: the first two days of our SD trip, I didn't have access. I still am not quite sure how I survived, though I didn't actually hyperventilate.).
• I honestly cannot understand why someone would ruin a perfectly good Chevy, white, full-size truck by spray painting "FU Prez. Pelosi- No new taxes!" in neon orange, all over it (saw this on the freeway on the way home today). But I also cannot understand how you could not realize the need for taxes. There's a reason why taxes are on that list of unavoidable things (you know, the one: aging, death, and taxes)!! People who seriously believe that all citizens would donate enough money out the kindness of their hearts to cover everything that taxes currently provide are not living in the reality that is our country.
• I have sunburn blisters on my arms for the first time in my life. They're not painful and I'm amazed by how easily they burst. However, I just learned that they are also the hardest to treat because they are so easy to burst and are prone to infection (lucky me!). I also just learned that three blistering sunburns by the age of 20 is a sure path to cancer. (See my thoughts above on being a technophile: I am Google-dependent. If Google didn't have some good search results for me whenever I wanted to know about something, I really don't know what I'd do...I wouldn't know anything! Seriously, I even use Google to help me complete assignments...) For the first time in my life, I am grateful to be 30! I also had a cold sore/fever blister (apparently, they are the same thing) from too much sun exposure...I seem to get one every single time I go to San Diego!! Finally, my forehead looks like the dry, cracked desert earth that we see in movie scenes where the story teller is trying to make the point that there is no water. The dark, burned skin is cracking and flaking off. It's NOT a pretty sight, and I will NEVER leave my house without sunscreen on my face (and my arms if I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt) again. Never again.
• The first recorded instance of my love for orange was created when I was in 8th grade. I went through an awkward camcorder phase where I recorded anything and everything, and I have myself on camera declaring my love for orange. That was BEFORE orange became the new pink and all this other madness that has transpired for orange. Though I originally liked orange so I could be different from all the blue-lovers out there, I have come to really appreciate the color- I look good in it, it can be a happy and energizing or even a calming shade, and I still feel a slight disdain for people who claim blue is their favorite color- especially when they say things like, "I don't know, blue? It's the color of the sky." (It's not rational, but I guess it doesn't have to be.) I don't have anything against people if blue is their favorite color (it's not like they went to U of A or voted for GW Bush or something seriously offensive like that). Alas, there is also a record of my affinity for blue back in 5th grade- I wrote a poem about it. So even if I did want to launch some kind of assault on blue-lovers, that one piece of evidence would be tough to explain and would blow my credibility to bits...