No!

No!

 No sun--no moon!  

No morn--no noon!  

No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--  

No sky--no earthly view--  

No distance looking blue--  

No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--  

No end to any Row--  

No indications where the Crescents go--  

No top to any steeple--  

No recognitions of familiar people--  

No courtesies for showing 'em--  

No knowing 'em!  

No traveling at all--no locomotion--  

No inkling of the way--no notion--  

"No go" by land or ocean--  

No mail--no post--  

No news from any foreign coast--  

No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--  

No company--no nobility--  

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,  

No comfortable feel in any member--  

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,  

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--  

November!

- Thomas Hood

Thanks, Mrs. Yates. I have this poem on my mind during every November since about the 8th grade. I can't remember my line... though in my head I can hear the expression, and lack thereof, of my classmates as we read it every day for roll-call. No knowing 'em!

4

4 Things In My Handbag/Backpack/Briefcase:

geology teaching notebook

emergency Diet Coke money

USB drive from the LoC

Post-it notes

4 Favorite Things In My Bedroom:

lamp from Ikea

bookcases from Ikea

new pillow

jewelry rack

4 Things On My Desk:

papers I need to grade

papers I need to file

papers I need to trash

photos

4 Things I've Always Wanted To Do (but haven't yet):

go on an African safari

buy a house

visit all 50 states

be caught up on all my scrapbooking

4 Things I Enjoy Very Much At The Moment:

being crafty

sleeping

reading The Help

listening to HP 7!

4 Songs I Can't Get Out of My Head:

Whip My Hair

Bad Romance

America Rocks

Hey, Soul Sister

4 Things You Don't Know About Me:

I have a terrible habit of staying up way too late...

pickles - ick!

Pretzel M&Ms are my recently new-found favorite treat!

I have a way-overdue book that needs to go back to the library

4 Bloggers I'm Tagging:

I think I probably only have 4 readers, so... tag - you're it!

22 again...

Today is the something-th anniversary of my 22nd birthday!

Memorable birthdays of years gone by...

One year ago... October 2009

I spent my birthday at the school carnival. Not too shabby of a time, either! My family came down south for dinner, and we ended up at JCW's in Lehi. Perhaps the most memorable thing about last year's birthday was that Dad got me a present, rather than money, like usual. He got me a 'cat mom' necklace for my little 'daughter', Tippy. Pretty thoughtful of him. Not that he wasn't normally thoughtful, he was, but not like he was during his last year. It was bittersweet to see all the catalogs he'd been saving for Christmas with pages dog-eared and items starred.

Six years ago... October 2004

Joee and I somehow convinced our mothers that Las Vegas would be a great place to spend our birthdays! They were sold on the fact the other mother had said yes, so certainly it must be okay. What were they thinking?!? We started out right, at the Scrapbook Expo, then had dinner at the Mayan. Then off to a night's stay in St. George, and on to Vegas in the morning. What a whirlwind trip! Piano dancing boys at FAO Schwartz, lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, shopping at the outlets in Primm, the huge ginormous rollercoaster, and, of course, gambling. Then the best part - Frankie Moreno at the lounge at Whiskey Pete's! Ah, Frankie! Good thing we were sober, because we got a lesson in what it looks like when you're drunk and try to dance!

Many years ago... October late 1980s/early 1990s

I always had a party at home with my friends. Year after year, one of my friends down the street, Missy, would spill her red punch on the living room carpet. Year after year, after the party, as my mom cleaned it up with at-home carpet cleaner, she'd declare that Missy wasn't invited for next year's party. And yet, year after year, she came. And my mom kept cleaning the carpet!

Not as many years ago... October mid 1990s

Looking back, I can't believe that I had such great friend birthday parties, thanks all to my mom. She'd always bake a cake, have fun games for us to play, and make goodie bags. There are so many pictures of these parties, but, alas, none digital (yet). I don't know how she did it - I'm exhausted from teaching now! I can't imagine doing this gig with kids and then spending good time with them. I guess I still have time (about 11 years or so) to get it figured out.

Fourteen years ago... October 1996

My family went out to eat at the Galaxy Diner, on 5900 So. and State Street (it was so sad when it was taken down - for a bank!). After singing by the waiters and waitresses (Happy birthday from the Galaxy crew!), I got KISSED! By the waiter! On the top of the head! Ahhhh! Enough said about that birthday!

Ten years ago... October 2000

This birthday doesn't qualify in the 'best of' category, but still memorable. It was the birthday when I grew up a bit. I was a freshman at the U. While I wasn't the only person I knew going there, I didn't often see people that I knew around campus. In my head, I figured that no one would know it was my birthday, and not being a person to announce it, no one, all day long, said anything. No emails from friends, either. My last hope was institute, where I was pretty sure they have a list of birthdays, and surely that great teacher would see that it was my birthday and say something. No. Not a thing. So much for people remembering your birthday and making it a 'deal'. Welcome to the real world of adult birthdays!

This year! October 2010

Going to the U game to have a Cowboy Corndog! Woo!

New Car!

Love, love, LOVE my new car!

I got a new Ford Escape a few weeks ago and I love it! Love the Sync system, love the han

ds-free calling and almost-hands-free texting (when the car is safely stopped, of course!). Love the seats, the ride, and the trunk. Love the cap-free gas tank, the mileage, and the way it tells me how many more miles I can drive before I need to fuel up. Love that new car smell! Love it! I can't wait to have some great adventures in it! Its first Vegas trip is in the works!

But of course, I loved my old, er, former car too! We had a lot of good memories together. 90,000+ miles of memories!

2 trips to Cumorah (and beyond!)

1 trip to Vegas with Joee, 2 more with Holly

6 years worth of driving every day to work in sleet, snow, rain, wind and sunshine

3 years worth of driving to the U for grad school

It was kind of sad to leave my car behind, but it was time.

Huzzah for new cars!

First Fun Fantastic Friday

This is what I'm doing tomorrow at school. Except without the Coke in the eye.

I've been gone for ten long years...

My ten-year high school reunion is right around the corner. I'm not going - I even have a legitimate reason for not attending either the day or night event. (I had a good reason to miss last time too - I was thousands of miles away in China for my 5-year!). I did take the 'how-can-we-further-contact-you; where-do-you-socially-network; what-have-you-been-up-to-in-ten-years' survey - mostly because I didn't want to end up on the "missing" list (and yes, there is one - there are so many people on it! I'm pretty certain I didn't go to school with some of those people...). The question I hated answering the most was something like: So, in 5 sentences or less, what have you been up to in the past ten years?

What have I been up to?

5 sentences?

Really?

There are many ways to approach this. I didn't think of some of them until later, however. Which is why you get to read it all here. Lucky you!

The "I'm single and happy whether you believe it or not" version. 10 years, no husband, no kids. Just a cat to call my own. A wasted ten years in Utah, and definitely will be seen that way by all these high school peoples. I need more than two hands to count the number of high school couples who have become eternal couples. And these are just the ones I know about! Not that marrying your high school sweetheart is such a bad life - but not one that I singly (no pun intended, but there it is) have control over. So here is my single-and-looking version:

Personal ad: SWF seeking SWM. Good applicant should be WX class of '00 (otherwise, why are you reading this?) college graduate (since I am not going to put you through college, too - I've already done that twice, thank you very much), electrician or mechanic (since I seem to be in need of those quite often), comedian (because a girl's gotta laugh) or rich via some other means, willing to grade spelling tests (of all the things I grade, these grow the most tiresome), and skills - "you know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... girls only want boyfriends who have great skills." What I can offer you in return: a peek into my domestic portfolio, strangely decorated cupcakes, Ikea furniture putting-together skills, and Hoe-down Throw-down dance lessons. Poor, hungry, needy, or weirdos need not apply.

The smart-aleck version. My most natural response is to be snarky and smart-alecky. Because really? 10 years smashed into 5 sentences? Who isn't going to read this with a grain of salt anyway? Then I think - probably not many people in high school knew my snarky self - that really only manifests itself with people I know fairly well - and not many of those people are from high school days. So, if I take that approach, it looks like I'm trying to be funny, maybe - but not quite cutting it. A few people would get it, but all the rest will think it's dumb. Yet, it was begging to be written that way, so here's the smart-aleck version:

After graduating high school, I went for the big-time college - the U. After 7 long years there and 2 degrees later, I finally left that institution for greener pastures - Utah County. I really do l like teaching, even like the kids from time to time. Since I didn't get married straight out of high school to my high school sweetheart (oh wait, didn't have one of those), I have striven to do other productive things with my life: travel, scrapbook, and grade papers. 10 years wasted? Perhaps. But eternity's a long time to spend with one person. I only have 35 10-11-year olds for 180 days, and don't have to wake them up or put them to bed.

Yes. Probably good that I didn't submit that one. But it was quite entertaining to write.

The version I ended up with. I ended up with something fairly normal and plain. And probably slightly boring. A little bit of humor, a little bragging. I'm mostly certain that I'm not that memorable, and so this little bio is easily forgotten as well. But probably the most representative of the silent type I was during high school, and probably what everyone who did know me expected me to do with my life. (I forgot to copy and paste it... so this is what I remember... (but when I get my reunion book I'll put the real thing here))

I'm currently teaching 5th grade in Utah County. I graduated from the U with a BS and later with a MEd. Having summers off has let me travel - eastern US, Europe, Alaska, and China. When I'm not spending time doing my main hobby of grading papers, I like to read, do crafts, scrapbook, and plan my next adventure.

So. There it is. 3 versions of the most difficult sentences I've had to write all summer long. And you got to read them. Lucky you.

Go Wildcats!

Yoga for the Brain entry 1

Introduce yourself, using one true detail and one untrue detail about you or your life. As you write, try to make both the true and untrue details sound equally believable.

Two things that you probably don't know about me:
1. I love water slides. I can't wait for summer for all of them to open - Classic, Cherry Hill, Cowabunga Bay, Lagoona Beach - love them!
2. I love crocheting. Chains, single crochet, patterns, special stitches, complex patterns or easy repeats - love it!


Take the untrue detail you wrote about and elaborate. Expand. Fill in the details.

When I was younger, much younger (7-8 years old, I think), I spent nearly every day of two summers at Classic Skating and Water Slides. I would skate for a while, because my mom made me. She enjoyed the air conditioning and seating inside the rink. She always brought things to do, and needed the table-bench combo to do it. But what I really wanted to do was go down the water slides. Skating was the fastest way to get to water slide - much faster than arguing. So, skate for a short time - then out to the water slides! I loved getting my little blue mat, climbing the slippery hill, carefully selecting my slide (the Octopus was my favorite), settling in on my mat, and waiting for the life guard to give the go ahead. Then - zoom - off I went, through turns and tunnels and corners. The best part, of course, is the straight-away leading up to the splash-down. Splash - swim - climb out - and repeat. My mom always made me hit her up for sun screen after every two runs down the slide - one, so that I wouldn't get too crispy, and two, so that she could keep track of my safety. What a great few summers!


Take the true detail you wrote about, and turn it into fiction. Add details that are false.

I first learned how to crochet at the Hill Cumorah a few summers ago. I had a part that gave me lots and lots of free time. One of my leaders had a few extra hooks and yarn and taught me how during all my down time. I started with chains, and moved on to single, double, and half-double crochets by the end of pageant. I still have my samples and pot holders I made those first few weeks of my crocheting life. Good thing there was a Wal-Mart near by with a plentiful supply of hooks and yarn.