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Up until now I've been working on my little book without really trusting in my own ability to finish a large piece of writing. And yes, I'm probably only one-third through. But still, I feel like the pieces are coming together. Every time I add new material, or tighten up the previous chapters, it just feels like something I might be really proud of one day.

I'm going to start meeting with a good friend of mine from school who is also writing with the intent to publish in the same genre (young adult fiction/juvenile fiction). We're going to read each other's work and give feedback, etc. This is the first colleague that I've showed my writing to, since being in a small writing group in college five or six years ago. I'm excited and a little nervous.

I hope that at the end of summer I will also be at the end of my book. Here's hoping!

Tonight I got to thinking about the end of the world

and I was momentarily paralyzed with fear at the thought that when Jesus comes back, there's a good chance I'll be watching American Idol.

Jack Bauer vs. Jack Bristow

Who would win? From a covert op to arm wrestling...it's really a tough call.
MY vote right now is for Bristow.

I was just lollygagging around on the IMDB

and ran across a cartoon series from the '80s that I used to love.... The Wuzzles, animals that were half one animal, and half another, such as Eleroo and Bumblelion.

This, of course, made me remember tons of other fantastically crappy, low-budget, ridiculously-plotted, fabulous cartoons from the '80s. Remember any of these?
Just a few of the ones I used to love:
The Get-along Gang
The Snorks
The Bisketts
The Shirtales
Pound Puppies
Muppet Babies
Jem
Poochie
The Littles
The Popples
My Little Pony

I also watched these shows, thanks to my brother:
MASK
Transformers

I'm sure there were more. Just thinking of these really takes me back.

I know I usually blog about

silly little things like Thin Mint cookies and crappy '80s dance musicals, but I have something SERIOUS I want to say.

I'm sick and tired of the media using fear tactics to make a quick buck or reel in a potential viewer. I especially hate the way the media targets the fears in women!

In the last few years, I can't open a magazine without seeing an article about how to avoid being a target for rape, abuse, or inadequate daycare for your children. And honestly, I am the first person to support the education of women, but all of this is getting out of hand. I'll never forget an article I read about three years ago that cautioned women against ever wearing overalls because one convicted rapist confessed that he would specifically target women wearing overalls. Another article urged women to be especially cautious when leaving the gym, because rapists lurk in gym parking lots waiting for exhausted women to come out of spinning classes. I'm not trying to be funny. This stuff may be useful information to tuck away in your mind, but why should women be terrified as they go about day-to-day activities? Yes, women should be smart when making decisions, but fearfulness should not be a way of life.

Now it seems like the big issue is infidelity. Just a few nights ago, a news segment featured a private investigator as he tailed a cheating husband. The segment posed the question, "What are tell-tale signs that your significant other is cheating?" but the underlying message felt like, "When will your husband cheat on you, you naive female?" Add this to the countless articles and books on the subject, and they all seem to say, "Look, face it. Men cheat. They're just made that way. You might as well be ready so you won't be the fool."
I'm sorry, but I just DON'T accept that. While yes, many men, and WOMEN I might add, are unfaithful, I don't believe that all men are designed that way!

So why should the media program women to distrust and doubt based on fear?
It's sick and wrong. And I'm tired of it.

Reasons I'm feeling very happy right now...

1. Spring Break is only one week away.
2. Even though we have temporarily lost our blog pics (see left) I have not, I repeat HAVE NOT lost my book that I was storing on the idisk. Which I am no longer storing on the idisk.
3. Just picked up a sound machine from the Sharper Image to play nice noise to fall asleep to.... Ahhh. Our favorite right now is fireside, which makes a wonderfully crackly sound.
4. I'm watching a bunch of the behind-the-scenes footage of the Lord of the Rings. Fantastic.
5. I just found a half-full box of Thin Mints in the back of the pantry.
6. I am right now eating the Thin Mints with a glass of cold milk.

This morning, I woke up thinking,

"Today is the day. Today I WILL go back to the gym and get back on the diet/excercise/self-loathing horse. It's time."

My motivation felt so strong, I could have talked Anna Nicole Smith onto a stairmaster.

Now, at 4:30, after a long day full of sugar-coated, chocolate-saturated, endorphine-spiked good feelings from a knee-high pile of kid Valentines and candy, I am happily sedated from that early morning ambition. I don't feel motivated to step out of the house, much less enter a gym that would ask me to sacrifice physically. I think, just a nice afternoon nap....

I am sure that tomorrow WILL be the day.

If not, most definitely the following.

Do you think this started as just two guys in a garage somewhere in Cleveland?

I'm taking a rare, quiet moment

at work to blog. I hardly ever do this because I always have so many things on my mental "TO DO" list. But for some strange reason, everything is done. Crazy.

This morning I stopped to get a quick cup of coffee at the Tigermarket (or is it Tigermart?) one minute away from school. I usually stop in there when I haven't made my coffee at home, or when the line at Starbucks is out to the parking lot.

As I walked in, the man at the counter said to another cashier, "And here is our little schoolteacher who comes in every morning for coffee." I couldn't help but smile, even though technically, I only get coffee there about once a week. And since we've never discussed my profession, he must think that I LOOK like a teacher. Why do I like that?

I decided that I want to stop there and get coffee more often. They do have different blends of coffee, one cup costs one-fourth that of a Starbucks latte, and the cashier not only remembers me, he knows something about me. Next time I go in there, I'll have to find out his name.

Being friendly feels nice. Wouldn't our country be such a different place if people were just friendly with each other?

If I told you

that I chose to stay home from Nathan's coworkers' game night so that I could watch terrible dance-musicals (i.e. Girls Just Want to Have Fun, From Justin to Kelly, etc.), give myself a facial, and drink a rum and Coke, would you classify it as funny or a cry for help?

To help aid you in your decision, you may need to know that I'm actually watching the director's commentary on From Justin to Kelly, and it's not real Coke, it's C2.

I feel like I should blog,

if for no other reason than that my last entry was one month ago.
Jeez. I'm sorry to anyone who still reads this.

Updates with me:
1. School is more than half over for the year.

2. I've been watching a lot of prime time television.

3. I've been to two (required) workshops in the last three days, and substitute teachers, God love them, can't seem to manage my students. My students, God love them, can't seem to behave for a sub. I wish they both would, and make my life easier.

4. Abigail escaped from under the patio fence the other night, forcing us to board up the space and to wonder if she really is unhappy at home.

5. I have misplaced the book I'm halfway through reading, but I refuse to buy it again and I refuse to pay my library fines.

6. Why is Proactive Solution so expensive?

7. Our Christmas tree is still up.

8. I really should pay my library fines.

9. One of my goals is to blog more than once a month. Here's hoping.

What a beautiful day

to find the perfect pink coat, work on my writing, and make Nathan take me to the ballet. It may just be the best birthday I could have imagined!

a few things I learned this afternoon:

1. Unless you work there, you'll probably be snubbed in an upscale boutique.

2. Buying something on sale will not increase your need or love for it, if you don't need or love it in the first place.

3. Beware of cutesy book covers. Sneaky, aren't they?

4. Trying on a string of pearls with no intention of buying them will still give you butterflies in your stomach.

5. There is no peace on Earth, goodwill towards men in the Central Market parking lot.

I love this time of year.

We get to see family and friends, take some much-deserved time off from work, travel if we are lucky, and ski if we are very, very lucky. This year we have been very, very lucky indeed.

Yesterday was our second day of beautifully-cold, snowing ski days. The day before that I took a private ski lesson with Amy (Sister amy) and improved quite a bit, if I do say so myself. Yesterday morning, we went down some steeper slopes, and for the first part of the day I chickened out a little, went back to my lovely green-blue-green-blue slopes, but then toughened up in the afternoon and faced the music (not to mention the fact that the slopes usually look much harder than they are).

Seeing our Utah parents has been wonderful! Also, visiting Amy is always fun. Thanksgiving is most definitely one of my favorite holidays.

Before we left Austin, we put up our Christmas tree and had our annual decorating the tree celebration, complete with holiday music, chocolate truffles, and champagne, I firmly believe that our Christmas tree is the most beautiful tree of all the Christmas trees in existance. How could it not be, with classic white lights, wooden cranberry garland, and all the ornaments from our childhood, including ones we made ourselves, up to the ones that have been given to us from dear friends and family?

The Curious Incident at Starbucks

On my way to Saturday school yesterday morning, I stopped in at Starbucks for an overly-priced, yet delicious hazelnut soy latte. (I'm one of those annoying people who orders the frou frou coffee. And I LIKE IT.)

In line in front of me, a man in a thread-bare coat was counting out change in nickels and pennies for his coffee. I noticed his old, ragged shoes and 3-day grown-in beard. This wasn't the first time I'd seen a poor person at Starbucks. Hey, if I were homeless, I'd spend those hand-outs on good coffee, too.

I thought for a second about saying, "Sir, may I buy your coffee this morning?" but it seemed a little too stuffy and indiscreet. The register next to him opened and I walked up to it, so that I was standing next to the man. I ordered my coffee and opened my wallet to get out my credit card. Usually I don't have any cash on hand, but for some reason I had a spare dollar bill. I reached in and took out the dollar bill, smiling and handing it casually to the poor man. He gave me a puzzled look, but took the money and put it in his pocket. I paid for my coffee, and ran in to use the restroom since I had a spare minute.
I was feeling good. Maybe it was a strange place to give to the poor, but the point is, I did it. Face it, plenty of people think about giving, but they don't act on it.

On my way out, I grabbed my coffee, and as I walked out the door, I saw the man walking out in front of me. He walked over to his Chevy SUV, got in, and started the engine. I slinked over to my car, got in, and hoped that I might never have to meet the man who wasn't homeless again face to face.

In case I didn't already know I was old,

it was confirmed to me past week, when in Kerrville I woke up with a neck ache because I didn't bring my own pillow, and the pillows at Inn of the Hills are apparently designed for professional football players. Add to that the two nights this week I went to bed before 10 p.m. and things are getting pretty geriatric.
Good thing we are going to the apple store this weekend to get my new miniIPOD. Maybe it will make me feel young and hip again. I ask you, if I feel like this at 26, what will 50 be like?

Leave it to a writer to find a way to fit in the totally unrelated announcement that she really, REALLY wants to make.

I think my body knows when I'm about to have some time off

because it usually happens that I suddenly get sick whenever I have the time to do it. Like maybe right up until the moment that it's physically possible, I just keep on going because I have to. Mind over matter. I'm not kidding.

So like clockwork, every Christmas break, or maybe Spring break, or whatever, I get sick. This year it was Columbus Day weekend. And I was sneezing, sniffling, coughing, and all those other things that it says in the Niquil commercial.

Luckily, by the end of Monday, I was feeling much better. I still have to keep my Ricolas within arm distance and I'm afraid a few of my students may have caught the bug because they have the nagging, hacking cough. I do share my Ricolas, even if it is partically out of guilt.

The good news is that I'm on my way back to being my normal, healthy self. And in the meantime, Nathan is coming home tonight and he's contracted it as well. I knew we would be sharing a lot when we got married like our CD collection (which Nathan claims he can tell ANY disc that used to be mine just because of the beaten-up condition it's in...oh, yeah?...well, whose socks have fewer holes? Hmmm?)

But sharing germs, especially BAD germs, is not a great kind of sharing. Oh, no. More guilt.

It was payday yesterday.

And I do mean PAY DAY.

Not the candy bar.

Not the movie.

What I am referring to is that for the first time in my five years of tireless, 10-to-12-hour-a-day, going-in-on-Saturdays, love-those-disfunctional-ADD-preteens, bending-over-backwards, biweekly-tutoring-and-Park-Project-muraling, learning-to-speak-other-languages-and-dialects phone calls home to parents whose numbers may or may not have been disconnected, I have been rewarded.

With not one, but two raises. One that I had coming to me as a yearly salary increase. (Or it may just be bribery to keep teachers in the classroom so they don't have to be replaced by starry-eyed, post-college meat who won't last until November.)

The second raise came as a city-wide pay increase for teachers in AISD.

Both of them feel so, SO good. Like a validation. Like something I should be proud of. Like maybe I wouldn't be embarrassed for people to know how much I make, and that I might be able to pick up a nice little something for myself not related to school.

It may be time to blog about Mean Kitty.

Yes, you read that correctly. Mean Kitty is a particularly ferocious feline who lives here in our complex. Abigail and I first encountered Mean Kitty (who I will now refer to as MK) one night as we walked along outside for a late night pee (Abigail, not me). As we rounded a corner of the building, we ran into MK head-on. Abigail let out a growl/yelp and MK let out a snarl/hiss. Normally in situations where the a cat doesn't want to make friends with Abigail, she will chase it (esp. if it runs), but clearly, she will be the animal in charge. Not so with MK.

As soon as we backed away from the surprise meeting, MK did not run away or hiss from a safe distance, oh no. MK crouched down and then pounced on Abigail as if they were going to fight. Abigail was stunned, and being on a leash, had a clear disadvantage. I was not happy at all with MK, and (while I would never normally hurt a cat) yelled at it, and fake-stomped near it to scare it. As we were walking back inside, MK was slinking along the side of the house for a second, rear attack.

We have seen MK around the complex at least three times since then, and the only way we can get MK to go away and not attempt to pounce on Abigail and tear her to shreads in to run at a full-speed toward her without slowing down. That buys us about 30-45 seconds of uninterrupted pee time. MK has a collar and tags, so this animal is cared for and might have a very loving home-life, even though it does display a rough exterior. I'm not sure what to do about MK, but would appreciate any advice you might be able to offer. Suffice it to say that even if MK did NOT have tags and was a stray, he/she would not make a suitable classroom pet.

I could bore you

with all the minute details of the two and a half weeks of school so far (every single day great with only one exception), giving you detail upon detail about my new room set-up, parent/teacher conferences, and back-to-school night turn-outs, but I won't.

I love my job. I don't know how long I'll teach or how long we'll be here in Austin, or whatever. But for now things are great, and I'm happy.

The biggest dilemma I have right now is...brace yourself...wondering if I should venture into the world of a CLASSROOM PET.

So far the only animals I've even considered are fish and maybe, just maybe a turtle. Even then, you have to deal with the potential that the animal will get sick, or die, not to mention the weekend trips home with different kids in an effort to teach them responsibility while the poor animal is terrorized by curious cats and/or mauled by jealous pitbulls. Not to mention salmonella.

On second thought, fish may be the perfect classroom pets.