Ahh...summer vacation...

In the midst of grad classes and teaching summer school and teaching yoga, once in awhile, I'm able to put all of my obligations aside and fully enjoy a summer day.

Yesterday BFF Erica and I went to the pool in the morning, a movie in the afternoon (The Kids Are All Right...*extraordinary* movie), then shopping, then out for cocktails, then to the bookstore, then to Trader Joe's. Ten hours flew by faster than either of us imagined possible, and when I got home--at 8pm--I was exhausted. (And sunburned..ouchy.)

A few years ago, that description would have applied to every summer day. But, Erica and I have both moved on with a little separation between us. We scheduled yesterday almost a month ago. The nice thing is, we're equally busy, so neither of us feels abandoned, and we both, as we discussed yesterday, are confident enough in our friendship that we don't need to see each other all the time. It's nice to know that we can pick up right where we left off. Friends like that are rare and good to have. I'm very fortunate to have several of them in my life.

How did the shopping and bookstore figure into Operation: 50%? Well...I bought stuff. But, I didn't buy any clothes (I had decided that if I did buy any clothes they would need to replace something in my "keep" pile...that kept me from buying anything.) or shoes. I bought underwear--which I hadn't gone through yet as part of the project.

And I bought 8 books. Well...technically 7 because I got one for my mom. But still...bought 7 books. They were all on my list of "books I want" and I got 9 books (one I bought for Erica) for less than $25. But, buying that many books will definitely contribute to a future problem of tackling my book collection with Operation: 50%.

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

then I'm one hell of a writer.

I just got home from getting some photographs developed at Walgreens. And by "some photographs", I mean 290 pictures. No, I didn't get married or go on some fancy-schmancy trip. Rather, I just got a bug up my arse tonight to finally go through and make real the virtual history I've been cataloging on my computer in the "my pictures" file.

For example: The only picture I have in "hard copy" of my dog is one that my dad, a professional photographer, took. The dog is three years old.

The 290 pictures include:

Yoga fun night
Pictures of Gatsby the Wonder Dog
My mom's 60th birthday
"Girls' Night" 2006 (yeah, that's the right date.)
Yoga graduation
Superior camping trip 2008

And there are other events too. It's so nice to have pictures to look at, physically, of events as recent as just a few months ago. And, the best part is I got coupons (because I paid someone's salary for the whole night in one fell swoop with my order), so now I can go through and get even more :-)

*drool*

I'll get you all caught up on my life--primarily devoted to yoga at this time--in a bit. For now, I need to devote my full attention to the man whom I have loved for so long: Mr. Stephen King. Though I Am Who I Am's address is devoted to him, I've noticed a surprising lack of King-ness on my blog. This must change. So, for my first official act of on-line Kingdom, I'm going to strongly recommend you visit

The Stephen King Store, located on CafePress. Kids, I pert-near lost my stars when I saw all of the 'Constant Reader' regalia I can get. If you're looking for gift ideas for me, I'm a medium. And I love everything on that page. Except I probably don't need the bib or the infant bodysuit. Actually, the bib might not be a bad idea, considering I'm sitting her salivating all over the place....

There are shirts and journals and notebooks (oh my!), messenger bags, mouse pads, and pillows and a BBQ APRON! There's no end to the joy!

And the best part is that King is not receiving any profit from the sale of this merchandise. All profits go to The Haven Foundation, an organization that focuses singularly on freelance artists. This organization is near and dear to King's heart since the accident on June 19, 1999 that nearly killed him.

So, go shopping already!!

Peddling my wares...

It started with a credit card I got when I was 15 to take to France with me for "emergencies." Seventeen years later, I'm in debt. Not frighteningly so, but it's getting pretty close. So, I decided that I needed an intervention. And, the only person who would do that would be me. So, I had a long conversation with myself about where I am now and where I want to be and how I'm going to get there. And I decided that I needed to simplify. I need to simplify my house, my budget, my debt...pretty much my whole existence.

Last week I did clothes. I cut pretty deep, getting rid of some 60 pieces of clothing. I'll probably get the same amount when I do it again for summer clothing. Yeah, it's not hard to see where the debt came from, believe me. Today, I went straight for my own jugular. My bookcases. I'll spare you the gory details. Suffice to say, I removed about 150 books from my stacks.

This is where you come in. I need you to reach into your pockets and buy my books. They make great Christmas gifts, I promise. And I'm not talking crap books, either...there are authors you'll recognize and authors you won't, but I promise you all the books are good. Well, someone likes them. They make bestseller lists and stuff.

Enough talking... here's the link to the ad where my books are listed. The shipping is free. And if you buy more than one I'll probably cut you a pretty good deal. And you can probably write it off on your taxes as a charitable donation, because this girl needs some charity right now. Selling my books off...can you believe it?

Things I saw at Wal-Mart

Due to recent financial duress I've sunk to not only shopping at Wal-mart, a store which I believe is nearly singlehandedly responsible for the downfall of America, but to looking only at the "price per unit" on any item I buy. It's embarrassing. So, to keep myself amused, I keep track of things that happen that could *only* happen at Wal-mart.

So, for your amusement (and mine), I present my second list of the day:
Things I saw at Wal-Mart

1. A woman in pink sweatpants and a cart filled with 25lb bags of cat food walking down the aisles yelling "Connie!"

2. Dale Gribble

3. An Asian man who, walking toward me with his cart, stopped his cart directly in my path, smiled at me, then walked away sans cart halfway down the aisle to get some dish soap

4. Really. Dale Gribble.

5. A teen in a Blink 182 t-shirt who was either jamming out to the music in her head or having some type of seizure near the Pringles

6. Another teen standing in the dairy throwing a temper tantrum for cheese. "Moooooooommmmmmmm.....CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEUUUHHHHHHHHH"

7. Dale Gribble was not smoking a cigarette. Had he been smoking a cigarette, you'd have had to pick me up off the floor for laughing.

8. Nick the Cashier who said "You look like you're having a rough day, if you don't mind my saying," after explaining why it was he was on cashier tonight instead of on sales where he was supposed to be, not one word of which I understood. But he was still adorable. And he wished me a happy Sunday, which is more than anyone else did today.

9. The "Connie" screamer. I saw her four times. Connie, for the record, did not appear, though I did see a ten year old girl running surreptitiously down the meat section. Probably Connie.

"Not with a bang, but a whimper."

And so I close out November. Failure at Nablopomo and Nanowrimo, but better in other areas. Today, day five of work to rule, was hideous. No classes, but still kids were lurking around that still had work to finish and make up time to complete so they wouldn't get kicked out of the program I teach in for the first half of the day. For the second time this week I managed to hold back tears from the school to my car, but once I was in the privacy of my own vehicle, it was game over. I still have a class set of finals to grade, a class set of research papers, and I haven't planned one single day of the trimester that begins on Monday. But, well, that's work to rule, I guess.

Erica and I went shopping tonight, we'd planned it all week as a reward for making it through what we knew would be a difficult time, and it was really fun. We hit all our usual haunts and had dinner at P.F. Changs. I bought a scale at Macy's that measures everything except my I.Q. (and maybe it'll do that too if I program it right), some clothes at Banana Republic and a Yoga breathing book by Donna Farhi. Farhi is the creator of the style of Yoga I do, and Molly swears by her. I also finally picked out a sweater at Old Navy and, according to the commercial, a boyfriend should soon follow. Fantastic.

I have never been so happy tomorrow is Saturday in my life.

Can you see the bruises from where today kicked my ass?

Today was a L-O-N-G day. I didn't even give myself a fighting chance because I stayed up until 5:15am, allowing myself only 45 minutes of sleep before I had to wake up again, dress semi-nicely (read: not pajamas), get the biggest coffee Caribou had to offer and arrive at school by 7am.

We heard an amazing speaker, though, which was pretty much the highlight of my day. His name is Dr. William McBride and he spent a lot of the morning making me laugh and forget that I didn't want to come back to school, and then we took a break and when we gathered back together he spent more time explaining a lot of interesting things about vocabulary and literacy. Fascinating. Did you know that only one in three adults bought a book last year?? I can't cite his source, but I was appalled.

I love good speakers who make me excited to teach.

But after Dr. McBride spoke I went to lunch with a group of friends from work and it was exhausting to talk and be social. I wanted to crawl home and sleep forever. Instead I stayed at work until I couldn't bear it anymore--4:30--then I drove home and napped.

Then Erica called and took me shopping and I bought my first ever Coach purse and it is beautiful and expensive and completely pointless and unnecessary and I LOVE IT. (p.s. I bought it on sale, so don't get all appalled at the cost. And, it's regular leather, not suede)