Birthday Boy

September 20, 1999 – Spending the evening getting Seth’s Birthday card and present ready. Sitting in my sister’s bedroom surrounded by American Dolls and flowered wallpaper a smile spreads across my face because I have a brilliant idea. His favorite song at the moment is “All-Star” by Smash Mouth. So I decide to make a tape-recording of the song playing over and over again. That way, he won’t have to rewind the tape as often.  He told me just the other day that he could listen to that song forever. Well here I am making his dreams come true. 

Waiting for the song to record, I dump my markers out on the floor, fold a blank paper in half and begin block-lettering ‘Happy Birthday Seth!’ in my best 3-D letters. I know I’m a horrific artist, but go ahead and draw a giant cake anyway. At this point we’re really into homemade cards as opposed to store-bought – they’re much more personal and we’re cheap.

The next day as the Birthday Boy opens my present his blue-grey eyes light up as he exclaims, “Hey! All-Star!” He looks up at me with that signature-dimpled smile and I know I nailed it.

September 21, 2012 – My alarm goes off at 6:20am as I make the slow ascent back to consciousness. Recognizing the tune coming from my radio while I float somewhere between asleep and awake. Thoughts and memories start to connect as my eyes flutter open and realize, “All-Star” by Smash Mouth is playing.

I roll over and smile. Happy Birthday, boy. I love you. 

Ostrich Pillow

Our pals Neil and Mike, who are discoverers of all things weird, e-mailed us this little tender mercy the other day and I will be forever grateful.

It is called the ostrich pillow and is supposed to produce unbelievable power naps. I can't imagine walking into someone's office and seeing this. You can't tell me that after pulling this off your head you're going to look normal.


God Bless America.... or wherever this was made.

Mixed Feelings

Fall is in the air everybody. I love Fall, it is my favorite season: the air is crisp, the mountains are gorgeous, and I can wear big sweaters again!  Fall also means back to work. I like starting the school year, getting back into my normal routine. It's weird how they tell you all the time that kids do better with a routine, well I have never grown out of that. I love my routine, probably too much. I am so much more productive when I get up early, go to work, go to the gym, and get to bed early. I'm happiest when I am productive. Well, I'm back to my routine and though it hasn't been easy to get back to the patience level needed to be a teacher of 7 year olds I'm slowly getting there.

On a lighter note a student in another class told me that my shirt was see-through today.  I had nothing to say back to him except, no it's not. He probably said it 5 times and I just ended up walking away. Was I just bullied by a 7 year old? I had to bite my tongue because I really wanted to say, "listen kid you can insult me when you learn how to read and cut your own fingernails." Clearly my patience needs work. But seriously, it shocks me how disrespectful and rude some kids are these days. Note to self: don't let my 7 year old kid pierce his ears and become a demon.

I do have some great news: one of my students has six toes on one foot and is very proud of it. I have yet to see them, but I will let you know the synopsis.

Cheers to 11 toes and not being bullied!