Productivity

I love when I can be super productive, yet simple, and everything works out great.

Tonight was a couple's wedding shower for my friend SB and her soon-to-be hubby DK. Her sister and I used to work together years ago when I worked the deli at a local grocery store and she worked the bakery. We had a lot of fun those days. But SB is getting married in 5 weeks so tonight was one of many showers.

I, of course, totally spaced on getting her a gift until today, and then it had to be something for both her and D. So off to Target I go. I had looked at their gift register earlier so I had a couple ideas, but when I got there and saw the madhouse that is Target on a Saturday afternoon, I went into focused mode.

Off to kitchenwares I headed. I ended up picking them up the jumbo muffin pan, brownie pan and mini loaf pans they wanted. While I was doing that I remembered I had two mixes I had gotten for Christmas from someone from Tastefully Simple. One was for a brownie mix, the other a pound cake. As Boss1 would say, "Perfect."

So my plan was hatched. I picked up a neutral gift bag (reusable that way), some tissue paper, a car and checked out. Darwin helped me today. He's so great. A little quirky but a great cashier.

I headed home and packed up my gift. This thing got really heavy - two pans, mini loaf pans, two mixes and then to balance it out I also gave her a set of the Envirosax bags I had in my closet (an essential for any household - my opinion only). D didn't quite know what to think of those when he pulled those out, but I explained to S later so she understood - and loved them, of course.

Anyway, all that took less than 45 minutes - and that's with getting dressed, driving time and stopping for Taco Bell on the way home. I'm so good.

The party tonight was fun. We did wine and beer testing with score sheets. The wine testing was a blind taste test of 6 flights. Funny enough, the first wine scored the highest of everyone's - and it was from a box. Uh...are we white trash or what? :) The beers weren't blind tests - we knew what we were tasting. Apparently a lot of people here hadn't tried Leinenkugel's, which seemed odd to me until I remembered that I drank that mostly when I lived in the cities because it's a Wisconsin beer so it was highly popular there. The bad thing was there wasn't a Guinness to try, but they did have Smithwicks (Smiddick's). That was decent, though I'm still a Guinness girl to heart.

I'm tired now, and need some sleep though. Tomorrow is my only day off til the 9th, so I need to get some things accomplished. Happy February and welcome to March!

Dinner again!

:) I'm just happy right now.

Looonnggg day

Yesterday was long but productive.

Today was just long.

Meeting, meeting, pie for the morning. Then another meeting and then just trying to figure out what I need to get completed by the end of the day.

Which turned out to be nothing. I could not function today to save my life.

I'm going to make a pie and go to bed. I should be doing an online training that I'm super behind on completing, but I really need sleep. I'm hanging out with a friend tomorrow night and I don't want to be falling asleep.

long day

I literally worked over 12 hours today. It was insane. Since Boss1 suggested I move 5 minutes to the left, I've been going in 15 minutes early. It's been nice to start before everyone else gets there, but when I end up working late, like I did today, then it makes for a very long day.

And to add to my misery (yes, I'm venting and pouting a bit here, though it was my own fault) I ate breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 12:30 (sucked down the chicken in 10 minutes), popcorn at 3 (I was starving) and finally dinner at 7:30. Not good. The rest of the time was meetings or schmoozing with our DV's or trying to keep up with my paperwork.

I need sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

It's funny...

I had dinner with a friend tonight. As we were going to my apartment my friend stopped me and said, "Are you okay? You seem a bit down?"

No, I wasn't down. I was excited. I was getting to have people over to my apartment and cook. I never do that! The bad thing was the apple pie crust was a little browner than it should have been, the dinner rolls didn't turn out that well (I really need a good bread recipe that doesn't require a breadmaker...does anyone have one?), and I had poked my finger with my really sharp knife.

Things weren't going as planned.

But the night was fun. We listened to jazz and a weird mix of random music I have and even a little of Verdi's Requiem. *sigh*. Life is good.

I need to go to bed now though. Morning comes early these days.

Monday Fun

Today was a lot of fun. I kind of got up on time, did two loads of laundry, and cleaned up my apartment...all while emailing a friend I'm having dinner with tomorrow night. We ended up deciding to just eat at my place instead of going out so I had to really clean things up.

I made an apple pie for fun and I made some dough for dinner rolls for tomorrow. I should have made cookies, but I didn't quite get those done. Maybe tomorrow after dinner. We'll see. Boss3's birthday is Wednesday so I'd like to have something for him.

I kind of like staying home for the day. It was fun! And my apartment looks pretty decent. It's still a bit cluttered but I can't help that too much. I really need a house with an office with shelves and file drawers so I can get everything put away. I hate that I don't really have that here. *sigh* maybe someday.

Okay...time to get the pie from the oven and head to bed. I must be early to work tomorrow so I can leave early without feeling too guilty. :) Oh, who am I kidding - I'll take an hour off either way.

I've been away, but now I'm back...briefly at least

I know I've been a little MIA lately. It's been a busy time in my life - lots of things going on with work and life, so I just haven't had a lot of time to write like I would have liked. Maybe more will come tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to a 5th grade boys basketball tourney that my nephew played. It was fun to see the kids out their scrambling for the ball and putting up shots and scoring. Their excitement when they made the basket was just priceless.

But one game really left me disheartened. When I had gotten to the gym, my sister handed me the program which had a "letter to parents" about how to cheer on their child while they played. The bad thing is they didn't have anything on there to the parents about how to support the refs.

This game was not my nephew's team that I refer to. It was brutal. The kids played very aggressively, and as was the case the volunteer refs missed a lot of calls. To be fair if they had called everything, the game would still be going on. The orange team was having a rough time. Not only were they losing but they were the ones that seemed to be getting hurt. As an outside spectator I didn't really see that the black team was doing anything malicious, it was just how the game played out.

But at one point one mother stood up and yelled to the refs, "What the hell?" and at another a father shouted out, "This is bullshit." Which led to the coach's son, sitting on the bench with an ice pack to his twisted knee yelling at the refs too. At one point one of the refs turned at looked at him and the kid just stared back. I was so wishing the kid would have gotten a technical, because it was just so deserved - him and all the parents.

I was texting my friend Debbie during the game because I just needed to talk and at one point she wrote, "It's no wonder kids kill." Exactly my thoughts. These kids were so irate over a GAME. It wasn't about having fun or playing for them. They wanted to win and when they weren't winning or things weren't going their way, they wanted vengeance.

I will say I was proud of the orange coach at one point when one of his players almost started a fight with one of the black team members and he hauled him off the court and set him down. I was proud that he pulled him out until after the kid said, "he pushed me" the coach said, "that's them playing dirty. We don't play that way." Well, coach, I beg to differ having seen how they play.

Anyway, it just made me sad.

Blogiversary

In 2005 I started writing here. It's been a crazy ride, truly. But I've loved it. I've been able to use this as a great opportunity to talk through most of my issues and figure out how to keep my life running semi-smoothly.

It's been interesting, and I think I shall continue. :)

Loving' my job

Disclaimer: This was written during work on Friday, don't tell my boss, but I didn't get a chance to post it yesterday. Sorry.

I'm loving my job right now. Most people, if not all, whom I work with are not feeling this way right now. We have a big inspection coming up and so people are frantic to make sure they are in compliance with everything required.

For me, this is awesome because it's crunch time and so I'm constantly on edge to get things done. I'm the first to admit I work better under pressure. When the bosses are away, I tend to stray and play. It's a bad habit, but I work better when there is strong energy flowing through the corner offices.

But right now because of everything else, I'm totally pumped and getting things accomplished. I love this. My job is finally coming together, it seems.

Now if I can just get out of the stupid meetings that take up two hours of my time for things I've already accomplished.... yeah, that'd be really awesome.

Another quickie

A very quick post here because I should have been in bed an hour ago. Sheesh.

Today was a fantabulous day. I was late for work, missed lunch, missed dinner, and my eyes are super dry.

But I also finished two projects, started and finished another, have another in the works to finish tomorrow, and hopefully two others as well (which are just typing up minutes). I got to see "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the local theatre (touring group though, so it was worth it) with Mom. I got a phone call from a friend from my past, which was weird but good. And I received two incredible emails that still just make me smile to even think about.

Now it's off to bed for me. I hope you all have a great Friday!

Low expectations

What a great day! My only thing - I really need to learn to have low expectations. And my only hope is that I hope this wasn't the ending of great days, but the beginning.

It's a long story, and I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. :) Sorry to leave you hanging but really I probably wouldn't write coherently right now anyway.

Shredding the day away

I've been cleaning all day. It's crazy. I'm still not done, though I'm closer than I expected to be - well, no. I really hoped I'd be finished by now but when the older-older brother calls and wants to talk, he takes precedence. And he talked for almost 2 hours. Sheesh. I guess he missed me. :)

So I have been shredding one of my ex's away today. It's been really refreshing to just purge my life of that. Not that he didn't have an impact on me, because he did, but it's really time for me to move on and forward. I can't keep living with the thought that maybe he'll come back or whatever, because I know he won't. And I have other options, better options so I need to be able to look at them objectively without worrying about where my head is.

And my cleaning is coming along nicely. My bathroom is super clean, I almost don't want to use it, but I'll have to for dinner tomorrow night. It's just my living room that's the ultimate mess right now. I really should try to get this in order before I crash for the night. Yeah, I'm going to do that and then hit the hey. I hope everyone is having a great day. I'm back to work tomorrow. I can't wait!

No respect today...just massages

I had a great day today. It started with sleeping in, then listening to Ian while getting ready for the day. I called up Sarah to see if she needed anything from Caribou and then swung by the old stomping grounds to deliver her mint latte and see who I would see.

I ended up running into John, Kris, Victoria, Aaron, Jen, Ron, PDub, and Justin - oh, Justin. I haven't seen these folks in forever. It was so fun to do a quick catch up with them. I really didn't expect many people to even know me. I've been gone so long that the class that's graduating this year is probably the last one I would know. Oh well.

After that I went to see Keith so he could fix me (as best as he could since I'm a hopeless case). He asked how I was doing so he could know what to work on and I just said, "I hurt!" He laughed because I had such a pained expression on my face.

So two and a half hours later I'm as good as new. It was really amazing how messed up my body was. I have to see him more often. This two-month hiatus hurt. Truly, hurt.

I had dinner with mom tonight. That was interesting. I think she really wants to move out of our house - the homestead we've had since '73 - but she hesitates with all the memories that are there with her and dad and the family. I can understand not wanting to leave that but, like I told her, the memories will still live, and it's not like you didn't love him or don't still - but it's been 15 years, and maybe it's time to move on. I don't know. I don't want her to stay here and be unhappy if she can be happy elsewhere. I just don't know that she knows what she wants.

But dinner was nice and we're planning to go to a play on Thursday so I'll see her again then.

Now I need to start cleaning so I have to finish it tomorrow. It's one of those tricks I play on myself. If I start the project at night and then sleep, when I get up in the morning I'll have to finish it because it'll drive me insane until I do...especially something as big as a semi-spring cleaning.

So here I go!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T part 2

ericjay - thanks for your comments. I know you get this via RSS so just so you know I'll be responding to your email and comment soon.

I'm still really torn on this whole respect issue. Today I'm seeing a show at the Guthrie and I walk in and lo-and-behold one of my former chaplains is standing in front of me. Now, the respect issue is immediately at hand - not only on how do I address him but do I even have respect for him? He got really slimy towards the end of his career so I'm not a big fan.

So I called him by his first name. Twice (because of course he's staying at the same place I am!).

Now I'm feeling a bit bad about this, and yet because of who it was I'm not. Does that make sense?

After I posted the original R-E-S-P-E-C-T post I really wanted to talk to one of my friends who is in a higher position than I am. I call her by her first name, sometimes her title only, but not her full title and last name. But again we also have a different working relationship. I knew her and worked with her before she moved up in the chain, but now after my ranting about this I feel bad that I don't show her the proper courtesy. Of course, sometimes when I do she dope slaps me so I really don't feel too bad.

But when we were driving home on Friday I really wanted to ask her what she thought about the whole thing. And I think I need to, especially in light of my continuing confusion and the great comments you folks have given.

Hopefully I'll come to some good answer. :)

Singing in the rain or Hug it out

I'm kind of missing my days in the choirs.

Tonight I went to hear the National Lutheran Choir, in which three of my friends sing. It's such an incredible choir - so talented and such great music. I miss the days of singing in choirs like that. It's been a long time.

The good thing is that KC started our little quartet through work, and while I love singing the National Anthem, I really want to increase our repertoire and see if we can't find some other gigs somewhere.

The fun part was getting to see my friends tonight. Hugs! I got hugs!!! I miss hugs. And Bekah stroked my ego a little by telling me how gorgeous I look now. Of course she knew me during my ID days when I had short short hair and crappy glasses. Now the hair is longer and I'm back in contacts. I think I'm also happier now, which makes a big difference.

But the hugs... Oh the hugs. I just don't get enough of those here. I miss greeting my friends daily when we'd get hugs. If you looked like you were having a sad day, you got a hug. If you were celebrating something, you got a hug.

Here, these days, I'm lucky if I get a hug. I need more hugs.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I'm going to sound like one of those older folks who says, “Those young whippersnappers today have no sense of respect.”

I think about this from time to time. In my job, proper protocol is essential. You call people by their proper title at all times, whether they are higher than you on the food chain or lower. Everyone has a title and this is what should be used to address them.

This is how it should be done. “Should” being the operative word.

I was at a work event the other day where a bunch of other sections came together to celebrate how we work together. It was a nice event with some of the politicians in the state too, and the governor even came to speak to us. It was a lot of fun, but as I walked around after during the post-social hour, I found myself confused as to how to address some of the folks.

During the event we were in our formal attire and so of course every one was by title. But in the bar afterward, suddenly they became Joe and Marty and Cathy and Bob. Now I work with these folks, so the first name basis isn't a big deal because we all know each other.

But this morning, while I was thinking about that, I thought about a moment last October when I was visiting a friend. We were going to go to a college game of the team he loves; as he puts it, “I bleed maroon and white.” yeah yeah. Anyway, his whole family is associated with the school one way or another – whether they attended school there or work there or just bleed love for them. Well, my friend asked his brother in law, “What do you think Jim* was thinking when he took out Scott* last week?” (*names changed because I can't remember what they were). My friends BIL turned to him and said, “Well, I'm not on a first name basis with Jim so I don't know what he thinks.”

For some reason this popped into my head today. I was thinking about how people I work with call each other by first names, because we work together and we just can't be “bothered” with titles as we should. But it extends beyond just our co-workers. It seems to flow into all the conversations, even with people you meet for the first time.

Now, don't get me wrong. We're a small organization and for the most part we do all know each other, and often on a first-name basis. But should we be using that in the workplace? What happened to protocol and proper addressing of elders or even one another?

Another story, when I was in elementary school I was talking with my father about teachers and I said, “I love Lambert. He's so great!” And my dad stopped me, “Moe, his name is MR. Lambert. Not just Lambert.” I said, “Well, why can I call Mr. Gunderson “Gundy” then?” Dad had said, “You can call him Gundy outside of school because we are neighbors and you play with his daughter, but at school you need to call him Mr. Gunderson and show him that respect.”

Is that what it comes down to? Respect? If I call Boss1 by his first name (which I never do, it just seems wrong), is that disrespecting him? I know I get annoyed when my co-workers will call him by his first name, but I don't do it either. There are a few of my bosses I call by my first name, and it's not that I don't respect them, it's just how I've always known them.

I struggle with this because I like that we're a close enough organization that we can be on a first-name basis, but it also pains me when it doesn't seem to be right.

super quick

This is a quickie for you since I actually got my Internet to work here. KC is on her way and she's going to help me gussy up my hair for this big semi-formal dinner thing we have tonight. I have to wear nylons and a skirt. God help me.

Another long day

This is starting become a habit, not that it's a bad habit. I do have worse.

I worked late again tonight. I did this partly because I really do get more accomplished when I'm alone in the building without people calling or knocking all the time. But I also had taken a 2 hour lunch today, so I thought I better work late. Plus I gave a training this afternoon with another section that I really thought would only take an hour, but turned into over two.

Can we just say, Uffda?

Tomorrow I head to a conference. I'm hoping my hotel has Internet. If not, I'll do my standard of writing it on a notepad and posting later.

Timing

Sometimes my timing just sucks. I trip a lot. I fall down. I'm slow. I'm a day behind. I missed an opportunity.

So a friend of mine and I have been emailing back and forth for awhile. We live several hours apart so this is basically our way of communicating. In our conversations as of late something more, deeper, well more was developing. I was really excited about this. He is just a great guy and we share a lot of the same interests - well, not exactly the same, but we complement each other really well.

We were going to meet up next weekend and I think we were both looking forward to it and seeing what might come of the encounter. Well, he went to Wisconsin to visit some friends this weekend and met someone - they really hit it off. He wants to see how that will develop with her and, as he was looking to move anyway, he's now planning to move back there.

I'm kind of sad about this. I was really hoping this could be something great, but now at least for the time being, it isn't an option. So I'm left with a friend. And while a friend is great, and he is great, I'm sad it won't be anything more.

Baby day

I'm kind of glad I worked late so much last week because when I took 90 minutes for lunch and then had another hour of baby time today, I really didn't feel guilty. (Of course, I still worked until 7:30 tonight anyway).

KC brought her baby in today. He's only 2 weeks old but he's so cute. SBK and I met KC for lunch and then KC came back to work to do some paperwork. SCB (her boy) is so adorable.

Don't worry folks...I'm not getting baby fever yet, but it was fun to hold a little itty bitty thing once again.

Then LD said his wife was bringing in their one-month old. ALD (their boy) is also really cute and you can totally tell he's LD's son. They look just alike. So funny. He was cute but a little fussy. He was hungry though so I'm sure it's not me. :)

Aw, a warm and fuzzy...and other stuff

My sister-in-law emailed me today and said,

"We were talking with our group last night and FB came up. Both of your nephews said that they are "friends" with you because and I quote "Aunt Moe is pretty cool". Have a great day!"

This made me start my day really happy today. See, my nephews live on the East coast and I live somewhere in the middle so we don't see each other all that often. But they did both "friend" me on FB and so I'm able to chat with them on occasion. The eldest nephew and I have been bantering this week, which has been a lot of fun. He's pretty funny, actually.

I really wish we did live closer so I could spend time with them. There are two others (another nephew and a niece) who aren't on FB yet and I would like to get to know them better too. I need to visit more.
---
So the weekend - wow, what a weekend. Friday was a long day. I didn't get out of work until 7:30 almost and didn't get to sleep until almost 11. Saturday was an early start to the day and a late night because of a retirement party. And then the whole "mom" situation.

Well, Sunday was better. I worked out a few of the issues from the Saturday conversation with Boss3. Then I was able to meet up with Karen and my running partner to run 4.5. Karen and I went out to eat and then went to see "he's just not that into you".

I love spending time with Karen. She's so great and so much fun. I really wish we could get together more often. We'll have to work on that.

Today I had to work again this morning, which ran until 1. Ugh. Then another ugh... I had to shop today. SHOP. This is almost as bad as skirt - which is the root cause of all this shopping.

I survived though - I don't even want to talk about it. Now I'm just exhausted and I should be in bed. I'm going there shortly. Very shortly. *sigh*

So.Tired.

Tons to say - today was amazing at work. Then ran with Karen and SG. Then red meat and a few fries. Then some popcorn and movie. And now...

bed.

Not poopy but a busy day

Work today was intense. I literally, at times, ran from one meeting to the next. I was eating lunch while helping people with computer problems (which, if you know me, you'd know the latter part of that sentence is damn funny). I was checking email during trainings so I could keep up with the various things going on throughout the day. And at the end of the day, during our retirement party, I was yelled at for the content of our morning meeting.

Well, "yelled" might be a rough term. Boss3 "constructively criticized" our morning meeting because we did some quick (but insanely boring)training during it. "Training is not for the morning meeting, Moe; that needs to be done during an actual training time."

Initially I fell in to the defensive mode and every time I did I kept thinking of this woman in our section who will do that and rise up on her hind legs and get ready to fight, even if she knows she's in the wrong (especially when she knows).

So I would calm myself down quickly and really listened to what he was saying, and as we continued we talked about other and probably better options for the future. What kills me is he's right, and worst of it - I asked him if I was becoming "mom" and he said yes.

Dammit. This is what I wanted to avoid. I don't want to be Mom to these people. They need to be self-sufficient. I have other crap to deal with, I can't be holding their hand every step of the way.

So I'm working on a plan and he and I are going to sit down to do this better, and we're going to incorporate another section as well, because their morning meeting is as bad as mine, except they have "Dad" and he doesn't know it.

I thanked him when he left - and he said, "you're thanking me for yelling at you?" I said, "No, thank you for helping me."

Truth, I want to be better at my job and I've fallen into the same traps that I wanted to avoid when I first took the job. My predecessor used to start each morning meeting with what was for lunch that day. I stopped that right away, because I hated that when I was on the other side of the podium. I haven't brought that back, but I'm doing worse.

So, I'm making a plan. And I'm going to work with Boss3 tomorrow and next week. Changes will be made. I want to improve and I can't do it unless I move forward and take that chance. That's the only way I can be better than I am.

Poopy day

Very quickly, because I should be in bed right now because it's super late and I need sleep so I can get up early because tomorrow is going to be a long day...

Today was the epitome of highs and lows.

Some Highs:
- Spent actual pleasurable time with mom tonight - we were able to talk and converse without me wanting to pull my hair out. Amazing.
- I got some fun texts from some fun people - not that I'm a fan of texting but these were fun.
- I hung up my two new artwork pieces by Brian Andreas. (I picked, Almost New Age and Before Dawn).
- JPM emailed me! YAY!
- I found someone else who knows about Red Dwarf.
- People ate the cookies I made even though they were not my best work.

Some Lows:
- Got an email this morning from my dear friend Sean stating a girl we knew at seminary had taken her own life Wednesday night.
- Got another email from my dear friend Kevin who had spent Tuesday evening with that very girl.
- Had to clean stuck poop out of the toilet at work because a) people don't eat enough fiber and b) our toilets don't flush worth a damn
- Had to attend a last minute vital meeting this afternoon that added more letters behind my name and I don't even have a doctorate.
- Missed supper for the second night in a row because I had to work late.
- Missed Monk and Psych because I had to work late and had to get a skirt pinned for hemming. (Not a big low because I'll watch tomorrow or Sunday)
- I had to get a skirt pinned to be hemmed.
- Did I mention the skirt? I hate skirts. And it's required for work for next week.
- Skirt.

Okay...I must to bed. Morning comes damn early on the weekends.

Getting there

Today was a better day, despite the fact I forgot breakfast so I had cookies from the vending machine instead. Sheesh. I got a few more things done...not everything I need to get done but I'm closer.

I also got a run in today, which helped though it hurt since I haven't ran since Sunday and I was running on a very flat surface. I think I need different shoes for that...my shins really hurt tonight. I'm sure that will be better soon and would have been okay if I had been running.

I just couldn't not go out today. It was so beautiful. And it should be nice the next few days. I'm excited for that.

On another note, but something just as exciting: here's a link to something that is near and dear to my heart. After you watch it, there are some other options to see more if you're interested.

I need one more day

Okay, now I'm struggling with my stupid state wanting to pull funding for the Arts, a continual dry eye problem as of late, and still lack of motivation to do all the crap I have to do.

The latter is bad because I'm at the point where I have SO much to do that I'm so overwhelmed that I just don't want to do any of it and then it piles up and up and up.

The middle is the problem because I've been spending so much time on Facebook at night that my eyes are drying out on a regular basis. And my obsession with the Internet because of FB has me trying to surf during the day at work and that's not helping the previous paragraph or this one.

So I'm logging off tonight and I'm going to read. And tomorrow I'm going to check email once in the morning and then I'm shutting off my computer for a few hours so I can do my filing.

I need a break.

I don't know what to write

I'm struggling with a post for today. I want to write about my stupid state and their unwillingness to ban smoking in restaurants and other public places for an economic reason not for health. I want to write about my social life but I just can't. I want to lament that the energy is down in my office again but I just have to listen to Aqua to get that back, so that'll be happening tomorrow.

I want to talk about the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens; but I can't. I want to talk about the Four Chaplains; but I can't (I'll give you a link to that one though).

At times I just want to cry. At other times scream. At other times laugh my fool head off. I'm very conflicted right now.

So all I'm going to say for now is...I don't know. But I hope you're well.

Fun Monday

Another Fun Monday has arrived and this week it is being hosted by The Lurchers.

This week's assignment is: firstly tell me what book you are reading now. What's it about? Are you enjoying it and why? If not, why not?

And secondly, if you were to be stranded on a desert island, what one book would you take with you.

Okay so:
First: one of the books I'm currently reading is Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn.

I'm still early into it but it's about an unusual teacher and the wisdom he has to pass on to others, specifically one student he advertises to have. It's very deep but interesting. I am enjoying it though I had started it once last summer, and then bailed. I found it again after talking with someone who had read the follow-up books and loved those.

Second: This is a very tough question. The seminarian in me says I should bring the Bible. But the secular girl in me wants to bring The Brothers K by David James Duncan. I don't know that there is really one book that could surpass it all.

Helluva Game

I'm the first to admit that I don't follow NFL religiously. In fact, when asked my favorite team, I always answer, "Well, I was a Cowboy fan until they fired Tom Landry. Now I just enjoy the game without getting into any specific team."

Truly I love the game. I love the intensity, the sportsmanship, the abilities required to compete on such a level. I don't like the money of it all.

But today, the day of the Super Bowl (which apparently is a new holiday since one of the local restaurants closed at 3 so they'd could all be home to watch it), this is a different story. Today two teams faced each other - two teams which were incredible today.

I don't know how evenly matched they were, because I haven't followed them all year. But knowing the Cardinals were the underdogs and the Steelers have been phenomenal, I knew it'd be an interesting game.

So I actually watched, and not just for the commercials. And what a game it was! So many penalties, so many yards, so many incredible plays. I'd try to describe it but I know I won't do it justice.

I will just say this: Today's game gave me hope, and maybe I will begin to follow the NFL again. I just need to find a team worthy of my support.

Until then - it's time for BASEBALL! YAY!!

My Super Bowl

Well, maybe a Super Plate. This is what I had for dinner tonight and it was soooo good. Meatloaf (mom's recipe), baked yam (the real thing baby), and green beans with almonds. And of course, chocolate milk.

It's halftime during the Super Bowl. The Steelers are looking great, but the Cardinals have been keeping them awake too. It should be a great second half. I must say, Bruce Springsteen is still hot and can still perform! Wow. He's 69, people. Does anyone else find that amazing? It's so weird to think about. My dad was born in 1936 - so he would be 72 right now. He died at the age that Steve is at right now. I don't know why that is odd to me, but it is.

I haven't seen any outstanding commercials yet. What's your favorite?