Quote of the day:
“I used to cry because I had no shoes … until I met a man who had no feet.” — unknown
Well, I made it
through a thoroughly exhausting week. Work all week plus class on
Thursday night and all day on Saturday.
This is where I wish I were … still on vacation in Big Bear!
was full of chores and errands. I did laundry, cleaned my
bathroom, read a chapter for one of my classes, did my planning for
school, cleaned my poor fishies who were swimming in sludge, went
grocery shopping (saved 59% with coupons!), went to a new store called
the 99 Cent Depot to buy happy crappy for the “surprise box” in my
classroom, went to Target to buy three more boxes of crayons only to
discover that they didn’t have a single box of crayons in the whole
place (can you believe it?!), and finally went to Office Depot where I
found boxes of 24 crayola crayons for $.49 each and buy two get one
free!
Perhaps the most momentous task of the day, however, was delivering my
old reptile cage to the family of one of my former students.
Eight years ago, much to my own surprise, I fell in love with an itty
bitty lizard at the pet store. I couldn’t get her off my mind, so
a couple of weeks later I returned and became the proud owner of a
Chinese water dragon. I named her Xiao Mei Long, which means
little beautiful dragon in Chinese … Mei for short.
Well, six months later, I discovered that my little girl was actually a little boy. 
So Mei became May … short for Maynard. My itty bitty lizard soon grew to be over two feet long.
I really loved my May. Although he never came when I called him
and never did any tricks, he was always good company. Like a
typical lizard and like me, he just liked hanging out. Last
spring May became sick and passed away. It still somewhat
surprises me how much I miss him. Giving away his cage was hard
… it was like admitting after all these months that he really is
gone. 
I’ll try to post a picture of my baby next time … Toshi has all the good ones on his computer.
On a lighter note, I think that I need to take a class in foul
language. In both of my classes this week, the professors used a
litany of four letter words. My third grade sensibilities were
shocked. 
I guess that when
you work with terminal AIDS patients, drug addicts, the homeless, and
schizophrenics, you don’t often say things like “goodness gracious me”
or “for goodness sake”, whereas, in third grade “the ‘s’ word” is
stupid. I think I’m experiencing culture shock. 
I hope everyone has a great Monday! (yes, maybe that is an oxymoron 
)
Poisoned by Fairy Tales 
Hehe….this seems like such a short weekend for me….we are back to working Fridays .I hear you on the language thing….kiddo went out tonight to play with some kids down the street (same age)….I happened by my open front window, and the stream of words that came out of one boy’s mouth made ME blush! I wish this were the days when WE were kids….had I been overheard talking like that, my friend’s parents would have washed my mouth out with soap and marched me home, where my parents would then wash my mouth out again and send me to bed without dinner! As it was, I called the child’s mother, who barely batted an eye. Little boy will not be spending time with my kiddo from now on….*sigh*Enjoy your week!
It’s hard for me to be around young kids anymore because I spend most of my time on a college campus and I don’t really have to think about my language in a casual atmosphere. I REALLY have to watch my mouth!!
Well, sounded like a busy week for you. Ah, come on, you can take it. Just shut your ears and bla bla bla, see, you didn’t hear any foul languages now, did you? Put on that tough skin, and start to hang with the tough crowd, you will be one. Okay, that was not funny, but I am sure you know what you are into. Have a good one Kelly.