UPDATE – See protected for lesson details. 
This week’s lesson:
Don’t jump to conclusions.
More on that perhaps tomorrow.
I’m back to the salt mines this week, but no kids until September 5th. Time to hit the hay … no more sleeping in. 
Hope everyone’s well!
Quote of the Day:
“Intuition is truly a feminine quality, but women should not mistake rash conclusions for this gift.”
~Minna Antrim
Protected post … you know the drill …
Yet another new protected post …
New protected post …
Update: Sorry to anyone on the list who tried to view the protected post. I think I’ve fixed the problem. 
There’s a new protected post.
I cleaned out a box from a closet in my parents’ house today and found a small, folded scrap of paper. When I opened it, I found this note:
It is dated 8/23/97 … almost 9 years ago. It had been three years since I left Taiwan and two years since we broke up. He had come to visit me in Los Angeles … the first time he had ever left Taiwan … the first time anyone in his family had ever been on a plane. He stayed for a week, and we drove all over Southern California seeing the sights. At the end of the week, he told me that he had come with the intention of asking me to marry him, but in the end we just kept running into the same walls that had come between us and that same hope two years before.
When I drove him to the airport, every fiber of my being wanted to get on that plane with him because something in me knew that if I let him go, it would be the last time I would see him. Right before he boarded the plane, he kissed me and slipped a small scrap of paper into my hand. With that he was gone. Thirteen years since we met, nine years since we last saw each other, eight months since we last spoke, and seldom does a day go by that he doesn’t somehow enter my mind.
Here’s what we did last night …
The strangest thing happened today. As I was coming back from the
mailbox, I saw out of the corner of my eye an envelope taped to the
wall, and it had my name on it! It turned out that it was from my
grandma. It was, of all things, an apology letter for some
judgemental comments she made at our lunch the other day. I was
shocked! 
That is so unlike my
grandma. I called and spoke to her, and she was very
contrite. It sounds funny to say this, but I’m really proud of
her.
Toshi and I were planning to be in San Diego today, but we stayed at my
stepsister’s house playing with the kids too late last night. I
still wanted to go, but Toshi wasn’t feeling spontaneous. He
likes to “do research” and have things planned out. Or maybe I
should say he likes me to do
research and plan things, and to every suggestion he says,
“Sure. Whatever. I don’t care.” In case you can’t
already see where I’m heading with this, we had a “disagreement.”
He won, and we didn’t go. 
Instead we grouched around the house today. Yep … fun. When I
finally couldn’t stand it anymore, I escaped to a teacher supply store
I had never visited before. I guess I really am a teacher,
through and through; I could practically feel my pulse quicken as I
stepped through the door and saw gobs and gobs of border for bulletin
boards. I spent three hours there, but I’m proud of myself
because I held my purchases down to $50 worth. 
I’ll have to return to spend the lottery money we get from the state
every year. Thank you to people who play the lottery!
Poisoned by Fairy Tales 