Picture this ….



It’s 2:10, school is over
at 2:40, and we’re in the middle of a writing lesson.  Suddenly in
walks a mom bringing along a full-fledged birthday party.  I was
of the understanding that she was planning to drop a little something
off in the afternoon, so I’m envisioning cupcakes or cookies or chips
and punch.  But NO … she walks in with fried chicken, eggrolls,
a cake (with candles, of course), and cans of root beer … and of
course no forks, no plates, no knife, no napkins, no matches. 
Fried chicken?   
And the root beer got all the kids in a panic because most of them had
never heard it before and thought it was actually beer.  “Miss G.,
I don’t want to be impolite, but I can’t drink beer.”



Aiya!  Somehow she and
I managed to get it all worked out, even though she only speaks
Vietnamese.  I scrounged through the cupboards and managed to
piece together most of what we needed … except for a knife and
matches because … hello? … what third grade classroom comes
equipped with knives and matches?   
She tracked down the custodian who happened to have a lighter, and we
all sang along to the fabulous musical candle. 



Now, I have to say that it
was all worth it to see Michael so happy.  He lives with mom,
brother, and grandma, and most of the time he is stuck at home with
grandma who doesn’t drive, meaning that he never goes anywhere or does
anything special.  And he is the sweetest kid you could ever hope
to meet.  But I do wonder if he couldn’t have been just as happy
without the fried chicken. 



Call me a party pooper, but
next year I think I’ll send out a note at the beginning of the year
that stipulates that all birthday treats must come in the form of
something I can literally toss to each child … a bag of chips, a
popsicle, a juice box, a goody bag. 



First order of business
tomorrow will be wiping down the greasy, sticky desks and replacing the
air freshener, since my room currently smells like a combination of KFC
and sweaty kids.  Yum.

Oh,
and I neglected to mention that since the class met one of their class
goals for the month, they got to select a reward and picked … what
else? … banana splits!  So tomorrow afternoon is their banana
split party.  Good thing they got an extra P.E. session from the
principal on Monday for doing all of their spring break homework, huh?

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and
pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a
sharp stick called “truth.”  ~Dan Rather

Well, my
spring break is coming to an end … and a little quicker than I
expected because I realized today that I had forgotten all about report
cards that are due on Monday. 



We never got around to
doing the flooring, but I do have other exciting news.  I finally
bought my new car on Tuesday!  It’s a RAV4 with all the bells and
whistles and a pricetag to match.  It is by far the most
extravagant/frivolous purchase I have ever made, and I don’t think it
has completely sunken in yet.   I have occasional flashes of
wondering how many people I could feed or how many countries I could
travel through on that money.   
And I’m still white knuckling it when I drive and parking in the most
remote corner of the parking lot;  I’m almost tempted to put the
first scratch on it myself … just to get it over with.

In other news, our house is now almost completely clean.   
We had my father, stepmom, and “uncle” over for dinner last
night.  Having company is always the surest way to a clean
house.  I say “almost” completely clean because much of the mess
migrated into the bedroom for the time being.  Once that is sorted
out, I’m sure a new mess will have developed in some other part of the
house.  I’m not sure if completely clean is even a realistic
possibility around here.  My stepmom is hiring a housecleaner for
one day because she says she just once wants to know what it’s like to
have the whole house clean at one time. 



My sister also cut and colored my hair yesterday.  I was there for more than 3 hours!   
I know that a lot of women find such “pampering” relaxing, but if I
could have the whole thing done in about five minutes, I would be a
happy camper.  And because my hairstylist is also my little
sister, there’s only so much dishing we can manage … we run out of
material after about twenty minutes.   But, I like my hair
color and the cut … unfortunately, the highlights are a little
brassy.  My sis says she just needs to put some toner on it. 
How long is that gonna take?  Maybe I’ll just live with the yellow
stripes. 



Today I went to school to
clean up a little bit and drop off all of the school stuff that had
accumulated in my old car.  Then we went to the movies.  It
was great; matinee price and almost nobody else in the theater. 
We saw “Take the Lead”, Antonio Banderas’ ballroom dance movie. 
It was Toshi’s choice, if you can believe that!  Slim pickins
these days at the theater.  (On a side note, am I the only one who
thinks Antonio seems gay?)  The movie was okay … a little Coach
Carter meets Dangerous Minds meets The Substitute meets Sister
Act.  You know the genre … outsider comes in and in a matter of
a couple weeks completely turns the toughest kids in school
around.  Sloppy editing, a few totally laughable “teaching”
scenes, and pretty shallow character development … but fluffily
entertaining nonetheless.



Tomorrow we are going to
the outlet mall to return some jeans Toshi bought that are too small
and then off to Santa Barbara for a trip to the zoo, walk on the pier,
and window shopping on State Street … giving Carbaby her first
workout.   

If
your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet him
with, “Who could have done this? We have no enemies.” 
           
           
           
           
           
                 
–Phyllis Diller

Happens every time … I start out cleaning and end up sitting on the
floor surrounded by old photos, letters, essays, ticket stubs … the
wonderful debris of memory.  And then, of course, I don’t get
anything done. 

It’s so interesting to see through the eyes of the person I am now the
person I once was. What I most often end up concluding is that I’ve
always been my own worst critic.  Rereading old essays fifteen years
later, I discover that they’re much better than I thought they were
when I was struggling through a third or fourth draft trying just to
make them passable.  Looking at old pictures, I see
that I wasn’t as chubby or as dorky as I felt at the time they were
taken.  It gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, I’m somehow a
better person now than I’m giving myself credit for … that perhaps
when I look back at this time ten or twenty years from now I’ll
discover that all the things I criticized myself for weren’t as serious
as I made them out to be. 

One can hope …

Quote of the Day:



“Looking
back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your
life — and it was you.  It is not too late to find that person
again.”

   
              
              
              
              
               
      –Robert Brault

Feeling so much better today … still not 100% but at least no fever.  Thank you for the get well wishes. 

Well, gee, on that uplifting note, I wish all of you a wonderful Easter!

Okay — so
things didn’t go as planned.  About three hours into my vacation,
Toshi and I were at Old Navy when suddenly I felt totally sick … no
strength and uncontrollable chills.  We went home and I curled up
with the heating pad, trying to get warm.  And then a few minutes
later, I had a temperature of 103 degrees.  So, here I am in bed
… current temp. is 102 despite tylenol and my new best friend the big
blue ice that Toshi wrapped in a pillowcase for me.  I guess the
silver lining is that at least I don’t have to make sub plans. 



It’s strange … no sore
throat, no nausea, nothing … just this horrible fever and all the
accompanying aches.  Weird.  Oh, and crying … how could I
leave that out … crying because I can’t peel the lid off the
applesauce, can’t untie the knot in the pillowcase, can’t go to the
store for jello.



For
Indigolady: yes, I can relate to you coming home and suddenly feeling
so sick.  I think sometimes we run on adrenaline and our bodies
are kind enough to wait until it’s convenient to break down.  This
is not the first time this has happened to me … my body always waits
for vacations to get sick.  Anyway, I’m so glad you were able to
enjoy your trip and can’t wait for pics.  Your postcard has been
the highlight of my vacation!  


Quote of the Day (hopefully not quote of the week):

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.  ~Dutch Proverb

Woohoo!  Spring
break has begun!  Let the partying commence … right after I take a
good long nap, clean my house, go grocery shopping, desludge the
fishies, finish my report cards, send my tax return … 

Speaking of taxes, I finished my taxes and was pleasantly surprised to
find that my refund was much larger than I expected … larger to the
point that I double and triple checked it.  I was practically
jumping for joy and so grateful to the IRS until I realized, “Hey, wait
a minute!  It’s my own money that they’re giving back to me …
not some kind of gift.  They’ve been earning interest on my money
all year long!”    Hmpf!

Quotes of the day:




The wages of sin are death, but after they take the taxes out, it’s more like a tired feeling, really.  ~Paula Poundstone

I’m
proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be
just as proud for half the money.  ~Arthur Godfrey

There’s a new protected post.   (Katie, do you need help finding the confessional box?)

This
is an image that never fails to move me deeply, even though I’ve seen
it a million times and even wrote a paper about it in graduate school.
What’s amazing is that very, very few Chinese people (living in China)
have ever seen it.   More on that perhaps another time;  I’m
sleepy and have two more hectic days of school left before spring
break.  

Quote of the day:



“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from
ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and
undernourishment”.
           
           
           
           
           
         –Robert Maynard Hutchins

There’s a protected post awaiting you in the confessional box … and no, it has nothing to do with donuts. 

Mostly for Indigolady , here are my current thoughts on diets …

Peer Pressure

Years ago I tried the Atkins diet.  I was about ten pounds over my
ideal weight.  I quickly lost 14 pounds and then spent the next
three months feeling sick because I had knocked my body chemistry out
of whack.  Well, stupid Kelly thought just two weeks wouldn’t
hurt.  One week into the dreaded Phase One, I felt like
crap.  I was having crazy dreams every night that kept me from
getting any quality sleep, was drinking water like a fish and still
feeling thirsty all the time, had Toshi on pins and needles because I
was cranky, had muscle weakness, and found myself at Costco buying
fiber capsules (enough said).  I can now say with 100% certainty,
that a no carb or low carb diet just isn’t for me.  I can
appreciate that it may work great for other people, but for me it just
doesn’t feel healthy. 

By the way, I did have a donut on Friday, and it was deeeeelicious! 

Quote of the Day:
“If you have formed the habit of checking on every
new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all
blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information:
french-fried potatoes are out.“
               
              
              
              
              
         –Jean Kerr

 





On other fronts, I’m looking forward to spring
break.  Eight more work days left!  I think we are going to
spend a few days of the break replacing the floor in one of our
bedrooms.  It is currently very ugly parquet.  I’d like to
replace it with Pergo.  Toshi has a friend who does contracting
stuff, so he is going to help us with the installation at a much
reduced rate.  The removal of the old floor I think we can handle
ourselves.  I’m not really looking forward to a couple days of
scraping off old flooring, but I am looking forward to having a
schnazzy new floor. 

I finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
… a wonderful book.  I am so in awe of people who can weave such
intricate, beautiful stories that really make the past come
alive.  That’s one talent I wish I possessed.  Anyway, I
always feel a little sad when I finish a good book.    I’ve started a new one, but I still miss the last one.


Bonus Quote:

“I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want – an adorable pancreas?“
               
              
              
              
              
         — Jean Kerr