My favorite place

The other day I volunteered to help at an after-school event to help the children develop a "Reflections" project with the theme "My favorite place."

I was put in charge of the table with watercolors, and a couple of kindergarteners came and sat with me early in the event. I helped them get started and reminded them about the theme, asking them what their favorite places were. One was a beach and another was her Grandmother's house where she feeds the ducks on a lake. This second girl was very blond with white, light skin.

After a few minutes, I realized she was talking to me. She was saying, "Where's yours? Africa?" She said it twice before I heard her. It seemed like she was trying to be funny, but I couldn't tell if she was trying to mess with me. I turned around and said, simply, "I don't know, I've never been to Africa."

She answered, "Really? It looks like you're from Africa. Your skin is so dark." I told her, "There are lots of different kinds of dark people. I'm Native American, do you know what that is?" And she said no, so I tried to think about how to explain it. I said, "Well, when the cowboys came, the people who were already here were Native Americans, or Indians. But not the India Indians, although they are dark too."

She looked pretty confused by now. I ended up giving her way too much information, but I felt that somehow that served her right. Dumb little kindergartener. I wonder if she came up with that herself.

People have always questioned my nationality. When I was 3 I lived in Hawaii, and tourists would take pictures of me. People in France think I'm French, I could be Persian, I could be India Indian, or maybe Filipino. Maybe Asian.

I told them I thought my favorite place was my bed. They laughed, but my bed is a very nice place. It's comfortable, cozy. I can dream there and play there and relax and read. I can recover or take cover, or even get under the covers. Sometimes it's hard for me to leave!

Yes, it's definitely one of my favorites.

What's your favorite place?

Looking for glasses.

Yesterday, I wanted to do my homework, but couldn't find my glasses. I checked my purse 3 times, even taking everything out at one point. I looked in my car, I looked around the house. Where did they go?

Finally I found another pair under the bed, but it was hard to do my homework because whenever I tilted my head downward, the glasses slid down my nose and the page would go out of focus. I tried pushing the sides of the glasses inward, but they continued to move out so that they didn't stick to my head.

This morning I was getting ready to take the boy to school, and I looked in my purse for my phone. There were my glasses! Right there, standing up inside my purse! From this the Boy concluded that whenever I want to find my glasses, I should look for my phone. And if I want to find my phone, I should probably look for my glasses.

Ugh!

It's definitely another virus.

Sigh.

Bookmarks

I saw a picture in a bead magazine of a project I thought I could actually accomplish, and I got motivated. I made bookmarks, with beads at the ends that hang out of the book. The magazine called them "Book Thongs", but that doesn't sound too comfortable for the book.

Including another bead magazine and some cute beads and a ball of hemp ($8.99!) and a few small presents, I managed to spend $69 at Michaels. I was a little depressed by that, I think. Freaking bead magazines cost nearly as much as a book! Then I came home and started using up beads like crazy. I made about 6 of these bookmarks them in one evening.

I think they came out really nicely, but I think I'll miss some of my favorite beads. I was glad to be able to use the beads I made in pottery class too. They were being wasted.

So that's a good thing about bookmarks. They make good Christmas presents.

The strange thing is that very night, ALL the bookmarks on my browser mysteriously dissapeared. WTF? The boy says he didn't do it, so I guess that can only mean one of two things: Another Freaking Computer Virus, or a lying boy.

But a coincidence, eh? Bookmark bugaboo.

Don't be lying

Bitchin' and crying
Suck it up as a loss

"Number One", Nelly

Big Trouble

Think twice
That's my only advice...
Crazy, Gnarles Barkley

I've been upset with my horoscope lately (Pisces). For two months now it's been claiming that a relationship of mine can blow sky high over something little. Part of me has been on guard for that, the other hopes it's not true. And I've had to be strong and have difficult conversations with various people for various reasons, but so far nothing bad had happened.

Then Saturday, after a fast and furious week where I barely managed to get myself and my kids to the right place at the right time while working and taking a new class, I did IT. The Something Stupid that made a certain situation blow up in my face. Not that I knew it right away, but I had a bad feeling about it the rest of the weekend.

Sunday night I was watching "Elizabeth I" on HBO, and that night I had terrible dreams about a government that would brutally kill people without any reason. I had to wake up and make myself have another dream. I woke up with a headache.

Then my boss called me to tell me all about the situation that had gone awry. Not only had I managed to make someone "livid" with me, but she then tried to get me in as much trouble as possible. Overreact much? Lucky for me my Boss is very understanding (so far). He even offered to do the work for me, so I could still get paid. I've really come to believe he may be the nicest boss I've ever had.

Also, he's my Guru of emotional management. He's always encouraged me to let things go and not take things personally, and I think it's finally working. Or maybe I've just been in the business long enough to just know that's how it is. I cried, I answered her email and apologized, and then I let it go. I told my husband, "Luckily I've got lots of other problems to concentrate on."

And so I concentrated on those other things, and hopefully made some headway on other fronts. It's strange, but for someone that doesn't have many sales, I've got lots of things I need to follow up on and take care of. It makes me feel like I'm working, and even if I'm not making much money at the moment, someday it will come around.

One of those things I'm working on is taking a course in Income Tax. It's strange to me that as complicated and exact as everything seems to be, the teacher will turn around and say it's OK to make mistakes, nobody's perfect. It seems like, since you're filing it with the Federal government, you could get in major trouble if you do something wrong. Instead, they make it seem like you'd have to do something major to get into trouble. Unlike Real Estate, where many little things can get you into Big Trouble.

Vacation rundown

We took three weeks off and drove to Colorado by way of Las Vegas. We took the dog with us, so we couldn't stay in the Flamingo, which bummed K out (or he just likes to complain about the dog.) But we stayed across from the Hard Rock, right after it was in an episode of Entourage, so that was fun.

We saw lots of family and old friends, and mostly had a great time. We also spent time trying to rent out our new duplex, but didn't have much luck with that. My friend (the realtor) was in the hospital the entire time, so I'm still worried about him.

On the way back we stopped in Salt Lake City, which we'd never been to before. Home of my beloved "Dooce." First we drove through Wyoming, which was nearly excruiatingly boring. Utah was much prettier, although I was surprised to find SLC is not that big. It seems about the size of Colorado Springs. I like all the old buildings that have been renovated, I liked the looks of the college, and it seems to have lots of cute neighborhoods.

On the down side, it seems that industry has precidence over tourism. Nearly everywhere we went, it seemed we could see a big factory or refinery or mining operation. A huge mining operation in the mountains(Bingham Canyon Mine) is a blight on what otherwise would be beautiful scenery. The Great Salt Lake was not so great. It was the trip's biggest disapointment - even the marina seemed dead and full of flies. I bet if we had gone to another part of the lake it must surely look better (if not smell better!)

On the last day, we hiked to Tipanagos Caves, which are 1.5 miles UP the mountain. I really enjoyed the caves, although I nearly died getting there. It was really embarrasing being passed by little kids who just strolled up the hill with their parents (who are evidently much younger than me!) K tried to make me feel better by claiming there were people we passed who never made it up there, but I'm not sure that's true.

It made clear to me how out of shape I am, and how fat I'm getting. As much as I've tried to change my eating habits and get some exercise, clearly it isn't enough. I guess my only option at this point is to start seriously exercising and training for... something.

Being around family had its usual pitfalls of people doing things I don't understand and I'm not allowed to ask about. But I've decided that instead of dwelling on those confusing and difficult events, instead I'll try to dwell on the NICE things people have done for me:

-Nice Things-
Mom made a special meal because I requested it. She bought the kids some great school clothes and probably spent way too much money.

My sister highlighted my hair.

My mother-in-law sent us money to help with the trip. She also had Pepsi on hand for me to drink, because she knows I like it.

Another sister offered to help me with the duplex. Another sister offered to let us have the keys to her house so we could watch Entourage when she WASN'T EVEN THERE! This was before we realized my parents do indeed still get HBO.

My husband made me coffee this morning, and is trying to recharge my car battery, which I accidently drained before our trip.
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