The old grind

So I had the summer "off" (if you can call moving and trying to set up a new home "off"!) and school is now back in session.

Where did the time go?

I say it every year, the summer flies by and then it feels as if we'd never left. It's true again this year. The paperwork has begun, the kids are running around, the teachers are trying to get routines established, the parents are calling.... it's like a huge rerun. Or that movie Grounhog Day. It happens over and over.

We had a short week this week and we were all talking about how tired we were. It should be interesting when we put in a five day week this week.

I feel as if I'm fairly well prepared. I have the lessons ready to go - even in Math - which I hate to teach. I'd rather do reading and writing all day long. I'm starting out with a fun book that I haven't taught before Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. The kids should love that one.

At home I'm still doing bits of unpacking but I'm so tired that I just want to collapse when I get home. I slept until 9 o'clock this morning and it was wonderful. That's the one thing that I really hate about going to work - getting up at 5:30. It's still dark out then.

I did manage to take some time to get some artwork done for an altered book that I needed to get into the mail (actually I was a week early in mailing it). It was a harder theme for me to figure out something to do with - Healing Herbs - but I liked the pages in the long run. One spread was called "Rosemary" and the other was "Sage".

This weekend is going to have to be about doing household things like grocery shopping and the like. The boring stuff. I also have school work and chorus stuff that I could thing about doing as well, but none of that is pressing.

Guess I need to bite the bullet and head to the grocery store - ick.

It's a small world
The song won't stop in my head. And why is that? Because I rode the ride twice at Disney World last week.

I am only just home and am recovering from the flight and all those miles of walking, but it is a magical world.

How'd I get LOST?!?
I had to go to work yesterday to try to get scheduling done. We didn't finish, and my head is spinning. I'm not sure how I'm going to cover all the spots that I need to cover.

The building was a mess. The rocket scientist maintenence staff had somehow managed to cut off every hallway in the building, leaving a very small area to move in. We ended up using the principal's office because it had air conditioning and he wasn't in. But they were stripping the floors and the chemical smell was overpowering.

But we pulgged along for four hours, and made a dent in what we needed to do. The rest will have to wait until school starts, seeing they won't pay us anymore money to work summer hours (we got cut back because of budget issues - the asshole governor of Massachusetts - "we want the schools to excell - but we are slashing all your budgets".

Now this was the first day of going to work from my new condo. I got there just fine and dandy, not a wrong turn and even time for the drive through at Dunkin Donuts for coffee.

Apparently on the way home I got a bit overconfident. Actually I tried a different route, and got to where I thought I should be, but then something went terribly wrong.

Well, that might be a bit of a dramatic overstatement, but I did somehow end up several miles from where I thought I was going to come out. I knew I was in trouble when I was suddenly at the women's prison. That wasn't where I was headed. Fortunately I have a good sense of direction and have a good idea of where different side streets lead, so I was able to get on my main route and get home.

I just have no idea how I got to the prison in the first place, and what turn I missed. I think I'm going to have to do a dry run or two before school gets started.

Laughing at ketchup
I went to the grocery store today - about the only really productive thing I did - and found myself howling at the ketchup display.

As I rounded the corner there was an endcap stacked with Heinz Ketchup. I have no idea why I even stopped to look, or if a label caught my eye, but not ONE actually says Heinz Ketchup on it. The bottles are the same shape as always, and the label has that same shape that reminds me of a shield, so at first glance you wouldn't notice anything. But if you stand and start reading you see labels that say any one of the following:

Better looking than Relish
Comforts Burnt Hot-dogs
Easier to spell than Worcestershire (my favorite)
For the Burger than has everything
French Fries not Included
Meatloaf Enhancer
Seeking Employment in your Kitchen
Warning: Slow Moving Condiment (my other favorite)

I practically had tears running down my face when I saw them, and I got out a notebook to copy them down. I think I may have to go back and buy some (even though I don't need any ketchup) just so I can save the labels.

It's not often that a trip to the grocery store produces such levity!

The cats are high
I went out tonight and picked up a few things at Walmart, among them a new scratching toy for the cats. It's covered in catnip. They are sort of sprawled on the floor and looking quite content. I thought they were going to rip the box open themselves when I put the bag it was in on the floor. Must be a potent catnip.

But they're happy.

I think I might finally have the bathrooms organized and have found a place for all the "stuff" that should be in a medicine cabinet or linen closet. I feel pretty accomplished getting that done. It also empties out a couple more rubbermaid containers and frees up more floor space. I think I might be able to move the bedroom furniture around tomorrow.

The CDs are all put away and alphabetized and categorized, so that's another big thing that's been dealt with.

Of course all this means that I haven't taken a thing out of the garage since Saturday. This isn't good, I need to go through and empty out more of it.

And I also need to start thinking about getting ready to go to Disney, seeing it's only about a week away.

A Close Call
I have no idea how it happened, but early this morning I heard a crash, the screen door was pushed out from the bottom and Bravo was taking off. He has never been outside in his life - three years - ever.

I was so close to freaking I could hardly move.

He was in a panic and ran along the back of the building, then part way back, then back to the corner of the building again. I was calling him and trying to get him to come back to me but everytime I moved he ran in the other direction. He was crying and yowling and even tried to climb the wall of the building. Finally I got about half way to him and he came toward me. He was crying, so I kept speaking to him and going closer and finally managed to pick him up. I spirited him back into the house as fast as I could.

I don't know which one of us was shaking more.

I fixed the door, and really still can't figure out how it popped out. About all I can think is that there was a bug or a bird on the other side of the screen and he was trying to get at it, hit the door hard and caused it to pop out.

That door will not be totally open ever again. That way he can't get his full body weight against it. And now I'm paranoid about all the screens and their safety.

The rest of the day was almost a waste of time. I unpacked and started to organize the CDs (I don't think I realized how many I actually have, gotta be over a thousand), but then a headache started.

I think the lack of sleep and the stress of Bravo's ordeal got to me and I went into as close to a migraine as I want to get. I think I felt it coming on early enough to get some pain killers and go to bed so that it didn't have a chance to get to the full blown stage. Even now it's still lingering, and I didn't go to rehearsal. I knew that I wouldn't be able to sing or to stand on the risers and be chipper for three hours.

So instead I've been watching t.v. and wishing that my gay friend would come over and do for me what the Fab Five are doing on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". I wish they'd do female makeovers.

But then they'd probably throw away all my stuff and I'd be unhappy.

Sleep Deprived
I am so irritated that I'm actually up and out of bed. I was up at 5:30 this morning because of allergies so I decided to take a drink of the diet Coke that was sitting on the stand near the bed, and spilled it all over the rug. So I had to get up and get the spot lifter and mop everything up. And I couldn't get back to sleep.

And I'm tired.

I haven't had a night that I've slept through the night since December 20. Well, that's not strictly true. I slept when I took the sleeping pills that the doctor prescribed, but they gave me hives so I had to stop taking them.

Last night I was awake when Conan came on, so that means about 1 a.m. I cannot survive on four hours of sleep.

Maybe I can nap later on, especially because I have rehearsal tonight.

I did finish putting up the etagere and even got it anchored to the wall. I couldn't put the stability panel on the way they said to (so it's hidden in the back) but I put them across the side so that the thing won't come down on my head.

Today I'll do the towel rack and the toilet paper holder.

I love that drill!

Power Tools
I love power tools. I only have one, an ordinary drill, but I love it.

Tonight I decided to put together the etagere that I had bought to try to solve the lack of a medicine cabinet dilemma and I started out with the normal tools. After struggling to get a couple of the screws in I was close to giving up, when I decided to get out the drill and see if that would help.

Like buddah.

I had that thing pretty much together in record time, with one error. A door came off and there is no way to get it back on the stud that it goes on if the cabinet is together. So tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy a couple of hinges. It should go together just fine.

I haven't installed it in the bathroom yet, as I think I might need someone to balance it so I can add the stability plates when it's put on the base.

But I am quite proud.

I also installed a new sliding screen door (not exactly rocket science I know) this afternoon. That is going to make a big difference in terms of keeping the air flowing in this place. Now I can get a much better cross breeze.

The next projects involving tools are taking down the old toilet paper holder and putting up a new one (the old one is really ugly and in the wrong spot) and putting up a towel holder on the vanity. Sounds like I should keep the drill out!

I think I might need to find a project that requires a nail gun.... I'd be wicked!

Catholic School Fashion Fallout
I have come to the conclusion that I have parochial school to blame for my clothing obsession.

I attended parochial school K-12 and worked in a Catholic nursing home for six years when I was in highschool and college. So why does this impact clothing in my life - why uniforms of course!

For all those years I was in uniform, and had very little by way of "civilian" clothes. I didn't need them so didn't own them.

Then college was strictly jeans, shirts,sweaters, docksiders, and seasonal outerwear. So that was a uniform of sorts as well.

Consequently, when I started teaching I became obsessed with having clothes. And it's only in moving that I've realized exactly how obsessed. I have given away 16 bags of clothes this week, and have since packed up another 8 bags. And I just opened a box to discover - more clothes! And all of it is current stuff. I think I still have something in the vicinity of 24 boxes that are full of clothes (BIG computer boxes) stacked in the garage that I haven't even considered going through.

Lots of those are fall and winter things, but this is really an illness and I must be stopped. Maybe having a mortgage will curb my clothes shopping, and I think I need to give even more away.

I'm staggered by how much I actually own - and how much of it I do wear. But it's gotta come to an end!

Slogging along
I'm watching too much BBC America, I'm starting to use British expressions and speak with an accent.

I have always loved England, British things, history, so now having British television is becoming addictive. Of course the majority of the shows I'm watching are the decorating and garden shows- and a couple of the fashion type shows, but I can sit for hours and watch them.

Which of course is not condusive to unpacking and organizing. I forget I should be working and sit and gawk at the tube.

I should think that I'd be feeling more inspired to pull this place together seeing my friend Cathy has announced that she's stopping by one day next week. She's on vacation and has never been to any of my apartments (I've known her for 11 years), mostly because the one where I was living when we first met was too far away, and then the one I just moved out of was always too much of a mess to have her see.She is one of those anal people who is always neat, organized and uncluttered. A real minimalist - all the things that I'm not.

Not that this place isn't a mess, but I figure I still have that "I've just moved and am still unpacking" excuse. I believe that the statute of limitations on that is about a year. So I'm good.

But I would like to be in a bit better shape than I am now when she comes over.

I really need to work like a Trojan today, the evening is shot seeing I have to go to my brother's for a family barbecue.

Onward - and out to the garage for the dolly and a few more boxes.