Things I don’t love

One of my favorite sets of books is the Mitford series by Jan Karon. These are sweet, lovely books about this great town called Mitford, and the live of Father Tim Kavanagh. Cynthia, who lives next door (no spoilers here!) has a habit of saying "I love _______ or ___________." Father Tim likes to ask her "What don't you love?" Since I don't have a sweet neighbor to ask me, I'll just share them anyway! I kind of think of these like a continuum. One on end is things I love; the other is things I hate. These things are on the "things I hate end."

1. The little toothpaste dribbles I get on myself while I brush my teeth. They never come off, until I really wash the top. Just wiping it with a washcloth doesn't get it off and I'm not sure why.

2. Shaving my legs in the winter time. I hate to shave when it's cold. It just makes my skin dry and itchy. This may be awfully close to the "hate it "section.

3. The weird pain I get in my back when I sit with nothing behind me, with my legs crossed. It's always in the same spot, and I can't reach it.

4. Being the "poor sister" when I am with my sisters. The really stinky thing is that both my sisters are single moms, and I'm still the poor one.

5. When my neighbors play music so loud, I can hear it in my living room. This drives me crazy.

6. When chocolate melts, and then hardens again, so it turns white on the edges.

7. When my phone rings and it says "unknown name, unknown number." I don't answer, but I hate it when it rings.

8. When my life is so crazy, I can't get my sister's birthday present ready in time and miss Mr. Al's birthday by more than a week.

9. When something takes a whole lot longer than it should, because someone else doesn't do his or her job properly.

10. Coughing so hard, I almost wet my pants. Laughing so hard I almost wet my pants is something altogether different.

11. Leaving school feeling like I'm a failure as a teacher.

 

There you have it. My list of things that today, I don't love. Of course, this list is subject to change, depending on the day, or my mood. I try to remember, that things always could be worse. For example, I could be hiding in a tunnel while the Nazis drop bombs on my city, and I could be homeless or jobless or an orphan. I know that in my head, but my heart sometimes gets caught up in the mess of my life.

 

 

 

UMMM – Fried stuff

Here I sit at my computer on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, heading into evening. I have an assignment due at midnight that I should be working on and instead my mind is wandering around and around and around. So, instead of working, I'm doing this – making a confession. I love to eat stuff that is fried. Why is it that almost anything tastes better fried? For example, I love fried okra, but okra fixed any other way is not passing my lips! I know that frying is bad for us, and we should eat stuff baked or broiled, but it just doesn't taste as good. Here is a list of fried things that just taste good!

1. French fries. . . I never met a potato I didn't like but I must admit, my favorite way to eat potatoes is sliced up and fried. Yes, I know we can bake French fries, but it's NOT the same. (BTW should those still be called "fries?? – I think not!) The world would be a worse place without French fries.

2. Country fried steak. . . Some places call this "chicken fried" as in "chicken fried chicken." Country fried works for me, with some gravy on the side if you don't mind. . .

3. Fried chicken. In my mind, chickens were created to be fried. Right before Christmas, my sister and my niece and I went to dinner at my friend's house. She and I taught together for 14 years, but then for some unknown reason, she felt she needed to retire (lucky!) and abandoned me to try to teach without her. But I digress! She fixed us some fried chicken that was to die for. My mouth thought I had died and gone to Heaven. I have actually dreamed about that chicken since then. The Colonel extra crispy is an acceptable replacement for homemade.

4. I'm making all one category here – Fried "fair" food. This encompasses all the stuff you can buy at the State Fair, or the Strawberry Festival or any other sort of traveling show. I'm talking about those giant corn dogs, the twisty potato things, and my absolute favorite, funnel cakes. I even saw fried Twinkies once. This is definitely a guilty pleasure, as you can smell the grease in the air and feel your arteries closing as you walk between the trailers but it's good. I also have to kind of close my eyes and not look too closely at the people cooking or the little trailer things. . I don't even want to know about the health department certificates on some of those things. My logic is the hot oil kills anything that shouldn't be in there.

 

5. Doughnuts. . . Need I say more? Of course, I need. (Is it "doughnut" or "donut"? Does it matter? Do we even care???) This summer while we were in London, we took a day trip to Brighton. On the Brighton pier, there was a little booth selling donuts, which they cooked right in front of you. A machine dropped little rings of batter into the hot oil, and the little donuts floated down the hot oil river, cooking merrily on one side, then there was some sort of apparatus that flipped them over so they cooked on the other side . . . then they crash-landed into sugar and cinnamon, and then were plopped directly into a bag. The bag was all greasy on the inside, steam was coming out, they were FABULOUS! I burned my mouth and my tongue trying to eat one, instead of waiting for it to cool. Then, I was attacked by a seagull who grabbed half my donut and flew off. Stupid bird. I hope he choked to death. . . All because I was waving my arms around commenting on the "Mushy peas served here sign." (Every word of this is true – I promise, truly. You can ask my friends Andrea and Lenese if you don't believe me. . )

 

6. Last but not least (for this list) fried green tomatoes. I love tomatoes, there is nothing like a tomato sandwich, some soft white bread, some mayonnaise and some ripe red tomato slices, but I love some fried green tomatoes. . . Good ones are hard to find, you need somebody who knows what they are doing to cook them for you. Two years ago, my sister and I were driving to North Carolina and we left late so we stopped to spend the night. We found some restaurant right by the hotel that had a Friday night Fried Fish Buffet all you can eat. I think somebody's grandma was back in the kitchen cooking because the grits were perfect and the fried green tomatoes were to die for. I nearly made myself sick with the fried green tomatoes.

Ok, now I'm hungry. Like I can concentrate on my assignment now!

I miss my blog so here’s some random thoughts from me!

I haven't blogged in what seems like forever. Between school (my job) and school (FSU) and church, I'm just swamped. I left school nearly in tears yesterday, and just wanted to drown my frustration in chocolate. I couldn't find any at my house. That's not good, I need a secret stash. Of course, facebook has been sucking up time too. I've connected with some old friends, some new friends and some family that I don't see enough. My cousin Michael is on facebook and he posts the weirdest things that I just have to answer. My cousin Melissa is on there, too, and even though she lives closer, just in Clewiston, I haven't seen her in a long time. My friend Melissa found me as well, and I haven't seen her in a LONG time either, probably 10 years at least. I have some new friends, too, our friend Cindy who moved here from St. Louis, and her friend who is now our friend, who we call "Best-Friend Debbie." She has two rescued dogs, one of which is quite the escape artist.

I have to give a devotion at a ladies meeting on Saturday, and the theme of the meeting is "My Favorite Things." It wouldn't seem like that topic would be too hard, but I'm having a bit of a struggle to get it together. I'm also supposed to speak at a Girl's Retreat at the end of the month, and that lesson isn't going so well either. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Here's another random thought - have you ever watched "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern?" I am just amazed at two things about that show. One, how much he can eat, and two, how much he can get in his mouth in one bite. I must say, this is the only show, except Fear Factor that has EVER made me gag. One day, he was drinking this medicine/health food junk made with aloe. We used to have an aloe plant in our yard, and I actually have a small one that one of my kids gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I know how slimy and icky feeling aloe can be, although it's great for sunburn. BUT, watching him try to drink some sort of juice with aloe in it, and the stringy, slimy looking parts reaching from his mouth to the cup. . . I nearly couldn't handle it. As I type this, he's eating southern soul food. Now, I love southern food, and a lot of what is called "soul food" we ate my whole life at my house. This is not what I expected. He's eating raccoons and possums. Now he's watching some guy make "chittlins" which I think that's actually spelled "chitterlings." He's cooking them in a big cast iron skillet just like my momma had. Now, he's on to fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. I love fried stuff. . . I may have to come back to this topic later. . .

Library Thing

We had to use this website called Library Thing for some of our classes and this week, it is an extra credit assignment to use Library Thing. How cool is that? If you've never heard of or seen Library Thing, you should check it out. Go to http://www.librarything.com and take a tour. It is a great site for cataloging books, discussing books and reading what other people think about books. I'm trying to figure out how to add a widget to my blog that will show random books from my library, but haven't figured that out yet. Anybody who has and likes books needs to use LibraryThing.

Right now, I'm messing around with Library Thing, while I'm sort of watching the movie "The Punisher" on recommendation from one of my students. I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake, but at least I tried. Andrea and I are almost finished with our final, the last thing we have to do this semester. I am so-o-o-o-o- glad it's almost over. Today I actually shopped; I'm looking for sneakers, a particular kind of sneakers. I'm looking for Nike Air Max Zen 95, color number 771. I found one pair today in two Nike stores, on sale, which was good, but a size 8 1/2, which is too small for me. Luckily, we think they'll fit my friend Robyn. She called the Nike Outlet Store in Ellenton and we may have a line on some others. Wish us luck in our search.

T-shirt, Turkey, and Thanks!

Today was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break and boy, am I thankful for this break. We are lucky in our county that we get off for the whole week of Thanksgiving, so we have NINE days off. I am so excited. Today was a good day all the way around. Two weeks ago, I lost my camera at the soccer field at Makiah's game. Well, I assume I did, because that is the last place I had it and I haven't seen it since. It made me furious with myself, because I just learned how to use some parts of it while I was in London this summer. So, I tried to buy a new one just like my old one –not possible. So I got the new version of mine and it came last night, but was downstairs at my sister's house. I had to go down and get it this morning, and got to play with it today. That was the first really cool thing today. Also, I bought a small video camera this summer, and while I was in London, I dropped it and it quit working. I found it last night and was looking for my receipt to take it back to the store. I decided just to try it, so I put new batteries in it and turned it on and it works perfectly. How great is that??? I was so excited. Then today we did my new favorite thing. My radio station, the JoyFM (www.thejoyfm.com) does this thing during the month of November called "T-shirts for Turkeys." It is this really cool thing where they design a special T-shirt and on certain days, at certain Publix stores, you can trade a frozen turkey for one of the specially designed T-shirts. You can't buy them anywhere; you can only trade for a frozen turkey. The frozen turkeys are donated to local food banks and homeless shelters, to provide for people who need it over the holidays. I LOVE my JoyFM shirt from last year so much; I wore it all over London. I actually have some pictures of my Joy shirt in London. Last year, my sister, my niece and I traded turkeys for T-shirts. When we left, Makiah said "This is a good thing we did isn't it?" We told her yes and she said, "Can we do it again next year?" So, we did. Today, we went to Lakeland, got our turkeys in Publix, brought them right outside and traded for our new T-shirts. So now, it's vacation time, I have a new camera, my video camera works, and we did something good for people who need it. Tonight, by 8:00, I had my nice hot shower and was snuggled in my pajamas on the couch with a new book and time to read it. I have much to be thankful for. . .

Tshirts for Turkeys

My heroes for today

When I was little, my favorite cartoon hero was Underdog. I can still hear it "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" I only went to half-day kindergarten and my best friend Randy lived next door to us with his grandparents. We were poor as church mice (our mom didn't work and our dad was in college and was the janitor at the Lakeland Ledger) and we didn't have a TV. So, some days, I got to go next door to Randy's house and we would watch Underdog at 2:00 and drink cranberry juice. I don't remember why that was so special, but hey, I was only four and turned five, what did I know???

For some strange reason, I've been thinking about heroes and what it takes to be one. I've read some great articles lately about people who do great things but I'm noticing that my heroes tend to be people who do quiet great things instead of loud, in your face great things. For example, I heard a great story about a women's college softball team, and one girl hit a home run, but missed first base and went back to tag the bag. On the way back she hurt her knee and couldn't walk. Two girls from the other team carried her around the bases. That story made me cry! You can read it here: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24392612/

I read about a teacher who donated a kidney to a student in her class. That is unbelievably awesome... If you don't believe me, read it here: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20131192,00.html

Those people are certainly heroes but I'll tell you about some more – only these, I know personally.

I know a lady who does stuff at my church. She owns her own shop and she sews. We do the Awana children's program at our church, and she sews on all the patches for all of our kids. Last year, she would come to church, get the awards, take them to her shop, sew them on and bring them back – ALL IN THE SAME NIGHT! At my old church, most of my own personal awards were held on with melted plastic zip bags. (They work great for a short-term iron on - the cheaper the better!)

Another woman I know has only been at our church since March. Since March, she's moved four times and one of those times was from Arkansas! She teaches a pre-K Sunday school class, is the Sparks director in our Awana Club, works in the time before Sunday school, and takes great care of her husband and her two boys. Besides all that, she keeps the most spotless house I've ever seen. I can't keep a spotless house and it's just the cat and me!

I have a friend in my Master's program that just had a baby. She has another child who was born in June of 2007. She teaches third grade, is doing the Master's thing, and has a brand new baby and a 17 month old. . . I don't know how she's not just crazy. Get this – she was in class ONE WEEK after giving birth.

Another remarkable woman I know does a lot too! She teaches first grade, is a single mom (who gets NO support from a dead-beat dad) is the greatest greeter I've ever seen at church, and is the Commander of our Awana clubs. Her daughter plays soccer, practice two nights a week and a game on Saturday, does dance class and never misses Awana club on Wednesday nights. This mom does this every week, with no dad to help. Also, at her school, they don't just send home report cards, they have report card conferences. So, in the last two or three weeks since report cards went home, she's done 18 parent conferences.

I think the most amazing thing about all these people is that they don't do these things to be the center of attention or to have people notice. They'd probably be embarrassed to read this. They just do it. I see other people who seem to have this need to have all eyes and all attention focused on them. I don't get that and I don't think it's necessary, it's actually selfish and self-centered, as well as annoying to everybody else. I have a poster at school that says, "Freedom is everywhere you look." So are heroes!

Fighting with myself

For about the last week, I have been fighting with myself. The good news is, when you fight with yourself, you always win. However, you also always lose. . . Strange thoughts I know, but if you know me, you're not really surprised. I'm fighting with myself over my compulsion to be negative instead of positive. Last week in Awana, I encouraged our TNT clubbers to be thankful for five things every day. Easy, right, we have five fingers, at least once a day, while we're praying, thank God for five things, one for each finger. Well, I tried to do it, but every time I try, I keep coming up with something negative for each positive thing. Why do I do that? What's wrong with me? Here are some of the odd thoughts running through my head. I'm thankful I have a job (I heard today that something like 10 million people are unemployed) but I'm irritated because I have so many children and we didn't get a raise (or even a step this year. According to our county, my year of work last year counts as . . . NOTHING!) I have a new car, but I have car payments. I have good friends, but no time to see them or talk to them. (Thank goodness for facebook—at least I can see pictures of them occasionally.) I am working on my Master's degree, but it's nearly killing me. See?? No matter what good thing I come up with, part of me comes up with some negative thing. I hate that! I wish I could just look at the positive. I'm going to have to work on that. Maybe I should just make a list of good things and carry it in my head, and jump right to the next one every time my mind wanders over to the dark side. I can use my habit of jumping from topic to topic to my advantage. . . So, here's my list of good things.

1. Master's classes – we are on week 12 and the semester goes to 15.

2. After nine more school days, we get a whole week off for Thanksgiving.

3. Thanksgiving. Yeah turkey and dressing, and I know Robyn will make a pound cake using Granny's recipe. .

4. My Aunt Mary Ellen is going to be fine, just fine.

5. My friend Stacy had a perfectly healthy baby.

6. I'm not the one who delivered a 9 lb, 6 oz baby last week.

7. My cat doesn't require around the clock attention (like a new baby does) although he is staring at my fingers while I type and watching the mouse move suspiciously. . .

8. Publix makes this great Chocolate Trinity ice cream. Chocolate, with Denali fudge and caramel cups. (It's incredible!)

9. I've got some great new friends at church (and on facebook!)

10. Those new friends have a great new business that is going to be incredibly useful for people.

See, my list of good things is MUCH bigger than the negatives. . Focus on that!!!