I think about this world a lot and I cry

So yesterday afternoon we had this guy come into the office and basically just go bat shit crazy on us.  And I was sort of thinking of writing about that, but now I'm thinking, why bother?  The guy was a jerk, sucks to be him, life goes on.

Stacey and I found it necessary to medicate ourselves with coffee afterwards, though.  I mean, life goes on a little easier with coffee.

And that's way too much time on that particular subject.  So.

Friday night!  Eric and Abby's plans involved going to our nephew Cody's football game with my father-in-law.* Johanna and I were slated to spend a quiet evening at home, except.  Grocery shopping would provide an excuse to get out, but why not stop by my parents' as well?  We hadn't seen them for  a while.  I missed them.  I gave them a call.

My parents were ever so happy to see us.  They've been under self-quarantine with bad colds for the past week and apparently hadn't gotten out much.  That probably explains the excitement.  (Well, that, and Johanna and I are awesome.)  Normally I have an agenda when I go over there (my parents are great about watching the girls when I work).  Not this time.  So I was all, hey, let's check out your computer.  And Mom was all, yay!

Because: Mom's cousin had sent a link to pictures of my grandparents' anniversary party weeks ago, but the 'rents couldn't get them loaded onto a CD.  And there's always music Mom wants on her iPod.  And then I remembered iTunes 69-cent songs and I was all like, DAD!  iTUNES!  And he was all, okay.

First things first: I failed getting the pictures off the website.  Their Dell does not work like my iMac (another reminder of why my poser computer is SO WORTH IT).  Well, that was disappointing.  Especially since now I have to remember to pull the pictures off of my computer...

So then we moved onto pictures taken at a carnival Mom and Dad put on for Johanna and her friends this summer (pre-blog, which is unfortunate, because that would have been a post for the books).  I've been meaning to get Mom's pictures since July so I can make her a scrapbook.  So I did emerge victorious on that count.

And can I just say, yay USB drives?  Love them.

We tackled Mom's iPod next, although we got a little sidetracked by iTunes.  I mean, come on!  Those 69-cent songs are sort of awesome.  You can find all kinds of stuff that you've totally forgotten about.  And rocking out with my parents to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby?"  Priceless.

You may be wondering what Johanna was doing all this time.  She was playing and reading.  Sometimes she'd come in to check on us.  Sometimes she'd join the from-the-chair dance party.  This, I believe, is called "letting your child find her wings," which sounds way better than "throwing your kid over for iTunes."

After an hour or two, Johanna and I announced it was time to go shopping, but we should have just taken a seat because we spent the next twenty minutes or so chatting in the living room.  It'd had been a while since we'd all seen each other, remember?  There was a lot to talk about.  And!  Mom gave me my birthday quilt she'd recently finished.  Here's a picture of it almost finished, when Skilly was under the mistaken impression his grandmother made the quilt for him:

Flannel Christmas squares.
Gorgeous here, even better finished.

Johanna and I hit the grocery store about 8 p.m., and let me tell you this: THAT is the time to shop, because the place was deserted.  There was plenty of room for Johanna to dance when "Thriller" came on over the store sound system.  She normally doesn't have the luxury of open space.  It still took a while to get through the store, though, just because Johanna likes to really check things out.  She is a good shopper.  And I got extra hugs for tossing hot chocolate mix into the cart.

We made it home around 9 p.m., way past Johanna's bedtime, which she loved.  We put groceries away, got the kid a snack (she's growing again) and then wrapped up in my new quilt to read a bedtime story.

And then I went onto iTunes and picked up a few 69-cent songs for myself.  Eric came home and teased me for getting Cheap Trick's "The Flame," but he doesn't have the camp memories I do.  That was a theme song one year, so clearly I need it for my collection.  I also got Mazzy Star's "Fade into You" because it reminds me of my senior year of college, and of Eric, and missing him.  He did not tease me about that particular purchase.

The end.

*Let's just say that cold weather, plus the fact that Johanna can NOT sit still over the course of a football game, makes staying at home a better option for the two of us.  Waiting for her to fall through the bleachers isn't exactly the most relaxing way to spend an evening.

REM, "You Are the Everything."  This song contains my all-time favorite line ever: And you're drifting off to sleep with your teeth in your mouth.  Probably I could also say something about how when the world makes me want to cry, I have family and friends and Eric who make me laugh.  But that would be really cheesy, so never mind.

The West is dry, your mind is clear

A couple stories for the "awesome" column:

This morning I volunteered in Johanna's classroom for the first time this school year.  I was around some of these kids last year, of course, but my volunteer time mostly just coincided with recess, plus the teacher made me Queen of the Copy Machine.  Today, I got to help with journal writing and then go do a bunch of busywork (which I don't mind doing--I'm not in it for the entertainment value, although I got a good deal of it anyway, as it turned out).

The kids had to write an entry that began, "I have."  You'd think that would open the door to numerous possibilities, but 75% of the kids wrote about their cats.  One kid wanted me to help spell her kitten's name--Tyler Rhinoceros something-or-other, which I suspect she just made up right there on the spot.  Another kid didn't want to talk about her kitten; she wanted to discuss how tall I am and how I am able to fit in my car (she figured it would have to be big and was shocked when I told her it wasn't, but I assured her I could just scootch the seat back and my legs fit just fine).  I'm like, look, don't worry, my little car is great.  Now, tell me about your kitten.  And she was all, are you married?  And I was all, sigh.

Johanna's entry: I have a mom. She loves me.

Which she erased to write: I have a mom. I love her.

Ah, shucks!

The kids started moving around to their various reading groups, and I went into the common area to work on the stack o' projects the teacher had for me.  I figured I'd just work for a couple of hours and see how far I could get.  Answer: Not as far as I thought.  (Sorry.)

I made some of those little copied, paper books that Jo is always bringing home.  It was boring, but I amused myself by trying to figure out ways to shortcut the process and make it quicker.  Eric says that I need to pay attention (what?) and that it's the end result, not how fast you get there.  He just says that because he's very slow and methodical.  (Hi, Eric!)  Anyway, this was a case where I probably should have listened to Eric's voice in my head because a couple of times I had to take out staples or flip pages or whatevs.  I made three stacks of those little suckers--about 15 to a stack, I'd guess--and had probably about 10 more to get to.  Three ended up being my limit.  But, as I told myself, I'd go work on the next project and see if I had any time left to get back to the books.

(And no.  No, I did not.)

Being tall makes bulletin board work very easy.  Except when I have to scrunch down for the bottom parts, I guess.  But that was my next project.  I was busy taking the kids' artwork off when the recess bell rang.  Johanna came out to give me a hug, and her little friend (who was the car/life talker) started grilling me about what I was doing.  Why was I removing all those staples?

"Does my teacher know you're doing this?" she finally asked, clearly worried that I was going to be put in a timeout or get a number on my Star Card.

"I have permission," I told her, and she nodded, satisfied, and went off to recess with Johanna.

I stuffed old art into cubbies and then went to put new art up.  And people!  This art was awesome.  The school is lucky enough to have an Honest to God Artist working there (she's technically ELL or something, but she's still in the building) who meets with the kids once a week for art projects--she reads them a story and then they create something that corresponds to that.  I'm not sure what the story was, but the kids had painted patterns onto paper, then cut out shapes to create pictures.  Colorful and awesome.  Every. Single. One.  The bulletin board looked fantastic.  First graders rule!  (I can't wait for Johanna to bring her pumpkin picture home.  I'm totally going to frame it.)

Oh, and my hanging abilities weren't too shabby, even though I have a hard time maintaining a straight line.  I'd blame it on my eyes, but I've got the glasses now and that damn depth perception that I'm still not sure about.

Anyway, so that was highly entertaining all around.  I left another two projects plus the books undone, which I feel bad about, but.  There's always next week.

And!  Last night, I went to my first PTO meeting since Abby was in first grade.  And I learned that I, Trisha, can sponsor the annual walk-a-thon thing and get my business card on the t-shirt for a very reasonable fee.  Only I don't have a business card.  So I'm thinking: Johanna's Mom.  I can't stop giggling when I think about it.  Johanna's Mom in the midst of all the actual business cards, and people being all like, whaaaaat?  And me laughing in the corner.  It's almost too much awesome.  I'm TOTALLY going to do it.

That's all.

I think today's song will be Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories, "Waiting for Wednesday."  Because it's Wednesday and my stomach doesn't hurt enough. Pain always is the sign.  (And) no proof of mine exists so I don't have to take it back.  (So there!)

Time to reach out to the side

I've had glasses now for... almost 72 hours.  It's been an interesting three days.

The thing is that with my glasses, I'm actually seeing depth.  Let's just say I wasn't quite getting the whole 3D experience before.  Which is weird.  I had no idea.  But now that I am, it's sensory overload.  It's going to take a while to get used to this.

I was a little self-conscious going into work on Friday with my glasses.  And then a little relieved that almost no one noticed, although a little anxious, too, in case they finally did.  Stacey volunteered to take the banking in, which was awesome, because I wasn't so sure I could walk with these things on my face.  I tried to keep them on, though, because aside from the potted plants looking so nuts, just sticking out like that, I could see my computer screen much better, and everything was a lot clearer.

So that ended up being fairly okay.

Then Eric and I went to a brew festival on Saturday.  I dutifully wore my glasses, because how else am I going to get used to them?  I was doing okay in the house.  I like them in the house.  But my house isn't all that big or crowded.  My brain hasn't had a lot of trouble with what it's seeing when I'm at home.

But there were A LOT of people at this festival.  (And they must have all been from out of town, because we saw like three people we actually knew.  And two WERE from out of town.)  It was very odd, looking at this crowd.  It was shifting and moving, and the whole 3D experience was making me feel sort of nauseous.  It's funny, because I'm not getting the headaches I expected.  I'm getting dizzy.

I did not see that coming, which is ironic.  (Oh, never mind.)

So I finally just took my glasses off.  It was a relief to have everything shift back to a blurry two dimensions again.  I mean, I guess I see in two dimensions.  I can tell what is above and below, ahead and behind, but I just didn't think there was so much space between the two... that it was so... like it is.

Depth is a funny thing.  I'm not sure if I like it.

So today I've tried to be good and leave my glasses on, and I really haven't had much trouble at all.  But then, I've mostly just been at home.  My biggest challenge came when I opened up the oven door and my glasses got all fogged up.  Twice, because I am a slow learner, apparently.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  Eventually I'll get used to this, right?

Right?!?

Chapterhouse, "Falling Down."  Mostly just because I'm afraid I'll fall down.  You know what's funny... I've been listening to this band/song since I was in college (we won't talk about how long ago that was) and I have never been able to figure out what they're singing about.  So I Googled the lyrics, and low and behold, now I do: Lead me to a sacred low.  Higher now, tell me what I wanna know.  Okay, then.  I always thought he was saying, "Take me on a walk about."  Ah, well.