I'm feeling my age...

...Yes, I am no longer a spring chicken. That was proven to me this past weekend. My youngest son is a senior in high school and every year we have what's called The Senior Bash. The Bash is a combination senior banquet and lock in at the University of Rochester. The kids leave from the high school at 5 pm Saturday, have the banquet then on to the athletic center at 10 pm. Now they're locked in until 5 am Sunday morning.





January starts the planning of this thing when the students are given some choices for themes. They each vote for the one they want and this year the winning theme was Las Vegas. A girlfriend and I were the co-chairs of the door prize committee and our goal was to procure a prize for every student attending plus set up at the bash and work the table. All night. We were there from about 4:30 pm Saturday til 5:00 am Sunday morning. I was up for all most 24 hours. Once I could do an all nighter no problem. Ha...I'm still recovering from this one several days later.

The decorating committee did a great job. This was the sign that greeted the kids when they walked in as well as Elvis belting out Viva Las Vegas.
The food area was called Caesar's Place and each table had centerpieces made to look like fountains. To eat there was pizza, wings, subs, salads, fruit, cookies, brownies plus water, soda, milk, coffee and energy drinks. At about 3 am there were bagels with cream cheese and donuts. No body went hungry.
Each student had their senior picture turned into a laminated 8x10 playing card. Cam's is just under the "You look a little flushed" sign.

We had plenty of things to keep them busy all night including bingo, soccer, tennis, squash, swimming, basketball, Texas hold 'em tournament, blackjack, board games etc. For door prizes we had restaurant, bowling, rock climbing, oil changes, mini golf and salon gift certificates as well as gas and Target cards. Nalgene is located in our town and they donated 200 backbacks worth about 17k. We must have been pretty persuasive. It was a long six months and a lot of work. Now it's done and I can cross one more thing off of my to do list.

I am so feeling my age...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

More Walking

Expanding on my post about walking to school, I do have a favorite walking day. You may think it's Friday and while Friday is my favorite day of the week as I'm all about anticipation, it's not my favorite day to walk to school. That would be garbage day. You could say I'm a garbologist studying garbology. You can learn a lot about a household by looking at their garbage. Now I don't actually look in their garbage cans, I do check out their recycling bins. For instance that's how I found that one family was expecting a baby and when said baby arrived. There must have been a baby shower because at the curb were boxes from a car seat, a swing and a travel crib. A few weeks later I started to see empty can of formula in the bin and eventually baby food jars. Another family drinks a lot of wine, every week there are multiple bottles and empty wine boxes.
A certain household must have a bunch of kids. In their recycle bin are at least 3 - 4 plastic gallon milk jugs as well as orange juice containers and cereal boxes. One family recycles their empty beer cans and bottles but doesn't return them to the store for the 5 cent refund per each. In New York state any beer, wine cooler or any drink with carbonation such a soda has a 5 cent deposit on them. When you return the empties to the store you get your deposit back. I personally hate that job. When the empties start taking over the garage then I return them.
There's a highbrow household that subscribes to The New York Times as well as The Wall Street Journal but never has any cans, bottles or cardboard recycles along with that. So really, how smart are they?

All of this observation is done by my eyes only. I don't pick through the trash but I will cop to the fact that I once picked up a big fat issue of Modern Bride still in the plastic wrapper that someone had put out. I perused the latest wedding fashion. I figured they already had their wedding or maybe the engagement was broken. After perusing the latest wedding finery I realized the wedding industry is much different than when I was married over 25 years ago.

What would you find in my garbage? Empty Poland Spring water bottles and Diet Lipton ice tea bottles. One gallon milk jug per week. Some tuna, soup and veggie cans. Maybe a french onion dip container. The daily newspaper which I don't have time to read everyday, Time magazine for the current events people in my house and Star magazine for the ones that want the fluff.

Walking

The past several weeks I've been walking to school (I live about 1 mile away) because I've been letting my high school senior son drive my Honda to school. Each evening we discuss whether I'm walking or not. Sometimes I've got a lot to take in and don't want to lug it but most days I let him drive. One morning I'm searching for my keys, can't find them anywhere. I call hubby because he has a habit of using them and not hanging them up afterwards. He doesn't have them. Now I'm late for school. Maybe I left them in the door or in the car. I open the door to the garage and....no car! Hence the reason for my missing keys. Now I'm already late, have to walk to school and I'm not happy. I call my son on his cell thinking I'm going to be leaving a message and he answers. I ask "why are you answering your phone during school?" He responds, "I'm in a free period." Well the flood gates opened and I let him have it with both barrels about him having my car without asking. I think I scared the crap out of him because I never yell at him. He never gives me a reason to until today. My throat hurt when I was done with him. I can guarantee that this will never happen again.


Clematis in our backyard.

I enjoy walking to school. At that hour (8:15) it's very peaceful. I live in an old neighborhood with tree lined streets, small houses and small yards. No McMansions here. I think about what I have to do during the day, listen to the birds singing and admire people's flower gardens.

Our Japanese maple tree in the front yard.

Most days I meet the same dogs going for their morning walk. They get some pets from me and get some dog kisses and nuzzles from my four legged friends. It's a win win situation. Grace is an Old English Sheepdog and very sweet. For a big dog she has a rather high bark.

Then I see Wally the wiener dog, another cutie and sometimes the lovable mutt Max is out. Also along the way there is a Rhodesian Ridgeback but I cross the street when I see him coming. He's a powerful dog and well trained but the first time I came upon him he lunged and jumped on me almost knocking me over. It took all of his owner's might to pull him off. She was very apologetic and said he must have smelled my dog on me. Okay, once was enough, I steer clear of him. This breed of dog once hunted lions in Africa so they're tough. I know this particular dog has never hunted lions but he's not going to hunt me.

Out of Order

A couple months ago we totally redid our half bath with new everything, floor, sink, cabinet, toilet and paint. Well we don't like the toilet. It's a piece of crap no pun intended. Without going into details, it's not a good flusher at all but it is a great water bowl for the dog. We got it at Lowe's and it has a good rating but it sucks. Hubby is going to talk to them and see about exchanging it. I hope so. I'm very picky about my bathroom. I grew up camping in a family with two parents and three girls. The one thing that had to be decent at the campground was the bathroom or we weren't staying.
I now know I would never make it on the space station. You see they only have one toilet on board and it's not working right now! The space shuttle Discovery is going up next week to bring a new part but holy crap, a week without a working toilet. They'd have to send a bus for me because I'd want off! Now I'm thinking that a man designed the space station because a woman would have put more than one toilet on the thing.

What period are we in?

The Paleozoic Era was 544 - 245 million years ago (mya) and within this era there are several periods. The Cambrian, Ordovician, Sulurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permain. Prehistoric life was underwater at this time until the Devonian Period. It was then that oxygen became plentiful and plants started growing. Due to this evolution life changed and animals came out of the oceans. At this time insects appeared. At the end of the Permian Period (286-245 mya) a great extinction took place, snuffing out 90-95% of marine life and 70% of land animals.

The next era was the Mesozoic 245 - 65 years ago. Life was bigger in these three periods. The first, Triassic new life was forming on the super continent located near the equator, Pangaea. Next came the Jurassic. In this period the dinosaurs grew up but contrary to what we see in the movies, the large dinosaurs such as T-Rex, Triceratops, Velociraptor and others did not evolve until the Cretaceous Period. Something killed them at the end of this period.

Following the Mesozoic Era is the Cenozoic Era. It was the beginning of the mammals and insects we know today. The pesky fly evolved during this time.

We touch on this subject just a little bit in our fifth grade science class. I find it all very interesting but you're probably wondering where I'm going with all of this. Well it has to do with my dog Cody.

You see Cody has figured out how to open the sliding door screen leading out to the fenced in backyard. Unfortunately he doesn't close it behind him. Yesterday we had three gigantic flies in the house thanks to him. I swear they some how survived extinctions throughout time. They were HUGE. The ginormous flies ended up banging into the inside of our front window. To Cody's credit he was snapping at them trying to get them without success. The lethal weapon we call the Terminator (a great flyswatter we have) was put into action and these flies were once again extinct. Phew.

I hope that's all that comes in through the open door this summer.

Oh and if you've read this post to the end, we live in the Quaternary Period 1.8 mya to present.

Gross eh?

Love 'em or Hate 'em

Now I know that there are people out there that ridicule lolcats. My husband is one of them. I'm always showing them to him and he just doesn't get it. I don't care for cats myself. I think it's because I'm allergic to them and they seem to love me. Maybe they're really evil and know I'm allergic. Since I've found this site I sorta wish that I could have a cat. This one fits our dog, Cody. He's a grass eater and you know what happens when they do that.

On this Memorial Day and everyday, we honor and thank those who have given their lives for our freedom and freedom of others around the world.

Blowin' in the Wind

Today's post is inspired by two bloggers that I read this morning, Manic Manicurist and E. Craig. Both of them had a story about tornadoes. MM's was a personal experience of a tornado and EC's was a spectacular video of a tornado in Oklahoma as seen from a helicopter. Now I know I have a mild case of Ancraophobia which is fear of wind, not to be confused with Anemophobia which is fear of air drafts.

I have no idea what caused this fear. I've never seen a live tornado let alone been in one. I remember as a kid when the wind would pick up I would walk around my house looking for anything that might blow away like toys or one of our bikes. As I got older I noticed that whenever I'm very stressed I dream about tornadoes or being stuck in a doomed elevator, another fear I have.

Luckily I don't live in an area that is conducive to tornadoes. The lay of the land just doesn't support the conditions needed for one to form. Living on Lake Ontario we have lake effect snow, blizzards and ice storms. Every once in a while we'll get the last dregs of a hurricane blow through but it's just a weak tropical storm by the time it gets up north. We do get tornado warnings sometimes during severe thunderstorms but very rarely does one touch down.


I don't know how people live in places frequented by tornadoes. I would be a neurotic mess. Actually I don't have to worry about it because I will NEVER live in tornado territory.


While looking up "fear of wind" I found a long list of different phobias that are out there. Geez, you can have a phobia of almost anything you can think of. Some are understandable, some are silly but all I know is that I will never tease anyone about it because I have a few of them on the list too.

Be sure to click on video link to watch. It's very scary. For me anyway.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain were flying to a debate. Barack looked at Hillary, Chuckled and said, "You know I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy."

Hillary shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy."

John added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy."

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his copilot. "Such big-shots back there. I could throw all three of them out of the window and make 156 million people very happy."

In the Garden

Flowers are one of natures most beautiful things. I took some pictures in the garden this afternoon. Right now things are still budding and I'm anxiously awaiting the flowering out. Click on the pics to check out the details that you normally don't see.

Clematis
Coral Bells
Now I don't know what this plant is. I bought it last season because I love the shape and texture of the leaves. They're so velvety soft just like the softest part of the male anatomy.
Columbine, I also have this in a deep maroon but it's not budding yet.

Primrose
This is a scarlet red peony. I can't wait for it to bloom, it didn't last summer.

Azalea

My favorite picture, Bleeding Heart.

Graduationpolooza Part One

Four years ago we dropped our oldest off at Binghamton University.

Here are the two freshman brothers, one in college and the other in high school.Fast forward four years (and I mean really fast). Today both are seniors awaiting graduation.
After the Decker School of Nursing recognition ceremony. He is certainly the minority.
I tried to bring my husband into the twenty first century but he still wouldn't buy a new tie. His is from the 1980's.

Hurry! The shuttle bus is here! You don't want to be late for your own graduation!
Just before the commencement.
During the commencement. Kevin invited his brother to stay over at his apartment the night before. I don't think much sleeping took place.

Can you hear me now? I've just graduated. Ah, modern technology. Kevin called us before the candidates marched in to find out where we were sitting. We called him after he sat down and had him wave so we could pick him out in a sea of green caps and gowns.

Cameron keeping his aunt warm. The weather wasn't the greatest. Cool, damp and overcast.
The roommates.

Kenny graduated from the School of Mangement, Joe will graduate in January. Tim graduated from the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Kevin, The Decker School of Nursing.
It's official. He is no longer a resident of Binghamton University.
All his junk is at home in our family room!

Graduation Day

September 4, 1991

First day of kindergarten

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore, Dream, Discover

Mark Twain

Not Your Usual Lust

I have never been one to lust over appliances. They're one of those things that I hate to spend money on. Until now. I would love to have one of these steam dryers from Maytag.

You see, I don't iron clothes unless it is an absolute emergency. I re-dry them. Someone must realized that lazy people like me need this.

On my blog I never know what's going to strike me as something to write about. Something struck me today and it wasn't a good thing.



I've said this before, I am always surprised at how one human being can treat a fellow human so horribly. What is wrong with people? I'd call them animals but even animals don't behave like this. I'm speaking about an incident that occurred in Cleveland, Ohio. Charles Gooden Jr. was beaten to death by a mob of 15 men and his head urinated upon by one of the perpetrators.

In this case, three people have been arrested. If past incidents are any indication, no one will come forward with any additional information about any of the other attackers. Why do I say this? The rule these days is to say nothing. I admit, I have no idea what its like to live a lifestyle in which you are fearful for your life everyday or harassed by cops. I can't judge these people that will not come forward to help solve crimes. To risk coming forward may result in harm to you or your family. They don't want to be branded a snitch. Hell, there are even t-shirts proclaiming Don't Snitch and Warn-A-Brother.


I'm sorry to say that the case of Charles Gooden Jr. is not the only one. In my city the same thing happened although the victim was a mother, Latasha Shaw, age 36 who was defending her daughter from a mob of girls. Her murderers have never been caught due to this code of silence. Please click the links to learn more about these people.

Happy Mother's Day

I don't know if there is such a thing as a mothering gene. I know a couple that have no children nor do they ever want any, to the extent that they both had the medical procedures to ensure that they're not surprised. There are children brought into this world that are not wanted and suffer for that everyday. For some women, motherhood does not come naturally but they learn it. Some women become better people after they have children. Others do not. But today I'm not going to talk about those mothers.

I have a huge mothering gene. As a teenager I was a master babysitter and had lots of clients. I enjoy the innocence and wide eyed wonder of children. I love being a mother and I'd say that I'm a good at it. I've taught my boys right from wrong, to respect all people and their differences, how to treat a woman,l ook people in the eye when you speak to them, try to always do your best and be true to yourself.

Being a mother is the most important job you can have. Your children are the future. Now motherhood is not always a bowl of cherries. It can be frustrating, tiring, maddening etc. When my boys were little I would tiptoe into their bedrooms before I went to bed and some days it seemed like I hadn't said a soft word all day, just "stop that", No!", "Don't do that". They'd be on my last nerve but looking at the sleeping child, my heart wanted to burst with love.





Something I've learned over the years, you can't take things personally when you're a mother. Your child is going to say things that hurt you, sometimes on purpose, sometimes without realizing it. There is no such thing as a perfect child or a perfect mother but love goes a long way.






I want to wish my blogging friends a Happy Mother's Day!


I'll leave you with some quotes about mothers.



"Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness.
It's the men who are discriminated against.
The can't bear children." Golda Meir



"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing." Toni Morrison




"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." Jackie Kennedy




"Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother." Oprah Winfrey




"Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother." Moorish Proverb




"Women who miscalculate are mothers." Abbigail Van Buren

Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life. Maureen Hawkins

PS. My most favorite part on a baby are their tiny little feet and toes. The first thing I want to do when I see a baby is to take their shoes and socks off to touch them. I used to kiss my babies toes all the time.

The Things Kids Will Say

This week in my kindergarten classes we've been working on a special project for Mother's Day. We bought ceramic tiles from Home Depot, had the student write their name and date on it with a Sharpie, then painted their hand for a hand print and sealed them. They all turned out very cute. I would've loved it if I got this when my son's were in kindergarten.
I have a little girl that is living in foster care right now with the same woman for the last year. She is trying to adopt this child. Anna sees her mother very infrequently and supervised when she does. Anna's father comes to school functions but her mother does not. When she did her tile she told me she wants to give it to her real mother. The woman that doesn't give a damn about her. Not the woman who loves her, cares for her, tucks her in at night and keeps her safe. I was saddened by this. The love for a mother by a child is a strong bond, even if they don't deserve their love.

We also asked them certain questions and wrote down the answers. What is your mother's name? Answer; Smith. No I said, her first name, the reply, mommy is her name. How old is she? Some of the ages I got; 64, 18, 10, 59 and "she's really, really old" but most knew how old mom is. What color eyes does she have and what color hair? Answers; dyed. Well sometimes red, sometimes yellow, once it was black, but now it's red again. What is your mother's hobby? I explained that a hobby is something you like to do. Answers; napping, playing on the computer, smoking, yelling, nagging my dad. Why do you love your mother? Answer; I don't know why. She lets me play Grand Theft Auto.

Now for some of the great answers. What is your mother's hobby? Cuddling with me. Playing with me. Reading me stories. Taking care of me.
Why do you love your mother? She's cool and beautiful. She's kind and caring. She's smart. She hugs and kisses me. She tucks me in at night. She's very pretty. She's nice. Because she loves me!

I wish all children could have mother's that did these things.

And on that note, I don't know what to think of this story.

To Comment or Not To Comment

One of the flowers of spring I love is the Trillium. They're a protected wildflower found in the woods. The red trillium is a lesser seen variety nicknamed the Wet Dog Trillium. Why? Because they smell like a wet dog. I've never smelled that wafting from the flower and I don't need to. I have my own smelly dog when he gets wet. I have some of these in my garden that an elderly friend gave me years ago. You aren't supposed to pick them in the wild but a friend of hers had some growing on her property. She gave them to Mrs. R. who in turn before she went into the nursing home told me to dig them up from her yard for my garden. This photo is not from my garden, mine didn't do too well this year for some reason.

The white variety are beautiful too.

In the dappled light of the forest they seem to glow.

For my next topic; blog comments. Everyone who has a blog likes to get comments. If someone says they don't, they're being disingenuous. What makes you leave a comment? Why don't you leave a comment? Do you respond to comments left?

For me, I leave a comment when the author strikes a chord with me. Maybe I disagree with their writing or maybe I felt like they got inside my head. Perhaps they tickled my funny bone. Sometimes when a person is pouring their heart out they need to know someone is out there reading. Someone who can relate or just give them them another perspective. I never comment anonymously, not my style.


Why don't I comment? Some of the blogs I read get large amounts of comments. If I feel I don't have anything new to add, people have already said what I feel or think, then no comment. Sometimes I just can't think of anything to say whether it be because I have no idea what they're talking about like computers or I don't feel I have anything constructive to say.

Do you respond to comments left on your blog? At this time I don't but am thinking of doing so. If I remember where I left a comment on a blog and I know they respond, I'll go back and see what they say. Some people are so witty, me, not so much.


So if you comment here, great, I love it. If not, I understand why. I myself am going to try and comment more often.

Busy

As you know our oldest is moving to New York City for a job starting July 14. It's an opportunity of a lifetime and I am happy for him. He graduates from college on May 18 but first has a project to present as well as finals.. We told him that we would start the apartment hunting for him. Well, let me just say that I thought my head was going to explode after just a few minutes of on-line searching. While I've been to NYC 3 times and am familiar with midtown Manhattan, he's not going to live on Park Ave or 34th Street or Broadway. Finding an apartment without knowing the area is brutal. It was decided upon that we needed some help. For $249.00 we signed up with a service that will locate apartments for you based on a profile of what you're looking for. I talked with our liaison and she was extremely helpful. She will forward the appropriate rentals and we do not have to pay a broker fee. Turns out many apartments that are listed are being done so by a broker. Sometimes you know this upfront, other times not until you're ready to sign a lease. To locate an apartment for you these brokers charge anywhere from one to three months of your rent. Yikes. We are going to have to find the time to go down to NYC (a six hour drive) to check out apartments that sound and look good online. Plus most apartments require a months rent in advance. Kevin will only have a few hundred bucks left by July so guess where it's going to come from. At least we should get paid back relatively soon since he has a good job.

In the meantime my schedule is as follows:

May 17 Graduation from Decker School of Nursing

May 18 University wide graduation

May 24 Graduation dinner for Kevin with family

May 25 - June 5 find the time to go to NYC to apartment hunt

June 7 2:00 Go to matinee of Wicked with sister in law

June 7 Immediatly after Wicked, go to University of Rochester to set up door prize area for senior bash. Did I mention I'm co-chair of the door prize committee so I've been pleading for donations.

June 7 9:30 pm Return to U of R to work the door prize area until 5:00 AM

June 8 Sleep all day

June 21 Graduation party for Cameron

June 26 Last day of school for me with students

June 28 High school graduation ceremony for Cam

July 1 Move Kevin to New York City

July 26 Celebrate a milestone birthday. How old do you think I look?

August 1 - 26 Get Cameron ready and organized to go off to college

August 27 Take him to college

August 28 Hopefully realizing that living in an empty nest isn't so strange after all.

Sept. 2 First day of school, start working again.

I realize that many people have larger things going on in their lives, whether it be illness or serious money issues and it seems somewhat silly to go on about this.

I'll leave you with a picture of our toad slayer. We have toads living in our backyard and Cody likes to play with them. When he finds one he'll nose it and make it hop. Usually he just "chases" it like this. Today the toad jumped into a clump of day lilies. He managed to get it out of there but pawed at it. Upon doing that he ended up eviscerating the poor thing with his claw. I'm going to have to be more vigilant when I see him find one. Once they get full grown he just barks at them.

Miley Cyrus

While I've never seen that Hannah Montana show nor have I heard Miley Cyrus sing, of course I know who she is, I work in an elementary school after all plus she's everywhere these days. I decided to see what all the hullabaloo is about over her Vanity Fair photo. I admit, I'm torn. But first, check out an old cover of the magazine with the same type of picture featuring Diana Ross. She's very pretty and very sexy.

Now check out Miley. On one hand to me she looks like she just had a romp in bed and is now covering up with the bed sheet like they do on TV. Knowing she is 15 years old I think it's somewhat inappropriate to project that provocative image. And why is a 15 year old even on the cover of Vanity Fair? Tiger Beat I can understand. (I can't believe that magazine is still around. I read it in the days of Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy.)
On the other hand my first thought was she looked like the skinny waif on the Les Miserables poster.

I think is she were my daughter she wouldn't have posed like that. She has lots of years ahead to do that.

My Ears

Do you know an I Can Top That person? Or maybe an All About Me person? I've associated with both kinds and can't decide which type is the lesser of the two evils. I used to work with an I Can Top This person. No matter what you'd say whether it be about something your kid did, some place you went or an encounter with a crazy driver on the expressway, their kid did it too only it was better or worse, they went to a better beach, city, resort, game and they had an even crazier driver experience. This kind of person is most often doubly infected with the All About Me syndrome. Right now the person I work with has a chronic case of this, it's all her, all the time. Every time you try and talk about something the subject gets turned around so the conversation is about her.On and on she goes and if you're successful in getting a word in, it's like she doesn't even hear you.

I readily admit that we're all guilty of this behavior now and then but all the time? It gets on my nerves. I'll give you an example. This person complains about certain behaviors in students and when I try and offer strategies it falls on deaf ears. I've come to the conclusion that she really doesn't want my input or opinion since she never listens. She knows my family and when I told her that my oldest got a great nursing job in New York City, her response, "my son just got a part time job at XXXXXXXX, he's so happy, he'll have some spending money" blah, blah, blah. Now I realize it's his first job and it's exciting so I do the appropriate ooh and ahhing. But no word about my news, nothing.I've always been a good listener, validate people's feelings and so on but with her I'm beyond trying anymore.I'm just going to give up and let her talk or just walk away while she's talking. She never "hears" me anyway.




The thing is I work with her everyday. And everyday she thanks me for my help, tells me she loves me and she couldn't do her job without me. I know she's grateful and appreciative and she's a good teacher but I'm suffering from All About Me burn out. It's making me crazy.

I just sounded mean and petty didn't I?