congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word! congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word!
congratulations to myself for making it to the hundredth word!

ugh...i can't let myself get behind again. yesterday was a bbq--and boy, did we oblige. shrimp kebabs, steak, chicken, hot dogs, and hamburgers covered the table in the kitchen, while the countertops overflowed with salads, spicy green beans, and desserts. a dozen screaming kids and their frazzled parents completed the picture. i'm exaggerated a little, but i have to say that i have never seen my house so cluttered with toys and such. i guess this is a small taste of what a teenage party will look like in about ten years. i'm definitely not looking forward to that.

i loved "i dreamed a dream" back in h.s. i actually entertained the thought of using it for an audition for sing, but then i chickened out and joined the backstage crew instead. anyway, i don't think i could have done the song justice. the dreams that i had in h.s. were so fluffy and unrealistic. heartbreak, mourning, and loss hadn't hit me yet. a mere fifteen years later, even though i've lived a little, i still can't say that i dreamed a dream. i still dream my dreams, amidst the busyness; the summer of my life continues...

it's the last entry, the last entry, THE LAST ENTRY OF THE NIGHT! actually, i remember when one of my friends admonished me for writing my e-mails in all caps. i thought that i was just being creative, but she told me that in reality, i was actually screaming my e-mails through cyberspace. this was back in 1999, so netiquette was still new to me. i just got an e-mail from my mother-in-law saying: "CAN YOU BAKE A CAKE FOR YOUR BROTHER-IN-LAW'S BIRTHDAY? THE PARTY'S THIS SATURDAY!" it's funny, but i actually winced as i read it.

whew...i'm getting a little tired...but twenty-two entries down...only two more to go. and then i have to go wash the dishes. what a party animal i am. eh...it's only thursday night. tomorrow, i'm going to go see les mis with my husband. it's our date night to the local high school production. i'm pretty excited to see it though, b/c one of my students is playing enjolas, the leader of the rebels. he's a pretty cool kid, but a little on the quiet side, so it'll be pretty interesting watching him belt it out on stage.

the flooding around here has just been so crazy! i have to say that it was pretty nice when we got our early dismissal on monday, but after i drove around route 9, i was really surprised by how much damage there was. i almost got into an accident rubbernecking as i tried to see how badly the streets were flooded. i think the part that shocked me the most was when i passed the driving range and the garden center. both were completely flooded with over a foot of water. small businnesses...a total loss.

i think as i get older, my body just can't take playgrounds anymore. my butt just hurts when i try to sit in a swing or when i slide down the rolling slide. the kids around me, including my daughter, were loving every minute of the awesome playground at the stepping stones museum, but i was grimacing in pain as my daughter convinced me to sit on the swing with her. i was actually relieved when she kicked me off so she could sit there by herself. am i really too old to play?

of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) by e.e. cummings a very nice poem that one of students read during a poetry sharing time that just stuck in my head for some reason. it's one of the few poems that have made it to my wall this year.

on my corkboard:
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by only me is your doing my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows here is the root

one of the coolest dreams i've ever had was in cartoon. i dreamed that there was a seuss-like elephant creature, sitting on a branch, high above a river as the sun set perfectly behind it. it was purple, with an orange tuft of hair on the top of its head, and a seahorse-like tail, hanging down, with the end curled up like a fiddlehead fern. it was just hanging out, with its eyes closed as it appeared to listen to a private song in its head. and then i woke up.

i am so tired even though it's only around 9 o' clock. i think i really wore myself out yesterday. i'm glad that we're going to watch the rest of the brighton beach memoirs movie tomorrow and that my senior classes will be working in groups. i am looking forward to a very relaxing weekend with my friends and family...church should be good. it feels like i haven't gone for a really long time, even though it's only been a week. i just want to sink down into my pillow...

it is so hard finding a nice elegant, but not too formal evening gown. i really don't have any idea what i'm going to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding in june. i'm wearing a traditional korean outfit, a hanbok, during the ceremony, but i have to change dresses for the reception. i was thinking about wearing a simple black sheath, but now i'm trying to find a gray silk chiffon cocktail dress. a smoky gray dress that is not too tight and just sophisticated enough. easier said than done...

we were watching brighton beach memoirs in class today, when one of my students yelled out, "GEORGE!" during the gambling scene, where stanley is shooting pool, one of the hustlers is a young jason alexander. good ol' george costanza. he was actually one of the toughs in the pool hall. it's hard to believe what twenty years will do to a person. i laughed when one of my kids marveled at the fact that he had a head of thick brown hair back then. just you wait, kids...

i just have to rave about the best salsa i've ever had. newman's own peach salsa is incredible! one of my coworkers brought it in for some reason and in less than a day, the whole jar was polished off. i've tried other peach salsas, but newman's own just kicks their butts. i've tried to spread the word about the salsa and it seems to be working. i actually have a jar in the fridge, but unfortunately, i don't have any chips to go with it. sigh.

i have three containers of paint in front of me. i have a cinderella cell phone case to my right and a glittery princess phone to my left. my digital camera is on my right, in front of the phone case and on the right side of the camera is a package of tylenol. in front of the paint, there is a roll of painter's tape. on top of that is a survey about whether or not i liked how the museum handled rh's birthday party.

i've been having all sorts of problems with my computer at work ever since i had the tech people install google earth in my classroom. i love google earth, but if my computer monitor refuses to turn on, then the whole thing is futile. the only conclusion we apparently have is that if i hook up the computer monitor to the t.v., the monitor doesn't work. now the question is, powerpoint capability vs. google earth? i'm afraid to find out if i have to choose....

this gift, she carried her phone around the house. at one point in the day, she came in to my study, casually took out her phone, flipped it open, and proceeded to have a conversation that went something like this: "ok, uh huh, ok, bye bye." after she finished, she carefully put her phone into her purse, swung the purse over her shoulder and sauntered out of the room. i'm wondering if i should be worried. is this an indicator of things to come?

one of the things that my daughter got for her birthday was a metallic pink cell phone toy. there's a big loopy "P" on the front of the phone and when you flip it up, cinderella looks at you from the screen with a demure princess-appropriate smile. the phone came with a bright pink case with pink clear plastic beads adorning the clasp and plastic hearts creating a chain so you can tote your matching phone in style. the day that rh got

sky, only to plummet to the earth, skittering painfully across the pavement. After another tiring hour, we gave up and went inside. the next day, as i was driving home from work, i saw a bunch of kids staring up into the sky. three of them had launched their kites, so far up you had to squint heavenward to see them. as i drew closer, one of them noticed my car and graciously raised his kite string so i could pass. showoff.

a couple of weeks ago, after we got back from a trip to the maritime aquarium (great place to take the kids!), we tried to fly a kite in our front yard. that article from new york magazine, entitled "i, citidiot", came to mind as we ran up and down our street like maniacs, trying to get this kite emblazoned with fish (why?) into the air. the neighborhood kids laughed as they watched the kite tentatively make its way into the

it's hard writing 20+ entries at one go. i'm glad that it's my husband's turn to give rh a bath and that i finished grading three sets of short stories. now i finally have some breathing room. i have to say that it's nice to be able to write. i've just been reading so much stuff that i've forgotten what my own writing voice sounds like. i don't think i could ever write a novel, but these entries will do.

i know i liked the maryland area a lot when we went down to d.c. a couple of years ago to hear my brother-in-law play at the kennedy center, but i never dreamed that my husband would ever entertain the idea of moving down there. i can't believe that he's thinking about putting his practice on the market and joining a group in maryland. it's been tough starting a new business, but still. btw, happy april fool's day! heehee...

i got attacked by a smidgeon of wanderlust a couple of weeks back. i think i had travel envy when two of my friends went to london for a couple of days. i know that i just went to mexico last year, but i really do miss traveling to wild and wonderful places. my husband's parents offered to watch rh for two weeks next summer so we could go to korea. that should be really interesting. the possibities...

i have to confess...after less than a month of careful cultivation, i ended up killing my eggling. so sad...i left it at school for a long three day weekend and all of the beautiful phlox seedlings were dead. it's not really my fault. we ended up having a snow day, so i couldn't get into the school to save my eggling. all of that waiting for nothing! i don't know how gardeners do it. it's so sad...

i finally did it. after years of wondering why edmund was so mesmerized by the wonder of turkish delight, i finally caved in and ordered some turkish delight. amazon.com is really such a great thing. it came in the mail yesterday. it kind of tastes like sweet rice cakes, with powdered sugar. i don't really care for the rose flavored ones, but i do like the pistachio turkish delight. i think i could get addicted too...

i think the more i get to know students, the more i realize how different their lives are from my own. i had them write a creative writing piece based on "girl" by jamaica kincaid. in it, they had to share the rules that they lived by. some of them were told to come home by 1:30 in the morning. where the heck do you go until 1:30 in the morning on a school night?

running around with rh during her birthday party was fun. i was pretty stressed out from organizing everything, but the kids had fun, the parents had fun, and at the end of it all, i had fun too. i'm already planning what i should do for her birthday next year. i should become a children's event planner. actually, i'd rather not deal with the headaches that come with dealing with parents. birthdays are touchy...

twenty four more entries to go! well, i'll start off with some happy thoughts. watching rh running around the room with chocolate ice cream dripping off of her face is just fun. i can't believe that she's already three! i feel like that my life was turned upside down so quickly when she was born, shaken up, and then put right. everything kind of setted into place like snow in a snow globe...

thanks to a kick in the butt by marmelade and toast, i've decided to mend my ways and get back into this word count journal thing. whew...i have a lot of catching up to do! all of the red dates make me kind of nervous. =) sometimes it's just easier to pretend that i haven't really missed any days...but then it just becomes that much harder to catch up when you accept reality...

Whoa. I guess this is what happens when you're waylaid by a stomach virus for almost a week. I think there will be a lot of copying and pasting this week. I know that's cheating, but when I've missed almost a week's worth of entries, I just have to cut corners. Scoff if you must, but if you had the type of week that I've had, you wouldn't be so judgmental.