A Letter About Rain Boots

The following is an open letter to a rain-boots-wearing woman, who I affectionately named Stompy.

Dear Stompy,

I admired your rain boots with brightly colored flowers from afar. Not knowing me at all, you would not know that I have a fine appreciation (well, borderline obsession) for anything rain boots. I love my rain boots, I buy books just because they have rain boots on the cover, etc. So, as I walked up behind you, I liked you on the principle that you were wearing a fun pair of rain boots.

Then, we started walking up the stairs outside.

I’m not sure you that you have ever paid attention that the stairs leading up to campus are slightly sloped downward, which causes deep puddles to form on each individual step. I’m also not sure why you walked in a normal fashion until you reached the stairs, at which point you began stomping up the stairs. As if you were angry with the very existence of the stairs, causing you to inadvertently exercise when you didn’t want to be bothered. I am not sure you initially realized that your misplaced-angry stomping was causing dirty rain water to spray several feet behind you, soaking the front of my coat and pants.

When I yelled, “Excuse me” and you glanced backwards and continued stomping, and I had to wait at the bottom of the stairs because you have no social cognizance of people not wanting to be doused in freezing cold water… at that point, I’m sure you realized all of the previously mentioned factors.

Despite your rain boots, I no longer like you. While I enjoy stomping in puddles, I do not do so to the detriment of the people around me. You are not worthy of fun rain boots.

Sincerely,

The Girl Who Loves Rain Boots

The Deafening Silence

Every time my radio stops working in my car, I relive the pain of driving in silence. When it's working, I take it for granted. Sometimes I turn it down when I answer the phone. Sometimes I turn it off when I'm concentrating really hard on following directions. Sometimes I don't return it's calls. Basically, my radio doesn't know how much I appreciate it.

This is the fourth time now, in the 7 1/2 years that I've been married to my car, that the radio has stopped working. The first time, I bought a battery powered stereo to entertain myself because I was too cheap to fix the car radio. Apparently, batteries die really fast when you're consistently using a stereo.

My radio last died almost two months ago. It was repaired on January 8. "They" tell me that it was a blown stereo fuse, but the last two times this happened, it was the first sign that my battery was dying. "They" didn't believe me when I told them this last month. Yet, here we are, and once again, I'm driving in silence.

This is what I did tonight to entertain myself for the 40 minutes I've spent in the car today:
* Called my mom
* Called a friend
* Yelled at other people on the road
* Sang children's songs
* Made up my own song about my radio
* Whistled popular songs (such as "Grand Old Flag" and tunes by Kris Kross)

Luckily, my dear, dear wife has offered to let me drive her car tomorrow since I have a 2 hour round trip drive for school. I mean, there are only so many songs I know that I can whistle...

A Blog About Nothing

A friend of mine (let's call her A-I-Ella) remarked to me today that I don't write in my blog often enough, and when I do write, I'm "always writing about stuff." She preferred my MySpace blog where I wrote about nothing - very Seinfeld-esque. When I tried to think back to verify her statement, none of my blogs really stood out to me, so I guess they really were about nothing!

I think about a lot of different things during the day - sometimes serious things, sometimes weird or random things. Let's share a few of those thoughts...

How did they put the smell into candles? And who thought of that first? I'm sure there's an answer for this somewhere on the internet (probably Wikipedia), but it's still something to think about. Since I invent ideas, but don't have the genius to follow through with them, I will share my idea about candles, but if you steal it, I will hunt you down and demand my profit.

Candible - the edible candle. Don't you ever just smell a candle so tasty (especially the birthday cake ones) that you just want to eat it? I mean, sure, you'd have to be careful of the flame, but still... Mmmm...

What is it about me, after taking a shower, that makes my cat stalk me for 10 minutes after drying off? Is it the clean smell? The slightly damp skin? She looks at me with these big wide eyes, meowing, following me, and wanting to jump into my arms. If she were any larger than she is, she would eat me and bury me under the couch. I'm sure of it.

If people have the knowledge that the idea of race is socially constructed, why do we still have check boxes on forms for this? If people are so worried about the color of someone's skin, why don't we put that? Cream, chocolate, cafe au lait, cinnamon, rosebud. I don't know, those sound more fun. Or maybe just a write in box, where you can name your own. A little boy once told me, "Ms. Jessica, you're peach with brown spots."

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Expect an increase in blogs about nothing.

A Day Without Status Updates

I had so many plans for the snowstorm! I was going to play CSI, Rockband, and Mario on Wii. I was going to watch TV shows, movies, Saved by the Bell reruns, and Tin Man (which I DVRed in December and still haven't found a 6 hour chunk of time to watch it...) I was going to cook delicious things in the crock pot (namely my chicken pot pie soup which I make every time it snows, or so it seems!) Mostly, I was going to be warm and snuggly and drink hot chocolate!

Yesterday, that did not happen. I went to bed on Friday, and woke up around midnight to discover that the power had gone out. I went back to sleep but woke up again around 7:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I bundled up and went downstairs with Watson. There was no way we were going for a walk in the still falling blizzard, so he went out in the back yard - now a very tiny space thanks to the giant drifts of snow!

Anyway, Casey and I spent the day without power. The house held steady at 60 degrees all day, until 9:00 p.m. when it dropped to 59. We packed up our refrigerator contents and stowed it in the snow in the back yard. We wore layers and layers of clothes and huddled under blankets. We read most of the day, and played an intense game of Monopoly (where I totally kicked Casey's ass!) And then finally, we gave into napping because when you're cold and can't get outside there is just nothing else to do... The cats must have been cold too, they snuggled into me while I slept!

We woke up around 5:00, saw the storm was over, and we headed outside to shovel! Okay, so my shoveling part lasted about 10 minutes before I ran inside, but Casey stuck it out for almost 4 hours! She got our steps done, and the sides and backs of the cars out, but the seemingly 40 foot tall mounds covering our vehicles remain... We (or she...) will be tackling that today!

Fortunately, we have a gas hot water heater, so despite the cold temps, we still had scalding hot water!! After warm, toasty showers, we bundled up on the couches with cold turkey sandwiches and talked over candlelight. Just as we were contemplating making tea by running the hot water, the power came back on at 9:48 p.m.!!!

I have never been so excited to turn up the heat in our house!!! (I am the miserly one who keeps the thermostat set very low in the winter and remarks about the electricity bill as Casey is shivering away in corners...)

I heated up soup for Casey, she turned on the television, and I rushed downstairs as fast as I could to... you got it, check my Facebook! The funny thing is that a couple of friends mentioned that they were confused that I hadn't posted anything all day long. What does that say about me and my Facebook obsession!?

So, here we are today, Casey still sleeping away and me enjoying the 70 degree warmth of our house. (Even though, when Casey wakes up, she will say it is too cold!) I've all ready walked the dog (very funny to see him navigate the ice and drifts!), fed the animals, vacuumed the basement and done 2 loads of laundry. I have A LOT more chores to do today before I can enjoy my Wii, but they will get done soon enough.

Thanks to the people who went out in the blizzard to make sure our heat and electricity were restored!!!

You Called Me What?

Out of the mouth of babes: "Ms. Jessica, don't eat too many cookies or you'll have a fat butt!"

I am so disturbed that in my world, as a preschool director, I have to talk to little kids about weight issues. Body image should be one of the farthest things from their little minds. Yet, there are still children using "fat" as an insult and little girls having anxiety about "being fat." And where is it coming from? It's got to be the adults and media in their lives.

As a person who has had her own issues in the past with body image, and continues in the present with balancing "normal" versus "societal desired" images, I try to be SUPER careful with my out-loud thoughts if there are children around. I grew up in a family where all of the women were constantly on some crazy diet, where you could only eat a cracker with a side of air, and obsessing about their size 2 clothes. Not to dump blame on them, because I'm old enough to deal with my own issues now, but it certainly had an impact on what I thought women should look like as I was growing up.

It just makes me sad to have to have peace meetings with three and four year old girls because one was calling the other "fat." I want to cry when a preschooler doesn't want to eat all of her lunch because she doesn't want to be "fat." Learning good healthy habits is one thing, but obsessing over how you look in a dress before you turn five years old is insanity.