Giving Up

It's Lent time, and for me that means giving up something. Even though I don't abide by all of the other religious guidelines (going to church, knowing what the other religious guidelines are, etc.), I always "participate" in Lent...no meat on Fridays, and doing without something I really really like. I don't know why, but I always try to pick something that will be really, really hard for me to do without. In the past, I've given up meat, chocolate, SHOPPING, RESTAURANTS (David hated that one, but we saved a LOT of $$!). I thought it would be just crazy to give up shopping or restaurants while I'm here in the land of shops & restaurants for such a short period of time, so I had to think of something new. I picked something REALLY REALLY difficult... I gave up the internet after 6pm! Crazy! So far I've made it through 2 evenings and when I'm not running in here to check my e-mail, see if any new blog entries have shown up on Google Reader, browsing knitting projects on Ravelry, or playing PathWords on Facebook, I can actually accomplish other things! Like reading an actual book or crocheting a baby blanket, realizing that the baby blanket is not turning out quite right, and starting all over. Now that I can't just abandon the blanket in favor of the internet when frustration starts to set in, I might just finish it in time for the baby shower!

I also gave up something else...something big...on Ash Wednesday. That was the day that David left. :( He has made it safely to the frosty north...waaaayyyy north and is trying to adjust to the negative 32 degree temps. One day down, 364 to go! So of course I am missing him, and in the past few days I started really missing something else too... my JOB! Which is just plain outrageous...I love lying around the house and being able to do little crafty projects (so far I've made a few cards, knitted a hat, made progress on the knitted baby dress, re-learned to crochet, crocheted about half a blanket, started over, sewn a little doll). I love sleeping in and putting my pajamas back on after I take a shower (or not having to shower at all). I love being able to go to the gym in the middle of the day rather than after work or early in the morning. But yesterday, I started really really missing being a teacher! I even dug out two teacher books and started reading them again!

And the Oscar goes to...

I watched some of the Oscars last night. I flipped to the Oscars during commercials of the Amazing Race & then watched for a little while after, then "listened" for a little bit after that. There are a lot of movies I've missed! Since I haven't seen a whole lot of movies lately, there was only one that I really felt strongly about...Wall-E!! I really wanted Wall-E to win & I was really excited when Jennifer Aniston even said "Waaaall-Eee" when she announced the winner! David & I love Wall-E & Eva and feel the need to pronounce their names like they do in the movies (and to give other names a robotic-spin, too... "Daaaavv-eee", "Beeeee-ca", "Mo-beee", etc.)
I'm sure I'm not the only person who was irritated by the fact that the camera man felt the need to pan over to Brangelina (do people still call them Brangelina? I've been sort of out of the pop-culture loop) while Jennifer Aniston was presenting the award. I mean really, there are thousands of other gorgeous celebrities in the audience, why not give some of them screen time and let Jennifer Aniston have her moment? Even David said something about how wrong that was! We both are for "Team Aniston" rather than Team Jolie-Pitt. I also kind of wanted Amy Adams to win for Best Supporting Actress even though I haven't seen Doubt, but just because she was Princess Giselle in Enchanted and I LOVE that movie!! But she didn't.

Okay so back to the movies... As I said there are lots that I've not seen yet and want to: Doubt, The Reader (even though David saw it and said I wouldn't like it), Curious Case of B.B. (even though my friend Kathy saw it and said to skip it...and even though I am anti-Jolie-Pitt), Changeling (even though I am anti-Jolie-Pitt), Revolutionary Road (because seeing Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio together again will remind me of going to see Titanic 6 times in the theater with my crazy friends!), Milk (loved the writer's speech)

Today we went to see Slumdog Millionaire and it was GOOD! I think every car in the parking lot was going to see that movie. David thought it was kind of teenage love story-ish, but I didn't really think that at all...I thought it was rather thought-provoking. I loved the cheating aspect of it because it reminded me of another one of my favorite movies, The Emperor's Club.

I wish teachers...

There are a lot of things I wish teachers had/got/could do. For instance, get paid more, get more respect for all the work we do (last week a friend told me she wanted to be a teacher so she could leave work earlier and have more time at home...sure, she could choose to leave work earlier, but then she'd be working during that extra time at home!). I wish teachers had a longer lunch break (I'm jealous of my dad who can go to the gym, run, work-out, and shower on his lunch break...but I don't think he eats...so I'd need just a little longer.) I wish teachers didn't have to worry about metal detectors (read 19 Minutes...good book!) or buy their own construction paper.

But yesterday, at the mall (I've completely gotten over my aversion to the mall now), I saw something that made me wish a whole new thing for teachers:

I wish teachers wore scrubs!! How perfect would that be?!? Why on earth hasn't anyone thought of this before??? I don't know the exact reasons that nurses wear scrubs, but I'm guessing it has something to do with long hours, moving around a lot and quickly, and the risk of being splaterred on with a variety of materials, including body fluids...all of which are common for teachers, too!
Plus scrubs are so darn cute! While it is highly unlikely that I would ever wear a sweater with a big ol' apple & worm appliqued right in the middle of it, I probably wouldn't mind a scrub top printed with apples & little worms with glasses all over it. Pair that with a pair of super-comfy looking drawstring pants in a rainbow of colors, and I would LOVE my job! I looked at a scrubs website and found that one color is actually called "Kindergarten Blue" and another "Apple Green"...now if these things are not meant for teachers, I don't know what is!

Shop til you Drop

The day after we got here, we went to the mall. I had been looking forward to it for MONTHS since the only place I'd been shopping was the BX/base exchange. The BX is not my favorite place to shop because a)there are very few cute things and chances are everyone else has them too and will undoubtedly wear them on the same day that you do and b)they pride themselves on giving us low prices... on like DKNY jeans or something that are normally $120 and marked down to $75...to me this is not a deal, because I would never pay $120 or $75 for a pair of jeans. Give me a $30 pair of jeans marked down to $15 and I'd be happy.

But, despite my deep desire to go shopping, when we got here, it turned out that shopping really wasn't my thing. I went into JC Penney and David went downstairs to buy jeans. I stayed upstairs to buy jeans. 20 minutes later, David comes up with 4 pairs of jeans. I had tried on about 30 pairs of jeans and hated them all. They were either way too big, way too small, a little too low-rise, had ugly sparkly things on the back pockets, or I didn't like the color of the stitching. Maybe I was a little picky...but my new theory is to buy TWO pairs of the same pants whenever I buy pants, one to hem for wearing with flats and one to hem for wearing with heels, so that means I need to really love any pair of pants I buy. We went to NY & Co. and tried on another pair or two, but by then I was just tired, depressed and convinced that I had morphed into some strange shape while I was away, destined to never wear another pair of jeans again.

Until yesterday... maybe it was because I re-read Confessions of a Shopaholic the other day... I was ready to shop again! First we went to Target (well, first we went to Eat at Joe's Crab Shack) I wanted to look at the shoes first, since all I brought here were running shoes. Here's my impression of me walking through the shoe section at Target yesterday, "Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Weird. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly." Shoes at Target are hit or miss, and I guess yesterday was a big miss. I tried on jeans that were way too low-rise. You can tell that jeans are way too low-rise (for a fairly conservatively dressed adult anyway) when the back pockets are placed so that rather than being on your tush, they go halfway down the back of your thigh. David thought maybe I needed a larger size. I refrained from breathing fire on him and allowed him to get me the larger size, knowing full well that I was not suffering from some sort of body image distortion, but rather some trendily (and strangely) made pants. But I obliged and tried on the larger size, which obviously didn't work either. I settled for a cute green shirt with a navy blue and green scarf (on sale!) and we headed to the mall.

I went back to NY & Co., because it's one of my favorite stores AND it gives a military discount. There was a shirt in the front display that I had thought was cute last time I was there, and now it was almost 1/2 off! I picked up a few full-priced items and then I saw it... A WHOLE ENTIRE WALL of $9.99 items! That was just what I needed...I picked everything I thought was cute and headed for a fitting room. The jeans...same jeans that I tried on a few weeks ago...I tried those on again too, and what do you know? They looked great. Everything looks better when it's on sale for $9.95!! I ended up getting 2 pairs of jeans, 6 tops and a belt all for the same price as the 2 pairs of jeans would've been had I paid full price. I SAVED $184.29! I felt like that CouponMom that I saw on Oprah a few weeks ago! And it turns out I don't hate shopping after all!

It's me, Moby!

Hi People! At least I think it is people that read words on this box. I usually see my people sitting here. Especially the Girl People that came here a few days ago. I know that that Girl People likes to sit here and read this box, so yesterday I decided to sit on this sitting thing and warm it up for her before she woke up. I did that because I am Moby and I am nice and that was a nice thing to do. The Girl People even said, "Moby, You are such a nice boy!" before she sat down and that made me smile my kitty smile because I am Moby and I have a beautiful kitty smile. I am Moby and I love to smile.

My People That I Used to Live With came here to see me on Thursday. They brought me my very favorite thing and that is called Big Rolling Boxes. Oh boy do I love getting inside those Big Rolling Boxes. My People always bring those things because they know how much I love them. I couldn't even wait until they got all of the other people stuff out before I jumped inside. My Man People even gave me a ride when I was sitting in one of the Big Rolling Boxes! That was a really fun thing called a blast! My People went to sleep and I really wanted to go to sleep with them, because I am Moby and sleeping with people is what I do very very well. But I really wanted to stay inside one of those Big Rolling Boxes. So I just waited until my People were already sleeping and then I went in to join them and of course, I had to say "It's Me, Moby! I am here to sleep with you, so wake up okay? And then we can go to sleep!" People do not like to sleep like me. I am a cat and I sleep a lot, but I also wake up a lot. People sleep like this: Sleep. Sleep a lot. Sleep a lot longer. Then wake up one time. I do not like to sleep like that. I like to wake up a lot and maybe find other People in the night. I have lots of good places to sleep here so I like to move around a lot. But I really love to sleep with my People and lay on them and sometimes step on their heads while they are trying to sleep. One of the best things about being Me, Moby, is sleeping with My People!
After two very long people sleeps and too many kitty sleeps to count, MORE people came here! I am Moby and so I have a lot of People. All the People love to come here and say what a big cat I am. That's me, Moby. I am a big cat with a lot of People and a nice kitty smile who is very good at sleeping. There were so many People here. I can't believe they all just wanted to come here at the very same time to see me! My sister Morgan gets a little bit scared when all the People come, but she likes my Girl People and the Man People That I Used to Live With who came here on Thursday and she loves my Lady People that takes good care of us every day very much. But the other People, she gets kind of scared because she is called a scaredy-cat. Morgan went into our Lady People's room and stayed there the whole time. I am not a scaredy-cat. I am Moby and People love to come see me, and I love to see them. The People That Are Not Big are a little bit scary though. If I were a scaredy-cat, I would be very scared of the People That Are Not Big. Since I am Moby and I am not a scaredy-cat, I am only a tiny little bit scared. They like to chase me and touch me and they talk very loudly. So when lots of the People That Are Not Big get here, I hide under the chair. I do not like to hide in my Lady People's room because then I cannot hear all the people talk! I love to spy on the people talk. It helps me learn new words so I can write in this box when my Girl People lets me do that.
When it was just me and My People left, Morgan came out of our Lady People's room and we played bowling. That makes my Lady People scream a lot. It hurt Morgan's ears, but we were both very tired after all of the exciting events of the day, so we just stayed in our cat beds. Then all of my People left! The house was so quiet, and Morgan and I didn't know what we should do. So we just stayed in our cat beds until our People got back. I wonder where they went. When they came back, they wanted to go to sleep. So of course that meant I had to get out of my cat bed and go help them go to sleep. I am Moby, and sleeping is one of the things I am very very best at. And helping is the other thing. So when it comes to helping people go to sleep, I am a very very expert at that!
Now it is the afternoon and my People are all awake. But it is time for me to go to sleep! I hope my Girl People will let me make more words in this box sometime soon. Until then, I will be being me, Moby, and doing what I do and that is called: sleeping, eating, sleeping, snuggling, laying in the sunshine, sleeping, looking out the window, sleeping, and sometimes playing. Don't forget to leave a note for me, Moby!