Thursday, May 28, 2009

Deceptive Photography

Today, we took a trip to the park. Quincy had fun on the slide!



He even had fun posing for pictures!



He thought it was great to peer out at me from the holes.



And, again, the slides were awesome!



What was not fun was leaving. When I said that it was time to leave, Quincy ran the other way. There's lots of unreachable places at the playground. I could see the benefits of a leash for a 4 year old. I finally cornered him, picked him up, and carried him to the car screaming. Other toddlers were leaving and not screaming. Not mine though. Mine screamed all 20 minutes of the ride home. We're not going back to the park anytime soon.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

*sigh* I wish

A side effect of the over-analyzing/over-thinking thing is that it eats up large amounts of my time. I tend to do it when I'm alone, which is much of the time (pretty much always at night until 4 a.m. or so). Since I have no one to talk to, there's nobody to keep me from thinking myself into a funk.

I HATE thoughts going round and round in my head. It makes it really hard to lie down and go to sleep. I should have done more today, then I would have something to be tired from and be sleeping now instead of rambling incoherently.

I wish I had a husband who was home at this hour, who got up with the sun and spent mornings with me. One who did not sleep half the day and stay up half the night. That schedule is great for single people, but not so much for a marriage. I knew he was a late night owl when I married him, but I hoped it would shift a little. Yes, I know, people don't often change in any important way. It's unrealistic to expect that someone will. Still, I wish.

While I am at it, I wish he wrote me poetry or songs. I wish he made me laugh more often. There's something great about a person who can make people laugh. I wish he remembered birthdays and bought cards. Also, Mother's Day. *sigh* I wish he were around to make me smile more.

Yes, I'm being unrealistic. I know he'll never change. Still, I wish.

Friday, May 22, 2009

What I Learned

I almost have a Ph.D. in English. I am really only lacking my dissertation. I love books. Put me in a room surrounded by books and I am in heaven. Put me in a room with old books and I am in awe. Maybe I should have picked up a Library Science degree, huh?

One thing I learned in grad school was to pick literature apart. Not just books, also poetry. I can explicate a poem (which is really just a close reading) to the point of writing a good ten page paper on it. I actually wrote a thirty page paper once on three poems by the Cavalier poets. I don't remember which poems or which poets at this point.

My point is that I know how to analyze. That's pretty much what I learned. I analyze things to death sometimes. I also overthink situations. I've been known to still be trying to figure out what someone meant by something they said hours later. I guess there's good and bad things about being over-analytical. I spend a lot of time in my own head, usually going in circles, but not always. That's not necessarily good. I am also good at stepping back from situations and getting some perspective on them. I guess that's good.

I spent much of my childhood with my nose buried in a book learning from other people's experiences. Sometimes that's the best way to learn.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Shouldn't I have outgrown this?

(I am posting this from the laptop. I hate the laptop, but the main computer won't boot so here I am.)

I hate blushing. It's involuntary and the more I try to stop, the hotter my face gets. It's embarrassing. Okay, it usually happens when I have said or am thinking something embarrassing. Case in point: I mentioned the post a few posts back about police officers and how cute they are to, surprise, a police officer this afternoon. I did not describe anything in it. I merely said that I wrote about cops a few weeks ago. My face immediately turned what I am sure was a brilliant shade of crimson. That's what it felt like anyway. It got so hot that I had to fan my face. Shouldn't I have outgrown this about 15 years ago?

I'm pretty sure that Quincy will have the same problem when he gets a little older. He is very fair-skinned. He turns red if he gets the slightest bit hot. If it's really hot out or he has been running a lot, he gets even redder. I have yet to see him blush though. I mean, why would he be embarrassed? We stopped for Chinese food on the way home and he told the lady at the counter that he had to take a big pee. He announces his poots almost every time he does one. I guess he's not old enough for embarrassment. Lucky him!

Friday, May 15, 2009

My son has no future in crime

It seems that the ability to lie is genetic and my son got my inability. I was always a crappy liar. Now, I rarely even bother. I can do the white lie, but the big ones elude me. I always give myself away. I used to envy those people who could lie smoothly, but, enough about me.

I meant to post this yesterday, but it was Quincy's graduation from his 3 year old preschool class and then I had to work so there was no time. It's been a crazy week. I have pictures from the graduation that I plan to post this weekend.

Getting back to the subject at hand, I was happily watching "Criminal Minds" the other night when Quincy came walking into the room with two Sharpies without lids. He had been quiet in the living room, but I assumed he was watching something on Noggin. I was obviously wrong. I looked an him and said, "What did you do?"

He ducked his head and said, "Wellllllllllll...."

Again, "What did you do?"

He said, "I colored on the big TV screen."

This got me up. I went into the living room and he really had colored the big TV screen. There were big loopy scribbles on it. I said, "You'd better hope this comes off," and got the bottle of rubbing alcohol and some paper towels. As I started cleaning, I reminded him that his Daddy would probably punish him if he found out about this.

It came off! I said, "Quincy, you are lucky that came off. Don't tell your Daddy what you did."

Five minutes later, my husband came walking in. He forgot his cell phone and came home to get it. By this time, Quincy was sitting quietly on the couch. As soon as my husband walked into the living room, Quincy looked up and said, "Daddy, I colored on the big TV screen with Sharpie, but Mommy got it off, so it's okay!"

It took him 30 seconds to give himself away. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed. I said, "Well, he'll never be a criminal!" Really, a police officer would ask, "Who did this?" and I can just see Quincy raising his hand and saying, "It was me! I did it!"

Saturday, May 09, 2009

All You Need is Love

That's the song I was listening to on the way home. The conversation went something like this:

Quincy: "I want to be a firefighter when I grow up!"

Me: "I thought you wanted to be a policeman?"

Quincy: "NO! I WANT TO BE A FIREFIGHTER NOT A POLICEMAN!"

Me: "You could be a Marine first. Grandpa was a Marine."

Quincy: "NO! i DON'T WANT TO BE A MOE-RINE! I WANT TO BE A FIREFIGHTER ONLY! YOU LET ME BE A FIREFIGHTER!"

Me: (quietly) "I didn't say you couldn't be one." (singing along to song)

Quincy: "YOU STOP TALKING! JUST BE QUIET!"

Someone was testy tonight!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Job Fair, heh...

I went to the countywide Teacher Job Fair on April 18. Guess how many phone calls for interviews I have gotten from that? Go on, guess. Zero. Even from the one school that told me I'd get an interview!

I maintain my opinion that every administrator in this county knows every other administrator AND that they have a super-secret lunch where they take all resumes received and discuss each one. As in, "Do you know this candidate?" "Would you hire him/her?" etc., etc. The super-secret get-together is probably not true, but I bet there are phone calls to everyone on the resume before an interview is offered, which means, in my case, that no interview is offered.

I am not discouraged. Okay, a little bit. I still want a library certification because a job working in a room filled with books sounds like heaven to me and shouldn't a job be like that? Heaven, I mean.

How to finance the going back to school and the paying of the student loans? I'm considering that now. I'm not sure I could do those seven classes, plus the required internship, plus the stress and planning associated with teaching secondary full-time. All the classes are online. That means no hurrying to campus or anything. I figure I can apply for a graduate assistantship when I apply for the program. They're awfully stingy with the graduate assistantships these days though. I doubt I could count on it.

Alternatively, the state is hiring for DHS. It's basically data entry and interviewing people. There's a test required to get the job with basic grammar questions and common sense situations. I'm fairly certain I could pass that. What do you think?