Roses.

I wanted to show off the definite high point of my day yesterday--I pulled out of the driveway and slammed on my brakes, because the roses at the bottom of the driveway are blooming!

This bed was, according to our neighbors, full of roses, until the previous owners (aka The Plant Haters) ripped out every bit of trees and shrubbery that they could manage in their two-months' time here. All that's left are these two tiny bushes, which I thought were one bush until yesterday, when I saw that one has pink roses and the other, yellow.


I was taken aback to see that two of the roses were past full bloom--and how had I missed it? The answer, I guess, was that we'd been gone for three days over the weekend, and I hadn't left the house Monday. And since roses don't bloom in Ohio until June, I wasn't even casting any glances at our little bushes yet. After three springs in Virginia, I'm still surprised by how soon things sprout and bloom here. So it was quite a surprise.
And a really delightful one...I love roses. I mean, I LOVE roses. Not the ones you get from the florist that don't have any smell, but "real" roses, on bushes, in gorgeous colors, with heavenly scents! The pink ones smell stronger than the yellow ones--and they are absolute heaven. But the yellow ones are nice, too. I have always wanted to grow roses, and to have these little gems coming up is like a gift.

Flat Tanner.

My nephew Tanner's second-grade class is doing a Flat Stanley project, wherein you make a "flat" version of yourself, mail it to a faraway friend and have them take some pictures and send you a letter and souvenir from where you live.

Last week, my ten-year-old friend Matthew helped me take Flat Tanner around to a few places. On the left, Flat Tanner with the ships at Jamestown.

And on the right, Matthew and Flat Tanner in the stocks at Williamsburg.

Matthew and I had a great time seeing the sites. He's such a sweetie-pie, and I was glad he was on his spring break so we could hang out togther.

I'm putting together a small mini-scrapbook with the pictures--VERY simple--and I need to get it mailed out by the end of this week, but I have no energy this week. None at all. I think it has to do with the hormone supplement I'm taking and where I am in my cycle, but OY. I hate feeling so uninspired and unmotivated.

I am also having a few of the ladies from my stamp store classes of yesteryear over to my house Friday morning for a mini class, simply because I miss seeing them on a regular basis, but again, no inspiration/motivation, and it would be good to get that mini class prepared! The clock's a'ticking and I'm puttering aimlessly. I need a B-12 shot or something!

Checking in.

Someone linked this Myers-Briggs site in a thread at Two Peas today, and I had my first guffaw of the day reading this little prayer for my personality type:

"Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right."

Scarily accurate! I'm an ISFJ in the Myers-Briggs personality test. You can find your type on this site, without having to take the test, and see what your characteristics are, as well as find your own little funny prayer!

We took the Myers-Briggs test as part of our freshman orientation in college, and my type hasn't changed since then.

Had a very nice weekend back at Jeremy and Tracy's house...Marissa's dedication at church was on Sunday, and my parents and my syster's family also came down from Ohio for the weekend so we could all be there for her dedication. In the Mennonite church, since we don't baptize infants, we have a small ceremony during the service where the parents bring their baby up front, pledge to raise her in the faith, and then the congregation also takes a pledge to nurture the child and her family.

I like it that the congregation has a role in this dedication. I felt loved and nurtured by my church family as a child, and that was very valuable to me. In the world of today, I think a kid needs as many loving adults in her life as possible, don't you?

If I could track down where Todd secreted the pictures from this weekend, I'd post 'em. Maybe tomorrow.

I was lazy today, but I have so much to do this week, I need to find my mojo! Maybe tomorrow. LOL.

Playing around.

Thought I'd change the photo on my sidebar to something slightly more current--the old one was almost four years old. This one is about 6 months old. Maybe I can get something decent and newer soon. I'd like to change my header to something cool and custom like all the bloggers have, but I have NO CLUE how to do so. Just getting this blog set up was a total test of my computer ability, LOL.

Sites to see.

The blog challenge at Two Peas today is to list a few of your favorite websites, so here goes:

Lileks.com: The website of James Lileks, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Lileks is a lover of all things ephemeral, and has several sections of the site devoted to old cookbooks, old matchbooks, old comic strips, old photos, old ads...it's a history-lover's dream, complete with witty comments. Check out the Institute of Official Cheer, featuring the Gallery of Regrettable Food.

Prints and Photographs Reading Room at the Library of Congress site. I could spend hours looking at the past on this site. Plus, you can order prints for yourself!

American Memory collection, also at the Library of Congress site. I've barely stuck my toe into these waters--tons of pictures and documents and films to look at.

Threadbared:This site just makes me happy. I love smart-alecky comments.

The Garden Path: Lots and lots of thumbnail references about various herbs, flowers, and types of gardens.

Rotten Tomatoes: This is where I go to see if a movie is worth my time! I love reading the reviews.

Easter pics and a recipe.

We had a really nice, relaxing Easter with Jeremy, Tracy, Natalie and Marissa, and Jeremy's friend Chris Yoder. We didn't do anything spectacular, just had lunch, hung around, played with the girls, and then had supper, which was a repeat of lunch!

Here's Natalie in her Easter dress and hat:

And Marissa playing with plastic eggs:

Todd, Jeremy, Tracy and Chris, who were standing around looking perfectly nice and natural until I picked up the camera, and then got all weird and self-conscious-looking!

Me with my squirmy girls. Marissa is the squirmiest baby ever, and Natalie wasn't much better at that point. This picture cracks me up.

And a close-up of the pretty dogwood outside their house:

I made some cheesecake cookie bar thingies for lunch, and they're good, if a little rich. Perfect with a cup of coffee.

Cheesecake Cookies

Crust:
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
2 cups flour
2/3 cup melted margarine or butter

Filling:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all crust ingredients until light and crumbly. Remove 2 cups for topping. (*Note: I remove less than 2 cups, or else there's not enough to make the bottom crust.) Press remainder in 9x13" pan. Bake crust for 12-15 minutes. While baking, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs, lemon juice, milk and vanilla. Pour into crust. Top with reserved crumbs, and bake 20-25 minutes. Cool thoroughly, cover and refrigerate.

Hope everybody had a great Easter!

Life in the neighborhood.

Busy but beautiful day today. Todd worked in the garage and shed, continuing to put things away and get organized...I made potato salad for dinner tomorrow, did laundry, and got hanging baskets for the front porch and some flowers for the planters on our deck. It was warm and sunny...all the neighbors were out cutting grass and working on projects...the neighborhood kids roamed and played...and a breeze blew through the open windows. Heavenly!

Here are some pics of what we've done to the front of our house so far. Here's the house as it was when we bought it in December:

Here it is after we added the boxwood "shrubberies" in March:

And here's the stone border Todd built last week:

I love this border. Love it, love it! Once we get some more soil for the bed, I'm going to load it with flowers. Not sure what yet, though. I can totally see white alyssum fluffing over the wall at the front, but I have no idea what to put behind it. Petunias seem so...obvious. But they are cheap and would probably do okay in that full sun exposure.

Meanwhile, the back yard is really getting "leafed-in." The trees in the ravine behind us are filling out so much that it's getting harder to see the houses on the other side of the creek. Todd cleaned off the wooden steps that lead down the hill to the creek:

The chain link fence to the left is a dog kennel--I can't WAIT to get that out of there, but I'm afraid it will be a major undertaking. When we get that cleaned out, I'd like to do a little woodland gardening down there...nothing formal at all, just some ferns and maybe some blossoming trees or shrubs (rhododendrons?). Stuff that will look like it came up naturally in the wilderness! It would be lovely to have a bench or picnic table or some sort of spot to sit and enjoy the shade, too...although the neighbors say that the mosquitoes swarm around the little creek down there. Ugh.

One of the neighbors on the other side of the creek told Todd the other day that that neighborhood was where they housed the Mercury astronauts when they came for their training at Langley. Thus I assume that neighborhood is much older than ours, but I've never actually been over there--just gazed at the backs of the homes through the trees. Our library up the road is named for Gus Grissom (and is pure 1960s industrial-grade architecture--ug-LEE) but I never figured there was such a close connection to this neighborhood. Kind of cool!

Scrapping.

Scrapforums is holding a cybercrop right now; it started last weekend, and I managed to get a few things done for it.

My nieces at Thanksgiving, when they practically lived in their fairy princess dress-up stuff...the large photo is one of my very favorites. The title is "Princesses in Our Family"--the word "family" is a little hard to read in the scan because I covered the stickers with silver-leaf pen to make them match:

Todd and our niece Natalie last fall...he brought his remote control plane to their house, and she was really fascinated with watching him fixing a crack so it could fly. I called it "A Meeting of Minds" because they are both so smart and curious:

And a shot of our niece Marissa, also from last fall. This was the day we got to meet her for the very first time:

Last and least, a couple fall scenery shots:

I am basking in the glow of my first work-free day...off to the grocery store for me, after a morning of puttering around the house. Bliss. Well, except for the grocery store part, heh.

A sigh of relief.

Today was my last day of working at the LSS. I've been holding my breath for three weeks until I could slip away, and I think I've finally done it.

The job was not a bad job. It was the easiest job I've ever had. The owner is a sweet person and easy to get along with, and she really relied on me. Which was a bit of the problem...

The store is failing. It's been failing since I started over a year ago. At first I tried to come up with ideas...kits to promote and sell, classes and make-and-takes to offer, cleaning things up, rearranging and organizing....but none of that will work if the person who makes the decisions isn't backing you up. I had responsibility for maintaining day to day, but no power to make the decisions and changes that could have helped. And I felt, and still feel, I knew the things that would have helped.

One thing I learned from my 13 months at the LSS was that I know more than I thought I did: both about the SB industry in general, and about running a store in particular. I hadn't realized how valuable the past eight years of being steeped in the scrapbooking world has been for my knowledge and experience. And I found that my common sense is real and deep and that I need to rely on it more. I pinpointed problems with that store, then came across business articles and trade journals, weeks or months later, that completely affirmed my instincts. I know more than I gave myself credit for.

It was a mostly good and valuable experience. But I felt myself getting more and more unhappy, especially after I decided to stick it out after we bought our house. Business had picked up after Christmas, which helped, but soon I was back to sitting in an empty store for hours at a time, bagging die cuts in the back room. More of a punishment than a job!

I felt so guilty, being so unhappy at an easy and mindless job that could bring in extra money for the house. What did I have to complain about? Meanwhile, the house was filthy, we ate out way too much, and I couldn't keep up with anything at home--because I was coming home every night exhausted from my empty day. It was like I was absorbing failure through my pores, working in that failing store and powerless to do anything about it.

So one day, I took an old Somerset Studio magazine to work for something to leaf through while eating lunch, and I got all weepy while I was looking at it. The magazine is total eye candy, lots of paper art pieces from artists big and small, and although I don't aspire to that level of artistry, I got teary-eyed about halfway through it, overwhelmed at the nice things other people were creating while I slid die cuts into plastic bags 8 hours a day.

That was when I finally, finally realized it was time to let it go.

Todd said tonight, "So are you going to pick up your blog again, now that you have some free time?" Isn't that DARLING of him, to miss reading what I write??? He's so precious.

And indeed I was and am planning to start writing again. I felt like I couldn' write, talk, or think until I had that job out of my life and was safely away. And now I am, and now I am going to enjoy having my life back in my own hands again. Hooray!

Catch-up.

I've been trying for over a week to post some pics of the bushes we planted around our house last weekend, but Blogger simply refuses to cooperate. Is anyone else having Blooger issues lately?

I guess you get what you pay for, with Blogger. Pppppbt.

I came to a breaking point last week and decided I couldn't deal with my part-time LSS job anymore, for a variety of reasons that I can't get into on a public blog, but might, after I've quit once and for all. I gave my notice today and hope to be out by Easter at the very latest.

When that happens, I'll be overhauling my blog, my home, and my life. That's the plan, anyway!

This week, however, it's work, work, work. I'll keep trying to post those pics, I know everyone is breathless with the desire to see our shrubberies!

Trees.

Oh, what a change a week makes! Here are our flowering backyard trees now. So gorgeous.

If anyone can tell me what these trees are, I'd be most grateful. They're taller than almost any flowering tree I've ever seen, except for the sour cherry we used to have in the front yard when I was growing up.

Isn't our yard heavenly? I can't wait till the trees at the back leaf out, because then it will just be stunning. I have so many things I want to try in this yard...landscaping, and little pretty spots scattered about, flower beds and tchotchkes...it'll take years to get to it all.

The yard is full of birds right now, fluttering around, building nests and screeching at each other. I think some mourning doves are nesting in the magnolia beside my deck. This yard is my favorite thing about the house...I hope we can make it live up to all its potential!

A few layouts.

I had the most fabulous weekend...I scrapped all day Saturday and most of Sundayafternoon. It was heavenly. I can't remember the last time I made a page just for myself.

Anyway, here's the highlights of what I did. I started with my most recent photos and worked backwards towards the beginning of this year:

Todd's birthday:

My viola/pansy pictures that I posted here last week:

Todd's striper fishing pictures from early February:

And pages about Natalie and Marissa from our January visit there:

Off to work now. It's over 80 degrees here today--amazing!

Blog challenge.

I already wrote my post for today, but there's a blog challenge at Two Peas today, and I wanted to do it, for once.

1. List the people from your past who you would like to reconnect with through Email.( if only you could find them...)

I can only think of one, and that's Brent Shrum from college. Well, there are a few people from high school I'm curious about, but...eh. I know I could track Brent down if I really wanted to...he's a reporter for a paper in Montana. I guess I need to make the effort!

2. List the companies you wish you owned.

I wish I owned Land's End because my first Owner's Decree would be to supply me with a hundred pairs of petite yoga pants in every color of the rainbow. Then I'd put them to work on petite jeans. Not "petite" as in five inches too long for my short legs.

(Can you tell I had a bad jeans-buying experience this week?)

3. List the things you do to defy aging.

I act as immature as possible. *smirk*
I sing along with the radio a lot...make up words for the fun of it...don't mess around with my face too much, as far as my skin goes...drink lots of water...color my gray hair when I remember...play with kids...
I guess there's a difference between aging mentally and aging physically--I don't want to do either one, but the mental part is the only thing I can do anything about.
(Things I should do to defy aging: learn a foreign language, walk, lift weights, eat more veggies, get good at crossword puzzles...)

4. List what you do to snap out of a bad mood.

Play music loudly and do some cleaning and/or organizing.

Welcome, spring?

If I had any doubt spring was here, today would definitely prove it to my satisfaction. It's sunny and in the seventies and just beautiful.

Here's the trees outside my upstairs deck, blooming their little hearts out. I have to find out what all these trees in the yard are--I hate feeling so ignorant about my surroundings!

Another sign of spring--I delved into my box o' flip-flops today for the first time. Last summer I bought so many pairs of flip-flops that I had to also buy a big Sterilite tote to store them all when cold weather came. Can't wait to get more flip-flops this year! I even took a picture of some of them last summer, planning to do a layout about my newfound love. I never did, but maybe I need to!

So when I took out the flip-flops and stuck my pitiful winter-pale feet into them, I realized that the next thing that needed to happen was a pedicure. So I went and got me one this afternoon.

Here's my toes--still pale, but at least colorful:

Now I guess I need to break out the spring clothes. I hate that part of spring. All those clothes that you were almost too fat to wear at the end of summer, and told yourself you'd lose enough weight over the winter so that they'd look good next year...yeah, right. Who loses weight in the wintertime?

And spring reveals your figure flaws that you'd semi-hidden under jeans and sweaters all winter long and pretended weren't there. Ugh.

And spring also means new clothes shopping--for me, anyway. All that too-tight stuff has to go, and you're shopping for roomier capris, like maybe circus-fat-lady style. Do they make 'em that big?

Hm. I definitely have mixed feelings about spring.

In other news, I got a call from Borders that a CD I ordered came in, so I dropped by and picked that up. This was a weird thing...I found out about Pandora Radio a couple weeks ago, which is a free site where you type in an artist or song name, and the site generates a "radio station" with artists that share traits with that original artist.

So one of the first artists I entered was the Beatles, of course, and I was puttering around listening to the various songs that popped up, and this amazing-sounding song came on. I rushed over to see what it was, and it was called "The Weakest Shade of Blue" by the Pernice Brothers. Never heard of them in my life, but I checked out their albums and made a mental note to try and get the one with that song on it.

A couple nights later, we were watching yet another Gilmore Girls DVD, and this snippet of a song played over the beginning of a scene. It was that song! And it sounded just as amazing. So I went and got the CD--had to special order it and everything.

The album is Yours, Mine and Ours by the Pernice Brothers...I'm listening to it right now and really enjoying it. Great for a spring day.

Saturday night catch-up.

I wanted to post a few pics of some of the stuff I got last weekend, but I can't find the camera battery. So here are some pictures already on the memory card...I plan to make a layout with these and call it "The Power of Sun."

This is a mixed pot I bought from my favorite nursery, the Flower Pot, last October. The owner was very proud of these pots, because he'd mixed two violas and a pansy with some sage and thyme--all plants that would make it well through our mild winter. The combination was really different.




I had the pot on our north-facing, shaded porch all winter, and it did okay...then we moved to this house and the pot went onto the south-facing porch in full sunshine almost every day--and it just exploded with flowers. What a pleasure to have flowers growing at the front door in January and February!






I know this will post funky with all the different pictures, but I can cross my fingers anyway.

In other news, we've had a couple scary health events in my family lately. My grandma fell and broke her hip a week ago while vacuuming. She'll be 86 in May, so it's a serious thing. However, the doctors were very optimistic, got her right into surgery, and she's already up walking with a walker and doing physical therapy. Because she's stayed active, her chances of healing were greatly improved.(note to self: get off butt and start exercising!)

She'll be in a skilled nursing facility for another week or two, but so far so good. She and Grandpa have had a hard couple years, but they are so determined to live on their own for as long as they can. It's hard, but I can't really blame them.

And Todd's sister Lisa called today to say that our niece Anna had also been in the hospital for a couple nights this week. Seems that she's had an allergic reaction to something--they're not sure what, but she erupted in a horrible rash after getting an antibiotic shot for a lingering ear infection. She came home today, but they're still waiting for the rash to subside. And it looks like she'll be getting some pinpricks with an allergy panel in a few weeks. Poor baby--she's only 20 months old!

I am recovering this weekend from my second D&C in eight months...I was actually looking forward to it this time, because I knew it would involve a nice nap, a day on the couch, and those great heated blankies the nurses put on you. I was really looking forward to the heated blankies! I felt great yesterday after a day of sleep, and I felt okay today, too, but tonight my tummy hurts a little. Nothing too bad, though.

I stupidly agreed to do another last-minute project for the Fiskars insert, knowing full well I was having surgery this weekend, but I think I got it mostly done today, so that's a relief. Tomorrow I want to get it approved if the Fiskars girls are checking their e-mail this weekend, and type up all my instructions and supply lists so everything can go in the mail Monday so as to arrive Wednesday.

Every week I think, this will be the week when life goes back to normal and I can relax a little, but I think normal may be gone...at least the normal I used to have. We're still working on the house in dribs and drabs--Todd moved the living room around for me last week after a prolonged whine on my part, and it looks much better. The huge TV is in a corner now, where it doesn't dominate the room as much. The couch is now angled across the living room to face the TV. It fills the long narrow room a little better, I think, and now maybe I am ready to start hanging all these pictures and shelves that are clogging the floors!

That's all for now.

Ambushed at the quilt show.

Why didn't anyone ever warn me that the danger of quilt shows isn't in the sewing supplies???

My friend Cheryl and I went to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton today, and I was expecting to be buying lots of ribbons and fibers and buttons and maybe even fabric although I don't sew--well, there were bigger temptations lurking.

Who knew that they sell jewelry at these things? Vintage jewelry made from old china and antique buttons!

I bought the most beautiful bracelet made from circa-1870s celluloid buttons. Each button has a tiny image on it, birds and butterflies and a tiny castle. I could have bought every bracelet and watch at this booth...they were all stunning, like little bits of wearable history. Cheryl got a bracelet at another booth that was made from old pearl buttons. Oh, and I got a small necklace charm made from a bit of floral china.

We also found a booth chock-full of ribbons and buttons and buckles and trims, most of which were vintage. Although the booth owner had the people skills you'd expect of a New Englander, she did know how to merchandise. The buttons were grouped by colors in vintage jars. The ribbons were wrapped around old spools and piled in baskets. The whole thing was formulated precisely to appeal to crafty ladies who love old stuff. Needless to say, Cheryl and I spent a lot of time there. I picked out a handful of old green, teal and orange buttons to go on the tabtops of my future scraproom curtains.

I also got Mother's Day/birthday presents for my mom and MIL, but I can't elaborate because I know they read this! Neener, neener!

Oh yeah, there were some pretty quilts, too. Heh, they faded into the background after we started discovering the vintage doodads booths, but we really did enjoy seeing them. The colors and textures were a feast for the eyes. I hadn't realized now many people are doing 3-D quilting, with lily pads and bird's tails that spring out from the quilt. Lots of hand-dyed, variegated and batik fabrics in the quilts, too, which were so, so lovely.

I just never dreamed I'd buy so much non-craft stuff at a quilt show. Dangerous, very dangerous.

Birthday boy.

Thirty-six years ago today, this precious little baby boy was born...and he grew up into a lovely man and I married him! Happy birthday, sweetie! I love you so much, and remember: you're not getting older, you're getting better. Or some crap like that. Also wanted to remind you: no matter how old you get, you'll still be older than me.

Anything else I can do to rub in the fact of your advancing age, just let me know. I'm here for you, babe.

Of course, I know you'll be here for me in eight months when my turn comes, too, so maybe I'd better just leave it at "Happy Birthday, Sweetie!" and a cheesy grin.

Pretties.

I bought these tulips a couple weeks ago, and I just uploaded the pics off the memory card. They were so gorgeous against my apple-green wall.

Where I left off.

Well, it took a couple days but the freaking headache finally went away. Sheesh!

Anyway, this writing class...it's been really interesting. It was a six-week workshop in Becky's wonderful scraproom above her garage. We all sat at a gorgeous wood table and wrote. I snagged the chair on the side of the table where I could look out the window at her view of Back Creek...oh, I'm so pea-green with envy about her room with a view!

Becky lost her daughter to MS three years ago, and began her writing workshops as a way to talk with others about writing your story, writing through grief, telling the things that need to be told. I have come to admire this lady so much...she is such a giving, creative person with such a deep wound. I admire the way she's surrounded herself with people to teach and to learn from.

This workshop was more emotional than I had anticipated. And I wasn't completely comfortable with that. But it was a chance to get back into writing, and I explored a couple of memories that I hadn't totally understood before. Foremost was my memory of going to Washington D.C. to protest the first Iraq war 15 years ago. It was funny how it popped into my head one morning and demanded to be re-examined. Maybe I'll post the bit I wrote about it here sometime soon.

Speaking of writers, Sarah Vowell was on The Daily Show last night, and I missed it because I got caught up in some Olympic moment, so I made sure to catch her tonight on the repeat. I just read her book Assassination Vacation last week, and really enjoyed it. I like her essay books better, but how can you not love someone who makes pilgrimages to presidential assassination sites? And I mean, sites that are really, really peripherally linked. But she makes the links all come together.

The main thing I always remember from Sarah's writings is her description of going to the first GWB inauguration in 2001 and bursting into tears when he finished his oath of office. I can totally relate, although in 2001 I was still too much in a state of shock for tears. The tears came for me on Election Day 2004. Ugh.

Sarah is a year older than I am, and grew up fundamentalist Christian, which makes me feel sort of a peer connection with her, but she's about a million times more sophisticated and educated than I am, so I know I'd be completely intimidated by her. I can forgive her that, but she's friends with Jon Stewart and gets to sit and crack wise with him on The Daily Show, and that is hard to get past. I'm turning pea-green again.

Speaking of Jon Stewart, although I still profess my undying love for him, he may have to share that love from now on with Stephen Colbert. Man, I love that guy! I always loved him on The Daily Show...I loved how he would say the most appalling things with this really wicked look in his eyes. Wicked isn't even the word for it...it's this amused devilish gleam that is amazingly attractive. Mm.

And now he's got his own show where he absolutely skewers the Bill O-Reilly/Joe Scarborough pompous blowhard stereotype, and I love it. LOVE it. Jon at 11 pm and Stephen at 11:30...I'm sorry, but Letterman and Leno could never in their wildest dreams be so cool, funny and subversive.

I had other things swirling around that I wanted to write about, but my feet are soooo coooold from sitting here...I need to break out my electric blanket. I've been freezing all night!

Headache.

My alarm clock woke me up this morning, which is really unusual--I always wake up at least a few minutes before it goes off, and turn on NPR and doze for a few more minutes before getting up. But today it interrupted my dream starring Jon Stewart (yum) and yanked me into morning-time before I was quite ready.

And I woke up with a headache. A mega-headache. I had writing class first thing this morning, and I grabbed a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee on the way there, thinking the caffeine would ease it out. But although it tasted heavenly, it didn't help. The headache kept creeping up and creeping up, worse and worse as I sat there, and when I left Becky's house and walked out to my car, it had made it into the "top ten worst headaches of my life" list, quite a feat.

I came home and had lunch and popped three Tylenol, but my head is still throbbing. However, I have the day off and am fresh from my last writing class, and I want to take a little time to write about it.

Becky is a retired middle-school English teacher who has started holding six-week writing workshops in her home. I found out about the class last fall from one of the owners of the scrapbook store across the street from our former neighborhood. Becky scrapbooks, so she's a customer at that store as well as ours. I knew her only slightly, but a writing class sounded like a good thing at this stage. I took a couple creative writing classes when we lived in Idaho, but that was a long time ago, and since then the only writing I've done is journaling for scrapbook pages and instruction lists for my published work.

I'll finish this later...headache too bad now! Ugh.