Tuesday, April 30, 2013

My Great Grandmother

I was looking at a picture of my great grandmother a few minutes ago and randomly decided to write about her. Why not? This lady was nothing short of amazing. She was born on April 19, 1905 and passed away on January 2, 2009. That's right, she lived to almost 104 years old! Not too many people can say they have a family member that lived that long. Her ex husband, my great grandfather, lived to 96! She gave birth to 4 children. In addition to that, she raised 4 other children after a family member passed away. She took in those kids. She went to school until she was in 8th grade. Then she worked at her father's store. Despite dropping out of school, she was incredibly smart. I'll never forget a time I visited her. I think she was 97 at the time. She did word searches and other puzzles. We would always play Skip-Bo and she would beat us all. This particular time, my dad and I were looking at a word that was scrambled. We could not figure out the word. My great-grandmother said, "Give me that." Three seconds later she said, "Theory."  We were amazed at her sharp mind at such a fragile age. She was always knitting something for family members despite the arthritis in her hands. She used the smallest needles and thread and made beautiful decorations. We have many of her doilies all over the house. She was an extremely healthy lady until she died of pneumonia. She was hard of hearing and losing her memory, but what can you expect from a 103 year old? I loved visiting her and hearing all of the stories she would tell us (many of them repeated, but who cares?) I know how lucky I am to have had all four grandparents and a great grandmother living until I was 21 years old. I know that I'm lucky to still have 3 living grandparents at 25 years old. Cherish your family members and listen to the stories they tell you. It's so interesting to hear what it was like back when your elders were kids. Treasure these stories for as long as you live. Memories last forever.

Monday, April 29, 2013

An Athlete Came Out Today

This story was all over the sports news, as well as all of the local and national news. Really? To me, this is not a story. Don't get me wrong, what Jason Collins did today took a look of guts and courage. I am not taking away from what he did at all. However, this should not be news. People come out every single day. The fact that he is an athlete and no other athlete in the 4 major sports has come out yet is the reason people are so obsessed with this story. Everyone is wondering what his teammates and other basketball players think. Several states have legalized gay marriage. For the most part, racism isn't a huge issue in the U. S. anymore. Of course there will be people who are freaked out at the fact that Jason Collins is gay and will unfortunately ridicule him. My question is, how does someone being gay affect you? Why should someone coming out affect the way you live your life? It doesn't. I hope that as more athletes get the courage to come out, it doesn't become the top story in the news. He or she doesn't want or need the added attention. They are just another human being like you and I. However, it was nice to see a news story that wasn't depressing, like we have seen a lot lately. Jason Collins coming out today was a very big deal for him, but it should not have been the top story.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Just Over a Year

It's been a little bit over a year since I started seriously researching how to get more people to buy my books. At this time, I had my first book on lulu.com. No one buys books off of that website. I didn't have a cover for that one. My book was available on kindle, but it was $5.99 and no one was buying it (for good reason). I had also just started this blog and Twitter. I found CreateSpace and could upload the cover that was created for the kindle version of my book. Once my contract with this guy for my kindle book was up in June 2012, I uploaded the kindle version for 99 cents. The hard copy was available a month before that on Amazon. Since then, I have created 2 more books and sold well over 2,000 copies of the three books combined! Yes, 1,750 of the books were given away for free on kindle. However, I've sold over 400 where I am collecting royalties! I'm no J. K. Rowling, but for me, that's a lot! That's well over a book sold a day. I didn't expect that many copies to be sold in my wildest dreams. Have a spent more money so far on the covers and formatting my books than I have collected from royalties? Absolutely. Do I care? Not at all! My goal with writing the first book was for exposure. I'm starting to get that by giving away so many free copies. I only gave away my books for free once this month. I'm not sure if/when I'm going to do it again. Since the books have been selling fairly well, I feel no need to give them away for free. I also just surpassed the 5,000 view mark on this blog! That's a ton of views in one year! I have an idea for the 3rd book in "The Teacher That" series in my head and some notes in my iPhone. I have no idea when I'm going to start outlining it. I don't know if I have enough information for a book, but outlining my thoughts will help me decide that. It's just a matter of sitting down and working on it. With all of the other things I'm focusing on right now, it just hasn't happened. You never know what life is going to throw at you. I continue to take things one day at a time. When the timing is right, I will start outlining my ideas for my next book!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Casual Vacancy

I started reading the new J. K. Rowling book, The Casual Vacancy the other day. For those of you that live under a rock, J. K. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series. This is her first "adult" book. I am only about 70 pages into it. It is definitely an adult book. She uses lots of terms that I don't understand. She talks about things that kids certainly should not be reading. I haven't really gotten into the book yet. She hasn't grabbed my interest. She breaks it up into 2-3 page segments. Each section talks about a different set of characters. It can get confusing at times, especially for me since it doesn't take much to confuse me. I plan on finishing the book only because I loved the Harry Potter books. So far, I'm not impressed. It only has 3 stars out of 5 on Amazon based on almost 3,500 reviews! We will see if I end up liking the rest of the book if I ever finish the 500 pages.

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Run Down

I've felt sick since I think Tuesday morning. I woke up with a sore throat. I don't have too bad of a sore throat right now. I'm fighting a wonderful cold though. If only I could run as fast as my nose is running right now, I'd be in great shape (no pun intended). Of course, I've done nothing to cure this cold. I exercised as normal on Wednesday. I went out like I always do Wednesday night. I went out with some teachers tonight. That's my problem. I try to fight off my sickness by running my life like I normally do. I plan on helping my friend move tomorrow. I don't expect to wake up tomorrow and feel magically better. If I feel worse, I might have to cancel on her. Otherwise I won't. Then I'm sure I'll go out tomorrow night, then work at the grocery store Sunday morning. I also worked 4 hours at my dad's store last night after working 9 hours at school. That certainly added to my sickness. Doesn't my body realize that I don't have time to be sick. I have too much to do! We will see how I feel tomorrow...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

If You Take Someone Out to Eat

If you take someone or a group of people out to eat, would you get mad if they order appetizers and you don't? I read this complaint in the letters section of the newspaper. A couple took out another couple for lunch. The guests ordered appetizers. The people taking the other people out to lunch were not happy because they don't typically buy appetizers. They thought it was rude of their guests to do so since they didn't get appetizers themselves. If I take people out to eat, they can order whatever they want. It would be so awkward if I said, "I'm taking you out to eat, but you can only spend $10. Choose wisely." Who does that? When someone takes me out, I rarely order appetizer, entree, and dessert. I don't want to have that person spend a lot of money on me. However, if someone did that to me, I wouldn't mind because it was my treat. I expect to spend a lot of money. When I took my grandparents out, my grandma ordered a 3 for $9.99 deal because I know she didn't want me to spend more money. Whatever. Whenever she takes me out, she always tells me to order whatever I want. She practically forces me to order dessert, not that she has to twist my arm or anything. Good thing the couple didn't voice their disapproval to the people they took out to eat. That would have been awkward!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

It's Too Hot Out

I heard a student today say, "It's too hot to go outside." It was only 65 degrees! I would understand if it was 117 degrees and 80% humidity. You will never, ever, ever hear me say, "It's too hot out." You will hear me say, "It's hot," but never too hot. I love warm/hot weather. I've been waiting for the warm weather since last August. It needs to stay warm all year long.  Too bad I live in New York. Unfortunately, tomorrow will go back to slightly colder. I can't stand the bipolar weather of New York State. Mother nature never knows what she wants to do. She needs to make up her mind by keeping it warm!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Going out to Dinner

Everyone loves going out to dinner, right? Of course I do. I do it way too often. I go out at least twice a week with friends. No wonder I'm broke and fat! That doesn't help my New Year's Resolution of eating less! Anyway, my grandparents take me out to eat quite often (at least once a month-ish). Tonight, I turned the tables. I took them out to eat for their birthdays and anniversary. They are all within a few months so I just combine them. My grandmother doesn't like when I do this because she doesn't want me spending money on her. That's the least I can do for all they do for me. I take them out once a year, I can handle it, um, kind of. Every guys pride themselves in being able to eat everything on their plates. 99.9% of the time, I eat everything on my plate and then I eat off of other people's plates (people that are sitting at my table, not another table!). Today was the .1% of the time where I was defeated by the food. The amount of food they give you in a diner is insane! I ordered Tortellini Alfredo with Chicken. It came with two sides. I ordered soup and macaroni salad. The sides weren't too big. The mian course, however, was huge! I knew immediately that I wasn't going to even try to finish it. I also had two rolls with dinner and then my grandma gave me her dessert! For the price I paid for my meal, I'm happy I get to eat it again at work tomorrow. All restaurants typically give you a lot of food. All of that type of food has way too many calories, too much fat, sodium, cholesterol, and everything else bad. Going out to eat is so much easier than cooking it yourself, but not as healthy and a whole lot more expensive. Good thing I work out 3-4 days a week! However, that isn't outweighing (no pun intended) the amount of times I go out to eat. 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Cruise Going Down

Again, I don't mean that another cruise ship is in trouble. I'm talking about the price of my cruise. It keeps going down, down, down! It started at X price, went down $30 a week ago. Today, it went down another $30. When I got email confirmation that they lowered the price in my booking information, they lowered it another $30! Since I booked the cruise, it has gone down a total of $110 per person! That's a lot of money! They only lower the price for you on your cruise if you book under early saver and if you tell them the price is lower. It "pays" to be a past cruiser because the discount they are having is for past cruisers. Finding out that the price of my cruise went down today made this Monday a much better day!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Hurting

No, I'm not hurting physically, emotionally, or mentally or anything like that. I'm hurting for ideas. I can't think of what to write anymore in this blog. I had a great stretch for about 2 months when I had several ideas written in my phone listing what to write each night. I decided to write everyday because that's what I want my students to do. I don't want to write about what I did everyday because I find that boring. At this point, without any ideas flowing in, I might have to resort to that. If my students write about their day each day, that's fine with me because it gets them writing. Since I am slightly older than my kids, I would hope to have more creativity than them most of the time. I'm not saying that because I think kids have no creativity. They absolutely do! I'm saying that because at my age, I have more life experiences than them and probably more to write about. Writers block is no fun!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Food Network Shows

I really need to stop watching the Food Network. I have been watching shows like Rib Paradise and Beef Paradise all day. I also watch shows like Man vs. Food. Actually, all of the shows I just mentioned were on the Travel Channel. They might as well be on the Food Network. By watching these shows, it makes me want to go traveling all over the nation to eat at these places! Some of the food they have been showing is absolutely gargantuan! They made a 160 ounce prime rib. First of all, I can't imagine how much that costs. Second of all, they cook it rarer than rare! It is still mooing while people eat it! I need my meat cooked better than that. When I am rich and famous, I'm traveling the nation for the sole purpose of eating the best foods!

Friday, April 19, 2013

The World We Live In

The world we live in is truly a scary place. What I watched tonight was like a scene from an episode of 24 (even though I've never seen 24) or a movie. I know everyone is probably saying the same thing I just did. I don't care. That was intense. Everyone thinks that something like that could never happen in their home town. Unfortunately, you don't know that for sure. As much as you try to predict what happens in the future, you won't know until an event happens. Naturally, the suspects were quiet kids that no one thought would set off bombs. Yet, they did. I was amazed at how fast this all progressed. I didn't think they would identify the bombers for weeks. Then they would have to search for them, etc. The technology they used to get pictures of the bombers must have been incredible. I hate to say this, but I feel like this isn't over. I have a feeling these 2 low-lifes were part of a group. I hope that they can get information out of the suspect they caught. I am also amazed they got him alive. I hope he stays alive even though he is in serious condition so that he can give us information and then rot in jail. With all of the events that have happened over the past few months, I fear the future. I don't think it's going to get any better. As an aspiring elementary teacher, a school shooting is always in the back of my mind. I can't and don't have the attitude anymore that it can't happen to me. Clearly, it can and does happen anywhere. That's a horrible way to look at it but unfortunately it is true. We shouldn't always have to be on high alert. Why can't we all just be friends! Outstanding job to every police officer and other officials involved the last few days. It was a huge success to catch those (expletives). Stay safe everyone!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Proctoring the ELA's

Oh New York State testing, how we love thee. Um, NOT! With the new regulations in place, teachers are not allowed to be in the room with their own students giving them the standardized test. In my school, the teachers swapped grades to make it easy. We then had to have a second person in the room to make sure no funny business is going on. It only takes one teacher breaking the rules in previous years to change the way we do things. Both adults in the room have to walk around to make sure everything is fine. I think it just distracts the students when two people are hovering over them. I'm in a 5th grade classroom with a 6th grade teacher. He reads the prompts and I stand there and take up  a lot of space. My job today was to walk around with a box of tissues and hand them out every 5 seconds to students that needed to blow their nose. I can't believe how many tissues the kids went through! I know, it was a thrilling job, but somebody's gotta do it. Next week, we will be doing the same thing for math. The kids get tested too much. Unfortunately, there's really nothing we can do about it but accept it and move on.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Remembering my grandmother

3 years ago on this date, my dad's mother, my grandmother, passed away at the age of 75. Her 75th birthday was April 5th of that year (2010 for those of you who can't do math, haha). She spent that day in the hospital as well as the rest of her life. She died a very weak lady due to an infection. However, that's not the way she lived her life at all. Unbeknownst to me until after her death, she is the one that came up with the idea to open a liquor store. I always thought it was my grandpa's idea. It was something she wanted to do to keep busy. Well, over 40 years later, that liquor store is still family owned and up and running. She was very proud of that store and is definitely thrilled that it's still opened with "regular" customers. My grandma was a thoughtful, yet strict woman. She sometimes had different beliefs and ways of doing things than other people. That didn't matter to any of her grandchildren. We still loved her dearly. Whenever I would tell her about college and how I was doing, her face always lit up to show how proud of me she was. She would have been so excited to meet her first great-granddaughter who was born two days ago. Unfortunately she will never get the opportunity to meet her. I can't believe it's been 3 years already since she passed. I think about her often and will continue to do so. Lives come and go, but memories last forever.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Texas Hold 'Em

The card game Texas Hold 'Em started getting really popular in about 2003. That's when ESPN started showing the World Series of Poker Main Event on their network. That tournament used to get about 2,000 people. Now it gets between 5 and 6,000 people. My family, minus my mom of course, started picking up the game around then. To say I was a horrible player is the biggest understatement in the world. In this game, you get two cards face down. You either play with them or fold them. No matter how bad the cards were, I would almost always play with them. You aren't supposed to do that. Long story short, we used to play for $5 and I would rarely make money. I would be thrilled if I made money. Now, I cash fairly often and have grown tremendously as a player. I am not happy unless I get first place. There are even times that I will win a hand and be upset because I didn't feel like I played it correctly. Last Sunday at Turning Stone, I got 20th out of 102 players. Top 15 got paid. I was very upset because not only did I not win, but I was so close to cashing. We play Hold 'Em at my house once a month. Tonight, for the second straight month, I got 2nd place, losing to my brother. Second place is no fun, especially when it's to my younger brother. I am not good when it comes down to two players. I need to learn how to play that part of the game better. It's completely different than playing with a table full of people. It was another disappointing night of poker even though I made more money than I started with.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Today will be Remembered By...

My cousin gave birth to her first child today. It's supposed to be the happiest moment in her and her husbands lives. Instead, today will always be remembered by the horrific events at the Boston Marathon. As we all know by now, someone or some people set off some explosives during the marathon today, Patriot Day of all days. What is wrong with people? The images and videos tonight were absolutely horrific and disturbing. I don't know how or why people think to do these horrible things. You have to be very intelligent to create explosives. You aren't too bright when you decide to set it off and kill people though. Americans shouldn't have to be on high alert all of the time because of events that took place today or in the past. Unfortunately, we will be extra cautious now. When will people stop the unnecessary violence? My cousin's daughter will also always be known for being born on tax day. I know that's how I'll always remember her date of birth. At least something positive happened on this tragic day!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Massages

Yesterday, I got my first professional massage. I had a one hour massage. The only reason I did it was because I got a pretty cheap price. I'm not so sure I'm a massage person. I typically don't like people touching me. I'm also very ticklish. I was surprised I wasn't ticklish yesterday. I told the guy to give medium pressure when giving my massage. He was pushing pretty hard. I had a lot of pain in my neck and shoulders. He said I was very tense. That's probably why it wasn't that great for me. He kept hitting my tight areas and I was in pain. There were times that the massage felt good. I'm glad I was able to finally experience a massage. However, I'm not sure if I'd get a one again.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Worms

My friend and I played tennis this morning. It has rained the past few days. The courts were still fairly wet and absolutely covered in worms! When I walked from my car to the building at work the past few days, there were hundreds of worms all over the ground. I don't know where all of these worms come from. You always see them on the ground after it rains. It makes it smell terrible outside because rain doesn't smell bad enough. At first, I tried to avoid running over the worms while playing tennis this morning. Needless to say, that was impossible. I'm lucky I didn't slip on the worms and fall on any others. If I did, I probably would have thrown up all over the place. Yes, sometimes I can get grossed out by the smallest things. I shouldn't be too grossed out because I had to dissect an Earth worm in high school. Those things are even bigger than the worms on the ground. Oh nature, how I love thee, not!

Friday, April 12, 2013

For Spanish, Press 1

First of all, I can't stand talking to a robot on the phone. They have way too many options to choose from. Once you get through the long list of items and finally get to a human being, they will still ask you what your question is even though you practically answered it by hitting a specific number 13 different times. A lot of times, the computer will say, "For Spanish, press one, for English, press 2." Um, we live in the United States. If anything, English should be 1. However, they should not ask to give directions in Spanish at all. Everything these days has English and Spanish directions. If you live in America, you have to know English! If I moved to Spain, I would have to be fluent in Spanish. If I moved to Germany, I would have to know German. That's the way it should be. I wouldn't expect Germany to have English directions for me. Everything would have to be in German and I would have to know how to speak and write it gooder than I do English. Is that so much to ask for? That's the end of my random rant of the night.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Shhhhhhh

Shhh is the common phrase that teachers and students use to quiet kids down. Does it really work? I always shhh kids, too. Most of the time, it doesn't work well. If one kid starts shh-ing, other kids will do it. Then it gets extremely loud. If kids don't want to be quiet, they won't be. As a teacher, if you tell kids to be quiet and you will reward them, you will always have one kid still talking. When that one kid talks, you will always have another kid shh him or her as loud as possible until the person shh-ing has spit coming out of their mouth. It's pretty funny when it all plays out. In general, shh-ing makes things louder and typically doesn't work. Yet, I still try to do it. If I want to be a teacher, I really need to figure out better techniques for managing my class.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I Don't Want to be Here

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this topic before, but it's worth repeating. Yesterday, a first year teacher came into my room with her class. She said, "I don't want to be here right now." Then she said something like, "I'm sure no one ever wants to be here." It really aggravates me when people say that, especially a first year teacher! If you don't want to teach, I'll gladly take your job off your hands for you. She said it loud enough for kids to hear. I'm not sure if any kids heard her, but still. That's not something you should be saying. I didn't respond when she said no one wants to be here. We work in an excellent district with an outstanding staff and very well-behaved students (for the most part). There are thousands of teachers that have it much worse than we do. Do I complain about my job sometimes? Of course I do. However, I would never say that I don't want to be there, at least not my job at school. I always say I don't want to be at work at the grocery store. I don't say it in front of customers, though. I completely understand that finding other jobs is extremely difficult right now. Maybe this person isn't in her ideal job. I don't know her life story. She should be happy because she is working in such a great school with amazing people. I would love to have her job. If you show a negative attitude as a teacher working with kids, that attitude will more than likely rub off on them. We need positive people in this profession. With that said, I am not trying to bash this teacher at all. I really like her. I just didn't like the comment she said. As everyone has said to me, "At least you have a job."

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A Great Way to Expose Yourself

Get your mind out of the gutter, people! I mean this in a good way! While searching for followers on Twitter today, I found an excellent source for authors like myself. www.authorsdb.com is a website that has a database of author listings. Authors can sign up for FREE! They can provide a large number of things to list such as their Twitter handle, website, book covers, a description of themselves, and a link to their books. If you are an author, this is an excellent way to get exposure for free! I'm sure we all know about websites that charge us money to get the name of our book and the cover listed on that website. That doesn't happen on www.authorsdb.com. Did I mention it was free? It doesn't cost you anything besides a little bit of time. That means you don't have to spend money. Who doesn't love free things? You can submit your book covers for a contest. Even if you don't win the contest, you know what you get? Exposure! Every author wants their books to be noticed. I added my listing today. Immediately after my listing was approved, AuthorsDB tweeted my listing to all of their followers. I didn't even ask them to do that! That was another great way for me to be exposed to about 3,500 people. Join www.authorsdb.com and expose yourself to the world! Over 1,300 authors have already joined. You should be next!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Timing

Timing really is everything. As you know, my mind is very strange and often has odd thoughts. What if you left your house just one minute later or earlier than you anticipated and something happened? You could be stuck in a traffic jam because you left late. You could get into an accident because you left early. If you are speeding, you could be rushing into a bad situation. It's pretty scary when you think about it. You really never know what is going to happen or when it will happen. That's what makes life so unpredictable and interesting. Of course, the most important part of timing is showing up to wherever you are supposed to be on time. Unfortunately, you can never plan for traffic, unexpected construction, or other delays when traveling from point A to point B. I thought about that while I was driving over 350 miles this weekend. Lots of cops were out looking to meet their quotas even though it's the beginning of the month. Luckily they never stopped me for being on cruise control at 73 miles an hour. Our lives are run by the clock, not so much a watch anymore. Everyone just grabs their cell phone to check the time. I'm one of those weirdos that still has a watch. Remember, timing is everything. Now it's time for me to watch a basketball game. I don't care who wins the championship because my bracket was dead after the sweet 16...

Where Have I been?

I am so sorry for not writing over the weekend. I know you all probably missed me terribly! Anyway, on Saturday, I went to my friends house in Binghamton for his going away party. I slept over, so I didn't have a chance to write in the blog. He is moving to a different state for a job tomorrow. Yesterday, leaving my friends house, I went to Turning Stone for a big tournament. There were 102 people in it. I got 20th. Top 15 got paid. Needless to say, I was not  happy with finishing just out of the money. I didn't get home until about 10:15 and still needed to get ready for my first day back to work from vacation. I couldn't keep my eyes open to write a blog. Now I am back and better than ever. Well... at least I'm back, probably not better than ever though.

Friday, April 5, 2013

One Day at a Time

There are always lots of uncertainties in the future. What will I be doing next school year? How will my books be selling at that time? What will I be doing next weekend? I can ask a million more questions just like that. We don't know the answer to any questions that have to do with the future. My mom keeps making statements about my future as if such and such event is going to happen. She needs to stop because I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. How am I supposed to know what I'm doing in August? I have a goal for what I'll be doing in August. However, I need to take things one step at a time and day by day. Assumptions are never good to make for many reasons. Right now, I wake up every morning and decide what I need to do to get through that day. That's the only thing anyone can do to survive.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Advertising Makes a HUGE Difference

My two books were free on Tuesday. I really wasn't expecting them to sell that well because I didn't get a chance to advertise it. I was right. I sold about 100 total between the two books world-wide. I typically only offer one of the books free at a time. When I do that, I normally sell about 200+ books a day. The way I advertise is by tweeting my links to kindle book promoters on Twitter. I also found about 15 websites that will post my book for free on their website on the day it is free. Apparently these websites are viewed by many people because I noticed a huge difference in sales when I started doing this. An author I know has over 200,000 followers. Her book is free today and tomorrow and she has given away well over 5,000 copies today alone. I am nowhere near that. She practically lives on social networks. Good for her. She is very successful. Although of course I love my books and spend a lot of time promoting them, I have noticed that I've been doing much less promoting. I've been putting more focus on another important part of my life, getting a teaching job. That will take over my life the next few months. This is the year I'm getting a teaching job!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Wakes and Funerals

I went to Mrs. Bassett's wake today. I purposely got there about 10 minutes before the wake started because I knew it would be packed. There were probably about 30 people ahead of me waiting to pay respect. The line moved quickly and I was in and out in about 30 minutes. When I left, the line was incredibly long, much longer than when I got there. While there, a few questions popped into my head. Why is a wake called a wake? The person we are paying respect to is dead, not awake. I know, probably a horrible thing to think about. Why do people buy so many flowers? Although they are beautiful, they eventually die. In the Jewish community, you do not buy flowers for a funeral because when the flowers die, it reminds the person of the deceased. I think people should take the money they would have spent on flowers and donate it to a cause the deceased person would like. I donated money to the American Cancer Society in Mrs. Bassett's memory. Why is the root word of funeral fun? They are clearly not fun at all. They say that the best forms of family reunions are weddings and funerals. Unfortunately that is very true. That's typically when the entire family gets together and sees one another. Mrs. Bassett will be laid to rest tomorrow. I will not be going to the funeral because I feel that is for much closer friends and family. She will be missed by everyone but the memories people have of her will last forever.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Waking up in the Morning

It's interesting. I'm not one of those people that will tell you, "I'm not a morning person." Who is a morning person? I mean, really. What's that phrase even mean? No one likes to get up in the morning. I've noticed that when I set my alarm for work, I almost always never sleep until the alarm. I then get up a little earlier than the alarm and get my day going. When I don't work, I obviously don't set my alarm. I also don't sleep very late. When I wake up on those mornings, I typically lay there for awhile longer attempting to fall back asleep. 100 times out of 100, I don't fall back asleep. However, I take my time on my computer when I drag myself out of bed and do anything to avoid being productive. I go downstairs and eat breakfast in the clothes I went to bed in. Eventually, after probably about an hour, I finally brush my teeth, get dressed, and attempt to do something productive. It's just interesting that when I get up early, I can get ready no problem, but when I have nothing to do, I'm a bum. I love vacations!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Keeping Old Things

I went through some of my stuff today as I was moving it from wine boxes to more sturdy storage containers. I have a large box of souvenirs and awards that I have accumulated through the years. A lot of it was music stuff and sports letters from high school. I even had many ribbons from getting top 10 in swim races from my club. I read what meet it was. It was the developmental meet, haha. It must have been for the slower swimmers. I found two of my old cruise credit cards. The third card is still in my wallet. I could not find the Carnival card for my first cruise. I am almost positive I didn't throw it out. It should have been in the box with the other cards. I wanted to keep all of my cards so that I can look back on them one day, not that I will ever forget the cruises I've been on. Because I am weird, it has upset me for awhile that I could not find that one card. I'm starting to get over it. It's always fun to look at old stuff. I looked at some stories I wrote my senior year of high school. I was a terrible writer. If you think my writing is elementary now, you should have seen it in high school! I don't know why my teacher gave me a B for the paper I was reading. A fifth grader could have written better than that! On another note, if you haven't bought my first two books yet, what is wrong with you? Just kidding. If you haven't gotten them yet, they will be FREE tomorrow only because it is children's books day. I have done 0 advertising for this because it was a very spontaneous decision on my part. My mom told me earlier today that tomorrow is children's books day so I decided to make mine free. We will see how many people pick up book one and two tomorrow. I'm okay with giving them away for free tomorrow since sales have slowed down a bit. Hopefully tomorrows free day will help pick up the sales over the next few weeks!