Hawaiian Shirts

I have had an obsession with Hawaiian shirts ever since my cruise in January 2011. I decided to buy one when we were in Key West. I realize now that I paid an absolutely ridiculous price for it! My friends dad saw the exact same shirt in Grand Cayman the next day for half of the price I paid. Since then, I have bought three other Hawaiian shirts. I bought one in Grand Cayman and one in Cozumel during my cruise last August. I also bought one in Lake George. Those three shirts combined were way less than the price for my first shirt. Oh well, you live and you learn. Sometimes on dress down days (even though I once said I'd never dress down) I wear one of my Hawaiian shirts. I had no choice but to wear one today. It was over 90° and extremely humid. I had to show my tropical spirit in weather like this. I always get the question from kids, "Did you get that from Hawaii?" No, I did not. That's a bucket list item, though. I will go to Hawaii and wear my Hawaiian shirts at one point and buy some even cooler ones. I will also wear all 4 Hawaiian shirts during my cruise this August. You have to have a little color in your life!

"I've Never Seen a Storm Like That in My Life!"

I am so deeply sorry for not writing in here last night, except not really. We had a tornado in the area. It was the first big tornado since I've been on this planet, almost 26 years. It didn't hit specifically my town, but it hit about 10 miles away and we felt the affects. Our large steel grill fell over, yet our light plastic chairs didn't move an inch. Can you explain that one to me? We had some shingles fall off our roof and lots of tree branches fall all over the yard. I'm incredibly lucky that a branch didn't land on my car, which is directly under a huge tree. My dad and I immediately cleaned up a ton of branches for about an hour after the storm was pretty much over. We lost power for about 4 hours, had it back for about an hour, then lost it again until about 9 this morning. That's why I didn't write in here. I didn't want to waste my 3G data or battery on my phone. A large wooden pole holding wires at the top of my street snapped in half. A tree in the back of my yard is leaning on another tree. It was nuts. This morning, I heard a 7 year old say, "I've never seen a storm like that in my life." I started laughing because obviously she hadn't. I asked my dad and he said he'd never seen anything like it. It was almost surreal to see the damage. We have never seen storms like this in our area. It's a whole new experience for us. Unfortunately, I think the hurricanes and storms are only going to get worse. The most amazing statistic is that only 1 person was injured and no deaths! Thank God! The tornado was 1 mile long and went on for 17 miles. It was pitch black at about 7:15. At 8:15 when it starts to get dark, it was incredibly bright. It's amazing what mother nature can do.

Theme Song of my Life

I don't like posting song lyrics on Facebook or anything like that. However, I'm breaking that rule tonight. The theme song of my life, specifically at this point right now is "Breathe (2am)" by Anna Nalick. Below are the lyrics:

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
can you help me unravel my latest mistake,
I don't love him, winter just wasn't my season
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to critisize,
hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track,we're like cars on a cable
and life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button girl,
So cradle your head in you hands
And breathe, just breathe,
Woah breathe, just breathe

May he turn 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
Just today he sat down to the flask in his fist,
Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year.
Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But my God it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him, maybe I'll just sing about it.

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe, just breathe,
Woah breathe, just breahte

There's a light at each end of this tunnel, you shout
But you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
These mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, its no longer
inside of me, threatening the life they belong to
And i feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe
woah breathe, just breathe,
oh breathe, just breathe.

You can ignore most of the lyrics. The only ones that apply to me are, "And breathe, just breathe, woah breathe, just breathe, oh breathe, just breathe." Then again, I typically wake up at 2AM every night to go to the bathroom. I guess those lyrics apply to me too. I tell my kids to take deep breaths all of the time when they get worked up over something. 100% of the time, they do not take deep breaths. I'm the one who ends up taking those breaths. I typically tell myself to breathe in and out deeply before I take on a daunting task. With only 16 days left of school, it has been insanely busy. All I need to do is breathe, just breathe and I will be able to grind out the finals days of the 2012-13 school year. "Just breathe."

Favorite Drink

It's weird how your taste buds change as you get older. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved milk. I would pretty much drink nothing but milk. As I became a teen, I couldn't stand milk, but loved Kool Aid. I drank soda very seldom because we were only allowed to have it on "special occasions". I couldn't stand the taste of water, even though it has no taste. When I started swimming, I started drinking water a lot more, no, not the pool water. Now, I don't like regular milk, I only drink chocolate. I don't drink Kool Aid anymore. I drink a lot of water everyday. I'll drink Powerade too since my mom keeps buying lots of it. I'm a rare teacher who doesn't like coffee yet. I can be seen at work with my Nalgene bottle filled with water. I try not to drink soda too much anymore because I know it's not the best for you. I was told when I was younger that I should drink 8 ounces of water before every meal. That will help my stomach fill up more and cause me to eat less. Obviously the doctor didn't know me too well. That didn't stop me from eating a lot. Then again, I typically didn't drink the water before my meals. Oh well, now I drink water all of the time. Who knows what my favorite drink will be 20 years from  now.

Genealogy

My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins came over for dinner today. We got talking about our ancestors, where they came from, who we are related to and how, etc. My mom had an obsession with genealogy a few years ago. She did a ton of research about who is related to who and what not. We talked for well over an hour about this. It's very hard to track down Jewish ancestors because they typically change their last names when they come over to America. You can easily spend an entire day looking up ancestors and ancestors and ancestors. I find this stuff very interesting. However, I don't see myself researching it for hours on end. I'll leave that to my mom. I've heard that everyone in the world is related to each other in some way. You probably have to go back many thousands of years to find out that I am your 167th cousin 93 times removed. It's very interesting stuff.

Parents Back From Cruise

Although I love having the house to myself, I also love when the parents come home. The only reason I like this is because I love hearing about how their vacation went. When they go on a cruise, which they've only done 10 times, I have no contact with them the entire time. They don't pay way too much money to use their cell phones in the middle of the ocean. I was surprised to hear my dad tell me that there were small things that bothered him here and there on the ship. Normally Carnival is known for their excellent service. He had poor service from the drink server at dinner. The entertainment was mediocre at best a few nights. There were some other things he mentioned that I was shocked to hear. I hope that when I go on my cruise in 3 months that service is much better. There's nothing worse than bad service anywhere. It always leaves a sour taste in your mouth. My parents are thinking about not going on another Carnival cruise because of some of their experiences this past vacation. They still had a good time overall, but it wasn't their favorite cruise.

1 Year of Blogging!

It was 1 year ago on this date that I decided to write a blog post every single day. This is my 359th blog post. I wrote a few posts before starting to write daily. I also missed a few days for vacations. The time has absolutely flown by! I'm proud of myself for writing in this every single day. I've had over 5,000 page views throughout this year of posting. Incredible! As I've said before, I have no idea how much longer I will do this. I don't see any end to this in the near future. I enjoy getting my random thoughts typed out. Hopefully you enjoy reading them. If you aren't, then what are you doing reading this? Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read my blog so far. Make sure to tell a friend to tell a friend.

A Rare Occurrence

The unthinkable happened today. I think this is only the second time in my two years as a computer aide that this has happened. I had a computer aide meeting for well over two hours at a different building both days that this horrible rare occurrence took place. I hope you are sitting down while reading this. Otherwise, I am sure you will faint. The unthinkable that took place (or didn't take place) is that I didn't eat lunch today! At the meeting today, we talked about a serious issue happening in our district for over an hour! As soon as I got back to school, I had to talk to my principal about this. Then I had to dive right into helping a class that was in my room. I went from person to person in my room helping them with a project. I walked all around the school to help teachers with minor issues. It was a whirlwind of a day. Normally when I have no food in my system, I am a cranky, miserable person. I shockingly wasn't too bad today. Last time I didn't eat lunch was a different story. Some days are just like this. I have a feeling this whirlwind day will repeat a few times over the next couple of weeks. We have a pretty wild schedule and many, many things to take care of at school before summer vacation!

3 Bad Reviews

I have gotten 3 bad reviews for Cleanup in Aisle 4: Grocery Store Don'ts. Every review I have gotten has been a bad one. I'm going to copy and paste those reviews in this post and review the reviews. Of course I get upset when I get bad reviews. My first thought when I saw two on the same day was that everyone hates my book. In the grand scheme of things, who cares? Not everyone is going to love even the most popular books. That's just the way it is. Here was the first review:

2-star- subject: Cleanup

"I thought this book would be funny, I was sadly mistaken. While I do agree with most of what the author says, some of it is outrageous (and kinda pissed me off). While shopping at 10am would be ideal, most people have daytime jobs or have to bring their kids (who wouldn't want to go shopping without bringing kids if they could!). This author REPEATEDLY said while he is scanning your groceries YOU had better be bagging them (even though he also states he is a professional bagger) and here I thought bagging was in the cashier's job description. I, personally, bag my own groceries because I don't want my bread smashed.

Here's one from a customer to a cashier: If I'm spending $250 - $300 on groceries and you have 2 belts (one I place my items on and one you place items on after scanning) don't leave the lower belt on and squish all my food before I can get down there and bag it because I'm still placing my order on the 1st belt."

The ratings go from 1-5 stars. Clearly this reader didn't like my book. Why I received more than one star is beyond me.

1-star- subject: Don't.....

"Never a positive - always a negative. After reading this book, I feel like the customer is a major inconvenience to the author. Glad the book was free ..... "

I would like to mention that she wrote that review on the first day that I offered the book for free. That means she read the entire thing from start to finish in one day. I know my book is not long at all and can easily be read in an hour or two. However, if you didn't like it at all and it was free, you could have easily stopped reading.

3-star- subject: Interesting Book

"He needed better editing, and could have had a better attitude towards customers. It was an interesting view of a grocery store. Looking with a little a different angle it could be a very funny book."

I love the first line of this review because in her third sentence, she made a big grammar mistake! Maybe this reviewer should have edited her post before hitting send! That review is almost a positive one. So far, Cleanup in Aisle 4: Grocery Store Don'ts isn't selling too well. Most of my sales are for books one and two. I'm okay with that. So far it has been a failed experiment. It happens. Life goes on. 

Thunderstorms

We are currently in the middle of a thunderstorm. Normally I don't mind thunderstorms. They are pretty sweet. However, when it's pitch black and I am trying to sleep, I'm not a fan. I don't want the lights to go out. No, it's not because I'm afraid of the dark. It's because if the lights go out, my alarm won't be set (not that I ever sleep until my alarm goes off anyway). A more important reason I don't want the lights to go out is because then I'd have no fan. I'm sitting here sweating while writing this. In this humid weather, I sweat when I take a breath. I'm pathetic, I know. I'm sure my mom is upset that she's on a boat rather than witnessing this thunderstorm. On second thought, she's probably already in bed because she's lame!

Cooking For One

Cooking for one is extremely hard to do, especially when I eat enough food for 3. Since my parents are away this week, that's the task. If/when I ever move out, I will have to learn to cook for one. Yesterday, I made a half pound of elbow macaroni for macaroni salad to eat tonight. This morning, I put 2 chicken breasts in the crock pot with some hot sauce. I had some pulled buffalo chicken sandwiches and mac salad for dinner. Yes, I had plenty of leftovers! That was the point. By doing that, I don't have to cook anything tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday. It also saves a lot of money by dragging meals out to two or three days. With a delicious meal like this, I probably won't be bored eating it three days in a row. The best part is that at 10:09PM, right now, I am still full from dinner and I didn't have dessert! Did I eat way too much dinner, of course. But at least I didn't add dessert to my already over-sized stomach!

Adirondack Extreme Again

I went to Adirondack Extreme for the second time yesterday. Last year, there were five different courses. I wasn't able to finish the final course. I was about 5 obstacles away from finishing. My goal yesterday was to finish everything. This year, they added a new course. That course wasn't too difficult. It was fairly different than the other 5 courses. Last year, I did the Leap of Faith and then had to get someone to take me off because I couldn't climb up the net. The leap of faith is where you are on a rope, and fly over to a net. You then have to climb up the nets to a platform. I couldn't climb it last year. This year, I flew to the net and tried to grab it. When I grabbed the net, I lost my grip and ripped a nice chunk of skin of my left ring finger. I was somehow able to climb up the net onto the platform once I got hold of the nets. However, after that obstacle, there were more nets to climb across. I really wanted to finish, but didn't want to grab a net with exposed skin. I smartly called it quits. Maybe next time I will get half an obstacle farther than I did this time. I was only able to get half an obstacle father in my second trip than I did in my first trip. Oh well. There's always next time.

Attendance Just Went Down About 80,000 people

Every year I get excited about the chance of seeing a triple crown winner in horse racing. Last year after I'll Have Another won the Kentucky Derby, I didn't think he would win the Preakness, yet he did. Then he was scratched from the Belmont due to an injury. After Orb won the Kentucky Derby 2 weeks ago, I thought he was unstoppable. I thought that maybe we would finally have a triple crown winner in horse racing after a 35 year drought. Those dreams went down the drain this evening as Orb struggled to finish 4th. Most of the time when a horse loses, we look for excuses as to why he lost. I'm not sure there are any. You could argue that the 1 post hurt him. People always say the 1 post is the worst. However, in one prep race, he was in the 1 post with 8 other horses, just like today, and won. It's disappointing that we will not have the opportunity to see a triple crown winner yet again this year. My wallet wasn't too happy with me after the race either. If Orb won tonight, there would be well over 120,000 people at Belmont Park 3 weeks from today. Now you will be lucky to see 40,000 that day. There will be absolutely no hype this year for the Belmont. Of course I will still watch and bet it. I'd have to be deathly sick not to. I won't have the same interest though. At least I won't have the race on my mind for 21 straight days hoping to see that triple crown. Maybe next year...

Cracking Knuckles

I crack my knuckles all of the time. I do it out of habit. A lot of people can't stand when I do that. They think it's gross. I used to crack my neck. I got out of that habit. I know it's supposed to be bad for your hands. I can't help it though. It's as natural as breathing to me. I also crack my ankles practically every time I walk. Everyone has their own bad habits. At least I don't smoke!

My Toy Store

I went on a field trip to the Apple Store today with a group of 3rd graders. On our way through the mall, we walked past a toy store. The kids were all excited. I told them that we were headed to the toy store (Apple Store). That's where all the best toys really are. The kids excitedly made movies using iMovie on iPads. It was an amazing thing to see all of the kids working together and creating an outstanding commercial. They knew how to work with iMovie like they have done it for years. It's amazing how quick kids learn technology. The Apple Store has field trips for teachers, too. I'm going to look into it for next year with my group of teachers. I know a few would love to do that, including myself!

Even Computer Aides Make Careless Mistakes

Today, I went to open a PowerPoint I made for the kindergarten play. I had 33 pictures on it, with its timings and transitions ready for the music that it would play along with. I could not find it. I'm 100% positive I made it and saved it. However, I saved it to my desktop. What else was on my desktop that day? The 33 pictures I was putting on the slide show. Where did all of those pictures end up? In my trash can. I empty the trash right away out of habit. Where was the PowerPoint? It was more than likely in the trash with the other pictures! Oops! I had to make that presentation all over again today. I added the pictures only so far. I will need to figure out the timings again. I always tell my students to save their work and pay attention to where they save it. I save my work every 5 seconds. This time, I didn't pay attention to where I put it and ended up throwing it out! I will be much more careful from now on. I was not a happy camper having to create the presentation for a second time because of my stupid mistake.

Notes App on Phone

Does anyone else use the Notes app that they give you on the iPhone. Up until a few days ago, I've had no problems with it. However, a few days ago, I plugged in my phone to the computer to synch something. I rarely do that. I then went into my notes to type an idea for a blog. I always type titles for my blogs in my phone so I don't forget them. I noticed that old notes I had deleted were back in my phone. A note that I added to didn't have the information I added. I was not happy. I could not retrieve it from my computer because I don't have it going to the cloud. I should look into Evernote or a similar app that allows me to take notes. Now what I'm doing is I'm writing a note, then taking a picture of it so I can get it from my pictures in case the note magically disappears from the Note app. I bet the next thing to go on my phone will be pictures. That would be my luck. If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. The moral of the story is to be careful what you put into your phone, especially if you don't want to lose it!

Playing Games on a Phone

I remember about 3 years ago when I finally got rid of my Razr. I had that for at least three years. I wanted a new phone badly. I didn't want the iPhone. However, every phone required a data plan at that time. I decided to get the iPhone since it was practically the same price as the other phones and I got so much more. I only wanted a phone with a keyboard so it would be easier to text even though I despise texting. I sometimes wonder how much time I would have on my hands if I still had the Razr. I get so distracted from these games. I don't only play games, I also go on the Internet and Facebook on my phone all of the time. Phones suck the lives out of people. It cuts out face to face communication. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a room with friends and everyone is doing something on his/her cell phone, me included. Really? Really? What happened to hanging out with friends in person and ignoring technology? The Internet, Facebook, and games are so addicting on the phone. I have a dozen or so games that are on my phone that I luckily don't play. Whenever I get a new phone, I know I can't get a non-smart phone because they probably don't have them anymore. I can't see myself downgrading if they did have one because I'm so used to what I have. Technology is an amazing thing. It's scary to see where it will take us in the future!

No More Bunk Bed

After 25 years of wanting it gone, we finally got rid of the top bunk of my bunk bed. I have no idea why my parents bought me a bunk bed in the first place when I was born. I mean really. Why would I need one as an infant. I never used the top bunk. It was great to throw junk up there though. When the people came to put in new carpet, my mom finally decided it was time to throw out the top bunk. Now my room looks so much bigger. It's really weird. It will be hard to get used to staring at the ceiling when I don't fall asleep as oppose to the top bunk. Of course I've slept in beds without a top bunk before. I've been in many hotel rooms and college dorms without the top bunk. However, I have never known what it's like to sleep without a top bunk in my own room until Friday night. It's quite a life changing move. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit.

Sleep With the TV On

On Thursday night, I had to do something I rarely ever do. I had to sleep without the TV on. I got new carpet in my room yesterday. Therefore, I had to have everything out of my room. Luckily I didn't have to take the furniture out myself. The carpet people told us that I had to have everything off of the furniture though. I always turn the TV on before I go to bed and leave it on all night. I know I should put a sleep timer on it, but I don't. I don't know if I need the light from it to fall asleep or what it is. I keep the volume on very low. I also know that I typically fall asleep with my back to the TV. So it makes no sense to have the TV on. It's a habit I have been doing for many, many years. I'm surprised my parents haven't yelled at me for wasting electricity yet. I would leave the TV on in college too. I don't even want to try to kick the habit. Maybe I would sleep better without the TV on. Who knows?

Weak Stomach

Today at work, my worst nightmare happened. I was walking around in the computer lab like I always do. All of a sudden, I hear a noise that sounded like a kid very loudly clearing his throat. Then a student comes up and says, "(name) just threw up." It was a sixth grade class. I am very surprised I didn't hear screaming and eewws. After the event, it was very hard for the kids to focus. The other teacher brought the student to the nurse and I buzzed the office to get a janitor. His vomit hit some of the table, but luckily missed the computer and keyboard! He got it all over his books though. The principal came in with gloves on and a plastic garbage bag. She took his books and said to me, "You need to get a stronger stomach for this kind of thing." I tried to stay as far away as possible from the mess. If I see someone throw up, I am likely to do the same. No one in the class threw up after the boy did and neither did I. That's a big accomplishment for me. Later that day, the principal told me she was able to get everything off of his books, including the spiral notebook where it got in between the spirals. Lovely. I don't get fazed by seeing a little bit of blood, but when it comes to snot and vomit, I am completely grossed out! I'm definitely getting used to snot since kids sneeze all of the time. I don't ever want to get used to seeing vomit!

Filters

I tell the kids all of the time that they need filters. Most of the time, they say, "What's a filter?" I then explain that a filter holds the bad stuff in it and lets the good stuff come out, like the purifier for water. I explain that they can think in their head whatever they want to think. Whenever the words come out of their mouths, there's no turning back. So many kids will say whatever they want to say without thinking about how it will affect them or the people around them. They will do what they want to do. My goal as a teacher is to stop them from doing that. I want them to take responsibility for what they are saying. That's one of my many goals as a teacher that have nothing to do with teaching the curriculum.

Whispering Teachers

I have pretty good ears. My eyes on the other hand, well, that's a different story... Since I'm a computer aide, teachers bring their kids to the computer lab for them to work. The teachers are "required" to stay in the room with the students. I'm guessing this is because I'm just an aide and not a "teacher". Whatever. Anyway, many times the teacher will whisper something to me about something a student has done. I can almost never hear what they are saying! I always nod and laugh when I see them laugh. I feel like my deaf grandmother. Whenever she doesn't hear you, (which is always) she just nods her head and laughs. I love that teachers come to me and tell me stories about things that have gone wrong. That means we have a great working relationship and they trust me. However, it would be nice to actually hear the stories! Obviously we can't be talking with our normal voices about whatever we are talking about. I just felt the need to write about this tonight because it has happened a lot lately. I had two or three teachers today alone whispering "secrets" to me. I love the people I work with at my school because everyone is so friendly and always greets you when you walk by each other. I never, ever, ever get that at the grocery store.

Walks

My friend and I used to take walks all of the time in college. Potsdam is in the middle of nowhere. It has wonderful scenic country views and lots of cows. We would walk around and talk about whatever. Even if we both had work to do (which we always did) we would stop what we were doing and just go for a walk. There is nothing more relaxing than going for walks. As I said in the post about my cruise, I love long walks on the beach. I also love long walks on land. It's a great time to think, or to just relax your mind. I was thinking of going for a walk tonight, but then my laziness kicked in and I didn't. I have absolutely no excuse for that. I wish I went for that walk. I know some people like walks or runs late at night when it's cool and dark. That's not for me. You don't know where those skunks and other creepy nighttime creatures are hiding. I'd rather do it when it's bright and sunny out so that I can see an attack coming (hopefully not, though). Nice weather brings walking season. I plan to commit myself to walking more often.

Headaches/Meditation

I seem to be getting a lot of headaches at work lately. I think it's a combination of the kids acting up more than usual and me getting worked up over everything. I try really hard to take deep breaths and calm down. There's always so much on my mind that it's really hard for me to do. My blood pressure is already high. I think it's a combination of the job I'm in and the wonderful, um, diet I'm on. I randomly thought today about meditation. I've never done it before. I don't think it would work for me. In college, my swim coach would have us mediate once in awhile for a little while. I don't really count that as true meditation because it was really quick. I don't think I'd have the patience to sit there for a long time and think about nothing. There are always a million and a half thoughts running through my head at all times. I doubt I'd be able to think of nothing and relax for a long period of time. If someone taught me how to meditate, I'd be willing to give it a try. If I really put an effort into it, I think it would help me stay calm and eliminate the headaches I keep getting. Maybe this is something I should look into.

Poor Customer Service

On Friday, April 5, I brought my old alto saxophone to a music store to see if they would buy it from me. I didn't expect it to be worth practically anything. They took a look at it and said it was worth $600. That was $600 more than I expected it to be worth. Apparently older instruments are worth more. They said they sell instruments on consignment. I would get 75% of the price they sell it for. I told them that I wanted to sell it on consignment and I filled out a form. Before they sell it, they would need to repair it. It cost $85 to repair it. I told them to go ahead and repair it. Two weeks later, I got a call saying they were waiting for my approval to repair it. I told them I already gave them permission to repair it. A week later, I got a call saying my sax was ready to be picked up. I told them it was supposed to be kept for sale. They said okay. Then I got a call a few minutes later saying I didn't sign any consignment form and that I needed to come back in to sign one. Yesterday, I go to the store to pick up the sax because of the horrible service. I see a form with my sax stating it's mine. It wasn't the form I filled out before. The sheet said they would sell the sax for $350 even though two different people told me $600. I mentioned that and the guy said that they could sell it for $600. I asked them where the form was that I filled out when I dropped the sax off. I wanted to see what the form was that I originally filled out. I thought it was a consignment form. They said they didn't have one. How could you not keep any record of a form I filled out? I grudgingly paid for the repairs and took my sax with me. There was no way I was selling my sax at that store. I was horribly upset by the entire experience. I emailed the store manager the entire story. We will see if he responds to me. I'm not expecting to get one back.

Orb!

I've loved this horse pretty much since day one. I saw his first race at Saratoga. I wasn't at the track, but I watched on TV. I watch every single race at Saratoga because it's so close to home and I have an obsession with horse racing. I remember watching Orb stumble at the start. He flew at the end to finish 3rd. I remember telling my dad, "We need to remember this horse because he flew at the end after a horrible start." After watching Orb win the Florida Derby at the end of March, I was still impressed. After watching the other Kentucky Derby prep races, I still loved the way Orb looked. I was very nervous because of the sloppy track today. He proved that he could handle the wet surface as he flew by the horses at the end of the race. As you know from previous blog posts, I'm not your typical person who watches the Derby because it's a fun event to watch. I watch the races leading up to it and analyze every horse in the field. I love the game. I definitely did not have the horse who finished 2nd today. I didn't consider him at all. I had the 1st, 3rd, and 4th place finishers. Assuming Orb came out of the race okay, he will be the heavy favorite in the Preakness in 2 weeks. I really think this horse has what it takes to win the triple crown. We haven't seen a triple crown winner since 1978, 9 years before I was born. Will this be the year? Only one horse has the chance to do it. We will find out how Orb performs in the Preakness Stakes in two weeks!

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

It's another most wonderful time of the year. That's right, the Kentucky Derby is tomorrow! Today was the Kentucky Oaks. That's basically the female version of the Derby. I bet a $1 straight hi 5. That means I bet the horses that I thought would come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The horses I bet needed to come in the exact order that I put them in. If I had boxed that bet, they could come in any order. However, it would have cost me $120 to box it. I was not spending $120 on a bet when there are 10 horses in the race. Well, I should have! If I did, I would have collected only $18,600! After every race, bettors are typically saying coulda, shoulda, woulda. Can you imagine what I could accomplish with $18,000? Of course it would be about 12 after taxes, but I'd be okay with that! Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain in Louisville tomorrow. That will greatly affect the bets I make and the outcome of the race. Either way, I'm still insanely excited for the race! I'm sure you're shocked by that.

Haircut

I need to get my haircut more often. I'm too lazy though. It typically gets to the point where it curls over my ears. Then I shower at night, go to bed with my hair still kind of wet, then wake up with my hair sticking up. When I try to comb it, it stays standing up and I go to work that way...wonderful. I finally got my haircut tonight after a few months. I get a short buzz cut every time I lower my ears. It makes me feel free! It's very easy to tell if guys get their haircut. You can rarely tell with girls, unless they chop it all off. My mom is getting her haircut next Thursday. I already told my dad to make sure he says, "Nice haircut" when he gets home from work that day to act like he noticed. Guys just don't notice that type of thing. Don't get offended by that ladies! We still care about you. Every kid tomorrow will ask me if I got a haircut. They sound like my older brother, who asks questions he knows the answer to all of the time. At least I won't wake up tomorrow with hair sticking up all over the place!

Laundry

Lately I've been getting into an excellent routine of doing my laundry. I take care of it every Wednesday and Sunday when I get home from work. I've been doing my own laundry since I was probably 8 or 9. Yes, that's 8 or 9 years old. One day, my mom told us she was sick of doing our laundry for us and showed us how to do it. No, I don't separate whites and colors (gasp!). I remember being away at college and listening to everyone complain about not knowing how to do laundry. I just laughed because I had been doing it for 10 years at that point. Is it fun? Of course not. It's really easy, though. You throw your clothes in the washer with some detergent, then you throw them in the dryer with a dryer sheet. Then you fold them and put them away. How hard can it be? As you can see, I'm really hurting for topics to write about! I hope you forgive me for being so lame!