Long Car Rides

I used to love taking long car rides. I have no idea why. That all came to a screeching halt once I made the 3 and a half hour trip numerous times to and from Potsdam through mountains and towns where people go to die. When we were kids, my mom would give us each $10 worth of quarters during a long car ride on vacation. If we misbehaved, we had to give her a quarter. Whatever we had left by the time we got there (which was normally not a lot) we could use in an arcade or anything we wanted really. That was her creative way to try to get us to behave on a boring ride. The longest car ride of my life was to Cedar Point and back. That was between 9 and 10 hours each way. Ugh. Today I took the hour and 40 minute drive to Turning Stone to make my donation to the Indians. That ride is nothing compared to Potsdam. It's an hour and 40, like I said, all on the thruway. Once you get off the exit, you take a left and it's a left at the first light. Not even I can get lost going there. I'm the type of person that can't sit still for very long. That's probably why I don't like long car rides.

Roget's Thesaurus

If you're a writer, you need to get Roget's International Thesaurus 7th edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer. This book only has 325,000 words and phrases to choose from. I bought this thesaurus because an author that came to my school to talk about his books recommended it to me. I need a good thesaurus because I often use the same words all of the time. That's one thing I struggle with in my writing. I repeat myself too often. Looking through a 1,282 page book will definitely slow my writing down. However, if I use it correctly, it will greatly improve my writing. As I work on the 3rd book in "The Teacher That..." series, we will see how beneficial the thesaurus really is for me.

Is that your fat Man Towel?

When it's hot and humid like it has been the last two weeks, I sweat by breathing. No matter how little I do, I sweat. I can't help it. I was carrying around a little towel today to wipe off the sweat from my face and body. My mom saw me and said, "Is that your fat man towel?" Thanks, mom. I appreciate your odd way of expressing that you love me. That's the thing with my mom. She always tells it like it is. As Kevin James says in his comedy act, "When you're fat, you don't need a reason to sweat. A friend could come in and see you sweating and say, 'Whoa, man! Did you just work out in the attic?' No, I peeled an orange...........about an hour ago, why what's up?" That's how it is with me. I showered two times today and sweat immediately after the showers. Both showers were pretty pointless. Tomorrow will be more of the same. I will probably have to have my "fat man towel" with me all day again.

Hot Dog Eating Contest

The best part about the 4th of July isn't the fireworks or the BBQ's. It's definitely the hot dog eating contest that they have every year at Coney Island. They actually have competitive eating contests all over the nation with ranked eaters as if it were a sport. Contestants get 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs as they can. The winner this year ate 69. 69! I don't think I've had 69 hot dogs in my life! He did it in 10 minutes. That's over 18,000 calories in 10 minutes. Most people eat that amount of calories in about 9 days. If your me, probably about 4 days, or just today. I felt like I ate at least that many calories today if not more. I don't know what draws me to watching people shove hot dogs down their throats every 4th of July. Yet I do it anyway. It's a tradition like none other.

Country Flags

One of my "homework assignments" is to study all of our countries flags. Almost every Wednesday at trivia, they show a picture of a country flag and we are told to write down the answer. We almost never get it right. I took a brief look at the flags today. They are incredibly hard to memorize! We only have over 190 countries! I can tell you what the U. S. flag looks like. We are also set if they show us Japan, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Russia, China, and that's about all I can think of right now. Let's see if they ask us a flag tonight.

Maggots

Last night, my dad told me to take the garbage cans to the street to be picked up this morning. He warned me about the maggots. He came with me with a few bowls of water. The maggots were covering the outside of the garbage can! He dunked water on them to get them off so that we could lift the lid and put the last bag in. My dad said that this morning, there were no maggots covering the lid. I had the ridiculously awesome job of cleaning the garbage can after the garbage was picked up. I only saw a handful of maggots because most of them were thrown away when the trash was picked up. Maggots are like worms, they magically show up when it's hot and humid outside where as worms show up after it rains. There had to have been several hundred maggots surrounding the garbage can last night. It was repulsing. I would love to never see a maggot again. Unfortunately I know I'll probably seeing hundreds all over the garbage can again next week.

We're Halfway There

Whenever we were halfway through a set in swim practice, we would start singing, "livin' on a prayer" (We're halfway there) by Bon Jovi. By the way, I'm seeing him perfrom at SPAC three weeks from tonight! Anyway, we are already halfway through 2013! Let's take a look at how I'm doing with my New Years Resolutions.

-I will publish book #3 by continuing to work on it more often than I did last year.

I published book 3 at the end of February. I started to come up with characters for book 3 in "The Teacher That..." series, but haven't done anything since then. Shame on me.

-I will get a teaching job by applying, applying, applying, and more applying.

Still no teaching job. However, I have applied to more jobs than ever. I have probably applied to over 40 jobs all over the place in the past month. I also revised my resume and cover letter several times.

-I will eat smaller portions at dinner and fewer desserts at night by exercising serious will power and having less junk in the house. 

Yeah... This one is not happening. I still eat large portions and plenty of dessert because I have no will power.

-I will be more productive at night after work by reading and writing more instead of sitting at the computer and/or watching TV.

I have my moments of productivity. I also have more lazy moments. I have read 3 books in the past week, which is practically a world record for me.

-I will go to the gym more than two times a week.  No more excuses!

I did really well with this until June. Then I started playing tennis instead of going to the gym. However, now its raining everyday so I can't play tennis. I finally went to the gym today for the first time in several weeks.

-I will be more positive about my future and stop saying, “I’ll have a teaching job 10 years from now” sarcastically.

I'm getting better at this. I still have moments of relapse and desperation.

-I will go on all three vacations I have in mind and not worry about how much they will cost.  I will worry about how much fun they will be!

I unfortunately didn't go to Cedar Point like I planned. I went to visit my friend instead. I still have my cruise coming up at the end of August!

-I will put X dollars into my retirement fund by budgeting the money I make. 

I put that money into retirement already!

-I will find a publisher to take my book(s) by continuing to send out query letters.

I sent out many query letters during my April break. I haven't done anything since then. Ironically one agent responded today with a rejection. Shocking, I know...

-I will pay it forward to less fortunate people instead of buying myself something I do not need.

I started off the year pretty well with this, and then haven't done much.

 

Overall, I'm doing fairly well on my resolutions. As always, there's room for improvement. I actually watched the movie New Years Eve last night where the lady tried to take care of all of her resolutions on the last day of the year. I have certainly put in much more effort into getting a teaching job than I previously have. Now I need it to happen. We will see what the next 6 months bring!