Always My Undoing, Plus Idioms

Visits to my father-in-law's house result in massive overeating of rich, salty and/or sugary foods. Happy Father's Day! We had meringues (awesome), huge slices of black forest cheesecake (wow), and generous slices of the best pizza outside Italy (amore). We were sent home with cheesecake and baked French toast covered in sugared pecans. You see the problem. It's especially dangerous to stay with them for a few days, as we did over Christmas. I happened to notice today that my father-in-law's waistline has grown more generous in the year he's been married to the producer of cookie, cake, French toast, and cheesecake wonders.

Uncle Sam tells me I ate more calories than I expended today. No shit, Uncle Sam. That said, I'm very glad I got up early to exercise, or I could be in even more dire straits.

One of my first ESL tasks is to notice all the idioms around me. Fall behind in your work...keep your eyes peeled (that one makes me squirm anyway)...eyes are bigger than your stomach...G. and I say, "You idiom!" when we catch each other saying one.

Shop shop shop

Marathon shopping day, people! First, I got my hair cut. Tired of spending $50 a pop on my beloved hairdresser, as much as I love her, I decided to try out the $14.95 Quick Cuts across the street from my condo. I brought in a photo of the 'do that inspired my current cut and gave the stylist instructions to tidy up my overgrown hair, following the cuts made by my talented regular hairdresser (though of course I didn't put it like that). She did a passable job, but clearly this cut was a stretch for her. She worked laboriously and carefully, expressing surprise at the number of layers in my hair, whereas my usual superhero stylist snip-snip-snips while sharing gossip about her MIL, dog, and the hoity-toity neighbors. Still, I am tidied and richer than I would be.

From there, off to The Paper Store for marathon gift-and-card buying. June brings my sister's birthday, a friend's birthday, my mom's birthday and retirement, and Father's Day. Plus, I wanted to treat myself to a new journal and a sharp-looking pen & notebook for the start of graduate school next weekend. I emerged much, much later with everything but Father's Day and my notebook done, bearing stylish color-coordinated gift wrap and all, too burnt out to purchase for The Dads.

Then, to the used book store for a few novels for myself! I selected this (title sounded familiar) and this ('cause I loved Possession) and this (which I figured would be an interesting read for a future ESL teacher). All three for the delicious price of $10.24.

A quick stop at CVS for sunscreen (on sale), headbands (also on sale and very cute with the tidied locks), and that notebook (they carry recycled now!), and then back home.

We ate wonderful tuna sandwiches for lunch (with provolone, of course), I napped, read some of the Garcia Girls (liking the first two chapters), and then took a practice MTEL reading comprehension test. The MTEL is a state-mandated test for teaching licensure. I kicked ass and so will ignore the advice to take a practice exam for the general sections. Tomorrow I'll take a crack at the writing test. These general "communication and literacy skills tests" are not the ones I'm worried about; I'll admit that the subject area test in ESL has me nervous, but only because I don't yet know anything about ESL.

OK, so then, I did some free YouTube Pilates. (I like the woman in the sculpting Pilates video because she reminds me of Kristin Davis' Charlotte York, who is the only reason I sometimes watch SATC.) Inspired by my workouts, I browsed Amazon for exercise DVDs. I found this one new for just $3.17, shipping from my own state, for a grand total of $6. The shopping gods were with me.

I don't really have a good way to end this ramble of a post.

Waiting by the Inbox

Last week at grad school orientation, our dean went on and on (which I suspect he is wont to do) on many topics, but especially The Importance of Using Your College Email. I suspect this talk was for the benefit of people in the audience older than I, but I nonetheless scrambled home and logged into my new account straightaway.

Incorrect username or password.

A couple calls to the school IT department determined that my account was not yet set up, but should be within a week. I tried every day.

Incorrect username or password.

This morning, I filled in my username and password, hit Enter, and, to my great surprise, was brought to a new screen--My inbox! Hello, new inbox, untainted by spam or an ill-thought-out subscription to the Budget Travel e-newsletter!

But...it's empty. No messages. I emailed G. right away, of course, a simple "Testing 1 2 3." He replied, "It worked!" and then...silence.

It's a little lonely in a clean inbox.

Oh, that could be taken in a naughty way.

Facebook Is a Time Suck, and Other Notes from the Weekend

• Facebook. It sucks me in. It also just plain sucks, in a sense. But I can't turn away. I will probably use it intensely for 2 weeks and then never log in again. Like I did with Friendster.
• The Best recipe for PB Cookies Anywhere Ever is Peanut Butter Crisscrosses, page 303 of The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook.
• We are still scraping ancient wallpaper glue of the bathroom walls, and still hoping it isn't carcinogenic.
• Thanks to a groovy idea in Domino Magazine (I got a free subscription for some cross-promotional reason I don't quite understand), I made a master grocery list containing the major things we usually buy, in the order they appear in the store. Before shopping, we can cross out what we don't need and write in anything extra we do need.
• I threw off my anticipated timelines by being accepted to a graduate program way faster than expected, and now I'm looking at registering for courses and applying for financial aid rather than prepping for the GREs, and it's got me a little unbalanced, like, nightmares about forgetting to do my social studies homework and being the only 35-year-old (older than I really am) in a class with 15-year-olds, who incidentally are all the old high school friends I found on Facebook this weekend.
• I like Nia. We had a dancin' Beltane celebration Friday night. Awesome.
• I tried to mail my sister some gluten-free mixes purchased at the local Trader Joe's. The enthusiastic bagger/manager handed me a list of all the many gluten-free products Trader Joe's carries. I thought, what the hell, and threw the list in the package to her. I've been to the post office no fewer than 3 times this weekend, but the package to my sister is still not mailed.
• The Best of the Colbert Report: funny stuff. Its mood is less cynical than The Daily Show.
• Finally, Jacques Pepin has had a fascinating life. I highly recommend his autobiography.

Better.

Lots of sleep, lots of resting, and the beautiful weather is making this week much better than the last. Lots of laugh therapy, too: We're watching The Best of the Colbert Report.

I think I've found the right graduate program for me (I think), and I'm looking forward to that. Explaining to the admissions counselor why I want to teach ESL was helpful, too; reaffirming, I suppose. It seems that whenever I make a big decision, Supporters of the Decision line up on one side and Detractors on the other, even among the few people I tell. (Incidentally, this is why I tell very few people about Big Decisions.) I can be susceptible to the Detractors, who often voice my own reservations about the Decision, and whose arguments are specific and logical, topic sentences supported by details in a 5-paragraph essay. The Supporters are vague and enthusiastic--a pep rally--because if you see the plus side, there's no need to elaborate. Explaining my goals and reasons to the admissions counselor, then, was like having the chance to rebut the Detractors to myself by making the unspoken argument of the Supporters.

Do you experience this phenomenon of Detractors and Supporters? It strikes me as universal.

Tomorrow

I'll be visiting a middle school ESL department, and I'm looking forward to it! Of course, my shiatsu practice attracted a new customer, and I'm thinking, "As soon as I pick a new course, my practice will become wildly successful." What to do, what to do.