Desire Street

I forwarded many of y'all Cal's story that he wrote about Desire Street and its relocation to Niceville, FL, about a 20 minute drive from where he lives and works. Anyway, for those of you who didn't read it or if you'd like to see it again in a more readable format, he's been able to get it posted for free access on his newspaper's site.

I think he'll be okay with it, too, if any of you want to pass it along.

Safety Hazard

While walking to the cafeteria 20 minutes ago, I had to pass directly underneath a huge, steel, air-conditioning unit hanging precariously from a very tall crane that was directing it onto the top of the new second story of our school. I had visions of Bugs Bunny or Wiley Coyote being smashed flat as a pancake, and I briefly wondered if I would be as lucky as they and survive such a blow.

In more exciting news, this is officially my 100th post!

Redneck Extravaganza

Number of meals involving some form of pork this past weekend: 4
Number of Mullet Festivals attended: 1
Number of moons seen at Cal's company picnic: 1 too many

I got back yesterday from a wonderfully busy weekend down in Fort Walton. We attended Niceville's annual "Mullet Festival", named not for the infamous haircuts that turned out in record numbers, but for the fish. Cal ate some and I tried his. Nasty. Festival was great fun, though, as was our trip to the beach up the road from his house Saturday afternoon. Why is Florida great? Because we were able to swim in the Gulf in the middle of October!

Sunday after church, I got to go with Cal to his company picnic on the Santa Rosa Sound (is that right, Cal?). The weather was BEAUTIFUL, although the highlight was most certainly laughing at and taking photos of Cal's fellow sportswriter's, uh, plumber-like shorts.

All of this is just to say that we had a great weekend, and I was not at all excited to come back to Macon and get back to work today.

But work I must ...

A Positive Working Environment

My pathway to the lunchroom from my classroom.




My pathway from the lunchroom to my classroom.



It's a jungle out there.

(See Janet's post if you don't know what this is all about.)

Overheard at the FPC Family Night Supper

"Elizabeth and Miriam have a, uh, symbiotic relationship."

Inflation

Prompted by having two students lose baby teeth today, I asked one of my classes what price they're fetching nowadays from the Tooth Fairy. The general consensus is $20. One kid said that, if he's at his grandparents' house, he gets $50.

Perhaps I should look into stealing my students' lost teeth and selling them in the black market?

Perry and the Really Old Rock Stars

No one can ever say that I don't get out of the house and do.

Last night, Elizabeth and I partook in (of?) what is a yearly ritual for most Maconites. We visited the Georgia National Fair in Perry.

I had been before; it was, actually, a trip to the "Perry Fair" in 1999, my senior year in college, with some folks from RUF that inspired me to break up with my long-time highschool-and-way-into-college boyfriend the day after I got home. A good thing. Although it wasn't the fair itself that did it (it was more the quality time spent with other believers, girls and guys, that made me realize that I (and he) could have a better life), the event will always hold a special place in my heart. Our visit last night did nothing to change that.

We didn't leave Macon until about 8:15, and we hadn't eaten dinner, so I was starving by the time we got there around 9. We stopped and got gyro wraps at the little Greek stand, where I was promptly complimented by the Greek men in the booth who told me that I, in no way, needed a DIET coke. Ha! (Rebecca -- they reminded me of our Greek restaurant friends at Lo Spuntino in London!) After eating, we walked around a bit, and I ran into an old friend of mine from my days in Speech Pathology. She's from Cairo, actually, and went on a retreat with our youth group once when we were in middle school, so she's a really old friend. Anyway, I haven't seen her in probably five years, so that was random.

Although I'm not a ride person, Elizabeth convinced me to go on the dragon ship ride; you know, the one that swings back and forth? We quickly and excitedly (for her, at least) claimed the end seat, the one that goes up the highest. We snapped this picture on a downswing, and, as scary and horrible as it is of both of us, I thought it was too hilarious not to post. Nice uvula, Liz. I like your 2nd chin, Mir.

After our one ride, we headed over to the arena to see REO Speedwagon in concert. HAHA! How funny is that?!? A friend of mine (which is a long story in itself) works for a radio station and hooked us up with free tickets, which also included a free pass into the fair. They sang Take it on the Run, Can't Fight this Feeling, etc, and we sang along to those few that we knew... us and a couple thousand other very strange, very old fans. Who knew that REO Speedwagon had groupies? We discussed how it was a bit pathetic that these old rock stars haven't ever really grown up; they have the nasty 80's rock star long hair, and they were fairly crude and immature in their commentary throughout the night.

We stayed for probably an hour or so, then made our way back to the parking lot to go home to Macon.

What's on the slate for tonight, you ask? Why, Widespread Panic at the Macon Centreplex, of course. Free tickets, of course. Yeah... it pays to be popular in this town.

Ha!

Budgeting

If I stopped getting a diet coke from the drink machine in the teacher's lounge every day, I could save myself around $130 a year, by my calculations. What could I do with $130?

1) Pay for 5 months of gym membership.
2) Buy 5 pairs of new pants that actually fit.
3) Put enough gas in my car for two (TWO!) trips to Ft. Walton.
4) Buy 3 of my family members Christmas gifts.
5) Go see 18 movies at peak movie time at the Amstar.

Am I likely to stop getting a diet coke from the drink machine in the teacher's lounge every day?

No.

Shut-in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get a storm shutter to stay open? Struggling over here. Thanks.

Starstruck

Remember my summer obsession post? Remember the one referring to the cute 13WMAZ weatherman, Ben Jones?

Today at work, I got the daily announcement email and was skimming through it, barely paying attention, as usual. UNTIL... I came across this one:

Students in grades 6 – 12th grades can now sign up to audition for the Talent Show. You must sign up in the office and be able to audition the week of October 24th – 28th. The Grand Prize winner will receive $100.00 in cash and there will be cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place as well.

The show will be Monday, November 14th with WMAZ meteorologist Ben Jones as the guest emcee.

ARE YOU FPD’S MOST TALENTED?????

OH. MY. GOSH.

I hesitated to post this, for fear of sounding as though my loyalty to World's Most Amazing And Handsome Boyfriend, Cal, is wavering. It's not, in any remote way. However, I couldn't NOT post it. This topic was made for blogging about!

Janet, my friend and fellow FPD teacher, is calling dibs on him (fine with me, I'm happily taken), but I did tell her that she had to let me get my picture with him first before she captured him with her beauty and charm.

For the blog, of course. Merely for the blog.

(Postscript: Interesting to note, upon revisting the post from 3 months ago that I referenced above, how the new and exciting presence of A Boy (capitalized) in my life has completely wiped out the obsession with boys (lower case) that I was experiencing then, only a week or so before Cal first re-established contact between us. Funny how quickly things can change, huh?)

The Little Things

I know I've been dieting when the rare sight of a table full of homemade goodies (fruit trays, muffins, bagels, brownies, spinach dip, etc) in the teacher's lounge will completely lift my spirits for the rest of the day. Heck, the way things have been in my fridge/pantry lately, this might make me happy for the rest of the week!

Perhaps I'm a closet glutton who's just outed herself. Hmmm.

Tidbits

This morning at 7:50 while I was walking up to the school from the parking lot, one of my hyperactive students came bounding out of the building to show me a sign about swim team practice. He got about 3 feet from me, stopped suddenly, and exclaimed with a look of dismay, "You look pale!" He then dashed off in the other direction.

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In other news, I cleaned out my closet last night.

# of winter clothes that I pulled out because they were too big to even consider keeping: 27

# of winter clothes recently bought to replace said big ones: 3

Good stuff, unless you're living on a teacher's salary.

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In other other news, I had a dream last night that I was going to Nashville to visit Julie and decided to stop in Asheville to visit Nellie and go to Brian Habig's church.

Problem 1: Julie lives in Greenwood, SC, not Nashville.
Problem 2: Nashville is not near Asheville.
Problem 3: Nellie (and Habig's church) is not in Asheville.
Problem 4: I don't actually know Nellie.

Rebecca was at church with Nellie and me (Rebecca actually does live in Asheville). I lost my purse.

Problem 5, the biggest of them all: The purse that I lost was red and white toile with a red ribbon strap. I know I've lived in Macon too long when I can even conjure up a dream that I have a red and white toile purse with a red ribbon strap. Ugh. It's time to move.

(funny that my dream about Habig's church and Nellie's posting of the above link on her blog coincides. no, I had not read that article before I dreamed about visiting there. interesting.)

Pushover.

How did I miss the memo? You know, the one that says Miss Terry is not to be taken seriously?

This afternoon, during 7th period, I got really frustrated because my class was completely out of hand. I turned around from writing fascinating notes on the board about Main Idea sentences to glare silently at the students before ripping into them with my most stern, mean, teacher-like voice.

"I don't know what gave you the idea that I can only write a certain number of pink slips (disciplinary referrals) in a class period," I shouted, "but you should be aware that, in this class, there is NOT safety in numbers."

Silence. Success! For all of 10 seconds.

I hear a squeak coming from the back of the room. I direct my stare towards the source of the sound, only to find the quietest, smartest kid in the class with his face screwed up in an expression of what looked like pain. The more I watched him and the more his control broke, I realized that he was holding back laughter!

His fight didn't last long. Within 5 seconds, he was laughing out loud, the loudest sound I've heard from him in the last 8 weeks that we've been in school. He was hyperventilating. Hiccuping. CRYING with mirth!

I couldn't help myself. Watching him struggle to regain control, I started laughing, too. The rest of the class lost it. It was over.

I still have no idea what prompted this quiet kid's crack of composure. I, of course, am rethinking the incident over and over, trying to figure out if I said something wrong, something that only the smartest, quietest kid in the class would pick up on. Who knows?

In the meantime, I'm losing ground on the mean teacher gig. Sigh.

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Last night, Elizabeth and I did ourselves proud as we took advantage of an unusual and free thing to do in Macon even when our other friends decided that it didn't sound like much fun.

We left a birthday party early and headed over to the, uh, not-so-safe side of Macon for the free Little Richard concert! Lots of controversy over this one... apparently, our mayor (C. Jack Ellis) had promised the concert, regardless of the fact that he wasn't sure where the funds needed to pay for it were going to come from. No one was real sure that it'd actually go on as planned until the day of the concert, and even then, unfortunately, it was moved from outside in front of the GA Music Hall of Fame downtown to the much less appealing Macon Centerplex/Coliseum.

Liz and I decided to brave the shady crowd that we knew would be there and make an appearance. Not only, though, did we make an appearance, we made our way up to the front, as close as we could get, and danced to tunes such as Good Golly Miss Molly, Blueberry Hill, and Tutti Frutti. We laughed at the Macon-native Little Richard's strange ramblings, hellos to old classmates he could see in the audience ("Oh, look, there's George. Hello George!"), and 'serious' social commentaries such as, "Not all black folks are bad... but not all white folks are good." We only stayed about 45 minutes before we had had enough of the scene, but it was a good time and we're certainly glad we went.

Earlier in the evening, we had been at a birthday party for a friend who we go to church with. Here's a pic from that; the birthday girl is the one in the middle, to my left...



Tonight is a chili cook-off with the FPC Singles, hosted by none other than Elizabeth Hall, aka "Ms. Lizzie" for the Texas-themed evening. She's a better woman than I, that's for sure.

Ha!

Remember I told y'all that my sister Beth used to live in this same apartment that I'm in now? Like, 6 years ago?

The other day, I check my mail to find one envelope. Addressed to Beth Terry. HAHA! I cracked up. Apparently some company is trying to "win back her business". I should write them and tell them that, in order to do that, they should keep up better with their former clients' whereabouts.

Welcome back to the South, Beth. Hope Chicago was great... Blog, girl!

NOT an afterthought.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!

I WILL blog, darn it!

Ok patient blog readers, this one's for you. I've not posted anything substantial in, what, two weeks or so? Trust me, I've wanted to. However, I haven't had anything to write about! I can't tell you how many times I've sat in front of this screen and stared at its blankness, trying to come up with something clever or witty or, gosh, merely readable. Nothing. Completely nothing.

Today, though, I am willing myself past this blogger's block. Even now, I have no idea what I'll write about. It might be a commentary on something that's happened in my life during the last few days, or it may be a rundown of my plans for the weekend. Who knows? We'll see...

The reason I haven't blogged is because, now that work has started back up, my life has recaptured some of its comfortable and necessary routine. I say some because, of course, Cal's (very nice and welcome) presence in my life has added an element of adventure and sponteneity into my days that wasn't there before. I'm prepared to travel long distances (317 miles, one-way, actually) at the drop of a hat on weekends, if our schedules happen to match up. I'm willing to stay up an hour or two past my once-normal bedtime of 10 pm (yeah, I'm ancient) to write emails or, if I'm lucky, get to talk to him briefly if he happens to get off work before midnight. That only happens once every two weeks or so, and I'm usually too sleepy to form coherent sentences at that time of night anyway. The weekends when we're not together are times to talk, and talk we do. What did folks do before email and unlimited free weekends?

Anyway, this is not going to be a blog about Cal. Already is, I realize. But the rest won't be.

The every-day routine that I'm not blogging about lately is this: I get up about 6:45 (after I've pushed the snooze button twice), get to work by 7:50 or so, home by 4, at the gym (on Mon/Tues/Thurs or Fri) by 4:15, back home by 5:30, dinner, then whatever is on the agenda for the evening.

On Monday nights, I have rehearsal for this new ladies' ensemble for church. I'm real excited; it's nine of us (and in a HUGE church, I'm flattered that I'm included), ranging in ages from 25 to 31. It's mostly all girls from my Sunday School class (the Couples one; remember, I'm rebellious?), so they're friends of mine already, and we have lots of fun. We'll be singing at the FPC night service on Oct 30, and, hopefully, one Sunday morning soon after that. Singing on Sunday morning at stuffy First Pres! What an honor! (also a bit intimidating.)

Tuesday nights and Thursday nights are usually pretty open, although they fill up quickly with having supper with Elizabeth or going over to a friend's house to watch television or something. On Thursday of this week, I went shopping for new Fall clothes since the ones I have are all 2 or 3 sizes too big. Hurrah! (not hurrah for my bank account. Seriously strained with new clothes purchases and long distance relationship during National Gas Crisis.)

Wednesdays are full, starting with a faculty devotional before school, which is, actually, more like a weekly faculty meeting that they call a "mandatory devotional". It's a little suspicious, ethically, in my opinion. But whatever. Wednesday night church starts with supper at 5:15, then rehearsal at 5:45: Elizabeth and I are helping our pastor, Chip Miller, lead the music on Wednesday nights! It's so much fun... he's playing his guitar (what? at First Pres?!?) and we're singing. All kinds of fun RUF stuff, along with some trad. hymns and a few newer, but theologically sound, praise songs. I've even played my flute a little the past two weeks there. It's making me feel much more a part of a church that was once so cold and distant to me. People there know me, now, and that's a nice feeling.

Weekends are either full of exhausting travel to pressure-filled visits with Cal (pressure that we're trying to alleviate) or catching up with Elizabeth. I've missed being away from her! I'm here, though, for 4 weeks straight, and then, after a visit to Fort Walton Beach on Oct 22, 4 weeks more. Then perhaps a visit to Athens? With my new guy? Hope to see some of y'all... we have tickets for the Kentucky game, just trying to work out scheduling details.

Well, this blog is LONG and BORING. But, perhaps, it has gotten me past the blogging wall. And, if it hasn't, you now know exactly what I'm doing at any particular moment during the week! Lucky you.

I miss y'all!

Dating tips? Really?

I think I went on a couple of dates with the guy who wrote this article. At the very least, he had read (and memorized) it. No, I won't reveal his name, in order to be kind. Apparently, though, he also loooooooves animals.

Yeah. Right.

Smoke Break

Here's the most recent of Elizabeth and me. We were taking a break from the smoke inside this very cool Macon establishment (cool + Macon = oxymoron?), 550 Blues, actually owned by one of my cousins. He got us in for free to hear a great band, Blueground Undergrass.

Aunt Miriam

Check out my pregnant sister! Crazy stuff... not to y'all, I realize, but to me, it's kinda freaky. She's the baby of the family! Also other pics from her visit to Macon tonight.