Maria! La chiave!

Keys!

Have I mentioned how much I like keys? Maybe because they are shiny. Maybe because when you get a lot of keys, they have a nice weight. Maybe just because they open things.

And these keys open my house!

Don't you want wildly inappropriate stories that you can't tell your children?

I was telling my students that the secret strategy to journal writing is just to set a time and do it at that set time no matter what. So always on Wednesdays at 2 pm, you are going to write in your journal.

Unfortunately, I don't take my own advice, so it's been a long time since I've blogged. I've been thinking about it. There has just been so much to sort through, that I haven't been able to write anything down.

So strange story #1. I was watching TV (a little too much these days, I probably shouldn't admit) and saw a show called "Clean House." Are you all aware of this? The premise is basically that this team goes in to very very messy houses and convinces the owners to sell their stuff at a yard sale and then uses the money to fix up the house, clean it, organize it, and redecorate. It's like a traffic accident, I just couldn't look away. I was completely amazed by the horror that these people were living in. And I realized, that is exactly what this apartment would look like if I wasn't here. My roommate would choose to live like that. The Horror!

Story #2. I started my first summer class on Wednesday. This will branch into several stories. I say that just to warn you, and so that you don't start thinking that I have problems with organization. So, in order to start class on Wednesday, I went into work on Tuesday to get everything prepped. When I got there, around noon, everyone was immediately in a little bit of a tizzie, telling me that all my students had shown up for class that morning. Part of me just thought, well that's stupid, it's a Mon/Wed/Fri class. But then I was just worried that I had somehow screwed everything up. But fortunately it wasn't me, it was my boss.

So all 16 of my students did show up on Wednesday, and we had a great class. They all have good attitudes and are willing to talk and participate, so that has made the last two classes really easy.

It is always interesting to talk to the students and find out why they are in the class. Most of this class - 14 of the 16 - are returning to school after a long absence, so they have some interesting tales to tell. One of the older ladies (65-ish) told me that she is taking this class so that she can write a letter to her son who is in prison. He wrote her a letter 3 months ago, and she hasn't been able to answer it because she "can't write."

One of the other students is blind. He kept us all entertained yesterday with a story of his daring exploits as a security guard and the time he had to tackle a suspect in the parking lot. Yes, I know what you are thinking, how does a blind guy get to be a security guard? I have no idea, but no, it wasn't this incident that caused the blindness.

In other news, I'm getting very excited about my house. I'm nervous about closing, which is supposed to be this Friday. But I don't have a time yet, so I hope it all goes ok. Despite that, I have been checking out things at all the good stores (I went to the high end stores to gather ideas, so fun). So now I have all kinds of fun decorating ideas. I even found towels and bath mats that match my comforter at Target, but I'm wondering if that's a little too matchy-matchy.

Decorating thoughts?

This is a perfect time to panic! I'm lost, Andy is gone, they're gonna move to their new house in two days, AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!

I had my home inspection today. The home inspector was pretty disappointed, because he was bored. But I was thrilled that he was bored, because it means my house is in good shape. I took some pictures to share with you. I would have taken a bunch more, but my batteries died.

Here is the living room, and you can see the little niche under the stairs.


Here is the living room and the fireplace:


The stairs and part of the kitchen:


The kitchen




The kitchen and dining room


The patio


Then, up the stairs. (Just turn your head, you'll get the full effect)


The second bedroom. It is blue.


The second bathroom, which is attached to the second bedroom, making it a second master suite.


The washer and dryer closet. How excited am I!


The master bedroom. Yeah, that's me. The master.


The master bath.

Oh great, my kids are having plastic surgery. That's a nice age to get to.

I thought my mom would enjoy these post-op pictures. If you are queasy, like me, stop reading now. If you are only mildly queasy, you are probably ok, because I was too ill to take any pictures of the huge nastiness.



My turban
























Yay, we got the bandage changed! (with a little help, from my friends. I get by...)














A close up:
















The stitches are out, and the doctor pronounced it "beautiful"
























Stitches are out, and I am trying to look normal.




















And what it looks like now, 6 weeks later. Can you see the bald patch?

Dear Dwight, At 8:00 someone will poison the coffee. Do not drink the coffee! More instructions will follow. Cordially, Future Dwight

And the other clip going through my mind today:



I bought a house! Don't worry, there isn't a crazy clown that is integral to the structural integrity. It is a cute townhouse in a really nice neighborhood. I'll post some pictures when I go back out to take some.

Smee, flunk the maggot.

Today is Reading Day. (Woo Hoo!!! Classes are over!) And I know, really know -- deep down in, in this area [gesturing somewhere around midsection] -- that I am doing way more reading than my students are.

And all this reading and grading just makes me think of this, a classic scene from the movie Hook, with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman (why do his eyebrows always look like that?)