November 2005 Archives

Are you getting a flu shot this winter? Why? Are you part of an "at-risk" group? Or are you just wanting to avoid the inconvenience of having flu this season?

Some people point out that the side effects of a flu shot are worse than a case of the flu itself. Others say that the flu shot - and other innoculations for disease prevention for that matter - have reduced the incidence of disease over all. Some say there is a risk for everything.

I've had flu shots before. Never had problems with them. This year I decided to let someone else have "my" shot. I decided that since I'm not in a high risk group that my body doesn't need something foreign in it. (I'm sure that I'm ingesting plenty of foreign things daily . . . just not the flu shot this year!)

What are your thoughts?

My husband came home last night and told me that he had a little surprise for me and to be ready by 6:30. Hmmm. . . I used to like surprises, and besides the girls and I were going to watch a movie while I ironed. What was this? and How long were we going to be out? and did I have to changed?

Whatever happened to my sense of adventure!!! Well, anyway . . . I'm sure glad I took the hiking boots off, at least . . .

This one falls under "You Gotta be Kidding Me!" The other day I was having a conversation with a man who was annoyed that a daughter of a friend of his was placed in juvenile detention for fighting. According to him, she only hit the other kid because she hit her first. He didn't see how that wasn't self defense. Okay, I felt that didn't sound fair either, but you know how stories like these go . . . there's always more you didn't hear. It seemed to me that he probably didn't have all the facts.

We've all had those days. We've all had those days before THOSE days . . . the days when you just know that what you're preparing to do just isn't a good idea. Monday, I was out with Curly Fry, my youngest, trying to resolve a chronic sinus problem hoping for relief as much as resolution. (Better living through pharmeceutics???) The nice thing about morning appointments is that you get an opportunity to go to lunch and maybe do a bit of shopping, too. It's a nice way to spend a few hours with your kid if you can get away from work.

I kept feeling like our upcoming trip to Michigan for the holiday was just not a good idea - predicted snow emergency notwithstanding. And there was a lot of snow in the forecast for southwestern Michigan - at one point forecasters were predicting 18 inches! But still, snow usually doesn't deter me. Something else was nagging at me. That CF didn't want to go to Michigan seemed a little weird to me.

I teach language arts - among other things - at an alternative school in a north central Indiana town of about 46,000 residents. My students are not necessarily "the bad kids", but the ones who don't fit the mold of the average student and who are "falling through the cracks" of our system. Sometimes they have attendance problems; all of them are at least of average intelligence - some very bright; all of the them are the victims of some societal problem including poverty, single parented families, drug or alcohol use, lack of supervision, teen pregnancy, or victims of a myriad of crimes.

It's snowing.

I love autumn. I love the changing colors and temperatures, the wind, and the smell of the woods at this time of year. But like all good things, autumn comes to an end sometime.

We cleared out my side of the garage. No longer the space for construction projects, gardening tools, or the place we put the foosball table for the kids' parties. It's now the place for my car. . . and the dirt and snow it tracks in.

It's snowing. And I do love snow! I love the first few weeks of winter, but I guess I'm just not ready to be stuffed into a coat and to have my hands hurt from the cold.

Oh, I know. Quit gripping.

I'll get over it.

My father was unwittingly a master at these. A malapropisms is defined as "the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase, especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context." I love these - can't help having fun with words since that's my vocation.

While I was discussing the finer points of Movable Type and blogging with my Lovely Sister (LS) who posts at Arrrgh! my youngest daughter who I will dub Curly Fry, was preparing hot chocolate for me. (Not that it was cold outside - yet - but we were "practicing" because our forecast was hinting at snow for today.) I heard her tell her father that she was annoyed that she couldn't use the marshmallows because they were "expirated"!

I snorted through my next sentence with LS, trying to explain what I had just heard. I am so sure that my father's genes have passed through me and are firmly planted in my youngest! You gotta love that!

Recently, I spent the morning revisiting old friends made through a retreat experience I had over eight years ago. We surely didn't look eight years older, but throughout the morning, it was obvious so much had changed. One thing that we did was to share with the group what had changed in our lives as a result of the retreat. I listened to the stories. Many of the women's experiences were "out of their comfort zone" forays into the limitless possibilities we all dream about, but sometimes don't realize. It was encouraging to hear from introverts who had led organizations and from women who saw themselves as "ordinary homemakers" influencing major community organizations because they had become board members. My change was at first very quiet, a tremor - almost unnoticed.

I'm so excited!!! I can't get my fingers to type! I have been blogging in my head for weeks - probably months! And, of course, I'm at work so I can't do ANYTHING right now. I feel like I'm goin' on a date with a hot guy - that's how it feels to have a forum for all the stuff that goes on in my head. Hmmm - that's pretty telling . . .I'm getting all worked up about talking on a blog. . . I'm sure my husband wouldn't be too happy about that! In the infamous words of Arnold - I'll be back!