Month: August 2023

Nightmare…

“Honey…”

“What?”

“You’re bleeding! Your teeth! It looks like you’re trying for a horrible Halloween costume.”

Apparently, he had flossed his teeth rather hard, and then put in his aligners… which then were holding in all the blood in a very creepy way. It had seeped in between all the upper teeth on the right side of his mouth, and was a light layer of red on the front of each tooth with a dark pooling effect in between them all.

He went to rinse it out and was blown away – he’d had no idea I was serious about its being a lot of blood. “I could have given a blood sample with the amount of blood that came out of the tray,” he said.

Yikes.

Happy dreaming!

Post-a-day 2023

A first for the first day of school

For the first time in my life, I slept well the night before the first day of school. I went to school today rested and ready for the day, and I was, at one point, amazed when I realized just how rested and easy-feeling I was. I had a peaceful, easy feeling, and it was mostly due to a good night of sleep last night.

What a great first to experience.

Dear God, thank you for my sleep last night. Please, help me always to sleep well, that sounds have the full and easy energy to pursue and fulfill your will always. Thank you for this life and this work – they are both blessed. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Day one

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am simultaneously not really worried at all and somewhat freaking out (mostly because I am so ‘no big deal’ about it all). Sure, I want to make a good impression and do a good job and all that jazz. But I also… it’s not that I don’t care about it all. Perhaps it is that the first day, in my mind, is just a day now. It didn’t used to be. But it seems to be for me now, anyway. I can’t get much done in terms of lesson-planning until I start meeting with students. So, I’d like to go ahead and meet with them in order to find out where they all are with everything. Language courses are kind of like that. Yes, we have specific goals for the year, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be able to start right away with new material. Most of them are new learners of the language, and most only have exposure during the school year and in the classroom. So, two months of no class means massive recession of their abilities in the language. And I didn’t teach these particular students last year, so I don’t even know what they truly covered, nor how well they mastered what they did cover. So, my first unit of the year, except for French I, is always a review unit to get everyone on the same page.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to it, I guess. I think it has the potential to be a really great year.

Thank you, God. Please, give me your perfect words this year. Help me to be your servant in my teaching especially. Help me always to pursue and fulfill your will. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

AirDrop

Today was a free crêpe day at a certain restaurant, so we went to have our two free Nutella crêpes this evening at the restaurant. While we were sitting at our outside table, and I was looking at something in my man’s phone, a notification popped up: ‘Fio would like to AirDrop 1 photo to you’.

I showed the phone to my man, and he went for it – ‘Let’s see what we get!’ he declared.

It was a terrible, seemingly accidental and slightly blurry selfie of the nose-upward of someone who clearly was inside the restaurant. I had doubts she even knew she had just taken the photo, let alone that she had AirDropped it to anyone. My man thought it had said the name Flo, and so decided to screenshot a photo of the Progressive Flo and send it back…

And he discovered that the phone was actually called Fio’s iPhone, not Flo’s, but he offered the photo anyway over AirDrop. After a short pause, the photo was accepted and delivered. I told him he really should have just sent back the photo she had sent him, so she could see what clearly started it all. He laughed and agreed.

But, before he could send it back to her, he had another photo offer from Fio’s Phone. He accepted. This time, it was clearly an intentional photo of the friend in line with her. We immediately tried to determine who the pair were. I found the area of the restaurant where they had to be – the outer wall was all windows, see, so we could see into the restaurant rather easily from our outdoor table – and my man figured out who they actually were. As soon as he told me, and we both looked over at them, we saw that they were looking around, clearly trying to guess who was on the other end of the AirDropping, but not having anywhere near as many clues as we had – just that it was a male, due to the name of my man’s phone.

We both just keep looking at them, and they eventually notice that we’re watching and that he’s holding a phone and we’re both kind of giggling and smiling off and on as we talk and watch them – I promise it actually was not creepy, though it definitely sounds a little creepy as I write it out right now… As they clearly start to consider that we might be the other end of this exchange, we both give them a clear smile and I wave, making it obvious that they aren’t crazy and that we actually are the right people they were seeking.

They wave back, a little embarrassed, but not very much so. I turn and tell my man to send the original photo now, and then turn back to watch the reaction of the two girls, smiling with anticipation. He sends it, and I know the moment it had gone through.

The girl had no idea she had sent the original photo. The moment it clearly had popped up on her phone, she nearly fell to the ground, hand over mouth, utterly embarrassed and laughing, hard. The friend with her puts a hand on the girl’s back, and also keels forward in laughter. It is clear to us that everything suddenly makes sense to them and that they had unintentionally started the whole exchange.

We can’t stop laughing either, and turn back to each other, filled with joy at the utter silliness of it all. They seem far too embarrassed to look back at us, and we don’t mind.

It was a really great time, and it was super fun to be both detectives and totally silly and friendly all at once.

Thank you, God, for this fun and unexpected connection to others who also were willing to have fun and be connected. We are all people, all your children, and this was a wonderful experience of and reminder of how powerful that bond can be. Thank you for all of it. Thank you for today. Thank you for this life and this family of loving people. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Monday

Well, I went and got the adapter from IT to be able to connect my external hard drive (with all my teaching documents on it) to the computer they gave me. Then I promptly returned to my office to get to work, only to find that I had left the hard drive at home… ugh! Haha

So, I got other stuff done today, and then left a little early. I then went to the chiropractor, who made a small huge difference for me immediately, which was awesome. And then I went to IKEA. They have a teacher discount right now, so, I went to re-purchase and then return the dresser we had just gotten (rather than hassle with a price adjustment that places don’t like to do, though it is the same thing. Anyway, we had gotten it at a 5% discount recently, because I’m an IKEA Family member. Awesome. But the teacher discount was a 15% discount, which was a difference of going from $16.50 of savings to $49.50 of savings. It was only $33, but every dollar counts right now especially. I confirmed twice with my man that it was worth doing, and we finally determined that it really was and today was the day.

So, I go to purchase the dresser, and, when I look up the item location, I discover that it is on sale… for a hundred dollars off the original price. (!!!) And then I went to pick it up, and ended up helping this nice woman/girl load up her cart and not lose her wallet, then I got all my boxes in my cart and went to check out. I was worried the teacher discount wouldn’t work on already-discounted items. I was thinking about that before I even knew the item was discounted. But the discount still applied! So, instead of saving an extra $33, I saved an extra $141.25 (because of tax). Well worth the trip!

And then I celebrated with my free coffee (decaf, of course) and the currently anniversary-discounted apple cake that I’d never tried for a total of 87¢ with tax. And they were wonderful together. I felt like I was in a Scandinavian version of Café du Monde. And it was delicious. And then my man came and had coffee with me, and spun around a lot in the spinny high chairs I had picked for my snack time. 😛

So, anyway, be kind and love all, including yourself.

Thank you, God, for the successes and growth of today. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

So much stress

I had several errands to run today, and several strategic purchase to make during the tax-free weekend for clothing and backpacks. And the first of my errands kind of very much pissed me off – I was extremely frustrated. It was a simple matter of $14.06. I had been told by the store workers that they did returns without one week, and then exchanges or store credit only after that. However, they at this store seem utterly unaware of the fact that “return” includes returning the money to the purchaser, not merely giving store credit. I had even confirmed when purchasing the thing that it would be, “for a full refund.” But “refund” must mean to them “store credit”.

So, that was extremely annoying for me. And it was worsened by the fact that I’m at a financial place where $14 really does matter. But, when I looked at the receipt after the frustrating discovery that I was given store credit, and I saw that the sales tax I had paid was not refunded to me, the tables turned gently in my favor. The computer system was programmed to function fully without tax for the weekend, and they had no way to override it. So, they refunded another item on my original receipt to compensate. It was more than double the tax I had paid, but the store manager had approved it, as there was no way to reverse the initial return transaction, anyway, plus no way to add the sales tax. So, instead of just the dollar seven of tax I had paid, they refunded me another $2.25… refund being as store credit, of course; gotta use their lingo here…

Anyway, that was really hard for me on multiple levels, but I am grateful it turned out a little more positively than it had seemed like it would end. And the day turned out to be a hassle but worth the errands, so I am glad I went and handled it all today.

And then, I missed Mass, so ended up attending a 7pm Spanish Mass, and it was actually quite good. It was a church that usually is sparsely filled with folks for any English Mass I’ve ever attended, but was full tonight for the Spanish Mass. I stood out, to be sure, but I was able easily to participate and understand everything. And the homily was actually nice and got me thinking in a good way. Plus, the music was very Mexican yet also fun. I even went after Mass to ask for the names of two of the songs from the head music guy. He asked what everyone else was clearly thinking, and learned that Spanish was not my native language and, no, I didn’t learn it in school. But he commended some for it and didn’t hide his surprise at my speaking so easily with him in Spanish. It was silly, but fun, and it was great to have God bring together such different people so easily. I was very grateful tonight that my religion allows for participation in worship across cultures and languages so well.

Thank you, God, for the help today and for the blessings of your love today. Stay noticeably with me, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Saturday

Today was awesome. I got to see my aunt in the morning, eat fresh eggs with bacon, volunteer and make a positive difference at a rodeo event, learn loads about brisket and everything involved in it, eat great and free brisket, have a lovely free beer, be gifted some awesome paraphernalia with our family name, ride my Vespa, see videos of my man having a great time at the range, hang out with one of my best friends and her family, play with her daughter who is my former bedroom neighbor, have a dance party with the daughter and my friend, then play with my man with the daughter and even do some acro-yoga all together, and then come home for a great shower and some lovely air conditioning in our wonderful home.

Thank you, God, for this absolute blessing of a day – this was wonderful, and I am so grateful… Thank you. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Sleepy

I need to sleep hard tonight, as I have a sort of long day tomorrow that starts early. But there is a chance it might be a very interesting time, as well as educational. So, that gives it a chance of being great, despite my likely being tired and kind of generally wiped from this week’s work stuff.

I didn’t get any lesson stuff done today, though I’d hoped to have at least my framework for making lessons set up today. But it didn’t happen either. Technology changed, so I couldn’t connect my external hard drive to the new laptop that only had USB-C ports on it. But IT said I can easily come pick up an adapter on Monday, so I’ll do that then, and get down to some business. Some very important business called, “What on Earth I am doing in classes for the start of school.”

Dear God, help me to be a great teacher this year especially. I look forward to fulfilling your will and to being your servant in this fulfilling role. Guide me always, please, and help me always to have the right words. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023