Two, and three.

So I read the Hunger Games Trilogy and felt absolutely awful Monday morning. Book hangover. Definitely don't drive while under the influence-trying to navigate the car while reading what happened next just doesn't work. Anyway, I was on our school's online thingymajig (it's called Blackboard but I have no idea what you call it in computer parlance-platform?) and noticed that our final essay assignment had been posted for my mythology class. Turns out I can write about any hero/heroine from any novel/movie. Score, right? I'm totally writing about Katniss Everdeen. My reading marathon over the weekend turned out to be just the right thing. In other news, I have a group presentation today. Judging by the laughter, goofing off and cookies we made it's going to be a good one. Ask me anything you want to know about jazz and I might be able to answer you. We had some confusion over what, precisely, we were going to cover. I thought jazz and I thought music! and researc...

I feel grouchy. Kind of hungover, but not a alcoholic hungover. It's a book hangover. The Hunger Games, people, the Hunger Games. By Suzanne Collins. Ok, I'm going to go medicate my head with coffee now.

First, the Oatmeal. I was out shopping the other day in the middle of the afternoon. I had actually made a shopping list and was going to stick to my budget so I was feeling pretty good about life. We (meaning myself, Orclette and Miniorc) got to the cereal aisle and I thought about buying some. Cereal is rather expensive, however, when you compare it to Oatmeal, so I decided that I was going to be virtuous and buy the cheaper option. It was a great idea until the next morning when my morning brain threw a fit against my afternoon brain because my morning brain DOES NOT COOK. Not even the minuscule amount of cooking that it takes to make Oatmeal. So the moral is: do not do your breakfast shopping with your afternoon brain. Secondly, the Shirts. I was switching out the kiddos summer clothes for their winter ones (it's just now getting cold here) and I discovered that the Orclette had practically nothing warm to wear. So I packed the kids up and headed out to Savers, one of our local...

I think we are. Everybody we know is having a rough or stressful or life-changing semester. Ours is simply stressful; some grades haven't been what we wanted them to be and there are always teachers/fellow students to grapple with. And it's been this way every semester. I have end-of-the-semester stress symptoms every May and December. It seems to be worse this year, however. Last Fall I was still baking, actively planning Christmas and making sure my friends felt the love of the season. This Fall I collapse on the couch to start watching my stressed-out go-to show: The Gilmore Girls . No baking has been done, Christmas planning will just have to wait, and does anyone actually want a Thanksgiving dinner or can we just do pizza? I've analyzed the situation, of course, and I have come up with two reasons for our extra-tiredness: #1: Our class levels are higher. There is a huge difference between a 100-level course (that's a beginner class) and a 400-level class (that...

Man, how did the week go by so fast? Just a moment ago I was having a case of Mondayitis that was NOT being solved by coffee (I think I got up to eight cups that day). Now it's (almost) Friday and a weekend full of fun Halloween festivities are about to begin, starting with a 6 a.m. costume run tomorrow morning. I'm going as a middle-aged female biker who has had a middle-aged crisis and bought herself a fancy bike and a few tattoos. Here's my pretend bike: I even have a fake tattoo sleeve. It looks kind of odd juxtaposed with my real tattoos, but it's fun. Damm is going as Gru (from Despicable Me ), the Orclette is a bundled-up fairy and the Miniorc as a bundled-up knight. It finally got cold on us, hence my mentioning the bundled-upness. It's going to be a fun run (cue resigned voice). I remember my parents and grandparents doing early morning runs and activities on holidays/celebrations. Now it's our turn to create memories (muahaha!). Then we have a Harvest ...

I'm thinking orange. Orange pumpkins, orange candles, orange foliage. Mixed in with a few other fall colors, of course. Rather than jump immediately into Christmas-planning mode (like I usually do) I've been mustering up enthusiasm for Thanksgiving, and even in some measure Halloween. I do not celebrate Halloween because I am not enthused about the origins of that particular celebration but we do participate in festivities if they are kid-friendly. For instance, this year Damm and the Orclette will be participating in the ROTC Halloween Run dressed as (we're thinking) Dorothy and the Tin Man/Straw Man. It'll be awesome. Speaking of the Orclette, I had a moment yesterday that I was strongly tempted to say "Why can't you just be more like Miniorc!" I didn't say it, in case you were curious. What had happened was that she and I were in the bathroom getting ready for bed and Miniorc and Damm were already asleep (bathroom connects to bedroom). She was sing...

This past weekend we went to an air show at Holloman Air Force Base. The Miniorc in particular ADORES planes and the Orclette is also fascinated by them. It was perfect weather: crisp and cold and clear (although we didn't dress the kiddos warm enough, we just aren't used to the cold weather yet. Some of the adults had to go without their jackets:) Some of us weren't quite awake. Others were armed with their planes and were ready to go. Experiencing one of the static displays. I had fun too, although the face-painting lady looked at me oddly when I asked to have my cheek painted. Paid my two dollars and I see no reason why adults can't do silly things like paint their faces. I didn't take any pictures of the kiddos during the aerial displays. We were having too much fun pointing out the planes. Miniorc, after watching the first display, turned his face to me, pointed at the airplane, and very firmly said "mine!". It was awesomely funny. Afterwards, as we w...