P.S.

It wasn't at all that it was awful; it was just crazy!!! I have an incredibly energetic group of kids! They definitely didn't exhibit any signs of shyness, even with it being the first day of school and all.

P.P.S Jameson and I are headed off to Tahoe for the long weekend and I am SO EXCITED!!!

The First Day of School

I won't go into too much detail right now, but to illustrate how my day went yesterday here's a few pieces of information:

1) After the kids were dismissed at 3:00, I took off my shoes and sat on my floor in front of the whiteboard for 20 minutes in complete silence just taking it all in.

2) When I got home, I ate dinner, talked to Jameson for about 15 minutes, took a quick shower (it's been in the upper 90s--and my classroom was no exception--so I was all sweaty) and fell right asleep. I slept from 6:00-10:15 pm. I didn't mean for that to happen! When I woke up at 10:15, all I did was brush my teeth and ask Jameson to transcribe my agenda for tomorrow since our printer is broken--and he, being the wonderful husband that he is, did this for me without even questioning why I wasn't doing it myself. And then I went back to sleep.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy...

Last week I received a small package from my older sister in LA with a darling little new dress in it mailed with a sweet note attached: "Mom and I were shopping last weekend and each bought one of these dresses. We thought you'd like one too!" (That was before my little accident). Then today I had another package at my doorstep (again from LA)--a care package from my mom and older sister Jenn--with a bunch of my favorite things in it, including Johnson's 'no more tears' baby shampoo. My mom used this on us girls when we were little. The smell still brings me back to all of my bathtime fun and reminds me of my mom's tenderness and care. The message is appropriate. No more tears, just "sunshine and happy times" as the Care Bear on the card tells me are coming my way...

I love my family. "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."- Marcel Proust

OW!

I don't know if it's because I grew up in a house full of girls, or if my parents did a really good job protecting me from harm, or if I've always just been very cautious--perhaps a combination of all three--but I've pretty much gone my whole life without any real injuries that have inflicted too much pain upon me. And I am so so grateful for this. But, if I believed in luck, I'd definitely have to say that this summer I've had my fair share of bad luck with injuries and painful things.

Stop reading here if you are easily grossed out. This could get graphic. Last week I went into my classroom to get everything ready (school starts in a few days) and I was organizing desks, pushing and pulling things to get it looking just right. I got my hands on this huge, heavy table and started pulling it out of the way so I could put something else where it was. I yanked it really hard and the leg of the table caught underneath my big toenail and ripped it off, in addition to cutting up my toe. (It looks like it went through a lawn mower). There was blood everywhere. I was in my classroom alone. No one was around. Naturally, I was freaking out. I crawled over to the sink area, bawling my eyes out because of the pain, got some paper towels, put pressure on it and called Jameson to come and save me. And of course he did.

We were in the ER for a few hours as they investigated the 'toe injury.' After being given 6 shots in my toe to fully numb it, they were able to ascertain that the toenail was in fact still attached by a thread in the corner, and they proceeded to shove it back in its place (to ensure that a new toenail would grow back). Ouch is right! The doctors have told me to completely stay off the foot for another week--so I'm back on crutches--which is super hard because I start teaching on Thursday. How do I do that? (Insert sad face). I'm on Vicodin. You're probably thinking: 'For a toe?' But, if you've never had something like this happen to an area where there are so many nerves, all I can say is that you have no idea! I have never felt such acute pain in my life. (And yes, I know I just admitted that I haven't had too many painful things happen to me in my life, but I don't think this is hurting so bad because of my pain tolerance). On a side not, I got a tetanus shot on one of the doctor visits and it was NOTHING compared to those six shots in my toe or the constant throbbing I feel at the tip of my body. The night we got home from the ER I cried tons--I kept pleading with Jameson to take me back to the doctors and let them cut off my entire toe. He wouldn't consent though.

I go back to see the doctor on Friday and I am really scared. I think he said he's going to try to fully remove the toenail (and this will probably make the pain subside at least a little because the nail wont be moving around on the nail bed). He was going to remove it the other day, but wanted to wait since "the shots hurt incredibly bad." Trust me, I know.

My mom gave me some good advice the other day on the phone: The best thing about you feeling that pain that day is that you know you felt it and you never have to experience that exact pain again. I hope she's right. No more owies please!!!

Janie and Jack

A friend of mine is having a little baby girl soon and her shower is coming up so I thought I'd go down to the Stanford mall and pick the little one out something cute from Baby Gap. I was really excited about this because I love love love baby clothes! Especially girl ones! (I blame this on my mother!) Today I am really supposed to be making long-term plans for the school-year, but that's neither here nor there! Can you tell I'm really distracted?!

Anyway, I was walking along trying to find Baby Gap when I stumbled upon what looked to be a darling boutique baby store. Of course, this is the Stanford Shopping Mall we're talking about! I really wanted to see what they had, knowing ahead of time that it would probably be too expensive, but I went in anyways--since I did have the perfect excuse!

And, oh my goodness, this was the CUTEST little place I've ever seen. Expensive, yes--but they had a bunch of darling things on sale, especially for 0-3 month olds! Perfect! I bought a cute little outfit AND a matching hat for not very much money for my friend's baby. The worst part of this little escapade (or the best, depending upon how you look at it) is that I couldn't decide between these two little dresses for my friend's baby, so I bought one for my friend and one for me! No, I'm not actually pregnant, nor am I planning to be anytime soon, but I couldn't resist this little jumper! (It's the one above).

I never did make it to Baby Gap because I found everything I needed (and more!) at Janie and Jack. Moms-beware! This store is addicting--even if you're not a mom!

2626 Half Dome Place, Carlsbad, CA 92008

I was planning on doing a write-up about the hike, but decided just to link to my friend's blog instead. Here's the text of his entry:


"The stars aligned a few weeks ago when I got an email from my friend Jameson asking if I wanted to hike Half Dome. Melissa’s is in SLC this weekend, so the timing could not have been better. I finished packing after work on Friday, picked Jameson up at 7:30 and we were off. We drove through the night and finally made it to the trailhead around one o’clock in the morning. We definitely took our time driving, but we were in no hurry.

The hike itself was pretty brutal, mostly because it was steep and rocky and Jameson was feeling a little sick. We hiked with headlamps despite the nearly full moon. We were too deep in the trees to hike by moonlight. The trees also did a number on my GPS reception, so I couldn’t record the lower part of the hike.

The thin air started to get to me as we made the final approach. I live at sea level, so 7,000 feet is rough on my lungs. We dragged ourselves to the base of the dome just as the sun broke over the mountains and lit up the the summit.

We eventually struggled up the cables in our oxygen-deprived state and discovered that the top of the dome had been overtaken by hippies. Aren’t hippies supposed to spurn physical exertion? Why did they bring up the bongo drums? Why is some guy playing his hippie tunes on battery powered speakers? Why aren’t the women wearing bras? These were just a few of the question running through my head as we unfurled our sleeping bags and started into a two hour nap.

The sun got hotter and hotter on the top of the dome until I couldn’t take it any longer and had to get out of the sleeping bag. We had to get down eventually, so we took our time packing up and started down the cables. Those cables are STEEP! Some lady at the bottom asked us to take a survey about the cables experience to help out “our park.” I liked how she made the park ours. Whoever wrote the survey seemed set on gaining popular support for more park rangers on top and more regulation to keep crowds of people from crowding up the cables. I understand the need to keep the cables safe and uncrowded, but they don’t need permits and rangers and time limits. People just need a sign at the bottom telling them to keep plenty of space between climbers or someone might just fall off and die.

We actually ran out of water midway through the descent. Jameson had the forethought to pack a water purifier, so we were ok. I have a feeling that lot of the people we passed were heading straight for dehydration with their lousy water supplies. We hiked up ahead of the 90 degree heat, and I still had no problem burning through my 100 ounce Camelback. Thank you Jameson for keeping me hydrated.

We finally stumbled past the hordes of Yosemite tourists around three pm and took off. I desperately wanted to take a shower and get some sleep, but I had to settle for a half hour nap to keep my eyelids open for the ride home. We rolled in around 8 pm, over 24 hours after I pulled into Jameson’s driveway." (Chris Esplin, via melissaesplin.com)

Here's a link to post with pictures and other content, etc.

...

Funny conversation with a friend from southern California who doesn't seem to be too politically informed:

j1: What about Obama?

friend: Isn't he the Muslim one?

j1: Oh boy.
-

Turns out, one in ten Americans believes that. The Washington Post reports the rumor that "is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance." Nice. And did you hear the republicans almost put a MORMON on their ticket? Hot buttered popcorn.

Here's a great podcast from an NPR interview with the new head of the AEI (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research), an uber-conservative, pro-business think-tank whose ideas I like. It's worth a listen. Debate question raised by moderator "has the conservative movement lost its way?" Don't tell William Buckley: he's already rolling over in his grave. Plus the English language is failing in his absence.

Something brought up in the discussion w/Arthur Brooks (head of AEI): we know that corporate America is handicapped by taxes to the point that we are no longer, and can't hope to be competitive on the world stage. Brooks points out that Obama is actually better poised to bring America back to the competitive front by cutting taxes because of the party image. Think about it.

Liberation!

Ever since I can remember knowing how to write, I prided myself on being so good at thanking people for what they had done for me with thank you notes. Every birthday party I had, thank you notes were written without delay. This feeling of needing to write everyone a thank you note came from my mom who instilled in me at a young age the importance of all of this. My sisters would make me tell them when I had written a relative a thank you note around Christmastime and such, so they wouldn't run the risk of looking ungrateful by not writing one at the same time I had. I laugh about this now.

For the past 7 months of being married, I have been working on our wedding thank you notes. And this whole time, I have felt so guilty to have not thanked people for their gifts in a timely fashion. Every time I would run into someone who I knew I didn't yet thank, I'd get this horrible feeling inside my stomach. I don't know what took me so long--if I was just overwhelmed by the sheer number of notes to write, simply the lack of time I had as a first year teacher, or my stubbornness in not letting Jameson help me write them because I thought he wouldn't do as good of a job as I would, but it took FOREVER to finish! I finally came to my senses and realized that being so overwhelmed and not letting Jameson help was ridiculous, and that's when this process sped up a bit! Most of the thank yous got written and sent out within the 3 month etiquette timetable, but quite a few still had to be written. However, tonight is the night: I am proud to announce that WE ARE DONE! Jameson and I are finished! And I am so grateful for his help! And, it turns out (after checking a few of his cards, hehe!) that he's way better at writing them than I am, so I should have wanted his help all along. Ooops!

Rebuttal: in defense of my uber-manliness

I'm not a huge Brett Favre fan, but we'll get back to that.

Among other things, I spend my time at work* listening to various podcasts, including but not limited to those found on ESPN.com, NPR.org, and WSJ.com (who am I kidding, I don't listen to the wsj- still too boring. Give me 5 years and I'll be there). Anyways, I get the condensed radio show done by Mike Greenburg and Mike Golic - Mike and Mike in the Mornings. It isn't amazing sports journalism, but they are pretty entertaining and have a good dynamic going for them. Anyways, the sports world has been consumed as of late by everything Favre. If you didn't know that, you're probably missing the Y chromosome. If that isn't the case, well...

So anyways, they were playing that song because Mike Greenburg is a Jets fan etc etc and it was stuck in my head. I'm not saying I don't like the song. I mean, who wouldn't want hair like Michael Bolton?

*I'm extremely productive at work. I like to think of the podcasts as PED (performance enhancing devices).

Love Songs

After years of making fun of me for my fondness of all love songs (that is all songs on KYXY in San Diego and KOIT in the Bay Area--both at 96.5), Jameson just confessed to me that his new favorite song is Michael Bolton's 'How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.'

For someone that thinks most of my love songs are over the top cheesy, this is really revolutionary! [Insert big smile here]