- This morning, I absolutely swear I am not making this up, I could not figure out how I usually put foundation on my makeup sponge. I picked up the sponge then the foundation bottle and suddenly felt awkward; I put the sponge back in its basket and started over, trying not to think about it (because you know how when you start thinking too hard about doing something, it becomes even more difficult?). Again, same awkward feeling. I walked away and finished a different morning activity, then came back and finally got my makeup on. I thought maybe I was having a stroke.
- While watching Gattaca with my Tech class [there are computers and other sciencey things in it! Plus Jude Law & Ethan Hawke...], one of my teenage students asked me, in all seriousness, "How did THAT happen?" when the Ethan Hawke character and Uma Thurman character started kissing after she was angry with him for beating up a cop. I had to quickly (and delicately) explain about the thin line between love & hate.
- During a discussion with my freshman English class about wishes (we were about to read "The Monkey's Paw"), I asked what they thought their parents might wish for; after everyone mentioned something about themselves ("They'd wish for our happiness...A break from us...That we would behave..."), I asked them to think of something their parents might desire that had nothing to do with them. A boy who acts like everything I do & say in class is useless and dumb looked straight at me with a sincere face and said, "Wow, yeah. I guess I never think about my parents having a life outside of me and my brothers. Huh." And then he immediately went back to slouching and sneering.
- After school, I turned into the most inefficient individual I know. Essentially, I moved piles of papers to different parts of my room (none the proper destination), deliberated over e-mails (who to write, what to say, which to delete, which to save, make a new folder?), rated songs on Pandora, then finally headed home.
- Once I reached home, however, it occurred to me that we didn't have candy for tomorrow's trick-or-treaters. So I turned around and headed for Trader Joe's, but the parking lot was packed and it was starting to rain and I couldn't face walking far, getting wet, and fighting crowds. So I left (in a convoluted, right-turns-only way) and headed for Whole Foods. I didn't grab a cart because I was just getting treats, yet decided as I wandered that we needed granola bars, tater tots, and a baguette, too. I barely plopped everything onto the counter safely and remembered my credit card was in the car [I am not trustworthy carrying it in my regular wallet]. Told the cute checker (we'll call him Grocery Boy II) "Please hold," ran to the car & back [okay, no, I did not actually run], and finished the sale with pleasant conversation about me being a teacher and it's almost Friday.
- I decided that, since I bought a baguette, we need the next Sopranos DVD so I headed to Blockbuster (no Geeky Cute Video Expert Guy today; great, I've probably made another one quit his job...). Wandered around browsing for a few minutes, picked up The Secret Window because I erroneously thought I would get a free older rental [Monday - Wednesday only], got out of line to put it back on the shelf, checked out, drove home, realized three movies we have needed to be returned tonight to avoid Debtors' Prison, got back in the car to drive four blocks to the video store (still no GCVEG).
- After dinner, I had a full dress rehearsal of my Totally 80s Girl costume for tomorrow. It will only be hilarious to us teachers who actually lived through the trauma of neon & Aqua Net, but I'm game. The Social Studies teacher is joining me and we're hoping the principal will, too; we couldn't talk the men into being breakdancers...
Happy Halloween Eve
