| Wednesday, May 31, 2006 |
| One of THOSE days...already |
| I need to blog about yesterday, but first let me tell you how my day has gone so far. I didn't get to sleep until after midnight, and woke up for no reason at about quarter to 6. I laid there with my laptop until 7:30, then showered. I roused Cam out of bed around 8 and headed to the kitchen to nuke his oh-so-nutritious corn dog for breakfast. These nuke in their individual plastic wrapper. I burned the (insert expletive of your choice here) out of my finger taking it out of the microwave. Brilliant! Then at work I was licking an envelope to seal it closed and gave myself a paper cut...in the very far corner of my lip. I'm a danger to myself today, it seems. Beware! |
posted by Jen @ 9:48 AM  |
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| Monday, May 29, 2006 |
| My cats, part one |
I'm sitting here on my bed with one of my cats, Calli. Her name is Callisto, but we call her Calli. Or "GEDDOWN!" or "Don't-you-throw-up-on-those-clean-clothes!" or "BE QUIET!" She came to us when our first cat passed away...I was about 8 months pregnant, and our remaining cat had never been an 'only child'. With Cam nearly here, we were concerned that Brutus would be left to his own devices for too long, so we decided to get him a cat...hence Calli. Barb's friend had a pregnant Siamese show up on her porch at about this time, so we called dibs on a kitten. We knew her momma was Siamese, but the daddy? Turns out he was a bob-tail cat. Calli is jet-black, with a "tail" that measures in at about an inch long. TJ likes to say that she didn't run fast enough.
So we knew we were in for a talkative cat, what with the Siamese; little did we know we were in for such a mighty little hunter. What does she hunt, you ask? She likes to stalk those wiggy little transparent lizards that lurk around the porch once they get in the house. She doesn't care to hunt bugs of any sort. Her favorite prey? The one thing in all the world that she will wake up out of a dead sleep to stalk and kill? Hair ties. Yes, hair ties. Be they scrunchies or just plain wound rubber bands, they are all fair game. Our little predator keeps us safe from marauding pony-tail holders. We're eternally in her debt. We also supply her habit...3 of the 4 adults in the house require hair ties of various shapes and forms.
For those of you unfamiliar with the dangerous art of scrunchie-hunting, the ideal hunting time is at night, and preferably after everyone has gone to bed. Sneak into bedrooms to check on dressers or nightstands...if you can't find them there, be sure to look at drawer pulls-they like to sleep there and you just might catch them off-guard. If you don't find them in the bedrooms, you can't miss in a bathroom. Look around the sink, then check the drawer pulls. If you STILL haven't found anything, just open the drawer. (Yes, she can open drawers. Bru used to turn doorknobs. Don't ask, I don't know.) Paydirt! Now that you have your prey cornered, drag it out into the room that is nearest the center of the house. Drop your kill, sit on it, and begin to howl with victory. (Hence the "SHUT UP!" part of her name...) No, wait. Don't just howl. Use that Siamese background you have to caterwaul it to the entire house. "Look! Look what I did! I have saved you, once again, you ungrateful humans, from a veritable infestation of scrunchies! Come praise me and scratch that spot on my back that makes me do that funny thing. ...NOW!"
I walked into the bedroom this afternoon and heard a bug scritchy-scritching somewhere on the other side of the bed. I'm more than a little OCD about bugs in the house-once I know one is moving about, I will NOT sleep until I know it's dead and flushed. I grab a shoe and head to the foot of the bed. Calli perks up and prances to the foot of the bed. I'm in hunt mode-completely silent. Yeah. "MEROOOOOOWR?" Christ, Calli, shut up! I pat her head, good girl, now be quiet and let Mommy hunt the bug. Silence again. Oh, I hear the bug! I take a step forward, then Calli scoots over and says, "MROOOOW?" I shoot my best Mommy/Teacher glare at my cat, and turn to listen again. This time she yells at me, "MROW!" SHUT UP!!! Not a peep from the bug any longer. I glare at the cat again, and she says, sweetly, "Meerow." Yeah, well, if you'd kill the damn bugs I wouldn't have to do this shit. Eventually I killed the bug, no thanks to her howliness.
She's currently laying on the other side of the bed from me, glaring at me with her eyes half-open. She's laying on a pony tail holder, too. It's sticking out from under her front feet. It's good to know she's got my back...too bad she won't kill the damn bugs, too. |
| posted by Jen @ 8:52 PM |
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| We'll smoke the monster out! |
| Yet another obscure pop culture reference...Alice in Wonderland, for those of you that don't already know. :) Anyway, in grand Memorial Day tradition, we're cooking outside today. There's one slab of ribs in the smoker and one waiting to go on the grill. Barb is bringing over potato salad and macaroni salad, and there's a bunch of fresh corn soaking in the kitchen, waiting to go out on the grill. I don't know if it's because I missed a day of my allergy meds or the smoke, but my allergies are acting up today. Only one nostril is functioning properly at any given time, and yet they're both able to be drippy and gross. Go figure. Anyway, just wanted to say a quick "Happy Memorial Day" to everyone that stops by. Enjoy the day! |
| posted by Jen @ 2:50 PM |
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| Friday, May 26, 2006 |
| Stupid human tricks |
I locked myself out of the house today. Heh. Y'all aren't all that surprised, are you? I made the mistake of giving Cam my keys yesterday when we got home. He unlocked the door and set them down, but not in the right place. I didn't think about it until I pulled into the driveway this afternoon. Of course to make things even better, I had to pee like nobody's business. Billy was the closest person (geographically speaking) that has a key to the house, so I called him to see if we could meet up somewhere...turns out he was having a crappy day at work and was trying to figure out what to do for lunch, so he just headed home and let me in.
How did I leave the house without my keys, you ask? Well, because I'm no stranger to locking myself out of places, I keep my house keys and car keys on separate key chains. That way I'm never locked out of BOTH-if I'm locked out of the house I"ll at least be able to drive somewhere to pick up a spare key. Good plan in theory, but not so good in practice.
Especially when you have to pee. |
| posted by Jen @ 3:27 PM |
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| A birth announcement! |
Announcing the newest arrival to my family:
Isn't she beautiful? :) She is as yet unnamed, but I have to get to know her a little, first. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I work at a music store. I'd never be able to afford to be a musician otherwise. :)
She's a Toca Freestyle djembe with a 12" head. The body is made of fiberglass, with a rubber bootie around the base for protection. Heh. Anyway, she weighs nothing compared to the two drums TJ and I already have, and will be attending camp outs with us. I'll let you know how it turns out! |
| posted by Jen @ 11:46 AM |
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| Thursday, May 25, 2006 |
| Muppet News Flash! |
Heh. I love the Muppets. Anyway, there are a couple new things going on that I figured I'd tell y'all about.
First, I did something this week that I swore I would never do. I claim full responsibility, but still give a stink-eye to two of the Jennifers in my life as being partly responsible...you know who you are. (stink eye) What did I do? ...sigh... I opened a myspace account. Yes, I do feel dirty, and to all you MySpace nerds out there that have been courting me to turn to the dark side...SHUT UP! On an up note, Kermit is my friend, so maybe MySpace isn't entirely evil.
Anyway, on a much more mature note, I've decided that next August (of 2007 for those of you as chronologically challenged as I) I will start to wrap up my education degree and finally become a real, live boy! Heh, just kidding. Another pop culture reference from ages ago that nobody will understand... Anyway, I'll get my official degree and be a real teacher. I don't know that I want the headache of an actual position with the county-I'm plenty happy doing the adjunct thing right now. I don't have faculty meetings, in-service training, and the absolute worst thing EVER...lunch duty. GAH! I hated lunchtime when I was a student - it's NOT any better as an adult...pretending not to be vastly outnumbered, glaring arbitrarily at students that look like they're up to no good. It was horrible. And I was just a SUB, which is like one HUNDRED times worse. Subs are pretty much just glorified baby sitters. Well, except me, because the only teacher I sub for is Pete...the kids already know me and know better than to even think that they're getting a free day. Anyway, I digress...lunch duty sucks.
So that's all the news that I have for now. I'm going to go thank Kermit for adding me, and y'all have a great day. :) |
| posted by Jen @ 11:45 AM |
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| Wednesday, May 24, 2006 |
| It's hard out there for a...Julliard grad? |
| Heh. Go read this. Well, you don't HAVE to read it, as it will bore many of you to tears. But I read this today and had to laugh. Really, it's not that much harder, they just have more on the line and have put a LOT more money into their education. Unfortunately, getting a paying gig (worth your time and effort) in many towns is mostly a matter of outliving someone. Or maybe Pensacola has just jaded me. TX Jen, I knew you'd appreciate this-what do you think? |
| posted by Jen @ 5:17 PM |
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| Monday, May 22, 2006 |
| It's meant to be mine...oh yes! |
| I found this and this on Amazon last night. They are being released the day before my birthday, which is obviously a sign from the gods of most excellent cartoons that they are both destined to be mine. Now if I could just convince TJ of that.... If I know TX Jen at all, she's jumping up and down right now, just like I was last night. I didn't find a detailed list of episodes yet, but I'm really, really hoping that "You Said A Mouseful" is on one of the two sets. I still giggle uncontrollably when I say "I bet you felt smart!" Aahh... |
| posted by Jen @ 8:18 AM |
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| Saturday, May 20, 2006 |
| A very important weekend |
Today is Saturday. It is also the day after the last day of school, and the Saturday before my "week off" for the summer. My "week off" refers to school, and even then it's not entirely true. I'm still going in to the store every day during the week; the big difference is that I'm going to school exactly three times this week, and each time is only for a few hours. Woot! Tuesday night is a meeting for new freshmen parents, and then Thursday and Friday are section leader meetings. Then the Monday after that? Freshman camp. Again. Already! I have 2 weeks of freshman camp, then a couple weeks off, and then it's Mon-Fri pretty much every week until school starts again. I figure it will help with my diet, as long as I can pack enough healthy food to get me through. I fell off the diet wagon over the summer last year because I didn't pack my lunches and there's a LOT of Whataburgers between my house and school or the store and school. MMmmm...Whataburger...
Anyway, I'm getting the last of my laundry caught up, and then plan on heading over to my MIL's to swim in her pool and soak up some sun. This is going to be one of my lazy days of summer. :) Envy me now, for later you won't want to. See y'all later! |
| posted by Jen @ 10:20 AM |
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| Thursday, May 18, 2006 |
| Stop me! PLEASE! |
I've spent about 2 hours going through all the music files on my computer...fixing up file names, and editing album titles, track numbers, song titles, and artist names. That in and of itself is a little OCD, but then comes the "genre" field. TX Jen, I think you already feel my pain. I'm a musician. I even went to COLLEGE and learned about music. Theory, history, etc. I just spent about 10 minutes trying to decide what genre Andrea Bocelli's latest album falls into. No lie. The internal conversation went a little something like, "Well, it's not 'classical' in the true sense, but it's not Pop. Soundtrack? No, that's not right at all. It's not true opera, either...there's a lot of pop in it." I think I left it at classical. It's classical enough. All my TRULY classical stuff is on CD...besides, it's not like my Music Lit prof will be proofreading my hard drive...right? LOL
**UPDATE!**
TX Jen has come through! "Classical Crossover" She's a genius! Thanks, Jen! |
| posted by Jen @ 9:27 PM |
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| Tuesday, May 16, 2006 |
| Is it Friday yet? |
Man, it's only Tuesday and I'm already over this week. It's not that it's been bad, it's just going to be really, really long. The band is playing at both Pine Forest's and West Florida's graduations, sucking up vast amounts of my ought-to-be-free time.
As far as the weekend, we got through it relatively unscathed. The Band Banquet was Friday, and as expected we had about 4 or 5 kids leave in tears after we announced the section leaders and such for next year. Everyone that I spoke with so far is being really good about it-to my face, anyway. We shall see how it goes later.
Weigh-in was last night, and I lost another 3 pounds. That puts me at a total of 37 pounds lost since I started attending meetings (mid-January), and 42 since I started the online program (end of December). I'm hoping to do my first major wardrobe shift this week. I've been getting rid of things as I realize they don't fit any longer, but I'm hauling out all my summer stuff from last year and am hoping to find that much of it no longer fits. We shall see.
I got a platter of fudge, pralines, and peanut brittle from one of my students today, with a note thanking me for being her teacher. Very sweet. I'm thinking about having Cam write his teacher a little note along the same line-those are very touching.
And now, it's time for lunch. See y'all later! |
| posted by Jen @ 12:31 PM |
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| Friday, May 12, 2006 |
| The end is near! |
The end of the school year, anyway. We had drum major auditions yesterday, and it was actually a great turn out and huge efforts for everyone involved. I hate having to judge these things; I KNOW these kids. I even like most of them. heh Anyway, it's hard. We decided on just one drum major again this year, and told the kids that tried out today. I expect the whole band to know by the banquet tonight, but that's ok. The section leader and captain positions won't be disclosed until tonight, unless my boss caves at school today. Once THAT little debacle is over, I can relax until Freshman camp. Well, I can CLEAN until Freshman camp. But at least I'll be cleaning without the kids up there, so I won't have to worry about it getting messed up before I can come back and enjoy it.
Today the first graders at Cam's school are having "Water Day." I also know that the fifth graders are on their class trip to New Orleans today...I'm wondering if the other classes in between are doing anything productive? LOL I don't blame them a bit-it's the last Friday before school is out...those kids aren't going to focus on anything for longer than a few seconds. I left my cell phone at home today...I'm not focusing very well, either. :) On that note, I'm going to duck out and go start enjoying my Friday. Have a good weekend! |
| posted by Jen @ 11:07 AM |
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| Wednesday, May 10, 2006 |
| THAT was interesting |
Well then. The Spring Concert was last night, and I conducted one of the pieces. It was quite a learning experience. This was not my first time CONDUCTING, but it was my first experience doing so in front of a crowd. My biggest fear was falling off the podium, but we ended up not using it...that's one irrational fear put to rest.
Things started out on an unpredictable note; the second row filed in wrong and ended up backward. Yes, backward. The 1st Clarinets were on the RIGHT side of the set, between the flutes and the trombones...LIGHT years away from the rest of the clarinets. I had to adjust my cues on the fly as I was used to looking over to the left for them, and they weren't THERE anymore.
I made it past the hard part (what I THOUGHT was the hard part) and started to calm down a little...then I hear a metallic "CLANG!!!" from the middle of the chairs. I look up and see a young lady from the trombone section staring up at me in a panic, holding half a trombone. Um, wha? The slide had, well, slid off and under the chair in front of her. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did she drop her slide, but it managed to get away from her.
Shortly after this, the low brass and horns end up about 2 beats behind. Besides this being WRONG, I had two major issues with this: 1) they didn't even NOTICE they were off, and 2) nobody would friggin look up at me so I could communicate (through a complex series of glares, eyebrow raising, scowls, and hisses under my breath) that THEY WERE NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE. Bah. The flutes, bless every one of their little hearts, being right underneath me were all staring straight at me looking like, "OHCRAPWHATDOWEDO?!" It's amazing how much communication can take place without ever speaking, no? They all dropped out after a trill (it sounded like it was as written in) and jumped back in a few beats behind with everyone else. It was magnificent.
The last issue was premature clapping on the part of the audience; the slow part came to an end and I cut them off, leaving my arms up as we were just going to start up again. I'd say there was maybe 4 or 5 seconds between the cut off and counting off the next part. The parents started clapping about 3 seconds after, and I actually saw a couple of the freshmen flutes put their horns down. Like they were finished playing! I was HORRIFIED that their concentration was blown and they wouldn't be able to come in and I'd have to START OVER. They managed to recover...I very nearly didn't. Lord, that was rough.
I managed not to embarrass myself (too badly). TJ, Jen, Cam, and my Dad & Phyllis were there to witness the spectacle. The biggest concert music hit was the Great Locomotive Chase by Robert Smith. (You'll have to scroll down to find the piece-that was the best, most complete recording of the piece I could find.) The kids H A T E D that piece. Whined and bitched about the sound effects and such, but as we TOLD them over and over again, it was the biggest hit of the night. The parents LOVED it.
Then they played the first two numbers of next year's halftime show, and the ROOF practically fell in. The crowd LOVED it. I knew they would, though-they're PARENTS. The kids could play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and the parents would think it's stupendous. That's their job. I just hope it will keep the energy up so that the kids can impress the judges, KWIM?
OK, I need to go get dinner started, but I wanted to leave my impressions of yesterday before any of the embarrassing details slipped away. :) |
| posted by Jen @ 4:21 PM |
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| Monday, May 08, 2006 |
| Well then... |
| So weigh-in was tonight. I lost 5.5 pounds this week! Wha? Winifred (my meeting leader) asked me what I did this week. Heh. Well, I sulked a lot. Oh, and don't forget eating constantly. It was all on plan, but there was a LOT of it. (shrug) So. Once again, I am stymied...I bust my ass with the diet, and I don't lose weight. I eat all week and feel sorry for myself, and I lose 5.5 pounds. ???! I guess there was a reason I was so friggin hungry? Maybe I was having a growth spurt or something. :) |
| posted by Jen @ 7:41 PM |
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| So NOW it rains |
I had a dreadful time trying to fall asleep last night. I gave up around 2 to come sit at the computer and play solitaire for a while. That usually tires out my eyes enough that I can fall asleep. I still tossed and turned for a while once I went back to bed...sometime around 3. My alarm went off at 5:30 (I feel so refreshed now) and by the time I got out of the shower it was pouring down rain. A nice, steady, pounding rain that makes you very drowsy...even when you've had more than 2.5 hours of sleep. I promised one of the Seniors at school that I'd come up during 7th period to help out, so I can't exactly head home for a nap today. We really, REALLY needed the rain, though, so I won't bitch about it too much.
On another note, I stepped on the scale here at the house this morning, and (fingers crossed) things ought to go well this afternoon at weigh-in. I hope. This scale at home has never agreed with the one at WW...this one weighs about 5 pounds heavier, so I'm actually pretty excited about it. Which is a nice, albeit dramatic, change from my pity party post the other day, isn't it? :) More later! |
| posted by Jen @ 6:17 AM |
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| A treat! |
| Upon review of my daily points intake yesterday, I realized that after dinner I still had 8.5 points left to dispose of. Yesterday was Billy's birthday, and Jen bought him a cheesecake...a delicious-looking cheesecake that stared out at me longingly every time I opened the fridge that day. On a lark, I calculated up the number of points for once slice...it came to 8. (insert heavenly chorus here) I ate a piece of cheesecake last night, and it was GOOD. A foodgasm to be sure. ...sigh... |
| posted by Jen @ 6:14 AM |
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| Sunday, May 07, 2006 |
| Hello, my name is Jennifer... |
...and I'm addicted to Ghosthunters on SciFi. ...sigh... There, I said it. 2/3 of the shows are just hype-they don't get anything of interest on the hours and hours of video and audio they collect over the course of an investigation. However...the remaining 1/3 of the shows? Shoo. The most recent new episode (at the lighthouse in St. Augustine) was one of those 1/3 that freak you out. Jen and I were sitting in the living room with all the lights on in the house, afraid to walk down the hall to even pee! THAT is good television, my friend. Does ER do that for you? No sir!
There is a Ghosthunters marathon on right now. Get thee to a television and watch! Just know that while some episodes may not gather any "evidence," they're still mighty entertaining. Check them out! |
| posted by Jen @ 11:27 AM |
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| Saturday, May 06, 2006 |
| Me drum! |
I like to drum. I'm not talking like the drum line guys at school-I'm talking HAND drums. To the left you'll see a pic of my baby. My abysmally HEAVY baby...she weighs in at a whopping 26 pounds. My father-in-law got her for me while he worked off Africa's coast. Don't tell her, but I'm thinking about getting a smaller, MUCH lighter fiberglass drum to take out to the woods and anywhere else portability is an issue. I want to get out in the woods and drum on the sandy river beach at night around a toasty camp fire. That's mighty hard to do with this behemoth. ...sigh...
For anyone that hasn't tried drumming, I highly recommend it. You don't have to be musically gifted (or ABLE, really) to try it; just know someone that has a drum. Drumming in a group is MUCH more fun than alone, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to relax during a drum circle. Or fall asleep...kids are really susceptible to that. After a long day in the woods of running around, playing in the river, and other such camping things just set them down on a blanket next to Mom or Dad drumming, and if they can sit still for a few moments they'll be OUT. Regardless of how many S'Mores they've stuffed down their guts. :)
What brought on this drum talk? I'm reorganizing (heh, which implies that they were already organized in some way) the music files on my puter, and found my Inanna album. They are AWESOME! Here's a link to their site, and this is a link to a site where you can listen to snippets of the very album I'm listening to now.
OK...now I'm going to go make my grocery list for the week...which is the reason I sat down at my puter in the first place. I'm sure I'll be distracted again soon and will be back to share another thrilling story later. Stay tuned! |
| posted by Jen @ 1:19 PM |
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| Friday, May 05, 2006 |
| Disgruntled dieter |
Resa asked me this morning if I'd blogged about weigh-in this past week...I realized that I hadn't. I lost 1 pound this past week. I've spent the whole week since then wanting to eat. Not hungry, necessarily, but just wanting to eat. I've stuck to the diet-I'm only noshing on "multigrain minis" or soy crisps or the like, but it worries me.
I told Resa today that I'm proud of the 30 pounds that I've lost, but that the past week I've been more in a "Well, 20 pounds of that was gained in the last year, so it's not like you're really making any REAL progress." The inner me is even more cynical than the outer one...that's alarming! I think I may talk to my meeting leader on Monday to make an appointment. I need to shake things up a little, and I'm all out of ideas. This is what I pay THEM for! :)
Anyway, that's about all that's going on. I'm not slipping into any depression or anything, I'm just in a rut. I need to be re-gruntled. Anyone know a re-gruntler? |
| posted by Jen @ 2:55 PM |
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| Tuesday, May 02, 2006 |
| A plethora of Mustangs |
I'm being stalked by the Mustang-driving population of Pensacola. For real! Everywhere I go, regardless of what I do, I am nearly surrounded by different versions of this damn car! Clark started drooling over the new model last year...I dunno if maybe that has me NOTICING them more now (it's been a LONG time, though!) or what, but they are EVERYWHERE! On the way from school to work today (with a MUCH longer visit to Wal Mart than I ever intended...that's a story for later, though) I was behind or in front of at least 4, and that's just in traffic. There was one parked next to me at school, and then one pulled into the spot next to me at Wal Mart as I was leaving. It's not one specific model, either. I pulled out of the school parking lot behind a Cobra, and then ended up behind a classic one before I pulled into Wal Mart. I suck at cars, though, so I have no idea what year. It's very, very weird.
By the way, does anyone else think of the Three Amigos when you hear the word "plethora"? :) |
| posted by Jen @ 12:14 PM |
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| Monday, May 01, 2006 |
| My butt hurts |
| Yeah, TMI for some folks, but hey. You can't say you weren't warned! We went bowling Saturday for Jaceyln's birthday party, and I think I may have pulled something. Pathetic, no? Yeah. I'm going to take Cam to the bus stop and run to Wal Mart to pick up some grocery stuff, and then it's off to work, and then school, then WW, then a middle school band try-out...it's going to be another one of those, "Too much to do, running late for damn near everything" sort of days. I can tell already. Can I go to bed and start over? ...sigh... |
| posted by Jen @ 6:44 AM |
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