On My Wish List

Thank you, Facebook ads, for bringing this to my attention. I always wanted to be the token white Huxtable kid.

Work in Progress

I promised in my last blog entry that I would elaborate on the random drink offer.

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine was in town for some job interviews (incidentally, she got a job and IS MOVING BACK!! YAY!!), so she and I spent our Friday night the way any good Texan should. After we had our fill of Pappasito's queso and beef fajitas (a.k.a. "manna from Heaven"), we headed over to a local bar to have a couple of drinks and hear some live music.

We had been sitting there for a while enjoying the band and the people-watching when an obviously intoxicated woman came over and asked us if we were using our extra chair. Thinking she would take the chair and move it over to sit with her friends, we told her no. She then proceeded to sit down at our table, and she began talking to us. She discovered that she and my friend share the same middle name ("I'm 40 f-ing years old, and I've never met anyone else with that name!"), and that was it--we were friends for life. And just when we thought she couldn't get any more excited, she found out we were teachers. Wouldn't you know it--her stepmom was a teacher, and she loves her stepmom ("I just laugh my ass off when I'm with her!").

Our new friend became concerned that I was not drinking. I assured her that I had already had a couple of drinks but was done for the night. She insisted that I let her buy me a drink "in honor of [her] stepmom." Generally not being one to pass up a free drink, I relented and drank a vodka and cranberry in honor of a funny stepmom who used to teach. Before the night was over, we had danced with our new friend and her group of friends, chatted with and refused additional drink offers from her significant other (who assured me that teachers have his full support), and acquired a fun story to tell.

What I learned from this night was that I do possess some of the "Hey, wanna buy me a drink?" skills, but they clearly need a little redirection.

Is anyone still there?

I've apparently been on a blog hiatus for a little while. The end of the school year is always crazy, but this year had a few special surprises that made it even more difficult. And so, because I'm sure you've wondered what I've been up to over the last three-and-a-half weeks, to quote Inigo Montoya, "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

Since you last heard from me, I (in no particular order)...

have prayed with friends.
have laughed with friends.
have cried with friends.
ran with Tim the marathoner.
have lamented the world's problems.
solved a few of them.
had students make me cry in a bad way.
had students make me cry in a good way.
used my iron for maybe the 5th time in the almost 7 years I have owned it.
sweated in some strange places.
went to two Astros games.
embraced my inner Charlie's Angel.
FINISHED THE SCHOOL YEAR!
watched my babies graduate.
helped change a guy's world view--Yes, we DO think about it.
visited with a long-lost friend.
had a random drunk 40-year-old woman buy me a drink (more on this in another post).
have been discouraged.
have been encouraged.
enjoyed lots of random texting.
received and gave lots of hugs (There are few things better, in my opinion).
did not succumb to Target shoe lust.
decided to go back to Qba (more on this later, too).

Hopefully there's still someone around to read this, and hopefully it won't be another three weeks before you hear from me again.

Is it June 4th yet?!

I'm having one of those days where I can either choose to laugh or cry.

I choose laughter (even if it does get me some funny looks).

Earworms

Don't you hate it when you get random songs stuck in your head? And, of course, the songs that are the most annoying are the ones that just won't go away. For example, for at least three of my four years in college, I had "Hail to the Chief" bouncing around in my brain.

Some days the songs are more random than others.

I started my day with the line, "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife," moved to, "Ha-ha-ha! Ho-ho-ho! And a couple of tra-la-las! That's how we laugh the day away in the Merry Old Land of Oz," had a brief fling with "Fantine's Death" from Les Miserables and have now returned to the Emerald City.

And now, I bet you're singing at least one of these songs, too. Misery does love company, after all.

TMI

I hope you won't think me vain if I tell you this, but I looked pretty darned cute today. My hair was straight, and I was even wearing a skirt. As you may have gathered from a previous post, my students don't get to see this side of me very often. And another rarity here lately--I was actually in an especially good mood today. I don't have any particular reason--perhaps it was because the number of research papers hanging over my head significantly dwindled with my productive day off yesterday; perhaps it was because I was excited (and rightfully so) about Walking Wednesday; perhaps it was because God has convicted me about my attitude at work, and I have been making a concerted effort to not be negative. At any rate, it was a good day.

However, any time my students see me looking a little nicer than normal or see that I'm in a better mood than usual, they are rather free with their comments.

The first 10 minutes of my 4th period class went something like this:
Student: "Ms. Ruddell, you look really nice today."
Me: Thank you.
Student: And you're in a good mood--you have a date tonight, don't you?
Me: No.
Student: Come on, you can tell me--you have a date, don't you.
Me: No.
Student: Ms. Ruddell, I know you have a date even though you won't tell me. It's the only explanation. Or did you have a date last night? Is that why you're so happy today?
Me: No.
Student: Okay, even though you won't tell me, I know you must have had a date.

I think I finally said that my good mood was because I had made a lot of progress in grading research papers and because Jesus loves me, but the kicker was when I told him that the reason I was wearing a skirt was because I actually shaved my legs yesterday.

I may have over-shared, but at least it shut him up.

Not My Home

Proverbs 4:23-27

"Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil."