times have changed.

a good portion of my day is usually spent trying to find shoes and socks. the kids in my class are going through a phase called "i am two years old" and they like to hide their shoes. and they do it so fast, and so secretly.

today one of them hid a shoe in the dollhouse.

it's a dollhouse that makes me feel stupid. especially after today.

for about a month now, i have not been able to open the dollhouse. there's a latch that you're supposed to undo. but even after i took care of the latch, it wouldn't open. they would bring me the dollhouse, begging me to open it. and i'd try, and try. and i couldn't do it. for at LEAST a month. unless the trauma of the situation has made me exaggerate time, and it's only been a couple days.

well today the little girl hid her shoe in it. i didn't know that. but they all did, somehow. when i said "ok, let's find her shoe!" and turned it into a game, a few of them went over to the dollhouse and pulled her shoe out.

AND...

opened the dollhouse.

i have no idea how. and i have no idea why we couldn't open it before.

these kids with their newfangled technological dollhouses.

when i was kid, we didn't have dollhouses. we had to imagine them.

that's not actually true.

i, nerd.

i'm reading a chuck klosterman book right now. it's a collection of articles he's written over a decade.

in one of them he talks about how america is fascinated with pirates, and we don't even realize it. one fact he uses to prove this theory is that paul mccartney married someone with only one leg.

chuck klosterman is the most ridiculous author i've ever read. he's inspiring, really.

one of the articles is about robots. he said when he was younger he wrote a book report on "I,Robot" and it included the three rules of robotics:

"1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. Do not talk about Fight Club."

another quote...

"If we have learned only one thing from film, literature, and rock music, it is this: humans will eventually go to war against the machines. There is no way to avoid this. But you know what? If we somehow manage to lose this war, we really have no excuse. Because I can't imagine any war we've spent more time worrying about."

on a different note, i think the movie "fight club" is hilarious.

"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise."

someone told me there was a fight club at belmont, but i never knew if that was true or not.

ALSO...i just found out, about half an hour ago, that there's a new park in nashville...adelicia park. made in honor of belmont's heroine, the one and only...adelicia acklen. i don't know why, but i think that's weird. her mansion is already preserved. there's going to be a fundraiser at that park soon, to raise money to restore her bedroom in that mansion.

and as i typed that i realized the word you use to refer to a female hero is the same word for a drug. heroine. i tried a little googling to figure out why. it's late, which might be the only reason why it seems interesting at the moment. instead, i discovered that i've been spelling "heroin" wrong for my entire life. not that i spell it often. but i'm not the only one. somehow over time, the spelling for "heroine" (girl hero) became the same as the spelling for "heroin" (drug). i saw a lot of informative articles about the drug, and those people also spelled it as "heroine."

when i was in college, me and my roommate ashley had a little saying. "if it's after 10pm, we're either asleep or crazy." we get tired pretty early. (it's a little after 11pm right now...) but if we stayed up later studying or doing fun things, it kind of ended like this. me thinking too hard about heroine.

a new level of sad.

i saw this on postsecret, and i thought it was really funny. i'm definately more interested in their fake love life than my own at the moment.

debates are illuminating.

i decided to watch the presidential debate tonight. i've never in my life intended to do such a thing. i was only 20 last time. i didn't care. i was busying studying and partying. it's true. i partied. in a way.

my goal was to watch the entire spectacle, but i only made it halfway. my attention span began to wane as they started arguing (excuse me, debating) about the war. i'm so over that. there are other issues i want to hear about.

and that's when i realized...i am so grown-up. watching this is such a grown-up thing to do. but i also noticed there are still a few areas where i need some growth. so i compiled these two lists.

1) Ways the Debate Showed Me I Am Grown-Up
- i actually watched it, mostly
- there are actual issues that i care about (such as healthcare, because...oh yeah, i have no health insurance. the family who owns the preschools in the area...i haven't ruled out a mafia connection...is so loaded, but they won't give us health insurance)
- i'm seriously thinking about those issues, and not just deciding to vote republican because my family does
- i had a vague, if not complete, understanding of what they were talking about
- the moderator made me laugh

2) Ways the Debate Showed Me I Am Not Grown-Up
- i am still using the term "grown-up"
- i wished there were commercial breaks
- i spent too much time counting how many times mccain batted his eyelids out of frustration, or how many times i saw obama's adam's apple bounce up and down out of frustration (in other words, i was easily distracted)
- i only made it halfway before i started pacing and humming to myself out of sheer boredom
- i thought about doing a coin toss to decide who to vote for

i wanted a commercial break so i could go to the bathroom. but i'm sure you'll be relieved to know that i am not so grown-up that i can't hold it anymore.

part two.

i said in this post that the people at my job had tapped into some material that "the office" had yet to explore....group exercises.

well, i'm re-watching last night's premiere, because it was that good...and they did group exercises! i missed that the first time. (that's why you have to watch everything twice...)

amazing.

maybe i am pam.

jim and pam.

"I swallowed a tapeworm to help me lose weight. It's going to eat all the food I eat, so I won't get fat. Then I'll take some medicine, and it will pass. Creed sold it to me. It's from Mexico."

"Andy Bernard doesn't lose contests. He wins them. Or quits them, if they're unfair."

best season premiere ever. my favorite episode, ever.

"casino night" from season 2 used to be my favorite.

same reason.

jim and pam.

how much am i worth?

every few days i remember how outrageous my life is. i think that i'll have so many ridiculous stories to share by age 30. if there were any life lessons to be gleaned from them, i'd write a book.

that's the first time i've used the word "gleaned" in my entire life. i think it worked well.

but seriously. i had that weird day at work where they handed out awards and we did group exercises. then there was that other day when i had the most uncomfortable moment of my life, and i'll probably write about that eventually...but it's just a little too soon. trust me, though. it was noteworthy.

and just now, as i was watching a rerun of friends about the gellar/bing wedding, i had a flashback that reminded me...this isn't a new trend in my life.

in the summer of 2006, my best friend got married. i was a bridesmaid. that was one of the best weekends of my life. it was so laid-back. nothing like a normal wedding. no stress. just fun! the power even went out and we had the ceremony by candlelight, and she didn't even care. there was no bridezilla to be found.

however, i felt pretty sick that day. since there was no air conditioning, it was pretty hot. i went into the ceremony with a headache. the hotness (temperature) turned it into a migraine. by the time we got to the reception, all i could do was sit there and force a smile. i'm still mad about that. it was so beautiful, and i was so happy for them. but i felt really, really bad.

one of the side effects of migraines, in addition to not wanting to be near light or any kind of noise, is nausea.

yeah.

it's taken me a couple years to be able to laugh about this. but on the way back to the hotel, AFTER the wedding (thankfully), i totally threw up all over myself in the car. i knew it was going to happen if i didn't lay down, but i was hoping we'd make it to the hotel. we did not. i tried to get the driver (her sister) to pull over before the incident became an "incident", but it took her too long.

so we stopped at a hollywood video! how random and surreal is that. i went in and changed my clothes, and brushed my teeth. for some reason as i was remembering this tonight, it struck me as hysterical that someone had to go empy the trash that night...and that person discovered a bridesmaid dress covered in vomit.

how ridiculous.

it's good that someone started this blogging trend, because i need to record these things somewhere. and i'm not really the "dear diary" type.

an ode to nyquil.

in haiku form.

i love nyquil pills
i just learned that they exist
you should try them too

drink liquid no more
say goodbye to aftertaste
feel happy so soon

when i cannot sleep
because of sinus problems
nyquil does the trick

oh, i cannot breathe!
suddenly i can again!
and i can sleep too!

life is fine again
i feel like a new person
i love you nyquil

napoleon dynamite

i'm stealing these pictures from my sister. apparently, my niece is going to be a butterfly for halloween.

this. is. cute.

apparently i'm 13 again.

i shut my blog down for a day. i had a frustrating friday/saturday, and just decided i was over the whole "blogging" thing. i think it's the adult 21st century equivalent of furiously ripping pages out of a diary, only to regret it later. luckily, nothing was damaged in my protest against the world.

but then i had that amazing dream about being in jail. and even if there are only 5 people who read this, it had to be shared. i couldn't keep that to myself.

some more things i can't keep to myself:

i only slept about 3 hours last night, because of an impending sinus infection. this isn't anything remarkable. i spend most of the winter with a cold. what's great about it is that i get to take nyquil again. i was out last night, so i had to suffer through it. even the fact that i love nyquil isn't news. but today when i went to buy more, i discovered...nyquil PILLS. i'm sure they've been around, but i've been downing the liquid. it was always worth it. even though the taste made me want to vomit. but as soon as the drowsiness set in...mmm. so worth it. but i bought pills today, which means i'll be sleeping like a baby tonight. (i can't remember...have i mentioned how misleading that statement is? because a lot of babies don't sleep well...) and with no "cherry" aftertaste.

also, i bought gas today. i was determined not to buy gas until i actually needed any, because that's the logical thing to do. on my way to work, there was gas in the stations. on my way out of work, i noticed some of them were empty again. so i knew i had to buy some for myself, even though i had half a tank left. because i don't think it will last until the weekend.

it's too bad that only 5 people read this, because nashville needs to know...you are all crazy. the only reason there's no gas is because you're all insane. gas ran out because you all went to buy it on the same day. and not only did you fill up your cars when you were nowhere near empty, you filled up extra cars, and extra containers. so of course gas ran out.

friday afternoon when one of the kids in my class got dropped off a couple hours late, her mom explained that it was because she drove around for an hour and a half looking for gas. if you have enough gas to drive around for an hour and a half...you don't need to be buying any more of it.

it's not going to get any better until people start thinking reasonably again. just pause, and think to yourself "hmm, i wonder why nashville is the only city with this problem? i wonder why the surrounding cities are fine? even the cities that were actually struck by a hurricane...how curious..."

it's because of you.

originally i emphasized my points with capital letters, but i just changed it to italics. i'm not saying these things light-heartedly, or in jest. i'm very serious. but i don't want to be too harsh either. after all, i bought gas today even though i didn't need to.

revealing...

so, last night i dreamed that i was sent to jail.

but i got to leave at night, and on weekends.

ummm...

i mean, i already knew i hated my job...

but that's a funny way to dream about it.

beep.

last night i dreamed that i got a new bed.

does that mean i subconciously hate the one i'm sleeping on now?

eery.

today i got a text from my mom that said "i'm home." that's it. i've never sent her a text in my entire life, so she wasn't responding to anything i said. to be honest i'm kind of shocked that she knows how. i'm pretty sure she still has no idea how to check her voice mail.

my dad was supposed to tell me that my mom had been staying with my sister since she was bored out of her mind. and my mom was just letting me know that she's home again.

i'm assuming that since she felt the need to text me that, she's still pretty bored.

before we hung up, she said her and my dad were driving around "scavenging for food."

we are such a dramatic family.

77339

thats my zip code in texas, holler.

i remember when i learned it, in first grade. well maybe i learned it before then. what i remember, is having a conversation about it with a classmate. we were both stunned to find out that we had the same zip code.

her name was also allison. and around the same time as our zip code revelation, we started calling ourselves "long lost sisters." because we have the same name. which doesn't really make sense, but we were 6.

anyway, a couple days after ike hit, my dad called me and asked me to look up something online. they didn't have power. he needed a generator for the store he works at, and needed phone numbers to call. i didn't think much of it, because hey, a hurricane blew through.

he just did that again, ten seconds ago. only this time, he told me they heard on the radio that there was a website that listed which zip codes were going to have their power restored on which days. so i looked theirs/ours up? (this is not my home...neither is houston...but it's cool...i'm fine...whatever...)

their power isn't being restored until "late monday night, the 22nd."

dude.

WHAT?

that's so messed up.

here i am, blogging way too much again. two posts in a night. how narcissistic. and down in the promised land*, they don't have any electricity. they're still not back into the swing of things. my parents made it sound like it was no big deal since alicia was so much worse in 1983. i declare that they are wrong.

it's just so strange to me how our situations could be so different. my life has only changed in terms of gas prices. they're probably so hot every night trying to sleep, and they can't cook in the house, so they have to like...heat up tv dinners on the grill outside or something like that. they're living like freaking cavemen. 21st century cavemen.

weird.

*this might tempt you to say "i guess it's not the promised land, after all." so i would like to remind you that there were giants to conquer in the original one. it wasn't all milk and honey, people.**

**blog footnotes are cool.***

***i wrote these footnotes yesterday, and today i discovered they were missing...so now i'm kind of creeped out. like maybe someone knows my password. but they only wanted to delete that out of the post. creepy.

meg white.

i would like to share two things that made me laugh today.

one show that i watch regularly is "bones." (i. can't. wait. for. the. office.) it's a really funny version of a typical forensic science show. the main character is really into facts, and is not in touch with her emotions. it's great. like tonight, somebody mentioned cinderella. her thoughts: "i never understood that story."

that's not one of the funny things. it's just some character info to explain the first funny thing.

so tonight part of the case had to do with dog fighting, and she decided to adopt one of the dogs. but they had to put it down because it killed a human. so she decided to bury it, and her partner went along. this was their conversation, which made me laugh really hard.

booth: would you like to say something before we go?
bones: ok. this dog paid the price for a human's mistake, and it was unfair to ask him to do that.
booth: why are you looking at me when you say that? it's not my fault.
bones: you're the only person here.
boooth: talk to the universe, or God or something.
bones: i don't believe in God.
booth: well, God is dog spelled backwards. talk to the dog.
bones: well, it's not like he can hear me, and even if he could he has limited vocabulary skills.

i so want to be like that. i am in some ways. i hate "the notebook" and "garden state" which everyone else in the world adores. spare me.

and the second funny thing is a quote from the chuck klosterman book i am currently reading. he wrote this article about psychic people. he visited 5 of them, and this is a quote from his second visit:

"The greatest revelation about me regarded my past life: it turns out I was once a well-educated woman who died in 1919. Upon hearing this, I did some reasearch in the library. In January of '19, there was an explosion in a Boston molasses factory; a surge of molasses killed twenty-one people and several horses. I can only assume I was part of this disaster; I've always mysteriously feared molasses (and, to a lesser extent, dead horses)."

and i am extending another invitation to my faithful readers. how did my train of thought lead me to the title of this post? your head is totally going to explode trying to figure it out.

i want red hair.

so, another bad day at work.

i was feeling pretty bad (due to my pride and the overall sense of hopelessness about the situation). and that got me thinking about feelings in general.

stay tuned. i'm not about to share a poem i wrote about rainy days and how cats love me more than humans do.

i decided to find a song that i love that goes with all my different emotions. well, not ALL. but eight of them.

this is my current "i'm confused" song. "the little things" by colbie caillat.



this is one of the songs i listen to when i'm feeling nostalgic. because they were/are my favorite band. (true fans never disown their favorite band!) i would like to be 17 again. it was my favorite year of life.

"supertones strike back" by the one and only, orange county supertones.



and if i'm feeling mellow, maybe a little ray lamontagne. anyone? here's "trouble." (i couldn't find a great video of this, but if that's all you're interested in, you're a disappointment to me.)



and here is one of my "i'm MAD" songs. "worlds apart" by jars of clay. they have a few songs i turn to during my low points. for me, madness and sadness kind of go hand in hand. and when i'm feeling either of those emotions, i feel them pretty intensely, and it is my preference to snap out of it. call it denial if you must. but i don't listen to music that fuels the anger/sadness.

some might say this is the best "contemporary christian" song ever written. if you completely ignore keith green's existence. i say top 5.

there wasn't a good video of this one either. but some kid put the lyrics on it (ohhhh, copyright infringement on all levels...it hurts me...good thing this is my mad/sad song), so you can sing along!



hey, let's be honest. sometimes i feel a little emo. here is "almost lover" by a fine frenzy.



if i find myself a little frustrated with humanity, what could be better than "i don't want to be" by gavin degraw? (actually, a lot of songs, but this one has been in my head lately...) (also, really weird to hear this without the full band...but the actual music video can't be embedded...and i fully support that decision).



i didn't forget to think about being "happy." this is "every new day" by five iron frenzy. (FIF to my 17 year old self...) i did a presentation on this song in college. the class was called "the musical experience." belmont is just like that. anyway, the professor was such a weirdo. mcleod. yeah. i'm naming names. i did the presentation, and he said something like "i'm surprised a Christian band would make a song with that tempo, since dancing was banned from the church!" and i had no idea how to respond. he's also the professor that made us have class on the snow day, even though it was formally cancelled by belmont. and i had never seen snow before, in my life. yeah. he was not awesome.



and if i have no discernable mood (see: feeling normal) i'll probably listen to "bohemian rhapsody" by queen. everyone else my age feels this song is played out. but that's because y'all were allowed to listen to it when you were younger. i discovered it when i was in college. long after my steven curtis chapman and avalon days were behind me.

i'll spend the next decade of my life catching up to the rest of you, musically.



this. was. fun.

for me.

chang chang chang.

so we had a little "birthday party" for one of the kids in my class today. it's not really a party. really we just hand them cupcakes, and they rub the icing all over...everything. and then we clean it up. and find more of it later in unmentionable places.

while we were getting things ready, the cupcakes were sitting on the counter. mocking the children. one of them started whining because he wanted cupcakes. sometimes we eat our snack outside, so we have less to clean up. we pretend it's so the children can get some fresh air. anyway, i told him that before anyone could have a cupcake, we had to put his shoes on. (thanks, moms of the world, for buying shoes your children can slip on and off so easily, instead of buying shoes that are more like bear traps).

while i was putting his shoes on, he decided to sing through "happy birthday" really, really fast. i guess he figured if he did that, a cupcake would magically appear in front of him.

so, i'm thinking, wouldn't it be great if there were little songs we could sing to move things along in life? instead of sitting in traffic, maybe if i sing a stanza of "the wheels on the bus", the light will turn green. (isn't it sad how that's the first song about travel that comes to my mind?)

or if i'm tired of waiting for payday, i could just break into a chorus of "she works hard for the money" and i'd have more money in my account.

i'm all out of examples. my wit runs out at 9:30.

i don't know. it seems like it would be nice.

you can't trust anything named Ike.

i have no idea what that means. it's probably true.

this day has been ridiculous.

the first story i won't be elaborating on is that i got in "fights" with two coworkers this week. one of which was today. they're not FIGHTS. i've just decided not to be a pushover anymore. so that's how i started this evening.

then i went to this thing with all these people, and had the most painfully awkward encounter with another human being that i have ever experienced in my LIFE. this is something you'd watch on tv and laugh at because of how unreal it was, but it was REAL, and it happened to ME. and it's over. and i lived through it.

then i called my parents, and my mom informed me that my dad FELL OFF THE ROOF a whopping TWO WEEKS AGO and nearly killed himself for real. he does a lot of work around the house. fixing it up. he's really quite amazing. i have no idea where he got these skills. he's a pharmacist! but he builds all kinds of things, and fixes all kinds of things, and even throws some creative flair into it. he put down this stone patio in place of the deck that used to be there, and its beautiful. anyway. he was fixing something, and fell off the roof. and they didn't call to tell me. now i know how they feel, because i never call them about stuff either.

side note: my parents are now old enough for me to worry about them constantly. hurricane ike factors into that. i will get to that in a moment. i had no idea i had to worry about my dad falling off roofs, but here we are. this ike character is going to blow their yard in every direction, so they'll have to pick up stuff tomorrow, and my dad is sore from falling off a roof. so i told him to call his friends and ask for help, because he's hurt. and he said "well mike had a heart attack this summer, so i can't ask him." um, OK. close family friend. had a heart attack. no one told me. my parents, and their friends, are now a constant source of worry for me. they're old, man. it's that phase of life. the kids now take care of the elders. freaky.

anyway, hurricane ike. for those of you who don't know or have forgotten, my parents live in houston. hurricane weather is very common. i grew up with it. nothing terribly severe ever blew through houston. hurricanes, yes. tropical storms, all the time. it rained. the wind blew. no big deal. and every time that happened, my parents would remind us that in 1983 there was hurricane alicia. the worst hurricane they'd ever seen. my mom was pregnant with me, holler. anyway, they've compared every major storm to alicia. by the way, i'm 24. thought i'd save you a little trouble doing the math. well my dad just informed me on the phone tonight that ike is alica's twin brother. same category. same wind mileageperhourage. same direction. it's landing in the same place.

a visual aid:

here is alicia. the legend.



and here is ike.



so, if you read this before 2am when it's supposed to be blowing through, pray for them. there are some tall trees in the yard.

awww. look at that little outline of texas. that's such a great shape. texas has the best shape.

you must be talking to someone else.

today while a kid in my class was being dropped off, he started saying "no!" about something, because that's his favorite word.

his mom said, "what have i told you about saying no?"

and i thought that maybe we'd get rid of this delightful phase in at least one of the children, and it would rub off on the others.

and then she said, "you're supposed to say no ma'am."

yeah. politeness. that's what matters. when kids are screaming "no!" at me all day, i won't mind if they're polite about it.

not to mention how gross i feel about someone calling me ma'am. i am 24. i am not married. i have no children. there's no ma'am here.

lame-o.

so when i'm driving back from work, there's always this "homeless vet" by this one light begging for money. (why is he homeless anyway? people pay a lot of money for their animals to be taken care of. ba dum ching!) he pauses every few feet to rub his knee, because it hurts.

yesterday there was this other guy, with some sort of twitch. a physical ailment. his whole right arm and right left were stiff, but both twitched when they felt like it.

i thought to myself, "is that the same guy pretending to be someone different today?"

today they were both out there.

my skepticism failed me again.

i walk this fine line between compassion and skepticism most of the time. i see beggars asking for money, and i wonder if they are faking whatever their sign says. are they really homeless? are they really injured? are they really broke?

but then i remember...even if they are playing us, something happened to land them where they are. on the side of the road, begging for money. perhaps it's laziness. that's probably true for some of them. but i also think it's got to be really hard to stand on the side of the road in various weather conditions, begging for money. i'm not just talking about emotionally or mentally. i mean it has to be physically hard to do that, especially when it's really hot or really cold. it's not like they do it while laying on a couch.

so when i think like that, i wonder...so now, what do i do about it? if i hand out cash to every person on the side of the road, i won't be able to pay MY bills. generosity is cool. but wisdom is too. it's perplexing.

**update** today on my drive back, beggar number one took a break. to pee on the side of the road. yeah. that happened.

question? is the term "beggar" offensive? i feel weird saying it, but that's what they are. its exhausting trying to be PC.

no. no. no. no.

"someone" is making a knock-off version of guitar hero called guitar praise.

make it stop.

i can't even express how disgusted that makes me feel. i want to puke all over "someone's" face.

chuck klosterman.

Let us assume there are two boxes on a table. In one box, there is a relatively normal turtle; in the other, Adolf Hitler's skull. You have to select one of these items for your home. If you select the turtle, you can't give it away and you have to keep it alive for two years; if either of these parameters are not met, you will be fined $999 by the state. If you select Hitler's skull, you are required to display it in a semi-prominent location in your living room for the same amount of time, although you will be paid a stipend of $120 per month for doing so. Display of the skull must be apolitical. Which option do you select?

For reasons that cannot be explained, cats can suddenly read at a twelfth-grade level. They can't talk and they can't write, but they can read silently and understand the text. Many cats love this new skill, because they now have something to do all day while they lay around the house; however, a few cats become depressed, because reading forces them to realize the limitations of their existence (not to mention the utter frustration of being unable to express themselves). This being the case, do you think the average cat would enjoy Garfield, or would cats find this cartoon to be an insulting caricature?

You have won a prize. The prize has two options, and you can choose either (but not both). The first optioni is a year in Europe with a monthly stipend of $2,000. The second option is ten minutes on the moon. Which option do you select?

Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you don't kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you can't tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack?

for the record...

hitler's skull. that would be so intriguing.

no. cats are moody and impossible to please as it is.

the moon. i can go to europe on my own time, but i'll never have a chance to be on the moon.

i would tell them i saw a spider crawling on them. my friends know i'm deathly afraid of spiders, and i take extreme measures to kill them. (i once killed a spider with a hammer!)

a whiff.

next week we're having a book fair at work, and the displays just arrived.

hello memory lane.

book fairs were so much fun in elementary school! i remember browsing. oh, the browsing! all the books were so perfectly new, with really great illustrations. and parents rarely say no to a kid begging for a new book. that's like denying your kid an extra helping of broccoli.

but i also remember that i was somewhat frivolous when it came to the book fair. you'd think that with my love of literature, i would have been saying things like "mum, can i have a leather-bound copy of war and peace?"

but no. i always wanted the ones that came with little toys. you know the ones, right? something sticky or slimy. a container of gak. maybe a slinky. or a sparkly bookmark! that one is not as frivolous. i need bookmarks. it was always harder to get my parents to buy those for me. sometimes they did. sometimes they didn't. they are so unpredictable.

even though they are selling children's books (although...i did see a crockpot recipe book...that's weird...) i still get to enjoy this book fair just as much as before. i get to write down a "wish list" of books i want for the classroom, and the generous parents might just buy one for us. and then later that day their children will rip it to shreds.