good things come in short sentences

i was complaining to my mom last week about having to teach all summer, and still keep up with grad classes, and not being able to come home to washington, and not shop the way i used to, among other things. i was an ungrateful, selfish version of myself, exacerbated by not getting enough sleep.

the next day, my school said, "hey, don't work in august. come back in september." can you say biggest blessing?! now i feel ridiculous for all that complaining. and i am, once again, reminded that i am beyond blessed (and that i consciously chose to be a part of all these things that stress me out!).

i can't wait to lay eyes on this place.

thoughts

- don't you hate paying a lot of money for a bad haircut? you try to talk yourself into saying, "yeah, looks great" to the enthusiastic stylist and then take a longer look in the mirror at home and realize that "leave the length. go for jennifer aniston layers" translated into 2 inches shorter with no layers. wasn't i trying to feel less frumpy?

- child abuse makes me want to throw up and cry and adopt. i've had to report some cases and it's awful.

- kids don't learn from falling over in their chair. everyone knows the split second feeling of death from leaning too far back in your chair. we have to have whole lessons dedicated to this topic in my classroom and yet every week some unlucky soul plummets to the floor.

- i LOVE fresh basil. i've tried to grow my own window sill basil plant for two years...each plant ending in a dried up heap. this was the year of success! i may or may not put basil in everything i make.

- nate and i are dying to go to harry potter land in florida. who says disneyland is the happiest place on earth? i'll decide after we visit hogwarts and drink butter beer.

summa summa time

is where it's at. it's getting a little sticky for my taste, but it's still gorgeous. this weekend brought...

a little bit of birthday action

a little bit of wii tennis action

and a little bit of nordstrom anniversary sale action.
i'm getting stingy-er in my old age, but nordstrom always reminds me of home.
i spent many back to school shopping days at the anniversary sale in my formative years.
now i just stare at the 5 inch magenta suede heels. who am i kidding? i need old lady shoes for chasing after 4 year-olds on the play ground and getting paint and bleach sprayed on them. what aisle are the hush puppies on?

gaga, sox, and skydivers

poor nate has been working nonstop. our last two weekends have consisted of me playing at the beach and nate working at the office. he deserves a big, big gold star. and a vacation. when he was able to get away for the night, we jumped on the opportunity to go to a white sox game with a friends of ours. on the L, we spotted a girl...in fishnets...with a platinum mane...and a black leather, studded bra...with a body guard...and an entourage...and a photographer nearby.

nate nudged me and we debated if it was really her or not. so i snapped a few photos just in case. but, after reading this article i am pretty sure we rode the train with lady gaga. or a really, really good impersonator. someone yelled out "ARE YOU REALLY LADY GAGA?!" and she just flashed a peace sign and walked off the train.

nate has already emailed people magazine and now we're just waiting to make a killing off my photos and go into early retirement.

and while we're at it, transformers 3 started filming downtown yesterday. i drove by trucks and trucks of costumes, personal chefs, army gear, fake building pieces, and everything else that happens in a movie. then shia labeouf opened his trailer door and winked at me. not really. but this morning, they shot a scene in the little park that our building overlooks. skydivers parachuted from planes into our park. now we have to see the movie, no matter how awful it is.

what i really look like

while playing with one of my students the other day, he got out the plastic career people in our classroom. he chose the one that looked like him, then surveyed the other figures and said, "annnnnd you're this one, ms. lawler"

"does this one look like me?"
"yes. your skin looks like this one"
"do i have wrinkles or white hair?"
"you will"

ouch. he's a smart cookie. apparently, this is what i look like to this little boy...

if (please no!) i ever look like this, hopefully my shirt won't be see through, i won't have double E's and i won't rock a mullet.

the taste

we look forward to the taste of chicago every year, although after getting smoke blown in my face and looking around at all the trash on the street, i realized that it is a lot more idealized in my head than it is in person. this year we tasted steak cilantro tacos, irish egg rolls with corned beef and cabbage, delectable cookies n cream ice cream on a waffle cone, and our favorite roasted corn on the cob. all in good company.