a few

Ok, so some of my poems were really bad. Well, maybe not really bad but just so personal and heart-wrenching in that way that only teenage poems can be that I knew if I put them here and shared them suddenly they would seem shallow and stupid and I'd forget what they really meant to me. I am glad that I saved a lot of them (I have a journal of my "best works" from the end of high school through college) because they certainly do renew my perspective on where I came from and remind me how seriously I took myself, and perhaps that I had cause to at some points. But there were a few that I re-read and maybe they weren't as horrible... or at least, they didn't come from that place in your soul that seems to disappear with the onset of your twenties. Here's one I'll share... according to my journal it's called "When", although if I had written now I'd probably title it something different.

When I was younger I would watch the raindrops chasing each other down the window.
I would always place mental bets on the fastest raindrop
and I was always disappointed when one of the smaller
ate the others
and somehow won the race.
It seemed a bit like cheating to me.
When I was younger I took naps before dinner because I liked the way the silverware woke me up and the house smelled warmer when I opened my eyes and my parents' voices danced up the stairs vibrating and happy.
When I was younger the boys I liked were scrawny and goofy
and chased me around the playground with sideways, toothless smiles
and they never wanted to talk, really.
They were happy to chase and then be chased
and that was fine with everyone involved.
When I was younger being scared usually only happened at night
or in the presence of a mean boy named Fred
or a large girl named Lenore who would pick me up and spin me around.
But it was easy to hide under the covers and wish it all away on the memory of a star.
When I was younger the best days were spent outside with a ball from the grocery store
and my sisters thought I was super-cool.
When I was younger I built sandcastles by dipping my hand in a bucket of wet sand and dribbling
it
in
piles,
creating castles for the gods and goddesses of the sea.
When I was younger I put diving rings around my ankles and swam like a mermaid through aquamarine, chlorinated oceans,
befriended by dolphins and chased by sharks
that oddly resembled my sisters.
When I was younger opening the box of last year's summer clothes was like shopping all over again and jelly sandles never went out of style.
When I was younger hammocks were sailing ships
and lightening bugs told me summer secrets.

hop on!

Seems like everyday someone else gives into the peer pressure and joins us here in the wonderful world of blogging. I remember in college a few friends and I had blogs that we were the only ones to know about and we wrote terrible poetry (ok, some of the haiku was pretty good... and maybe I should go back and read some of my poems again before I judge them so harshly... but still) and talked about deep philosophical things and were basically losers. And it seemed that a blog was a perfect loser medium. But now blogs are all... cool and stuff. When did that happen? And people have blogs professionally (dooce, anyone? yeah, she's awesome) and get to be on Oprah talking about how important social networking is to the stay at home mom community. Well, pardon me, but maybe I'm just more comfortable being a loser. What happened to my blogger status quo? Now I have stuff to live up to and people that actually READ my blog (hi mom).

Anyway, I kind of got off on a rant there. My point was that now another of my nearest and dearest has come over to the blog side... welcome to Katie (aka Lady Homebody)! Now everyone go follow her so she feels the same pressure I do.

I'm going to go find a really good college-years poem to subject you... I mean share with you.

spring broken

Yes, I am still here and alive, albeit perhaps a bit uninteresting lately. Let's see... what have I done that the masses might want to know about? I went to the beach this past weekend with one of my favorite people and managed to get hella sunburned, but only on my feet and neck. It's a talent. I also got to help said favorite person act out her wedding ceremony on the beach... I think I went from grandmother to groom in about 3 seconds, which was both fun and a little confusing. I am on spring break from the studio this week, which really means nothing since I still have to babysit and Joe still has school and work, but it has been nice to have my nights free and (let's be honest) to have a break from my kids. Recital is coming up fast and we've all been a bit frantic at the studio (ALL of our 400 some-odd kids perform in this monstrosity, and it gets a bit hectic even just in thinking about how it will work), so I think it was important for us all to get to step away for a week and come back a little more fresh before we get verbally attacked by parents who have to pay a $15 late fee or something equally as horrendous. Oh, and it snowed again yesterday. I mean, it was just flurries this time, no excuse for not blogging or anything, but still. Snow. In Georgia. In Athens, Georgia. In April. 'S not right.

Upcoming craziness in the Caldwell family: Joe is going to some big important meeting where he gets to hear his favorite man-crush (Warren Buffet) speak, we have two weddings (one of the favorite person mentioned above) back to back, we're moving into a yet-to-be-determined-but-I'm-going-to-see-one-of-our-last-options-today 2 bedroom apartment, we just recently discovered that we either have to spend approximately 4 million dollars on car repairs OR buy a new car (read: test the bonds of our marriage), Joe and Margaret and Katie are graduating within a week of each other (which also falls on the same weekend as RECITAL *cue ominous music*), Tricia graduates from highschool at the end of May right before she turns 18, Joe and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary (unless the car thing happens first, then... who knows...), and my sisters and I are planning a trip to NYC! All sounds pretty blog-worthy, right?

fording the river (of life...)

When I was in elementary school, we had a "state of the art" computer lab with rows upon rows of what would now be considered dinosaur computers; huge, grey boxes with floppy disk drives and visible pixels even in the fonts. The highlight of computer time was being allowed to play the "it" game of the time- Oregon Trail. Anyone who has ever played this game knows that it was pretty much impossible to make it all the way to Oregon. You would ford a river and all of your supplies would sink, you would lose half of your family to typhoid or cholera, your oxen would die and slow your progress while you slowly ran out of food, part of your wagon would break and no one would be willing to make a reasonable trade. It was an educational game because you had to figure out how to make the most of your supplies, use your money wisely, and you learned about the pioneers movement west at the same time.

Joe and I recently found an online version of this old favorite game (you even have to press a function key to "flip the floppy disk to side 2") and played together once before Joe decided that we should play against each other on our own laptops to see if one of us could beat the game. Joe started out as a farmer, counting on the difficulty points that you get at the end as well as his hunting prowess (arrow keys to move, space bar to shoot... aim for those bears and you're golden). I started as a banker, which meant a lot more money at the beginning so you could buy extra supplies.

Long story short, I made it to Oregon. I was able to buy food at each fort, pay to get ferries across the river, trade with Indians and other travellers, and take long breaks to keep my family healthy (although, Libby unfortunately passed from typhoid right before we made it... win some, lose some).

Joe's whole family died about halfway through. He made to about 50 miles outside of Oregon before randomly kicking the bucket as well. I think it was from complications due to a broken arm. Something lame like that. Or maybe it was a hunting injury...

Anyway, so... all along I thought we were supposed to be learning about math, long term planning, and the pioneer movement. I guess the valuable lesson we were supposed to learn as children was that money makes you win at life.

wonder dog strikes again

Wonder Dog and I went to our second flyball tournament this past weekend, held in the same place as the first one we went to at a Baptist Convention center right outside of Talladega, Alabama. We took a lot fewer dogs this time, a majority of them "green dogs", or dogs that have been to fewer than 3 tournaments (I think all three of our green dogs had about 4 tournaments between them!). Everyone did fabulously, earning their FDCh titles (Flyball Dog Champion), jumping over 11 inch hurdles (higher than last time), and keeping race times at about 23 or 24 seconds. Libby had an average run time of about 5.3 seconds, which is awesome. They also got a lot of practice in and got to run most of the day, which was great for us because they slet really soundly in the hotel at night! Libby ran with very few mistakes this weekend, being pretty consistent until the very end of the weekend when she got very distracted by a little Jack Russel named Abby. They were having a very intense conversation while we waited for racing to start and then when I released her she decided she needed to go finish said conversation rather than get her ball. Now, any of you that know Libby know that usually NOTHING comes before a ball in the priority list, so I have a feeling Abby was talking trash about me or something... either that or Abby was jealous because people kept saying that Libby was the prettiest dog at the tournament... no really. They did. Actually, there was a man from the hosting team (the Birmingham Bandits) that was taking pictures of the racing, and he liked Libby so much that he gave me a print of one of her photos for free! (Yes, it is already framed.) But no worries... they are online! Perfect Weblink Wednesday, right? Here is the website where his photos are... Click on "flyball pictures" on the left hand side, then select 2009 and the first tournament. Libby ran in the following races: Day One- Races 9, 32, 45; Day Two- Races 9, 22, 32, 45, one picture in 72.

Please do not judge my ugly, way-too-big-for-me polo shirt.

melon head

So I'm blogging at work. Is that wrong? I mean, there aren't any kids here yet and it's not like I'm actually supposed to be teaching a class or anything ("ok kids... do some plies or something while Miss Greer writes a Weblink Wednesday entry"). AND I even checked the messages and the work email. So really, what else should I be doing? Our office manager isn't even here yet.

Have I rationalized/defended myself/bored you enough yet?

Anyway, all of that was just to say that this will be brief, but I do have two links to share today. The first is a blog that I recently started following that shares stories about crazy things that happen in the school system. It was on the list of "Best Blogs" (for 2008, I think) that the Times or some other important literary work put out recently. My latest favorite tidbit was about some faculty that put together a "Fight Club" for special needs students. And then took cell phone videos of it. Brillance, folks. Just plain brilliance.

The other one I just happen to stumble upon and I thought it was pretty awesome. Check out these melons (don't worry, it's G-rated...)!

Oh, and by the by, my laptop has been returned to my loving arms (lap?) at last. Once I get all of my stuff loaded back onto it, I should be back in the swing of things for real. Here's hoping.

catch up time!

I know it's been a while since my last post, but here are a few of the reasons why...

• Took my students to Access Broadway, a musical theatre and dance competition. Some rough patches, namely my ballet music skipping so badly that they had to stop the act, we had to scramble to find another CD with the track on it, figure out the cueing since I had cut it for competition, and then find another point in the packed out schedule to let them try it again. Also, I was disappointed in the score for my jazz duet with Emery and Kayla (who are 8 years old, btw), but I will be interested to see the judges' comments so I can know what they were looking for. BUT, most importantly and regardless of any frustrations, we won Best Studio for the 4th year in a row! It was a very exciting weekend, but I think we're all relieved it's over... although that just means that it's time to start freaking out about recital.
• Drove back from Atlanta in SNOW! They had been forecasting snow, but in Georgia you always take that kind of forecast with a grain of salt. So imagine the surprise when Athens got almost 6 inches! Definitely the most snow I had ever seen in my home state. Joe and I were legitimately snowed into our house without power (for about 24 hours!). We tried to walk down to Kroger to get a flashlight and some non-microwaveable food (I did not realize how much of our meals come out of the microwave) and the power went out all the way down the street, including the hospital (yikes!) and the entire Alps shopping center. When we made it to Kroger, they came over the loudspeaker and told us to get our purchases quickly since they didn't know how long the emergency lights would stay on. It was an exciting and beautiful experience to have that much snow, but I am certainly glad to live in the south where it is a rarity rather than the norm!
• I tried to update iTunes on my laptop and it decided to stop working. I took it to the PeachMac store after Joe tried unsuccessfully to fix it himself and it seems that there is something wrong with my hard drive. So now I have to take everything off the computer and back it up so that they can fix it. Fun. Oh, and the woman working at the customer service desk was super-rude when we dropped it off. She acted like she would rather be anywhere but at that desk dealing with us insufferably stupid Mac-users. When I picked it up I saw on the lable on my laptop that her name is Lisa Polite. What a misnomer!
• For those of you (Joe) who were sad to miss Weblink Wednesday, here you go.