Pink Lemonade Linings

Drifting

Well, summer is not quite over, but my mind is slowly drifting away from lazy days and free time and drifting towards getting back to work.  Already lesson plans are forming in my mind (though not written down yet), and the eagerness of getting my classroom together for another year is setting in.  I happily made my way the other day to the Big Lots bargain store to get my “teacher appreciation”10% discount…lol.  Well, it’s not a whole lot, but it was something.   I found lots of nice and cheap stuff.

I don’t start work until the end of the month, but I’ll probably be heading back later this week to start cleaning up and organizing my classroom. There is always that chance, though, that the lazy-day-summer me will convince the wannabe-organized me to put

 It off until next Monday…we’ll see.

I can honestly say I enjoyed my class last school year.  They were a great bunch of kids…I’m going to miss them.  I opened up to them more than any other class I have ever had...probably because for the most part they were so open and expressive towards me.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see as to what this year has in store.

Photography opportunity

I don’t know if you have noticed, but I like taking pics (I actually put some more up the other day in the Photography thread here).  So, I was pretty excited when the local paper announced that a photog from our area was recruiting 1,000 pro and amateur picture takers for a major city wide photography project. What this photographer wants to do is assign people different hours of the day to document…so that he can put together a day-in-the-life sort of thing.  It is taking place this weekend; I signed up for this Saturday and am currently waiting to see which hour I will be assigned to.

I am pretty much an amateur at picture taking, but it is something I have found myself loving, so I am looking forward to this event.  A show is being planned later this year to display the chosen photographs.  If my pics make the cut, that will be great, but if they don’t, I still think this is a pretty good experience to be a part of.

The gray cloud with the pink lemonade lining

Recently, a relative of mine needed to be bailed out of a bad situation.  I was called upon to help, which made me pretty upset because I have bailed this person out of trouble before.  I love this person, but I think this person needs to grow up and change for the better. It stressed me out and it caused arguments with my mother.  She even whipped out the good old guilt trip, which upset me even more. These discussions went on for days, and pretty much put a damper on my spirits.

I end up helping, though limiting my contribution to it all, and was pretty bummed (I guess if I was a stronger person I would have resisted…but I guess I am not).      

After the whole ordeal, Chris and I have lunch.  As I am sitting there feeling not too great, Chris says out of the blue, “Do you want your surprise now or later?”  My reaction was “huh?”  He then tells me, “Just say yes or no…”  So, I just went along and said, “Now, I guess…”

So, Chris goes on to take me for a long ride to the other side of town.  It is very much out of the way…with lots of traffic on the way there.  Although I am curious as to what our destination is, I don’t ask Chris questions and just shoot the breeze with him.

After what seems like a long time, he finally pulls into a strip mall and drives up to a store…and when I see the store sign, a smile immediately comes to my face.  A week or so before, I had read an article about a cupcake store opening up.  I remember my sweet tooth jumping for joy and me telling Chris that I would love to go there.  I remember him shaking his head and giving me a you-need-to-lay-off-the-sugar look..

Needless to say, I am pleasantly surprised that he has brought me here. When we get out of the car, he tells me, “I just thought you needed some cheering up…”  I give him a big hug and a big thank you.  I go on to order these adorable looking (and highly suggested) pink lemonade cupcakes.  They are daintily wrapped in individual boxes and given to me with a warm smile. I leave the place with a big grin and much gratitude to the man beside me…and just like that, a bad day is gone.

The cupcakes may not have been good for my waist…but they were definitely good to the soul.

p.s. I think Karma came back and showed Chris some thanks, too.  Later that day, a gift I had ordered for his birthday (which was on July 24) finally arrived.  We thought it might have gotten lost in the mail.