Tuscani Pasta

Wow...I'm super excited now! We haven't ordered pizza in a really long time, but we decided to treat ourselves today. I called the # I thought was for Pizza Hut, and quickly hung up because I thought I had dialed wrong. When I checked the # and called back, I knew something was up. Apparently Pizza Hut has a new line of "restaurant style pastas" called Tuscani Pasta. I LOVE pasta, but I rarely eat it unless I cook it at home, so this is a special treat for sure! It's a nice discovery on an otherwise cloudy day!

School's Out for Summer!

Actually I am taking one spring/summer class (math...won't that be fun!) but for the most part...I'M DONE!! That was one long semester and I'm very glad it's over! Final grades haven't been posted yet but hopefully I did okay. I am immensely relieved, but at the same time I'm a bit worried about summer because (for the first time in a long time) I don't have a job lined up. Unfortunately this is NOT the sort of economic climate in which not having a job (short term though it may be) is acceptable. I'm sure I'll figure something out. Thanks to a friend, who told me she wouldn't speak to me until I did, I already made myself a promotional card for portraits that I plan on distributing. Hopefully I'll get at least a few jobs that way. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

You're Not My Neighbor

When your doorbell rings at 10:20 p.m., you can pretty much be assured bad news lies between you and the door. In our case it was a "neighbor" claiming to be from one of the streets that runs behind our house. He gave some sob story about how he had locked himself out of his house and he had his 11-month old and wife in the car. He said he just needed a little money to pay a locksmith. "I'll be right back with it in just about a couple hours, soon as I get this straightened out" he said. I came to the door after Michael so that's about all I heard. Apparently he had some sort of temporary ID as well but he said he had just moved in.

In retrospect, the correct thing to do would have been to apologize to him and tell him we couldn't help him. As I'm sure he expected, it was late and we were caught off guard. We're nice people. We would help a neighbor in trouble. So basically he preyed upon the things he could deduct about us based on where we live. I guess our house looked extra friendly since all the lights were on, which is supposed to be a theft deterrent. We gave him $40, which was the only cash we had at the time. He stepped inside our door (even though Michael had asked him to wait on the porch,) and stood there and talked to me about dogs and furniture while he politely robbed us. I knew something was up when Dinah, our normally friendly dog was cowering near my legs and barking at the guy. Granted this is petty theft but I'm still furious. WHAT A PREDATORY JERK! And it goes without saying that I now feel unsafe. What if this guy was scouting the neighborhood? What if he had been armed? What if he comes back?

The minute he left I locked the house down, and needless to say I was not very happy. Michael is an extra nice person, probably too nice in some cases. He's the kind of guy who will always help someone in need. I admire that trait in him but in this case it was not such a great thing. I told him I thought it was all a scam and together we decided to call the sheriff's office. Sure enough there had been another report from someone else in our neighborhood. They took our information and asked if we would like to speak to an officer. We said sure and about two hours later there was another knock on our door.

The officers were very friendly but there wasn't much they could do. They took down our information and our basic report and then stated the obvious, which is that we should never have entertained the "neighbor's" story in the first place and we certainly should have never allowed him to step into our house...even though he basically took that upon himself. I keep replaying the incident in my mind and wondering what we could have done differently. I suppose the fact that we had never seen him before should have been a clue, but he had that covered by claiming he was new to the neighborhood.

I guess you live and learn, and luckily nothing really bad happened but still...what a crazy world we live in! I wonder how many other nice people the creep scammed?

The Garbage Patch

Are you aware of this? If not you should be. The video has some strong language, but in my opinion it's highly justified. We learned about this in my world regions class this morning and it made me feel sick.

For Today Only

That's the best sign I've read all day! In an otherwise busy, hectic, and borderline chaotic school day...my middle class was canceled, "for today only!" I can breathe a sigh of relief now and go use my extra time wisely...yippee for me!

Grits

Who knew the whole world loved grits?!

Sometimes it's the simple things that make life sweet, eh?

"The Happy Death Song"

I heard this song (by Jeff Horwich) on Weekend America this afternoon and it made me laugh.

Sometimes

Sometimes I feel really old when I'm here at school. This morning I overheard someone say "don't compare us to those old students...well, not old but you know, like the 30-year-olds. That makes a big difference and I don't like being compared." This is the girl (child) in my 8:00 a.m. class who talks a mile a minute to anyone who will listen. She was discussing how she didn't think it was fair that her teacher had lectured the class because the average on a test they took was only 64%. Am I missing something?

I like school most of the time, I really do...but I also want to be done. Sometimes I wish I had taken the less complicated road and gotten all of this done when I was still a child. I almost did go into education back then but life got in the way and things changed. Before I knew it I was 30 and still not feeling truly successful. So...here I am...better late than never as they say. I wouldn't change the path I've taken...most of it has been great and most of the time life here at EMU is all good but today is one of those days, I just feel tired. The fact that I don't have the same energy these younger people have is making itself known today. I try to have tolerance for their youth but then I listen to their conversations and I really don't think I was THAT immature when I was their age.

Whatever! I guess I'm just grumpy. I've got my impending math test, it's supposed to rain for the next three+ days, I'm hungry, and finals are coming up. Grrrrr!

Melba

A Special time of Year

Spring in Michigan is truly uplifting! We deal with such a long winter...waiting for what seems like an eternity to enjoy warmer days, birds, sunshine, spring breezes, and flowers! When they finally arrive it's impossible to be unhappy! This is the only time of year when the inside temperature self-regulates. I can open the doors without worrying about bugs coming in. The cross-breeze through the house makes things seem peaceful, even when I'm studying math. My flowers have just begun to poke their heads above ground. It won't be long now and they'll be in full bloom. There's no doubt about it...this is a special time of year!

We're supposed to have a spring thunderstorm tonight and I'm waiting in great anticipation...

Melba

Crazy Four!

We're dog sitting two extra pets this week and it is insane! They're all sweet dogs but we have a small house and there's only so much barking the walls can withstand...check it out!

Seriously!

Today was the third day at Eastern...yes I said third...that I've had to crawl from the passenger side of my car over to the driver's side of my car because the MORONS I'm going to school with don't know how to park their cars!!! The first time it was kind of funny, the second time it was annoying and today, when I got to my car at 8:00 p.m. I was just plain irritated. If even 1/2 of the people in this messed up world (in particular the young people who are supposed to be adults) would look around them and realize, even for one minute that they're not the only people on the planet, many of our chronic problems and issues would disappear.

Whatever. Luckily the day is over now and I can put it behind me. I'm just tired. I'm tired of this semester and tired of stupid, selfish, annoying people who care only about themselves.

MSL

WORMS!!!

A sure sign of spring...worms! They're everywhere today after the rain we had last night. The earth smells entirely different and I'm 100% convinced it's because of the worms. Once upon a time I would have made an "ewww" face at the sight of so many worms wriggling about, but now that I'm a gardener I realize the intrinsic value of the slimy goobers. My acceptance of them has come in stages. First I was disgusted by them, then I would touch them as long as I had my gloves on and now I just pick them up without a care in the world. Strange how one can adapt to such things over time.

Today I should probably wear an insanity badge. If anyone saw me on the way from my class over here to the library, I's sure they got a kick out of my behavior. I was actually stopping to pick up the wandering worms and throw them back into the grass. My mission is twofold: First it's to save the worms from certain death due to foot traffic; after all, they do so much for my garden at home, I think rescuing them is the least I can do. Second it's to help out the grass and soil here at EMU. Worm poop works like magic for grass and plants!

Good times.

MSL