One Word at a Time

London Has Fallen. I know it's just a movie. I actually like action movies. I enjoy the thrill, the good vs bad dichotomy. And I enjoyed the first movie. And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie too. But a part of my brain and my heart ached watching it this time. Brussels has fallen. Paris has fallen. Too many have fallen. They never showed the innocent. They never showed the public. Death and destruction were ignored (unless you were bad or good) to move the plot line along. I know this.  I've watched enough action movies to know that gets too deep into the emotional side of things and you'll lose your target audience . But perhaps emotion is what we need. We need to see what this type of violence and destruction leads to. We need to see the faces of fear,  children making sense of the awful in front of them. If all we see is buildings and smoke, how will we be moved to change?

Last night when I was thinking about my day off, I had plans of grandeur.  I'd clean my house!  I'd do my laundry! I'd take a trip to Costco to stock up on some things! I'd drop my soon-to-be-overdue books at the library! Here's how my day off actually went . . . 930 Woke up. I was "stuck" in bed - a cat between my legs and a cat tucked into my side - so I was content to go nowhere.  I spent some time catching up with my digital world - Facebook,  Twitter, email, weather, Blogger, Timehop.  Got a text from a friend . . . 1145 My friend had tired of texting me, so she called. We spent 90 minutes venting about work, frustrated for the same and different reasons. I gratefully accepted a hot cup of coffee from my husband when he got home from work, after telling me to stop talking about work on my day off! 1200 My hubby and I discussed our upcoming schedules. I was making sure he remembered all the social engagements that we have coming up, as he tends to ...

"Thorough preparation makes its own luck." - Joe Poyer "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin "Don't expect success, prepare for it." - Anonymous "I'd rather be prepared for nothing than unprepared for something." -Anonymous I made my own lesson plan book when I was teaching - that was about three inches thick.  My sub plans were usually eight pages long.  My conference notes were filled to the brim with evidence and data and observations.  Before meetings, I reread notes and readings to make sure I am prepared. So last year, when I was asked to coordinate state testing at a new school, I accepted the challenge.  The year before had been a disaster - lots of riled up staff and students, disorganization, and a drawn out testing window. I pledged to make it all run smoothly! I spent hours organizing, preparing, researching, practicing, creating - all so my teachers would be impacted in the smallest wa...

All day long, I think of my life in slices. Slices of time, slices of feelings, that, put together, make up my whole day and my whole life. Today, however, I realized how many slices of other people's lives  I am witness to every day. I started paying attention - and quickly found myself captivated.  (You might say I was being nosy, but I didn't do anything except overhear what was said in public!) Here are the slices I witnessed today. "The Bachelor was quite a ride this season, wasn't it?" :  This must be a yearly ritual, one they probably share with people they are close to. How fun it is to share in an interest and have it to talk about at work the next day!  Reminds me of when my coworkers and I watched The Office and talked about it every Friday morning before work. Watched a woman going into the dry cleaners with a huge pile of clothes : She must have a job or a lifestyle that requires lots of dry cleaning.  Or did she go somewhere fancy this we...

My husband loves the dark. When I first moved in with him, I took a good hard look at his condo.  The shades were always drawn.  His room was painted a deep red.  There were few lights around beside the overhead ones.  Over time, I came to realize that my husband loves the dark. This is one of the many areas where we are true opposites.  He likes spices and lots of flavors - I like simple, solid flavors.  He likes mixing his food - I like mine separated, thank you very much.  He likes getting his hands dirty - I'll wash mine a few times more.  He likes mornings - I like nights.  His pillow is rock hard - mine is goose down feathers.  He likes sleeping, ahem, scarcely dressed - I wear thirty layers. So after a long day today and an emotional night (more on this later) I was expecting a dark house, like every other night that I come home after he's already gone to sleep. Instead, I drove into the driveway and the porch light was o...

What do you have hanging above your fireplace?  A family portrait? Perhaps a photograph of a family member who has passed.  Maybe you have a shelf of figurines, chosen to fit the personality of your family. I bet you don't have a tricycle. No, we aren't cyclists, or even bike enthusiasts, really.  Said bicycle is really a red metal tricycle, flattened to become a wall hanging.  I never thought it odd as a child - it was just there, as much as any other picture, collage, or wall hanging was.  But eventually, I wondered what the heck was up with the bike. Over the years, my brother and I have questioned it, but my mother always said that she just liked it.  It became a joke between us.  Why is there a bike on the wall?  How the heck would anyone ride it?   So, a few years ago when my parents were packing up our childhood home, my brother and I joked that the bike was going to meet its demise during the move.  My mother too...

Glug, glug, glug. I looked up from my computer to see my cat, Sydney, with his face shoved in my water glass. He's been there for a while. Every few minutes, he pulls his face out, looks at me, licks his lips, and back in his head goes. I know his water bowl is full - I can hear it bubbling from the other room. I can't imagine this way of drinking water is more comfortable than drinking out of a bowl.  He doesn't have to travel very far - his water bowl is only ten feet away. I'd say this is just an eccentricity of Sydney's - but his sister, Skittles, does it too. And so does every other cat I've ever met. So, of course, I asked Google - because the Internet can answer a lot of questions. But - No, he doesn't dislike his water bowl - I see him drink out of it all the time. No, he isn't dehydrated. No, my cats don't fight over the water bowl, making him uncomfortable drinking out of it. ...