As if I didn't have enough silliness in my life....

I've started a new Livejournal--in the persona of one of my dolls!

Check it out.

http://claire-sweet.livejournal.com/

I thought it might be amusing.

And that it might amuse my doll collecting friends.

Anyhow, check it out. If you dare.....mwa ha ha.

Friday

Well, it has been a pretty busy and crazy week here in the life of our lovely but slightly jaded protagonist.  (Me that is.)

There is no particular rhyme nor reason for beginning where I do, since seem to have developed issues with writing in my livejournal regularly--though in fact, it isn't so much that I have issues with writing in my livejournal, it is that I am so friggin' busy being an amateur therapist to a bunch of people that I do not have TIME to sit down and write.

So, I will begin with last weekend.

It was ungodly cold on Saturday (as it has been for the entire week, and will, it appears, be as far as the eye can see or the weather man can predict).  I wasn't planning on going anywhere because of that, but DeAnn called and we decided that we would go to a movie.  I was a little concerned that my antifreeze might not be where it should be--it's been a long time since we had persistantly -10 weather.  

She and Jim came and got me, and we drove to Owatonna.  Jim dropped us at the theater where we saw Because I Said So--a chick flick.  The story was cute--but what really impressed me were the gorgeous sets.  The colors of the dishes and pottery were just deep and rich.  The palatte was of rich autumn reds and oranges and there were so many textures.  I want to buy the movie just so I can gaze at the houses the sisters and their mother lived in and try to duplicate their decor in my own house.

After the movie, we went to Famous Daves and had lunch/supper.  I paid for Jim and DeAnn's supper, since he had bought antifreeze for my car and was going to stand out in the godawful cold and put it in my car.  I had no cash, so DeAnn paid for my movie and a bottle of water so I would not dehydrate during it.  Ha ha.

After that we went to the Medford Furniture Outlet and looked at bedroom sets for them.   DeAnn is in search of the perfect set.  The style she has picked out is really lovely--but she wants it in a darker wood, and she isn't having much luck finding the pieces she wants in the darker wood.  I prefer the darker wood myself.  I think it has more character--and I love the luster of darker wood.

Of course, I also still love the reddish honey gold finish on oak.

Shortly after DeAnn and Jim left, DeAnn called me to give me some bad news....she got the cell phone bill and I went over my minutes.  So, I have $170 cell phone bill.  OUCH.  Sigh.  well, I'm accepting it.  It was like a fun new toy that you can't put down.  And 1200 minutes seemed like an impossibly large amount.  Well.  Guess not.

Now I am paranoid to use the phone at all.  Ha ha.  DeAnn changed the plan so that I pay $5.00 more a month, but I get free nights (after 7) and weekends.  So, that will pretty much solve the issue.  Sigh.  I can't ever learn anything the easy way.

I didn't get a tremendous amount done on Sunday--I seemed to be on the phone or IM all day.  I have quite a few needy people in my life right now--and everyone is having drama or trauma of one type or another.

I did get my dishes done, which is a big thing.  I hadn't done them all last week.  

Monday brought me a big surprise.  School was called off due to extreme wind chill.  I was so happy when I heard that--but then Chrissie called me on the phone.  I don't remember right now what her trauma was, but she talked for nearly 2 hours.  ACK.  Then it was another friend that called and yakked for an hour--then the stalker called.  7 times.  It seemed like I was on the phone from 6:30 am until noon--and at noon I had to go upstairs and take a bath and wash my hair so I would be presentable for my appointment with my therapist at 2 pm.

That appointment was pretty much a huge disappointment.  Basically we sat and stared at each other for 50 minutes.  I did tell her how I had spent most of the day playing amateur psychologist for a bunch of traumatized people.  

She told me I must get something out of it, since I continue to put up with it--but I think it is more like I feel guilty if I know I CAN help someone and I DON'T.  Anyhow--she gave me a five-step procedure to use to get rid of pesty people with problems that suck up my time.

(1)   Empathize.  ("Oh, gosh, that sounds tough.")
(2)   Encourage ("You can do it!  I believe in you!")
(3)   Ask for update ("I'll be really interested in what you decide to do.  Call me when you have done it, and we will celebrate.")
(4)  Say good-bye and HANG UP
(5)  Go do something that *I* want to do.

See, the problem with helping other people with THEIR issues is that I never have the time to take care of MY OWN issues.

I don't mind helping--but some people seem to be a bottomless pit of neediness....and no matter how much you do for them, it is NEVER enough.

So, I haven't been doing that great at using the procedure since I spoke with the therapist.....

After the appointment with the therapist, I drove out to Target because I needed aspirin and Centrum (multi vitamins).  Since I was there, I picked up a few groceries including a loaf of raisin/walnut bread that was fabulous.  It is especially good with peanut butter on it.   

Then I went through the drive-thru of Culvers for a burger and onion rings and an iced tea.  I was tempted to get ice cream--but I really do need to commit to being sugar free.

It was snowing like crazy when I drove in to school on Tuesday.  I got behind a snowplow, and I couldn't see freaking ANYTHING.  It was the BST MATH test, and somehow *I* got stuck with two kids who needed the test read to them, which was a pain in the ass....but I brought my crocheting along and finished the shawl and the valentine hat for the Marley swap I am doing with Chris Brown.  (You can see the swap items on the link to the Claire_Sweet LJ.)  

Because it snowed like 6" in the morning, and the wind was whipping the snow around pretty good, we decided to cancel afternoon classes.  Sadly, we teachers all stayed here until our normal dismissal time--I wanted to go home....but oh, well.  Mostly, I sewed instead of doing school work any how.  I worked on the "Blue" Swap which is also with Chris.  I made a cute peasant blouse and skirt.  I made an error on the skirt though.  It is one of the patterns I bought off ebay--and the pattern was not clearly marked (and god knows I cannot be bothered to read the instructions!!)  So the gypsy-tiered ruffle skirt should have been twice as full as I made it.  It still turned out cute enough to use.  I'm making one for myself, and I will make that one with the fuller rows of ruffles.  It's a good color for my "Claire."  Matches her blue eyes very well.

Wednesday was a half day--as normal.  Our meeting went pretty fast, and I was able to run off most of the copies I need of The Magic Circle, for my children's lit class.  It is a redone version of Hansel and Gretel.  I think the kids will like it.  And it is short enough that it will not take up too much time reading it.  I  think we will do a paper comparing The Seven Swans and The Twelve Brothers next week, followed by reading and analyzing one children's book on their own.  Then we will finish the week by reading Beauty and the Beast and then watching the Disney video of it.  I'm going to have to see if I can purchase the DVD of that with school money.  I have it on VCR, but that's a pain in the ass to rewind.  DVD is so much easier.

The meeting ended fairly early, so I got my children's lit worksheets corrected and recorded--I have the first book analysis compositions to go over for children's lit--but those will be just a matter of ticking off if they did all the pieces.  We did the first analysis together in class so everyone would know what a good analysis looked like.

I had brought the stuff for my swap to school with me and got the package ready to mail.  Susan had to stop at the UPS store, so I mailed it from there.  Chris should get it today or tomorrow, since it went out priority.

That is right next to Papa Murphy's, so I got a delicious gourmet vegetarian pizza to bring home and bake--Sadly, it wasn't wrapped very tightly, and in trying to get into my house, most of the stuff fell off of it.  It was a sad moment, let me tell you....*sniffle*   But, I still baked up the crust, and it made a sort of odd garlic bread with sparse vegetables on it and a little bit o' cheese.

Thursday was the BST Reading test.  Once again, I sewed through the test.  I should have organized and stuff.  But.  Nope.  I didn't feel like it.

We just had hours 5-6-7 on Thursday afternoon after the test, so that was cool because 5th hour is my prep.  So, I just continued with my sewing.

When I got home on Thursday night, I sat in the recliner and sewed from about 4:00 to about 5:45.  Then I made scrambled eggs with sauteed onions and ham chunks in them.  It was good.  But now I have onion breath and cotton mouth.  Still.

Kathy called me and told me that one of her good friends had been T-boned by a drunk driver and was in the hospital with brain swelling from head  injuries and was in a coma.  She was pretty upset and crying--but still holding up well.  She was on her way to the hospital.   She wanted me to contact two of our mutual friends and let them know what had happened, since her cell phone didn't get good reception at the hospital, and she didn't have time to contact all of us.  So, I did that.

After I was done downstairs, I went up and took a bath.  I sewed a little more--finished the peasant blouse for my OWN marley, and worked on the skirt, which hopefully will be more like it is supposed to be.

I talked with a couple of friends on IM for a while--then I went to bed.  I was tired.  

I slept pretty good, but I had bizarre dreams again (as usual).

This time I was dreaming I was some sort of homeless orphan child, and I was looking for a place to live.  I got to this big old place that sort of reminded me of Lourdes Hall back in Winona at the College of St. Theresa.  I lived there for a year back then--and it was the best place I lived in while I was in college.  Gorgeous--great food.  The only bad thing was that I had to hike 1.5 miles to WSU campus--but I lost weight and was in pretty good shape that year!

Wish I could still walk that much now!!

anyhow--there was some old nun that was in charge of the place (we are back in my dream now), and she told me I couldn't stay  there.  I was soooo tired, I just wanted  to get into a bed and sleep.  She told me that they only accepted children up to age 10, and I was 12, apparently, in the dream.

The nun was very small--but she was bigger than me.   I think it was Linda Hunt.  You know--the tiny actress from Silverado, among others.

  <--Her.  Doesn't she look like a crabby nun?

Well, at that point, I decided that I didn't want to be in the clutches of a crabby old nun anyway--so I took off, and I found some small toys in the yard.  I had been pocketing small things that I found along the way in my travels.  But since this was an orphanage, I took these toys back up to the porch and set them there for the children to find and play with.

I was crossing the parking lot when the old nun came out on the porch--I don't recall her saying anything--but I just KNEW that she was coming after me and was going to either make me stay there OR send me to some other place that wasn't where I wanted to be.  So I took off, and was being chased by this diminutive crabby old nun.  

I seem to recall her saying, "You come back here!"

And me yelling back, "No fucking way."

haha

Obviously my 12-year-old inner child is obnoxious.

Things got a little fuzzy then--but I sort of recall her grabbing my ear and dragging me into the building again.  I think she was trying to put me into a corner, but it has gone so fuzzy that I can't really remember.

It was bizarre.  

At any rate, I woke up before the evil nun did anything dire to me.

She wasn't really evil, just anal and officious.

And I was scared of her.

I am at school today--nothing too exciting happening here--two hours left of the day.  My 6th hour class just came in all yappy and obnoxious.  Especially Jake.  He comes in blustering and swaggering every day.

I kicked him out of class for being obnoxious, lying, and arguing with me on Wednesday.

That's it for now.