Ten Things Tuesday

Ten things that are on my mind this week:

1. I leave for the Holocaust fellowship on Sunday. Between now and then, I’ve got about 5 more pounds of reading left to do (I’m pleased I’ve made such a significant dent in the reading assignments, actually), I’ve got to decide what I need to take with me and get all that ready for packing, and I’ve got to finalize plans with the Wayfarer clan to meet up for dinner on Thursday. I’ll have internet access (at least, they say I’ll have internet access) at Not-So-Local college, so I’ll be posting about the experience and trying to keep up with all of your writing. Oh, and I’ve got to figure out a way to get love to my babies every day that I’m gone.

2. I’m getting two wisdom teeth out on the Tuesday after I get back from the fellowship, and I’m scared as hell. I’m going to be well sedated, I know, and I trust my dentist implicitly, but neither of those things does a damned bit to calm my anxiety. The Goddess of the Front Desk at TCC told me yesterday that getting the uppers out (which is what I’m getting out) is “a piece of cake,” especially if they’re not impacted (mine aren’t) and I’m already gathering energy from the Universe so I can heal well and quickly. Any love you want to send my way at around 10 a.m. Eastern Time onward will be gratefully accepted.

3. We leave for a week at the lake on Saturday the 26th, and I’m almost CERTAIN we won’t have internet access in the cabin. To that end, I’m giving you fair warning that I’ll likely not be checking in with any of your blogs for that whole week and, knowing how you people are, there’ll be 2,375 items in my feed reader by the time I get back (I swear; I leave you people alone for 24 hours and I come back to 56 new entries! And shut up about the math…). If there’s something you really want me to see, send me an email (mrschili at comcast dot net) with the link and I’ll get to it just as soon as I’m home.

4. SINCE I likely won’t have access to the internet for a week, and since I’ve not yet figured out why my scheduled posts don’t post when they’re scheduled (I’ve got an email into tech support about that; I tried to schedule posts for the anniversary weekend, but they didn’t go up when they were supposed to, so I posted them from my iPhone), I’m going to ask YOU guys to guest post. You don’t even have to have a blog of your own (Dudley, Xena…); I’ll make you an author on my dashboard and give you all the information you need to go in and write. The first 8 people to say “PICK ME!” in the comments will be given a day to post here at The Blue Door (and I’ll go out of my MIND waiting to come back to read what you’ve all posted here!).  *Edited – Anthony at WordPress support taught me how to schedule posts, so I can make that happen now.  Still, I’m willing – eager, actually – to take guest posters, so let me know!*

5. I’m working on another movie TTT; I’ll post that next week. I’m finding, much to my unbridled delight, that it’s not getting harder to choose films that I love (though it IS getting harder to keep from going on DVD buying binges on Amazon).

6. I’ve started a new habit of putting my clutch in and letting gravity take over the movement of my car whenever it is safe and feasible to do so, and as a result, my mileage has gone from around 28 to around 37. This pleases me, though I’m not quite ready to do some of the crazy (and downright dangerous) things that “hypermilers” do. I can still find gas at $3.91 a gallon from time to time, and I take advantage of that whenever I can. When Auntie and I were coming back from Nostalgic Coastal Town on Saturday, we passed a closed gas station that still had its sign up. $1.79 a gallon. Ah, those were the days.

7. Bo is starting to get a little itchy about the fact that we’ve not gained much popularity with The Dark and Stormy Book Club, and he’s on a pitch to drum up some more readers. In fact, he’s been disappointed for a while now, I think, with how few people participate with us each month. Personally, I’m okay either way; while I’d love to have more voices chiming in on the books we read, I’m also perfectly content to have the three of us jaw it up every month. Still, I love Bo and I want him to be happy, so I, too, am campaigning to get people to join us. This month’s selection is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and it’s a fantastic read. You can probably get through it in a couple of days (it’s a young adult novel), you can almost certainly find it at your public library (or, if you’re a book whore like me, it’s available in paperback), and it’s narrated by Death. Come on! It doesn’t get any better than that! Besides, it’s summer! Go, get the book, park yourself in a lawn chair with a lemonade in the cup holder and have at it! Then listen to our podcast and write on our blog. You won’t be sorry you did.

8. I’ve got to get in touch with Dr. C at Local University to find out more about the class I’ll be teaching there in September. I’m not nervous, per se – I’ve taught before and these freshmen will likely be just like any other freshmen – but I’ve got to find out exactly what the expectations of my administration are for the course, and I’d like to work out all the little details, like where’s my office, and how do I log on to L.U.’s Blackboard system, and what’s the bus schedule like so I can figure out if I can come in to work with Mr. Chili and get home on the bus in a way that’s even remotely convenient for me; that sort of thing. I think Dr. C is on campus this afternoon, but I’ve got to call to make sure.

9. I’ve got a BIG post in the making about what my friend Tonks is going through in the Ed. department at Local U. She’s attending a summer program in education – the same one, in fact, where Bowyer and I met – and she’s having an ABYSMAL time of it. The program has gone straight to hell since Bowyer and I took it in ‘95, and I’m more than a little upset about it. The idea here is to make people WANT to teach, not to convince them, within three DAYS of starting the summer program, that they’d rather do just about ANYTHING else. I hate that my friend is having such a terrible time, and I’m not yet rational enough to write coherently about the experience, but I’m working on it.

10. I really do love summer. I love the way it smells, I love the sounds (yes, even the birds who start their racket at about ten past five in the morning!), I love the sunshine and the heat and the fact that my days are far less rigidly scheduled. I love that the girls are home from school, I love meeting Daddy for lunch, and I love spending time with my friends (we’re going on a picnic with O’Mama, Sphyrnatude, and his daughter on Wednesday and I can hardly wait). I’ve got a lot of stuff going on, it’s true, but I feel much more relaxed and, well, real when the temperature is above 75 degrees.

Have a happy Tuesday, Everyone!