Inspired By Toby

Shirt & Belt: thrifted from SIL; Skirt: H&M; Tights:???; Shoes: Payless; Necklace: Target...or Walmart..I don't remember.

{What I'm Wearing and Thinking}

After playing around with music and iMovie last night to publicly humiliate myself with my dumb toy on YouTube, I began to think a lot about one of my favorite movies. Betcha can't guess which one!! If you seriously can't, then you need to go watch "Labyrinth" pronto! Then you'll understand the title for today's post. I'm ready to be wished away to the goblin city! One of the little girl Fourthies kept asking me if my feet hurt today because my heels were so high. Seriously, it was at least once every thirty minutes followed by "My mommy says those kind of shoes hurt her feet, but then she wears them to go out, and then she takes them off because they hurt and she walks around with no shoes." The story and innocent concern over my feet was cute the first time...at seven o'clock in the morning. It got irritating somewhere around lunch, especially when the whole class gasped at the sight of me walking boldly across the field in my red stilettos. Is it really that amazing? They thought so. Why not? I am the Hero of Heels! And, no; my feet still do not hurt. :P

{What I'm Writing}

        Most girls have a favorite outfit. The infamous Little Black Dress. Those jeans that make her butt look perfect. Sweats and a tee shirt. I'm not all that different. I do have a favorite outfit, but it's more of an idea than a physical reality. It keeps shifting. I know that it's perfect as soon as I put it on, because the perfect outfit is the one that inspires me. No, I'm not an artist. I'm a murderer...er, murderess. A lot of pop culture would have you believe that this is a mental disease or disorder. I don't. Killing is just something I like to do. It releases a lot of negative energy and gets rid of at least one annoying and useless person. My favorite outfit is the one that ends up stained with their blood. I love the-- I'm stopping here. This is terrible writing. It's melodramatic and fluffy. I'll come back to this idea when I have more brain power. Until then, enjoy this quasi-summary of a dream I had a while back.

          It's the end of the world. As usual, the rich and powerful of the world have created a safe place for them to stay until the world calms down. A man and woman rush frantically through falling debris and panicked people. They've been given two seats by the man's father, a powerful, but corrupt, senator who can only see the error of his ways in the face of death.

          There is a horde of civilians at the gates to the miracle ship. The ship has many seats, like a massive Grey Hound bus, and after the rich and powerful are on board a lottery for the boarding tickets will begin. People are frantically fighting and the scene is getting ugly. 

          The lottery is finished, but there are still two empty seats left. People can see them and are screaming to get on board. Finally, the man and the woman crawl through the crowd, literally clawing and grabbing to make their way on, over, and through people. They make it to the front of the crowd, but the ticket taker is in a heated, and rather ridiculous, argument with a civilian. He's completely distracted and ignores the man and the woman waving tickets in front of his face. 

          The ship is about to leave. Frustrated, the man grabs the ticket taker's hand and thrusts the tickets into his palm as he and the woman jump the guard rails and sprint for their seats. The ticket taker and his surrounding civilians are in shock and can only gape in disbelief as the man and the woman run through the ship. 

          Before they reach their seats, the ship begins to move. The man and the woman must brace themselves on the seats of others to keep themselves from flying through the aisles. Finally, they reach their seats and strap in. They've made it just in time. The ship must travel through the center of the earth to escape the impending doom [I don't know why this is, it's just the feeling I got in the dream]. The ship nose dives and the man and woman can see the red hot flames outside of the ship as the exterior temperature rises. Passengers near the hull are in danger. The heat and pressure cause some bolts and glass to pop. Many are wounded and some are even killed. The ship was designed to withstand the intensity of the earth's core, but the reality is more than disappointing. The man and woman hold hands and prepare for the worst.

School Marm-ish

I went to work today! Bringin' in that money, honey! And when I go to work, I like to dress like I'm going to work. Collared shirts, you're movin' up! I think it's important for teachers to dress "professionally," and by that I mean we should look as good as any cubicle worker does, if not better. After all, we are molding the minds of the future. Shouldn't they also be learning that a teacher is a professional and worthy of a white collar? However, I also get that being a teacher also may entail crawling around on the ground, tying shoe laces, running through fields (no, not nearly as romantic as it sounds), and wiping snot. In which case, you probably don't want to be wearing Armani...or even Gap, for that matter. But, still; maybe kids wouldn't be so abusive if we looked more like their bosses and less like their moms.

Speaking of moms...no, I'm not pregnant. You'd be surprised how many people think I am whenever I say I've got news (I know I am). I subbed for a first grade class today. They're a repeat, which is always easier, and I'm SO glad that none of them called me "Mommy" today. It was cute the very first time it happened (when I was doing volunteer work during college). It has progressively become more creepy each time it happens. I had a sixth grader do it once. That was just plain WRONG. A twelve year that is your equal in height should NEVER EVER mistake you for "mommy." EVER. They were cute, but it's exhausting to have to show them how to do everything. The worst, though, is the tattling. "Oooh! I'm telling!" is enough to make me cringe and shudder in disgust. I need a some sort of threatening or witty sign to detour kids from tattling. Where/when do they develop this annoying habit? I mean, these are little kids that are TRYING to cause another little pain by getting them in trouble. Seriously? How do they come up with the idea that it's ok to do that? I think Hobbes was right: people have to learn and try to be decent.

Also today, at the same school, no less, I was privy to a brief conversation being held behind my back about my outfit. It wasn't anything bad, actually these two other teachers were remarking how cute I looked. I accepted the unintended compliment with a grain of salt, though, as I next heard a teacher say. "but I would NEVER wear that to work! I mean, it's ridiculous!" I'm a smart girl; I know she wasn't saying that I looked ridiculous. She was pointing out the fact that she knew I was working in a first grade classroom. Would any of you be surprised if I told you that this other teacher wears 80's-style-mom-jeans, white Reeboks, and a shirt that looks like it cam from the bottom of Wal-Mart's Bargain Bin, on a regular basis? With no make up? Nothing done to her hair, other than color the gray? I didn't think so. I know Adrienne already had this woman pictured as soon as she started reading this paragraph. ::sigh:: All I can do is ignore it and hope more people think like I do in the future by leading by example.

 Oh! And now that we FINALLY have TV again, I've rediscovered all of my favorite after-work programming! Here's a short list:
- The People's Court {I looooooooove it! Judge Milian is my hero!}
- Property Virgins
- Ancient Aliens {This show is DA BOMB!{I can't believe I just typed that!!} Watch it if you care anything for aliens, ancient culture, or religion.}
- I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant {You'll never forget your birth control again!}
- What Not To Wear {Show me some style love, Stacey and Clinton!}

New Learnings
* I'll get back to you on that one. I can't recall any new lessons I've learned recently. My brain is fried and I have an itch to make some corn pudding.

Back to School and Other Mis-Adventures

Jacket: TJ Maxx and shortened by me; Under shirt: F21; Sweater: Mode 5 (I think); Pants: so old I can't remember, but they're by Union Bay; Socks: Target; Boots: Naturalizer from TJ Maxx; Eyes: FreshLook Blends

For the first time in a very long time, I experimented with my outfit and attempted to make something unique. For those of you that know me very well, this aint exactly the old me, but I'm trying to get back there (or at least find a happy median). I didn't bother doing anything with my hair because I had to drag myself around the house this morning as it was.

Today's Doings:
* Went to CSULB to turn in some paper work, and I am officially a college student again! Actually, I can now call myself a grad student, which I think is pretty cool. I got a cool credential program admittance card too. I was a little bummed to learn

that those little cards are actually just printed on card stock and cut out with scissors. I still feel like I'm a member of some cool teaching club, though. And while I was feeling so very collegiate, I took a trip down to the bookstore to grab a CSULB pride lanyard. After being at Davis, I feel like I need to show some more school spirit than I have been in my post-graduate years. That's when I saw this: .
Screw that!!! See those poor bastards standing behind the registers? That was me last week! Thank GOD I didn't have to wear a hideous shirt like they were though! Not only was it a T-shirt advertising the buy-back, but it was an obnoxious shade of fake-money green!!! Blech!

*ALSO did lots of Christmas shopping! Samurai Hell Kitty: You are taken care of! I found you an extra sinister gifty. Mom, you're done, but you already knew that. The little sis is done and so is my other fabulous S.I.L.. I'm also proud to announce that HUBBY is taken care of! I even got him stocking stuffers! I'm doing so much better this year, and I promise that I did not buy you anything that you already have; I checked all of your stuff before I bought. He's gonna love it! I wish I could show it to all of you blog readers out there, but that would spoil the surprise since I think he reads this but doesn't tell me. So, you'll have to wait til after Christmas to see it!

* Jedi Training Academy shirt is in it's fourth hot water wash. I did a wash and soak with about 3 cups of vinegar, THEN did a wash with about a cup and a half of baking soda. No more diy explosions for me! I think I'll run it through the dryer a few times and then see how it's turned out.

Super Power Up Bonus!!

While decorating the tree last night, I found a little red envelope at the bottom of of the Christmas tub. In it I found this: and a Starbuck's gift card!! Thank you, Logan (One of my former sixth graders)! And I still have the little Santa that came with the gift card; he's sitting in my window. :) It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to remember my very first class to call my own. Someday, soon, that will happen again. Sara, if you're reading this, I'm almost there! Save me a spot!

New Learnings

- Bookstores are addicting and will cost you a parking ticket if you let yourself wander (this is actually a recurring lesson).

- Parking at a meter immediately after the meter-maid/man has come by means you're probably clear to go over your meter time by at least ten minutes.

- Square drinking glasses are a lot harder to come by than I thought.

- Going back to your college is lot more rewarding than going back to your high school.

- The Container Store just might be heaven on Earth.