i'm sitting on my balcony writing this, eating a piece of toast, drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying the relative coolness of the breeze. i love my new apartment! it's so homey and comfortable compared to the sterile institution i was living in last year. the best part is that my balcony faces the united methodist church of norman. it is such a beautiful church. at night it's lit up beautifully. anyway, that is all just to say, "it's a pleasant morning in norman-town."

the real purpose of this post is toast. that's right, toast. this morning i decided to make myself some toast with honey on it for breakfast. i always love toast when i make it, but it seems i usually forget and go for a more convenient breakfast like a granola bar and an apple. anyway, while i was eating my toast this morning i started thinking about how much i used to love eating it, how good it was, and that i wanted to reaquaint myself with eating toast for breakfast.

as i was sitting here eating, i got to thinking about my history with toast, and it brought back some really fond memories of childhood. you see, my parents are quite frugal. this was even more the case when melanie and i were young because my dad was in school. that coupled with the fact that they generally try not to keep junk food in the house meant that my childhood breakfasts were almost always corn/bran flakes. sometimes though, when one of my parents had the time to help us make it, we would eat toast. specifically, i remember one day coming into the kitchen, and my dad had mixed cinammon and sugar and topped his and our toast with it. this became something of a staple treat, and from that day on, there was (and still is) always a small tupperware container of cinammon and sugar mixed together in the spice cabinet in my family's kitchen.

now i realize that there was nothing magical or even special about the cinammon and sugar my dad made. it's literally just white sugar and cinammon in a container that he shakes up a bit. however, i can not imagine mixing it and having it in my house. it would make the memory mundane, and i like thinking of cinammon toast as a real treat rather than an easy, cheap snack. so maybe it's ridiculous that i will not go into my kitchen and mix some up for slice number two that my hungry tummy is telling me to make, but i just can't.

summer to do list

i like lists. i like plans. i like writing my lists and writing my plans in my calendar. these things make me feel productive and help me stay on track. this summer, however, i have failed in my list making and even more in completing the tasks on any lists i have made. i realize that the fact that this bothers me may make some people to think that i am ocd or a control freak. really i just like to know what each day will contain, and i do like to actually get things done. it's satisfying. think what you will. i don't care.

i'm writing to say i'm turning over a new summer leaf:

starting now. lists lists lists. i'm making them and sticking to them.

the only problem now is that i wish my summer list looked like this:

1. camping
2. hiking
3. swimming
4. traveling (anywhere and everywhere)
5. playing with my doggies
6. eating my momma's yummy summer foods (grilled everything and lots of fruit)
7. reading whatever i want
8. going to baseball games
9. and the list goes on and on
   

rather than this:

1. grocery store
2. post office
3. barnes and noble (for work not play)
4. read theory
5. laundry
6. coffee/lunch/other activity with friend(s) (this of course is the highlight and something i would want to be on any list)

anyway, it's a slow summer, but i'm going to make it more productive starting now!

Last summer my parents and I took our dogs Nash and Sasha to a "DogJog"...5k run and 2k dog walk to raise funds for rescue dogs in Oklahoma. The event is coming up again soon, and the group that puts it on has started publicizing the event. This is one of the pictures they are using:
That's right, the Nasher-man is the face of "The 4th Annual Dog Jog," and he has a cute little beagle admirer!

if you and/or your pup want to walk/run go to this cite:
http://www.traineddogs.org/

back to paper writing!

i want to move

i really want to move to a different apartment. maybe a cute little duplex closer to campus? i found a place that would be perfect if i had a pal or double my current income. it's a two story duplex and is green with an adorable porch.

i'll keep looking, but it's hard not to get discouraged. where i am now i just feel really isolated and it's too big for one person. makes me feel lonely and miss living amongst all of the people i love so much.

friday the 13th...

so today is friday the 13th, and next month there is also a friday the 13th. this has got me thinking...

what is the mythology/superstition behind friday the 13th? is it any thing other than a ploy by producers of scary movies?

i really can't remember ever knowing. i just remember a friday the 13th in 5th grade. my then friend Shelley Swain asked me on the play ground, "why aren't you wearing black?" i of course stared at her baffled. she urged, "you know to keep the bad luck away." she then proceeded to inform the naive 12 year old version of myself of all of the friday the 13th 'films.'

i've since always taken note of friday the 13th. however, i still know pretty much nothing about the occasion...

in other news, i'm figuring out more of what i want to study by the day. it's exciting, and it means i can start looking at ph.d. programs!

free books

so i guess i don't use this very much...sorry.

uhmmm, i got some free books today from norton publishing company. exciting for me, but kind of bad overall. free books for teachers means books for students are more expensive. i guess i'm shooting myself in the foot as i am both teacher and student.

new classes on tuesday!