The Oreck.

Today I brought home (thanks to mom and dad) a new vacuum cleaner. I am giddy with excitement. This is no ordinary vacuum cleaner. This is the Oreck XL Gold series powerful, lightweight, upright vacuum with HEPA hypo-allergenic filtering system. She's a beauty. I've already vacuumed a bit, just for fun.

She's self propelled, has a mean light in the front, and makes less noise than other machines... vacuuming is truly a privilege.

And it's yellow!!!

Ode (of sorts) to my Singer.

You started smelling funny.
You made clinkity clink clink noises.
You suffered from lapine attacks on your power cord.
And you died. Right there. In the middle of an applique project.
The quilt lies in silence... no warmth this winter.
Mr. Ketch says "not for 7 weeks."
And, though you are in good hands, I mourn your absence.

One day, you will be happy again.
For the first time since 1975.
Sewing will reign in the yellow house.
And I will become craft queen.

It's that time of the year...

The moment I've been waiting for since last November. The pure delight of the sugary, waxy, orangey loveliness.

This morning I ate candy corn.

And I feel happy.

the blues...

In Breakfast at Tiffany's Holly Golightly explains the difference between the "mean reds" and the blues. The mean reds are when "suddenly you are afraid and you don't know what you are afraid of." I've had the mean reds before, more than I'd have liked to. But, tonight I had the blues and found three perfectly sound sources of yellow. So, now, I guess I feel green, whatever that means.



Yellow sources:
1. A dear friend
2. A cheeseburger
3. An Eskimo kiss from Skip

Biking on Haywood Road.

I hit a car... a moving car... with a person in it.

He looked at me.

I mouthed "Your car is ok."

He nodded.

We parted.

I had a helmet on, if you're wondering.

And yes, I was embarrassed because it was rush hour and well... I'm insecure.

Insecure Persons Anonymous.

Hello. My name is Ruth and I am an insecure person. That's right, folks, and I'll even blog about it which kinda makes me feel pretty secure about my insecurity but maybe it just means I'm really insecure because I have to talk about it. Like, right now, I'm questioning whether I should post this blog because I feel insecure about my secure announcement of my insecurity.

Just from today:
1. I dropped my Fresca can on my foot and then remembered that people at work make fun of my drinking Fresca every day for lunch... cool people don't drink Fresca.
2. My students noticed 4 terms I left off the test... eeek. Ms. Vann does not have her act together.
3. My button fell off my shirt today. Then I sewed it back on while I kept on teaching.
4. No one told me today that the back of my head had major cow licks from sleeping on it funny.
5. I ranted to the 8th grade about how hard it is to discipline them instead of just doing it.
6. I tried to teach a girl in my craft class how to knit a hat and totally went blank.
7. I had a meeting with my boss where I suddenly became aware of how often I was using the word "like" and then was so stuck on my unprofessional, un-classical education language that I just ceased being able to communicate altogether.
8. Dang it! I ran out of soy sauce. I forget things like that because I drink Fresca.
9. The 6th graders didn't really like the snack I brought them. Apparently, no one likes raisins anymore.
10. I forgot the verb in a sentence on the overhead. By now, I'm having trouble laughing it off.

Too insecure to admit the worst of it... just take my word for it...

My diagnosis: Insecurity
My treatment program: A large dose of reminding myself not to take myself so seriously, internal exercises on the value of me, commitment to ending the cycle of insecurity, cleansing of the silliness of the lies I love to hold and pet lovingly, ... and no more Fresca.

Weight Problem?

Someone told me recently that Skip looked like he'd put on some weight. Is Skip getting overweight? I looked at pictures of him about 6 months ago and confirmed. Skip IS gaining weight. Maybe a bit too pudgy. Too many banana chips or maybe it's the summer kale. How do you know you have a rabbit weight problem? What IS his ideal weight? Can Rabbits get heart disease?

Rabbits are certainly cuter when they are pudgy. But, then again, Bugs Bunny was always such a fit rabbit and he was really skinny...