I don’t know if you caught the comment from Kelly last Friday. It came amidst the flurry of finishing jury duty and getting ready for YouthQuake. As Overlord of Bradaptation, I can see the email address associated with each comment. I wrote Kelly back and asked her what she wanted to chat about. She said she was from an ad agency that is collecting some Carnation Instant Breakfast information. She said they are doing a survey thing, and would I like to participate. I wrote back on Sunday and said, “Sure!” I also sent her Peggy’s address because she’s pretty hardcore about Carnation, too.
Yesterday, Kelly’s co-worker Katie sent Peggy and me an email. It had the details of the survey. It looks like it’s going to be a little bit of work, but it should be fun. There are questions to answer, like “When was your first time drinking Carnation?” (Actually, they call it CIB, but I’ve always called it Carnation. I think I’ll include that in my answers.) They also want lots and lots of pictures. Pictures of my cabinet and refrigerator contents, pictures of what I eat in the morning (I’ll have to get a pretty new bag of flax meal), and pictures of my morning routine (alarm clock, computer, shower, etc).
It will be fun to do, but not today. I’m still freaking out about grades and chapel. After 9:05am I’ll feel much better.
I’m still playing catch up from this past week and weekend. Our grades are due tomorrow by 8am. My recordkeeping was kind of a mess, and I had this stack of papers I couldn’t finish grading no matter how hard I tried. So I decided to stay at school last night until I finished.
After wasting an hour or so doing stupid crap at my desk, I got myself situated in a student desk. Grade, grade, grade, grade, talk. Grade, grade, talk. Grade, grade, grade. After finishing the grading part, I had to enter the scores in my electronic gradebook. I used the number keypad I had gotten before Christmas. It was my first time using it, and wow, was it fast! I finished way before my estimated finish time of 9pm. It was only 7:30pm. Woo hoo!
I went home to worry about not having enough music for handbell practice (which is tonight), and not having chapel ready (which is tomorrow). I find that worrying about things is much more fun than actually doing something about them.
One of the things that jury duty disrupted was my regular appointment with the medical study doctor. I was supposed to visit on Thursday at 3:30pm, but I was still downtown until 5pm or something. Friday I got out in time to squeeze in a visit to the doctor before YouthQuake.
This visit was different for a few reasons:
1. It had been two weeks since my previous visit. I had been coming once a week, but I’m to the twice-a-week stage now.
2. When he asked his first question, “Have you had any new rashes?”, my answer was “yes”. It was interesting to see his reaction. He looked a little concerned. He asked me a whole bunch of follow-up questions, including, “Any skin detachment?” Eeeewww! My rash cosisted of some itchy spots on my feet when I first arrived in Nebraska for Christmas. They disappeared four days after appearing. Still, he was going to send all the information to the pharmaceutical company.
3. My answers to some of the questions were different. Not being able to get these dang papers graded was of particular interest to him. My answers were different enough that he decided I was experiencing some sort of side-effect. He decided to cut me back to two pills per day.
I started my two-a-day regimen on Saturday. It’s hard to tell if anything has changed. I haven’t had much time to grade. When I got home yesterday, I wrote a post, slept a little, ate a little, and watched “The Nativity Story”. The eighth graders haven’t finished it from when I was gone last week, and I haven’t seen it in a year, so I thought I should watch it. I didn’t finish my grading.
Grades are due on Wednesday, so I’ll have plenty of motivation to stay after school and work today. Here’s hoping I get lots done!
I’m back home from YouthQuake. It was really fun. Never having done it before, I wasn’t really sure what it would be like. We took 20 kids and 7 adults (so there was one adult per hotel room). The programming was good. The bands played some fun music that we danced and sang to. The speaker was AWESOME! His name is Dan Scharnhorst. He was hilarious, plus he really did a good job of talking about Jesus.
It was the kids’ first time, too, so they were a little unsure of the whole thing. But by the end I think they were in to it. I think next year will be even better.
Our group always got the front seats during the “Celebration” times (a secret word for worship, but don’t tell the kids). Since we were in front, the kids could gather in front of the stage and us adults could stay in seats. It was a good arrangement.
Here is a group called Captive Free singing some song. I didn’t know any of the music that was played at this thing, since I’m sort of an old school traditionalist. But that didn’t stop me from being named the best dancer in the room at the third “trek” period of the Cross Purpose band!
I roomed with three boys. I slept on the floor in front of the door. After living with them for two days, I sure feel a lot better about my own housekeeping skills. The room was a wreck! I had to take a picture of the bathroom floor. It was always littered with clothes. I also had to include this picture, because it was yet another opportunity to post a picture of my foot.
Denis arrived back from his trip to the Philippines on Thursday morning. He had a fun time seeing friends and family. I haven’t heard all the stories yet, because when I’ve gotten back from jury duty all day, I’ve been grumpy and tired.
But he has showed me some of the things he brought back. He brought some food items, like cocoa disks called tablea you dissolve in milk or water and drink, and candy made from durian fruit (which I think tastes really gross. Sorry, Denis.).
He also brought me presents! Yay! He brought me a lose-fitting shirt that is a traditional Philippine favorite. He got the one he gave me at a Muslim shop, so it’s brightly colored. It looks sort of African.
He also got me a bottle full of orchid seedlings. The grower had put a layer of gel inside this bottle, along with orchid seeds, and grew them like this. In order for me to get them out, I’ll have to smash the bottle. I can’t wait to try and grow these babies!
*This morning I am at YouthQuake in a hotel north of Baltimore. I wrote this post on Friday. Tomorrow’s post will be delayed until I return home.
