Trudy, I'm sorry to hear the news wasn't quite as good as you'd thought and am vibing hard that he's breathing on his own soon.

Happy birthday, d!

Vortex, that's a kick-ass coat, and it's going to look fab on you.

Speaking of coats, I really need to go through all of mine and get rid of at least half of them. For one thing, I have an absurd number of coats for someone living in Southern California. The bigger problem, though, is that I tend to fall in wuv twue wuv with certain coats and then hang onto them even when buttons have fallen off, seams have frayed, and zippers have broken. I think I need a coat intervention. (Btw, did anyone else watch HIMYM this week? All the interventions cracked me up.) The worst part of this confession is that I am craving already a NEW coat, despite the fact that I demonstrably do not need one.

In unrelated news, I've had a really good day and feel the need to share:

• I have made real progress in my grading.
  
• The Socratic Seminar I ran in my senior English class went really well.
  
• My colleague (the one who had a bit of a breakdown this past weekend) is back, which means 1.) yay colleague better and 2.)yay no more having to write her sub plans and/or sub her classes.
  
• For the first time in four years, I have actually been writing bits of my narrative comments ahead of time as I've been grading essays, which means the comment-writing process next weekend shouldn't be the nightmare it usually is.
  
• It's drug ed week for the students, so one of my four classes today was cancelled, and TWO of my four classes are cancelled tomorrow. Whee! More grading time!
  
• Our school has an absurdly wonderful Halloween fetish--everyone dresses up, the seniors run a haunted house that they created for the school, we have a "spooky field day" and costume contest, and the students leave at 12:30 (as the dean said in our meeting today, we sugar 'em up and send 'em home early). Of our normal six period day, we only see our classes periods 1, 2, and 3. Guess which periods I teach that day? That's right: 4, 5, and 6...which means I won't have to teach a single class that day. Since teaching is pretty much impossible on Halloween here anyway, that works out just fine with me.
  

Sorry to be all meme, but I thought that sharing some good news might be nice.

It's always good to hear good news. Especially at the moment when sister B has told the family she knows a secret about the alcoholic bf of sister A that we are not supposed to talk about until sister B sees sister A on Saturday after which if sister A continues her relationship with alcoholic bf, sister B will sever all relations with sister A. Of course my imagination is all over the place. I know about the child abuse (which sister B thinks the kids, now grown, made up), drunk driving, fits of rage, etc. What could be worse?

What could be worse?

only one thing I can think of. ugh.

Note to Not!Helpdesk -- You cannot close a ticket until the problem has been resolved. Telling me that "a lot of people have been calling with this problem" doesn't mean that it's solved. It means that the problem should be a higher priority because it's affecting multiple users.

Hi, all! I, umm, had to do some skipping and skimming, so all kinds of ~ma to those that needs it. {{{{{Bitches}}}}}}

I have been well and truly swamped. End of quarter which means grades and switching classes. Prepping for new 6th grade classes Monday. New 7th and 8th grade classes on the following Monday.

And, our fall show opens in 2 weeks. Next week is dress rehearsals. We are not ready. They know the songs and choreography, but we've only got 1/2 of Act 1 blocked. And, some of the kids are reading their lines like they've never ever seen them before. Yipes.

I just keep telling myself what a friend told me last year: They're middle school. If all they do is stand on the stage and fart, their parents would still love every second of it.

Note to Not!Helpdesk -- You cannot close a ticket until the problem has been resolved.

ugh. This happens to me too often. We used to call them Helpless Desk.

If all they do is stand on the stage and fart, their parents would still love every second of it.

now that's theatre!

She traveled for a bit to the east coast (she was living in California at the time) and after being there for a few days, she noticed her sense of smell came back. So she now makes it a point to spend some time outside of California during the really bad allergy season so she can taste food again (!)

Steph, maybe you need to vacation and go some place different so your head can clear up?

Hey, a *medically necessary* vacation! It just might work....

I'm hoping to buy a new coat today, too! My beloved decade-old motorcycle jacket which I bought in a tiny discount leather store on Bleeker St. finally died. Looking for a jacket with a zip-out lining to wear on our bike trip up the coast this weekend. It's going to be in the 90s down here and the 60s up there, so there is actually a reason beyond lurve to buy one.

Happy birthday, d!

SHOE POST! Actually more like BOOT POST!

• Cute but pricey black ankle boot: >[link]
• Cute black wedge boot: >[link]
• Way too pricey, but how sugar are these black wedge boots??? >[link]
• I'm feeling the patent leather: >[link]
• Seriously think I need one of these pair of awesome red patent leather boots. But which ones (right now I think the pricey ones - 2nd link)?

I like those low-heeled boots, Glam. Very nice.

That coat is killing me. I'm in no position to be spending money, but it's lovely and I need a long not-warm coat--my other long coats are leather and Russian army-order wool. Nothing you can sport in most SoCal daytime environments, if you have a lack of a deathwish.

But it's so lovely!

eta, on reading back some: Shir, peace to you and the family of your friend. Askye, go you! Is this the 2nd life guy?

Oh, thank goodness- I was worried when GC mentioned shoes. Because after the day I had (nearly got absolutely creamed by a stupid driver in a Large U-Haul and that was the good part of my day), temptation would be strong for some retail therapy.

However, not a fan of ankle boots, wedges, or patent, so while all the shoes are absolutely fab, they're not so fab I feel compelled to go tapping out the credit card digits.

I am also giggling wildly because I got an email sale alert from Babeland Briefs that read:

Joe Six-Pack, Meet the REAL Maverick

Always there to lend a hand Works for every man Body-friendly elastomer material Bucks the status quo And women love him too! Find out why >> Plus, the Maverick sleeve is just Twenty Bucks!

Why this makes me giggle so, I'm not sure, but I'm not about to question too closely.