Let's move forward with a positive outlook

I am POSITIVE that 2016 sucked. So did 2014-15 for that matter, but that seemed more personal than 2016 was universally a crappy year, so I'm hoping there is strength in numbers and 2017 will be smashing....or at least fantabulous.


Once day I will go into excruciating detail about what has made the past three or four years a giant conglomeration of suck, but the Christmas season doesn't seem the appropriate time, plus I've quit drinking, so there would nothing to drown my sorrows in as I relived the insanity, so in the manner of a Dallas cliffhanger only without the murdering sister-in-law or the Aqua Net hair and the linebacker shoulder pads or the tacky, yet clean mansion, I will leave you hanging on that. I do have a tendency toward Donna Mills eye shadow, but she was on Knot's Landing, wasn't she? Totally irrelevant, but I always have to give props to my face and hair style icon from the high school days.

Facebook became pervasive around the time I quit blogging, plus I was busy with very important things such as playing online poker (no money exchanged), plus working two jobs and dealing with that whole mom/housecleaning thing that I really suck at. In the time since then:

• I've changed jobs to a high-school only setting. I teach 11th grade English and love it.
• I am also a Project-Based Learning "champion"/coach for our faculty and that terrifies me. 
• I've wrecked a few cars
• Five has graduated from high school
• Jay is a senior
• Sam is about to start driving
• I've gained and lost and gained and lost the same weight
• I haven't been outside the country since 2011  
• I have 2938 cats and another English mastiff
• I realized I love to cook. 
• I also like to buy beads and chain and dib dabs to make jewelry, but I never seem to have time to use it all up. 

So, my goals for 2017 are simple:

1. Focus on me and kids more--we have fun plans for the rest of the spring, including hitting up a new Nashville restaurant once a month and seeing more art or hearing more live music.
2. Work out again--Sam loves to go and I desparately need to go. I have a pair of Lucky jeans and a pair of Levis that are taunting me with the idea that I will never fit in them again. I don't even care if they are not in style any more. I will wear them by the fall!
3. Cook more, complain less.
4. Do something with all this jewelry stuff. If I sell pieces for a quarter, I'm better off than it being in a box. 
5. Take an art class of some sort with Sam this summer. 
6. Lesson plan, lesson plan, lesson plan. I'm excited about the upcoming semester and new things that are happening. 
7. Save money--it is time for a vacation soon!
8. TACKLE whatever life throws my way. Good, bad or crazy. The Queen of Procrastination muct retire her crown*
   
   I wrote that as I am avoiding cleaning the kitchen or taking a shower. Baby steps--I've been avoiding restarting this for weeks. 

Facebook Friends: CONTENT DISCLAIMER

I've been blogging for a LONG time...long enough that I remember Blogger in beta and my old blogger blog was eaten up in some revamp of the system. I've blogged on my own domains, random platforms, Blogger again, etc. I am not new to the game.

All that is to say: I don't give a damn what people think about me when I blog, nor do I care if I seem to copy other bloggers or steal a trendy idea. If I'd trademarked my own blogging styles and ideas a million years ago, there would be a few less cyber-millionaires in the world. What you see here is what I write, what I am, what I think, what I care about. I am far, far past worrying what the trend of the moment is.

I swear...much like a sailer, frankly. I do not condone it in "real life", nor do I speak in such language in front of my children. There is a time and a place for profanity and my personal theory on it is this:

Those who can speak basic English correctly have the go-ahead to illustrate it with profanity, vulgarity, irony, satire and allusions at will. Those who do not understand singular indefinite pronouns or the parts of speech, simply look like idiotic trash when they choose to do so.

There is no skill, whatsoever, in using the f-word as 6 parts of speech in one paragraph...UNLESS, it was intentional attempt to stretch one's command of verbiage...and then? well, then, you don't throw it in a FB update or pissy conversation in the hall at school. There IS a difference.

I won't link my blog to my FB, but I will  mention it, am sure, merely because I have friends from both worlds. I used to have several blogs, and I will again, soon. Blogs are good for the soul, whereas FB not always so much.

If you are reading here, then you are reading in MY space, not FB or the public school system's,my other employer's or any that is approved by my Mom and Dad. Just keep that in mind, please.

Well, HELLO!

Soooo, life kind of kicked my ass and took me offline for while...well, not offline, so much as offblog. Sheesh. I can't find my blog banner pic to save my life, my domain expired, my host had gone POOF and I'm fairly sure I've also lost all connection to my first 9 years of blogging in various forms.

SHIT.

Anyway, who cares. I'm back. And I am going to be a blogger, dammit, since I should be one of the richest bloggers in cyberspace at this point, given my

A. history of blogging about kids, clothes, life
B. my tendency to overdramatize everything
C. my former vast audience
D. my realization that bloggers COULd make money..I was just too lazy and too otherwise-employed.

Sooooo, I plan to be more regular here (as if I could be less?) and also to have some very topic-specific offshoots on fashion and education. All will en up here, but I think I need to also have offshoots in order to be as cyberly obnoxious as possible, even if it means paying someone to get me into what ever that SEO shit actually is.


My links are all out of date, my blog friends have moved on. Much rebuilding to do...and I? Can do it in manner of Phoenix Rising...only in more peacock hues without all that ashy crap!

ADHD Personified...That's Me

We have two alarm systems at school--one for the high school and one for the middle school. I hate the middle school alarm--it takes FOREVER--and I don't know the code, so I have to use my cheat sheet. I got to work today and turned off the high school alarm as usual and went to my room to get my m.s. code. Well, that was a doomed attempt. As soon as I walked in to my room, I was assaulted by the piles upon piles of stuff that had to be dealt with--Halloween stuff everywhere, craft stuff out from mask projects in elementary school classes...just overwhelming. Soooo, I forgot to get the code and turn off the alarm.

Unless someone goes into the m.s., this isn't an issue, but naturally this was the day that I decided to go unpack a box of novels that I've had about a month just sitting in the floor. And they go in the book room in the m.s., so off I go to unpack. Never even thought about the silent alarm alerting sonitrol, who in turn notified the sheriff's departmet, who in turn notified the principal. My first sign that something was amiss was Mrs. Cook peering into my classroom and asking Jay if he'd been out in the middle school. As soon as she said it, I knew what I'd done. Talk about embarrassing. Then I had to explain to the deputy that I'm an idiot.

So, this week, I will be memorizing the middle school alarm code to avoid further incident. In all my spare time, of course.

File Under "Typical Kim"

I can make just about anything costume-wise when needed. Once a year, I put my parents $40K+ spent on my tuition at UT for my theatre arts degree to use and do up the kids for Halloween and/or haunted houses. Sometimes, though, I have a bit of a brain fart. Pictoral evidence provided. The worst part? Jay told me that the peace symbol had another line and I totally blew him off. Normally I'd check that sort of thing, but it was late, I was tired and all my good paint brushes were at school (hence the ragged ass looking circle).

I redeemed myself on Five's Swine Flu costume. Have to get some pictures to post of that one. And pictures of the skeleton zombie and dead scarecrow will follow. I guess even the best have to falter from time to time.

Note to Self:

After two days of 8 hrs + at work, 4.5 inch heels on boots (or, ugh, booties) are officially your limit. I don't care how cute they are or how much they get your butt off your thighs, when you can't move your toes at the end of the day, moderation has to be considered.

They are sooooooo awesome, though. Seriously awesome. I just need to doctor up the insides a bit and then wear them on shorter work days. And NOT on bowling practice days. That will make it all better, no?

Dust, Sweep, Clean, Polish

Just clearing off the cobwebs on the blog...that, my friends, is the most domestic shit I've done in like months. I've become this weird useless sluglike creature who resides on her couch with a laptop on one leg and the remote on the other. It would somewhat acceptable if I was generating anything of literary worth whatsoever, but I'm not--I have a million plus chips in Zynga poker, some kick-ass houses on Yoville and I am a Boss in NYC on Mafia Wars, plus some weird levels in Cuba and Moscow that I couldn't begin to name. Add on all the comments, likes, and stupid quizzes I have taken and it's safe to say that I could have written a novel with the total number of characters entered on Facebook in the past year. That? Is unacceptable.

So now I think I'll just blog and talk to myself since anyone that read here has long since given up. I'm back to square one...a little depressing since I've been blogging for years and more years before most people even knew what the damn word meant. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...ROFLMAO!

O.M.G.

I honestly did not believe that I would feel this much better post-op. Once you've hurt non-stop for a certain period of time, you forget what it's like to be 'normal'. I don't remember anything in the recovery room other than hearing a nurse say, 'dilaudid', but when I returned to my room and woke up, the first thing I said was, 'I don't hurt anymore'. It is unbelievable the difference.

Today I'm more stiff and sore, which is to be expected considering what was done, but it is like a nagging stiff neck/muscle ache not a blinding, life-altering pain that can't be contained. HUGE difference. I can't even put it into words.

I'm camping out at MIL's for the rest of this week to rest and recover. I feel much better than I expected, so I can totally see myself going home and overdoing stuff. If I'm here, I don't have a choice but to sit around and do nothing. I think I'm going to go home and get some pictures or something to sort out, though, to help stave off the boredom.

Now that this ugly chapter of life is behind me, maybe I can actually blog again. Typing isn't causing shooting pains in my arms or making my triceps burn, so it looks promising :-).

Thanks again for all the well-wishes. I appreciate them so very much!!

The Day Has Come!

Thank God--I couldn't have survived another day. Not one more. I'm about to head out to the hospital.

My personal life has imploded around me, but I really feel like to day is the beginning something really GOOD. I just have to get through this week--it's going to suck, but it can't possibly be as bad as the past month (or five years).

The Lure of Versed.........

at this point, the thought of a nice dose of versed is about all that's keeping me sane and out of the ER. gonna be a looooong weekend, but i can see the light at the end of the tunnel, thank god!