Random Stuff and I Forgot About Baby Bottle Nipples

So this blog is going to be about random stuff that has something to do with either reading, writing, blogging, newspapers, NPR, traveling, art museums, spirituality, learning, self-discovery, public education, inner-city living, old architecture, fashion, parenting, gifted and magnet school programs, Nike quotes apparently, and cupcakes at some point.

Defensive Driving has been kicking me in the butt and it really shouldn't have been. It was really really easy in retrospect but I made it really really hard on myself because I could save it and go back to it whenever I wanted. So because of that I would save it and I wouldn't go back to it for days. I started it I don't know, like September 6 maybe, and I didn't finish it until this past Sunday, October 16. It was due to the court today and I turned in everything yesterday. I actually felt like I had been set free from the bonds of slavery when I went to the court house to turn it all in. I felt like it was something hanging over my head that I couldn't get past.

Random art from Anne Taintor to go with my random subject. www.annetaintor.com

The funniest part about all that is that not only did I finish on Sunday, I also had to ask them to FedEx the certificate to me. I was expecting the certificate by Tuesday or Wednesday but mainly on Wednesday. On Tuesday I went to check the mail and there on the sidewalk over the side of my gate was a FedEx package. I do not check the mail every day so I'm so glad I happened to go out there and that I saw it. Can you imagine?? After all that I went through procrastinating to finish it that would have been a tragedy and a comedy too I guess.

Now that I'm all done with that I can move ahead in my life. I can tackle the craziness of my house right now. I have a lot of work to do in that department. That should really be my main focus from now on. I need to proceed with the remodeling.

I also need to get on the ball and figure out when these middle schools are having their tours because apparently I've already missed out on some. I still can't believe I'm doing this. Choosing a middle school for my baby girl that is. The baby I just had 10 years ago. Amazing.

Another interesting package that we received this week came with the baby sock monkey I ordered my son from Amazon. Except that these packages come via UPS and that guy is smart and he knows to put my packages inside the breezeway between my kitchen and the garage. There was another big box there with a little box that had baby sock monkey.

I told the kids to open it and they said, "It's a toilet brush." I came back into the kitchen and looked at the brush and what is amazing is that it took me forever to figure out what it was. I actually had to look at it for a while and I had to re-read the description.

It said it was a bottle brush with a nipple brush. It was the nipple brush part that just totally threw me off. I thought nipple as in "nipple" at first, not baby bottle nipple. Apparently it's been a long time since I had a baby and I don't think I ordered that bottle brush. It was an error on the part of Amazon I think. Now I can't find a phone number on the Amazon page to tell them about it. Maybe they sent it to me as a bonus for the baby sock monkey.

So there you go...random stuff.

Fall is Almost Here, I'm in Love, and Random Stuff

First and foremost! I am SO IN LOVE!!! I just met these beautiful new shoes by Ann Roth, via skirt!, and I think I'm in love. Not with these shoes specifically, with all her shoes.

This is the Charisma!

These shoes are just amazing pieces of art. I can not wait to afford a pair. LOL! I LOVE shoes, but I can not bring myself to spend more than $100 for a pair. Even $100 is way too much for me. I usually stay in the $80 range.

So Fall is here and I totally do not feel like it. I feel like something is off kilter. I know what it is. I don't feel like it's Fall because I'm not taking the kids to school every day or picking them up. Since Rey is still off, and doing all of that, I'm not following my school schedule. I don't feel as busy as I usually am when school starts, therefore I don't feel as useful. I still feel very lazy. I'm hoping that the start of Cheerleading classes tomorrow changes that a bit. I'm coming home a few minutes early to take the kids to their first cheerleading class. I'm watching this first class, but the plan is to work out every Tuesday while they are there.

That's another thing! I haven't been working out and that has a lot to do with the laziness. Fall always marks the beginning of a new phase for me, like my birthday and a new year. It's a time that I use to reasses my life. It is so hard to believe that it has been 8 months since the start of the year and six months since my 40th birthday. Incredible... I have never felt quite right in these six months. I haven't felt like my life is in order. Something is definitely askew.

Once again I'm also behind schedule. Instead of sitting down to revise my goals for the rest of the year and reviewing my five year plan before school started I am barely doing it this week. I never even made a vision board/bucket list. I kidded that I needed to make a love shrine instead. A love shrine to myself and my life. A definition of who I am and where I want to go. I hate it when I get this feeling that I'm just existing and not living. It isn't a good feeling and I must shake it off.

Weird Stuff Happens to Me

I was talking to my girlfriend today and she asked me if I've ever been to a restaurant called Julia's downtown.

I thought about it for a second and then I asked, "Julia's Bistro?"

And she was like, "Yeah!"

"Yeah, that's the restaurant that I fell in front of!"

"What???!!"

"Yeah, I went flying past the window on my way down and all the people sitting inside saw me fall."

"There are big windows on the front! Oh Loida! You fell there!?"

"Yes, and the manager came out to see what was wrong with me and was all, 'that's the city's fault' about the big holes in the sidewalk right in front of their restaurant. Then I stood up and he realized I was going inside HIS restaurant so he was all apologetic and ran and got me stuff for my knees and bandages."

She was laughing so hard when she heard my story and I realized it was kind of funny. I went ahead in, found my co-worker and Tony Diaz from Nuestra Palabra, and conducted business as usual, after I bandaged up my knees of course.

Then today I was reading Gwen's blog and I was reading how she's thinking of eloping or just going to Italy and paying some homeless man to pose in pictures pretending to be a priest. It brought to mind an experience my husband and I had in Italy on our honeymoon.

We were walking along a busy street in Rome, looking for La Boca de la Verita, and we got stopped by an Italian man driving by, who pretended to be French and lost at first and then he tried to sell us some leather jackets. Somehow we ended up giving him something like $50 and we got a leather jacket we didn't even need. It was a very weird experience. It was too small for Rey to boot, so I took it home and gave it to my dad.

No, this was not a dream. It really did happen. Yeah, I think I have weird things happen to me.