Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Link up, link back, say hello, accept my apologies for sucking at commenting back on your awesome blogs (but soon! Vacation is coming!)

1. Who want invite me somewhere awesome so I have a reason to buy this predictably overpriced but oh-so-lovely dress from Anthro? This is why I should have signed up to chaperone prom. 

2. Last week I walked just over 102,000 mother-effing steps in five days (that's an average of about ten damn miles a day) in order to win a Fitbit challenge with a coworker new to the game. It was so bad that at eleven at night on Friday after an exhausting week I was on my treadmill reading magazines and texting kind people that were willing to entertain me while I attempted to stay awake. And did I win? NO! He beat me by about 5,000 steps. I pretend to be outraged (fine, I am a little bit), but it was actually super motivating and sort of fun. 

3. I bought a Deep Covered Baker from Pampered Chef a few months ago and have used it just a few times. I haven't used it enough to justify the expense quite yet, but now that I tried making their infamous lava cake in it I just might in the near future. Let me preface this with saying that I completely believe that the whole Lava Cake dessert fad was incredibly gimmicky, on a culinary level, but whatever. I mean, I think peanut butter on a slice of cheese is delicious, so who am I to judge? Anyway, you make the batter from a boxed (the horror!) cake and pour it in the baker. You then plop in spoonfuls of 2/3 container of canned (the horror!) frosting, cover, and bake in the microwave (the horror!) for ten minutes. Boom, you have lava cake. It's sort of magical. 

4. I just renewed my single subject teaching credential and it cost $102.50 (I have a multiple subjects one too, for elementary, but at least that one is good for a few more years). That seems like a lot for a public service job. One one level I get it- people are required to buy uniforms and things like that for their careers, so this is just something we need to make our work possible. But, on the other hand, I am spending my days educating our state's kids and have completed years and years of schooling to do so (and have the student loans to prove it). And I have to pay? To educate? I don't know. A least it's a tax deduction.

5. Why not spend some more money? I'm about to head over to Visual Editions to pre-order their stunning version of Don Quixote. My husband wants in on this one, at least, so joint account it is... We have all their books except the last one, on maps, which I'm still pretty sad about somehow missing.

6. Can we just all agree, as a human race, to not put up Christmas decorations outside until after Thanksgiving? 

7. So, the mascot at the high school where I teach is Native American-related and there is an effort right now to change it to something that is more culturally sensitive, as has been done in countless other places. While I'm not going to get into the politics and excessively discuss my personal beliefs right now, since there are spies everywhere, I can certainly say that I am so very disappointed in how disrespectful some people are, on both sides of the debate. I desperately wish that this could be a civilized conversation that was used as a teaching tool, but for the most part it is not. I'm also concerned that people are saying things they shouldn't on social media- if this debate ends up going anywhere and the press gets involved, derogatory comments publicly made could impact people's future college acceptances, careers, and reputations. It's sadly messy. 

8. Also, not to get too political yet again, I am so disappointed by the ignorance people have towards refugees. This broke my heart. 

9. I'm still listening to Do No Harm, a memoir about a neurosurgeon in the UK by Henry Marsh and really love it. It took me a little to get used to the narrator's voice, but I think that's pretty much always how I am. 

10. One of the best things about Sawyer right now is that he's starting to become intentionally affectionate. He'll just walk over to me and hug me out of nowhere or blow me kisses while I'm putting him to sleep (that's probably him learning to be manipulative, who am I kidding?). He's finally starting to give Scott kisses, too, which is pretty adorable.