Funny thing

During the past week I was asked by a mother to babysit her children last night.  However, I had too much homework to do so I gave the job to my roommate, Jenna, who gladly accepted.  When Jenna came back she told me how one of the kids kept thinking that she was me.  I thought this was so funny.  I work on Sundays at the nursery and watch both of these kids in the morning and Jenna said that the little girl was so confused that she thought she (Jenna) was going to be working at the nursery instead of me.

This morning, I got to see how confused the little girl was for myself.  When I saw her she gave me a great big hug and said, "I missed you".  I foolishly thought that she was referring to my absence during babysitting the night before.  However, it became clear to me that she meant "I missed you since last night" when the little girl called me Miss Jenna instead of Miss Monica.  The saddest part is that she has known me for two years and Jenna and I don't look alike at all.  I feel so replaceable and disposable.*

Love,

Monica

*By the way, this is the little girl that says she loves me and gives me hugs just to get cookies.  And she tricks me every time.

Leaf Pile

The kids that I babysit every Thursday are wonderful.  They are 3, 5 and 10 and the four of us can get into a lot of trouble.  Today, they really wanted to play outside.  They are fortunate enough to live in a beautiful farm house on a lovely property with many, many trees.  This means that their yard and drive way and roof are all covered in leaves.  I casually suggested to them this evening that we build a leaf pile, thinking that it would burn off some of their energy.  The rest is history, however.  They built a great big leaf pile, one that was probably bigger than any one I ever built growing up.  For a couple of hours we took turns jumping into the pile, re-building it and burying each person under the leaves (we even buried Lulu, the pug-beagle mix, while she would sit still).  I think it is safe to say that we all had to take time to retrieve one or two leaves out of our shirts or even our pants after the fun.  

They were so cute and driven while building the pile that I wanted to take a picture of it.  Unfortunately I only had my cell phone and it was very dark at the time (if you look closely you can see the contour of the leaf pile, but it does a great job of disappearing into the leaves in the background).   

Franklin-stein Street

This past weekend, David, Stephanie and I went to Chapel Hill to visit Elisabeth (from camp!).  We did lots of walking back and forth between cars (because of strict parking rules), hung out at her characteristically-high-ceilinged dorm room, played bananagrams and had dinner at a conveyer belt sushi place all before changing into our costumes.  Elisabeth was a Jedi Knight (probably a young obi one), Stephanie was a sultry devil and David was one of those endangered, yet plump bumblebees.  As his girlfriend, I played his flower counterpart by wearing a flower-printed dress and stapling flowers that I cut out of an old Georgia O'Keeffe calendar to a green cardigan.  All of this was topped off with a flower smack dab in the middle of my head:  

Then we walked Franklin Street...

What I DID NOT know was that Franklin Street is basically a giant party in the road.  Plus lots of drunken girls in small animal costumes and boys wearing anything from pizza boxes to Elvis garb.  

I'm exaggerating, of course, but maybe only a little.  Here are some of the highlights from the night:

Fun for all the ages!

Everyone wants in on the picture!

I am proud to say that I got the cone reference.

These are my friends!

This guy was cool.  He asked me where I was from because he said it was what he asked when people said to him, "Can I take your picture?"

I saw the balloon kid at the very beginning but he got away before I could take a picture.  Luckily, I was OBSESSED with finding him and snapped a shot of him on his way out.

Believe it or not, he was not the only peacock on Franklin Street that night.  And I thought it a pretty original costume.

This guy had a dance-off with himself.

Swim team? or Triathletes stuck in the swimming portion of a triathlon?

Octo-mom!  And Franklin Street isn't just for college kids anymore...

"Oh my gawd!  A Big reference?  It isn't every day that you get a Big reference!!" --really drunk guy who saw the Tom Hanks classic 

First costume I saw that night, and the reason I love group costumes

Oh, and this is what I meant by pizza box earlier.

After all of this craziness and more, we went back to Elisabeth's friend's apartment and watched creative people build halloween cakes for $10,000 in prize money.  We would have gone home after that, but with the extra hour from daylight savings, we decided to watch Corpse's Bride, a movie witch (haha) Stephanie had yet to see and ended up sleeping through.

Now, life is moving very quickly.  I'm busy working, of course, on my thesis and am trying to keep myself out of trouble (and by that, I mean keeping myself from adopting furry little animals).  My dad came to visit yesterday, installing a nice little blinker for night-driving safety along with much-needed new brake pads.  I've got babysitting this Friday for six hours and will be helping out with some kiln firings on Saturday with the other claydogs.  I've also got to greet the jurors that I selected for the Juried Student Exhibition this Sunday .  With all of that on my plate, I can say for certain that I am looking forward to a relaxing matinee showing of Kiss Me, Kate at Elon on Sunday.

Love,

Monica

Biodegradable question mark

Before I begin, I'd like you all to reconsider letting me handle your children.   Because, as you can see in the photo above, I take more of a hands-off approach in my so-called handling.  In this particular case, I decided to let little Carson fall straight into a face-plant while I quietly watched.  I'm just glad there is photographic evidence of this event.

And, yes, to answer your question, those are Thomas the Tank Engine light-up sneakers available for kids, but not for adults.  I checked.

Anyway, to get at what I meant to blog about here:  I bought biodegradable sandals a few days ago and they arrived at my home in MD, just in time for when I got in late last night.  I always worry about buying things online because I never know if it's going to be as good in person as it looks online (but this worry has yet to stop me from buying inordinate loads of unnecessary things).  I am pleased to say, though, that the sandals are very pleasing.  I think they look better against my tanned feet and painted toenails than they did on the pasty mannequin's feet that were online.  Too, they are super light weight and I feel like I'm walking around barefoot (minus the obvious set-backs of actually walking around barefoot)!  And as an added bonus they make me feel hip with an urge to rip pretty flowers out of the ground and put them in my hair.

Today I took them out of their green shoebox and into the real world for a test run.  I went to the movies (I saw District 9* and want to go back immediately).  When it ended, I left the theater in a mad hurry because I was going to be late for a doctor's appointment (follow-up for the wisdom teefers).  So, on my jog through the parking lot to my car, I stepped in some gum.  At the time, it didn't really matter.  It was nothing but annoying because of how my left foot stuck slightly to the sidewalk and picked up things like newly cut grass and toilet paper.  

When I got home, though, I tried to clean it off.  Again, it was not for aesthetics but more for practicality because I didn't want this piece of gum picking up anything else along my journeys (sadly, though, this doesn't prevent me from picking up even more gum).  Whilst I was scrubbing it off with some kind of wet-wipe my mom gave me, I began to wonder exactly how biodegradable my sandal was.  Was the moisture in my wet-wipe going to be enough to assist some kind of microorganism breakdown?  When I consulted the wisdom of the inter-webs I found no definite answer to my definitely silly question.  And, while there is much debate about things termed biodegradable and their degree of biodegradability, the European Union (you may have heard of them) qualifies something as biodegradable if it can break down into carbon dioxide, water and other organic matter...within six months.  Yikes.  I can only hope that the EU doesn't technically call my sandals biodegradable.

To going green,

Monica

*You should go see the movie.  Need some encouragement?  Check out Alexa's praise for District 9 here.

Snails finished*

So, today I was asked to babysit Carson and his big sister for a couple of hours.  It was easy as pie as usual and I had lots of fun.  The coolest part was that their fish tank was overcrowded due to a recent explosion of fertility amongst momma guppy and momma snail (there were tens and tens and tens of baby snails and baby guppies frantically swimming about the tank, searching for an uncrowded corner in which to swim).  And while I was pleaded with to take lots of both species, I did not want any guppies for my fish tank.  I did, however, agree to take as many snails as they (the daughter and her father) wanted me to.  Consequently, I left the house with a sandwich-sized ziplock baggie containing about 8 or 9 aquatic snails.  And, oh, how I was excitedly thrilled to put the snails in my fish tank as the latest accessory (I've recently started putting bamboo plants in the tank and find that I absolutely love furnishing the place)!  

I dumped them right in, watching carefully where they landed.  I think the water change confused them a bit, and they did not immediately suction themselves onto the glass in the tank or onto any plants.  And I wasn't really nervous about the koi's reaction to the snails (for I have seen them cohabiting at various pet stores).  However, it only took me stepping away to the bathroom, to come back to an empty tank.  For, THE SNAILS HAD EATEN THE FISH!

Just kidding.  But, seriously guys:  In accordance to one of my fears I had not given much thought (it was fear in the siberia of my mind, with some cobwebs around the edges) the koi had greedily gobbled up the snails, leaving no sign or trace that they had ever been there. 

And, oh, how I felt terrible for promising the little girl that her snails would have a good home in my fish tank.  I had no idea that I would be bringing them to a dinner in which they were the main course!  I should stop feeling guilty, though.  How was I supposed to know that this would happen?  I was just trying to do a good thing.  My fish are the ones really to blame.  I believe that Karma will work its way around to them as I suspect the hard shells on the snails will do nasty wonders to the fishies' digestive systems...

*finished: obviously, the snails were finished.  But I also put the word there because, while I was babysitting, I found myself reverting back to behavioral strategies I used at camp.  Carson is not with Autism, but I noticed that I used those strategies from camp to solve problems this afternoon [I guess it's going to be a while before I forget all that I've learned the past 2 months (which is a good thing!)].  For example, when Carson, who is 3 years old, kept trying to brush his teeth over and over again just so that he could eat his toothpaste (Thomas the tank engine toothpaste, another little shout-out to Autism), the first thing out of my mouth was "Brush teeth finished" and not only did I say that in a stern way, but I also signed it without thinking.  Whether or not it was appropriate, my message was heard loud and clear by Carson and it, well, worked.

What I just devoured:

Ingredients: Organic Sweet Potatoes, Water

Elisabeth and I went to Food Lion to buy some water guns for this year's kickoff of camp's "Assassin" competition.  We're allowed to kill people with plastic knives and/or water gun shots.  So, to increase our odds and abilities to win, we decided to doubly equip ourselves by acquiring both weapons to place on our persons.

While at Food Lion, carefully exploring each aisle for plastic firearms, we openly salivated once having reached the baby food section.  Leaving the store with many a memorable and tasty purchase, the mashed up sweet potatoes were by far the yummiest steal of the night.  For me, they were just the right amount of sweet taste and "abc" (already-been-chewed) texture.  And you can't beat these types of labels:

• Organic
• No Artificial Colors
• No Artificial Flavors
• No Preservatives
• No Added Salt or Sugar
• Vegan
• Wheat Free
• Kosher

Butter Cookies

Today was my last day of work at the Nursery until I come back in August.  I was pretty sad today, especially since most of the little ones didn't understand that I was going to be gone.  I guess they'll figure it out for themselves next week when I'm not there.  Here's today in pictures:

My little buddy at snack time.  He LOVES those butter cookies!

After every picutre I took of him he would say, "Lemmee see!"

Teaching the baby to play with the trains instead of eating the trains

Baby godzilla eating the train tracks.

Close-up self-portrait

They'll make a cute couple some day.

She always wears those giant bows and they always fall off by the end.

He's my little helper.

Teddy grahams!

Here's to making new friends at camp!

Lazing on a Saturday afternoon

Just sitting here, watching this over, and over again so far.  Didn't shower or anything, haven't eaten anything.  And it looks pretty outside my window.  

I do have to babysit for 5 or 6 hours tonight, though.  And these kids are literally babies.  So, after I put them to bed, there will be more lazing.  If I had a copy of Red Lights, I could get started on my reading for book club.