Gratitude

Yesterday Microsoft released, for free, Word for iPad. I was so excited that I immediately downloaded it. Well, I downloaded it after I updated the iPad's operating system, requested Apple send me a password code to allow me to change the password after I forgot for the millionth time, changed the actual password, logged in, agreed to Apple's new privacy policy, confirmed the iTunes account information, went through the set-up of the new operating system, got back into the App Store, found Word again and clicked the download button. (Damn you, Apple.)

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A new routine

I didn't hit snooze today. When the alarm went off at six, I slid my finger across the iPhone to stop it and then…I got up. This, my friends, is way more impressive than it sounds.

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Shake it off?

One of the perks where I work is that the school provides lunch for us every day, free of charge. We eat in the dining hall with the boys, at separate tables marked “faculty,” and the teens have by and large learned to make way when an adult moseys up to the buffet. I was thrilled when I learned about this benefit, as I saw immediate savings along with not having to even think about what I was going to eat for lunch each day. I can burn a lot of time thinking about lunch. It’s ridiculous.

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More gems from the darlings: Witch’s Brew

One Friday each month, more if needed, I volunteer in the writing lab at Zoe’s school. It’s an hour of bouncing from computer to computer helping kids with everything from spelling queries to how to change fonts and insert clip art. The kids have hand-written their drafts, all on the same theme, and so this hour they are tasked with key stroking them into Word, making last-minute edits, and printing. More often than not, I am kneeling by one child’s computer while five little voices scream, “Mrs. Z! Mrs. Z! I need help!”

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Apparently, I’ve moved to the 1950s

Is it misogynistic if a woman makes a degrading comment to another woman, or only if a man does it? Just curious. I got that yesterday, which those of you who are my Facebook friends saw. For those of you not on Facebook (hi, Margaret!), here’s the scoop: I went to an event for school mothers on the campus where I work. While I enjoyed the lunch and the time spent with monks and the moms I have come to know pretty well, I also photographed the event, then edited the shots and posted them on the school’s Flickr site with a brief description, then sent the HTML code to embed the gallery on the school’s website to my marketing specialist. Just for shits, I’ll let you know that this was a very small fraction of what I accomplished yesterday.

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Scribbling and bibbling

I’ve been writing and writing and writing so much lately, and it’s making me deliriously happy. “Here. It’s all right here in my noodle. The rest is just scribbling. Scribbling and bibbling, bibbling and scribbling.” That’s a quote from the movie Amadeus (one of my all-time favorites).

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Sleep = Happiness

I went back to my doctor the other day, so she could draw blood for some routine tests (I hadn’t known to fast at my first appointment, which was at 4 p.m. so that wouldn’t have worked anyway for I’d have surely eaten my own arm if I had to fast from midnight until 4 p.m.) and to see how the mood elevator she put me on was working.

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