Windows

Moe is having a hard time today. He is facing the challenging concept of windows.

This weekend David and I "cleaned out" kindasorta our "art room". Where David is SUPPOSED to work on art. Its more like a giant closet.. But anyway, we moved some stuff around. Put some artwork in the attic, and moved 2 chairs up here. I am sitting here with the window open enjoying the new view and birds singing.

Moe, however, can just not handle it. He is up in the recliner with me as usual. But now he sees birds and cars and trees and people. He can hear other dogs. He smells a new smell in the air. But he can't be a part of it. He keeps reaching as far as he can and sniffing. He will not stop looking out the window! He is actually standing on my legs to get a better look out the window. He keeps starting to go toward the window, but stops. Too much junk is in the way.

He is very agitated about this. Let's do an experiment. I'll close the window. We'll see if he's still interested. Here goes! ......
Still interested! Even though he can't hear it or smell it anymore, he still sees something out there he wants to get to...
.....2 minutes later... Still looking intently but not lunging towards the window as much anymore.

Hmmm. I feel we must draw some conclusion about life from this interaction. Anyone??

RUSH

So last night, we went to see RUSH in concert! It was amazing. Here's why.

1. RUSH fans are very devoted. The arena was SOLD OUT! There were people from all over the place there. And all of them were hardcore. They knew the words to the songs. They could drum the beats. The were wearing RUSH t-shirts. I counted 86 while we waited for our dinner and walked to the arena. Then I stopped counting because once inside the arena, there was no way for me to continue counting.

2. RUSH is a band who enjoy making music together! There are three of them (if you are uninformed. shame on you.) and they have been in the band since high school. Over 30 years of working together and touring. All the original members! How rare is that? They are getting older, but still rock out! AND they have fun! You could tell they enjoyed playing together. It was nice to see.

3. They are ridiculously talented! Alex Lifeson plays main guitar, and WOW. He is absolutely amazing! Geddy Lee, the singer and bassist, sings really high. If you've ever heard him, you'd know it. He was still hitting some high notes last night! I mean, he has had to change some stuff, because he is getting older, but what a strong voice! And then, my favorite, Neil Peart. The best drummer in the world. He is very focused, but also relaxed when he plays. And his drum set is HUGE! It swivels around so he can play even more stuff. He had a 20 minute drum solo covering about 4 different genres of music. AMAZING!

4. Their videos were funny. Not stupid annoying boy humor funny, not gross funny, not provocative funny, just FUNNY! I appreciated them.

It was a great experience. So much fun despite me losing our tickets. Wait, what? You lost the tickets? Of course I did, do you even know me? I lose absolutely everything. Luckily Ticketmaster has a plan for that. Way to go ticketmaster!

Lessons learned: RUSH is the best band ever. Always order tickets to be at will call.

The Collective Noun for Turkeys is a Gang.

I live in a duplex right in front of some woods. There are many creatures in this wood. We have seen deer, possums, rabbits, and TURKEYS. In fact, the day my parents and I went to look at the house, there was a gang of these turkeys strutting around the parking lots!
If you have never had the pleasure of meeting a wild turkey, here's a peek.
Ok, so we move into the house in June and on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we see a huge gang of turkeys! We counted. 29 big fat gangsta turkeys! Just strutting around like they owned the place. I told them that they needed to hide so they wouldn't be eaten, but they did not care.

Fast forward to the next summer. I am trying to sleep in, because its summer. I have a hard enough time sleeping in as it is. I actually just got up from a nap to type this because once my brain gets going you just can't get it to shut up. So, trying to sleep, and I hear this loud THWACK sound! It sounded like someone was slapping a plastic trash can by my front door. I figured that was unlikely, as I live surrounded by the elderly... So I go downstairs, peek outside, and two turkey gang members are smacking my door with their wings! What did I ever do to them??? I opened the door to look at them, which intimidated my dog, and they strutted away.

This morning, it is beautiful outside! Warmth and sunshine have broken through the persistant winter Narnia-ness that had been hanging over middle Tennessee. So I am taking Moe for a walk and I see something red out of the corner of my eye. I turn and see two turkeys by a neighbor's front door. One turkey is leaning down to look in a window, and the other turkey is guarding the front door! What the what? They are seriously spying on this house. What in the world would cause a turkey to do this? They are gang members, I tell you! So, I continue around a corner, and when we walk back by, there are three of them! In turn, they each raise their wings, as if to give the all clear signal, and strut off together.

These turkeys boggle my mind. The new collective noun for turkeys is a gang.

Just some anecdotes

"Mrs. Person, my neck hurts." (she means throat... she tells me this daily.)

"What is a hotdog?"
"You know, a weeeenie. Like a weeenie. With a bun. The bun opens on one side and you put the weeeenie in it!"
"Oh...." (exit Mrs. Person from the room- cracking up)

"knock knock"
"who's there?"
"bat"
"Bat who?"
"bat who! That's right!" (i have no idea why that was funny...)

"Mrs. Person, how's your day been yesterday?" (this child asks me this almost everyday...)

a student was standing at my desk watching me, I turned and asked "What do you need?"
"A hug!!"

"We have pictures! And we are going to put them on our shirts!" (one child's explanation of our self portraits in which we are drawing our heads and torsos, and gluing photos on the shirt part...)

"Valentimes" (all of my kids during our Valentines' Day program practice)

child: "The art teacher's going to get pregnant!"
me: "I think you mean she IS pregnant and is GOING to have a baby... "

"You know Jesus? He looks into our hearts. He lives in the sky and he can see us. And sometimes he eats grass."
"He eats grass? Why?"
"I don't know, we haven't gotten to that part of the book yet."

Just wanted to remember why I love my job. My kids are the best!!