"I'm heating up the wax." -Actually a good thing.

My sister posted recently that she was cranking up her ol' hand wax dipper thingamajigger.  I think its a paraffin treatment if you want to really get technical, but whatever you want to call it, just make sure you call it AWESOME.
You see, after four hours of heating, the wax inside one of these heated tubs becomes all liquidy and warm.  It is kind of similar to the warm liquid goo phase in Austin Powers, minus the naked dude and elimination.  (elimination com... com... comp... complete.)
Next, you dip your entire hand in and pull it out, completely coated in paraffin.  Repeat that, waiting between dips, until you basically have a creepy wax glove.  I snapped a photo of my friend with her paraffin hands, incase you don't get the picture.

I got a little carried away with the 'stickers' option on my phone, thinking I could make her look like a mad scientist.  I failed.

After you strip it off, your hands are soft and smooth inside.  I don't know how much it really helps my hands, but it feels good and the whole activity shouts novelty.  The only drawback, is you tend to creep out the neighbors.  Beware idle hands, and I'm not talking about Devon Sawa here, may he rest in peace.

Does anyone else old fashion blog?

Or as normal people call it, write in a diary?  I have written in one since 1996 or so, which should be when I was in 8th grade.  I had a pseudo diary before then, but it was really just a note book with the Pillsbury dough boy on the front in which I would record random quotes and funny things that happened while I was with my friends.  So, while that one doesn't really count, I would consider myself a long time diary writer.

The subject of diaries, which prompted this blog post, came up while I was at a lovely ladies night last Saturday.  I joined three of my friends at Audubon Bar in Brookline.  We settled in at a nice table and enjoyed talking to the waitress and the manager while deciding on our orders.  Our waitress arrived at some point soon after, hands full and wait staff in tow with our goodies.  (I highly recommend the butternut squach soup and gryere grilled cheese!)  After munching our meals and slurping down our drinks she checked back on us.   We couldn't help but admire her necklace.  As she explained, it turned out that it was a remolded version of her grandmother's engagement ring.  On the tail of her story about the ring, my friends and I wound up talking about relationships, love and all those amazing things that crop up while in good company.   Finally the topic of New Year's Resolutions came up.  

My friend shared that a new year's resolution she sought to accomplish was a 'joy journal'.  Apparently, this is a journal in which you write one joyful thing each day.  I shared that I have been recording my thoughts and feelings in my diaries (yes, plural) for many years.  My friends seemed rather stunned.  To be honest, I sometimes find myself surprised, too, at the time I've spent dedicated to writing in my journals.  They're nothing but my ramblings and bitching, but I think I am proud.  I am proud to have kept up with my outlet for all these years.  If I was writing a joy journal, like my friend, I think I'd have to add my diaries as today's entry of joy.

Well yeah, duh.

Star Wars: TFA broke Avatar's ticket sales record.  Like that likelihood was ever even in question, pshaw!

Anyways, that's not really what I'm here to talk about, it just finally motivated me to comment on how awesome 2016 might turn out.  Consider:  Star wars redeemed itself from the horrors of the prequels, the bachelor is crazy fun, I've got a new chrome book so I can finally do 'the internets' and 'the emails' without having to use a crank generator to fire up my old dinosaur laptop, and I'm actually ahead a bit on grading papers.  (I'm typically wicked behind, but I "dun good" this quarter in meeting up with my classes. And no, I don't really have to use a hand crank to use my old laptop, but I did come close to using duct tape to keep the battery in it's slot because it would simply fall off the back side).

Oh, before I forget, I'm going on record here and now: chicken lady is going to marry Ben Higgins, if "Lace" doesn't kill her first.  Lace shares her name with an American Gladiator, but this crazy Bachelor chick could take down any of the jacked up 1980s gladiators with just a glance.  Cold as ice, baby, and cray cray to boot.

The last jewel in the "2016 might be awesome" crown is that I'm having Taco Thursday tomorrow.  Tacos rule.  I typically have Taco Tuesday, but it worked better for everyone this way, so I'm just going to pretend Taco Tuesday has a lisp.  Thaco Thursday.  It could become a thing.

Year in review?

This year I bought a new car, moved into a bigger apartment with a back yard, got a sweet grill and joined a gym that inn actually attending regularly!  I find that to be the ground with fit a solid year. 
I also went to my fourth and BEST star war celebration where I finally dressed up. 

It was there that they announced the upcoming London celebration, for which I've already purchased tickets.  Now that only leaves airfare and hotels to figure out.  I think my sister has a hotel booked for us, so that only leaves air fare. 
I want to try and make this a bigger trip with a stop over in Ireland.  Additionally, I have a lot of family in London so I will try to be making some extra time with them.

I think this is a nice setup for 2016 so far.  Here's to another year!

Goodbye, dear student teacher. Hello full load again...

My stress levels were nice and low; around a 3 or 4.  Add ten, carry the one and multiple it by the square root of 42 and you've got a value close to my current stress level with work.  On top of it, there's some crazy things happening beyond my little corner at work that I don't even know how to explain.  I love my workplace, but things beyond my control are trickling down all the time and I'm unfortunately in the splash zone.  (And might I add not the 'fun' splash zone, like at Sea World.)

I was previously floating along nicely because I had a student teacher.  She did very well, and I took every opportunity to pass on my knowledge to her.  At times I felt harsh.  I make myself feel better by reminding myself that I was only trying to show her the positive and negative aspects of how she was planning, teaching and grading.  She knew her content very well, but since the practicum was so short she didn't have the time to really start 'owning' the curriculum with respect to creating, tinkering and drafting up her own materials such as presentations and activities for students.  It is a shame that student teaching programs only provide a short two or three month experience in the classroom.  I think they should be more time to really see how the inner workings of a school and its students and faculty.

I guess, however, that people can't just attend graduate school and also work as a student teacher all year long.  I did it, but I was fortunate to have the means to do so.  Not everyone has that luxury and bills do pile up, of course.  Just as I managed that crazy year of student teaching, I'll manage without her now, stress or no stress.  I'm enjoying my classes, despite the good coming with the bad.  That always seems to be the way of it at school. There is a lot of joy and pain.  As Carl Sagan said;

“You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

This helps when I have trouble describing what it is like teaching, because it comes pretty close to how I feel.  Teaching is lonely, and shows me some harsh truths about humans.  But, more often than not, the beautiful dreams shine through the horrible nightmares.  

Soggy Mess

I didn't think I was menopausal, but I've been waking up sweating and gross repeatedly over the past couple months.  It is likely because I now have a toaster oven heating system.  Baseboard electric is kind of a pain in the ass, but I like living where I am so I will have to continue to work with the system.

Anyway, I have managed to figure out for a few nights a bone dry solution and there seems to be no rhyme of reason to the sweating pattern.  I can't figure out if my down duvet is too heavy, or I'm wearing too many clothes or if the temperature is too hot or too cold.  

I start cold, then at some point between 1:45AM to 3:00AM I wake up damp with sweat and hot.  I change clothes, pull the bedclothes back and try to get back to sleep.  I'm in bad need of suggestions, even though I've already asked my sister-in-law.  She lived in the apartment before I moved in and owns the place.

In other news, I just watched the new Star Trek Beyond trailer.  I'm a little concerned over this new Kirk-Lady romance thing going on, but the supporting characters' roles seem to be strong and dynamic, which is what amps me up for the movie.  I'm a huge Bones, Scotty and Spock fan.  Is anyone a bigger fan of Kirk?  I'm not against Kirk, I just like the other guys so so much more!

Anyway, good luck to everyone else in their slumber endeavors!

"Answer is..."

DAILY DOUBLE!

Just kidding.  I turned the tv on after I returned home from the gym tonight and hopped in the shower.  After, as I was sitting in my bedroom in a towel, I yelled out "OH NO I'm missing Jeopardy!" However, after a moment of ubsurd disappointment and panic, I realized the sounds coming from the living room were only from Wheel of Fortune.   A great wave of relief washed over me, ala Patrick Bateman.

To me, Wheel of Fortune is akin to all the movies leading up to next week's release of the Force Awakens; it's just the sad opening act to the main event, Jeopardy.