scrap room floor.

Sometimes as I go about my days, I find myself making little mental notes about this here page.  I'll be driving and think "that would be a good thing to blog about"  These things are not usually important or really that interesting - but just things that amuse me or made me go "hmm"  

Unfortunately, I rarely get around to blogging about these little things, and then they just build up, and then I have too many themes in my head to pick one to write about and I end up deleting them all from my stockpile and just start over.  

So, in a new attempt to clear out my mental cache, I am going to give you a brief summary of lots of things that I've been meaning to share.  I apologize in advance for the mental whiplash you may experience. 

Today I was called to a crisis at one of my schools.  Two sisters were shot over the weekend, and one died.  She was 19-years old with a 1-year old daughter.  I was on standby to help with grief and/or trauma counseling.  I don't know which made me sadder- the existence of the circumstance or the fact that so many people (kids & teachers alike) had a "it happens" kind of attitude.  But they're right, very few of these kids have lived to high school without knowing at least one, and more often, more than one person close to them that was killed in a violent crime. 

Our town has a large orthodox Jewish population.  This means that it is very common to see grown men in black pants, shirts, and long black trench coats with ropes around their waists and big quaker-like black hats on their heads over their curly locks (see picture for mental image).  The other day I was driving and saw a fall festival by the local temple.  There was a big inflatable, very colorful, bouncy castle set up for kids to bounce in.  There was also a line of about 12 grown men, all in black, in a single file line outside.  The contrast of the men in their somber ware and the big bouncy castle was enough to make me laugh and almost pull over to take pictures. 

 

I get braxton hicks contractions all the time now.  They make my whole belly turn into a rock for a few seconds.  During this time, my heart speeds up just a little and I loose my breath - even if I'm not doing anything because (I'm guessing) my lungs are getting squished.  Also, because I'm short, when my whole torso turns into a rock - I get this turtle-on-his-back syndrome where I just can't move effectively at all.  It's annoying.  

We went to New Hampshire over the weekend for a taekwondo tournament.  It was so very New Hampshire-ish.  The weather was grey and misty.  There was a light fog that covered big rural fields and hovered around old picturesque red barns or white farm houses with weathervanes on top.  I felt like I was in an L.L Bean catalog the whole morning.  

I'm officially starting our 9th month of pregnancy today.  It seems that as everything gets closer and closer it gets farther and farther away at the same time.  

We went to outback over the weekend (a rarity up here).  We wanted cheese fries.  They were so good.  Good enough to put into my mental blogging cache.  It was one of those food-moments where the satisfaction of a craving goes beyond what you hoped it would.  I'm such an emotional eater.  This is not a good thing - but, man, those cheese fries were beyond amazing and exactly what I needed to fill whatever void it was I was trying to fill at the time.  Amazing. 

I have tomorrow off of work because Boston is crazy and takes every holiday they can take.  I tell people that it is the only way we make it through the winter.  We need frequent breaks and positive reinforcement. 

Ok, I'm done for now.  That was probably only half my cache - but for anyone who is still reading, I didn't want to scare you off forever.  More next time maybe.