Cancer.

I didn't take this photo. But I wish I had. 

Take the healthiest person you know. The one who goes running every day and lifts weights. The one who eats only fruits and veggies while you eat chocolate. The one who is vibrant and happy and full of life and energy and all good things. She's in her thirties. She's been religious all of her life. She's been faithful. She's never married, but always lives for the day when she will be. She is getting her PhD from a high, higher institution. You were roommates in NYC and you always admired her. You love her. She's like sunshine.

Imagine that you just found out she was diagnosed with leukemia.

What do you do with that?

Salt Lake City...Cooler Than You Think

This is what Salt Lake City looked like last night. 

Chain.

When I was doing this photo shoot last Saturday, I found a chain on the ground. I picked it up. I said, "Pose with this." Glory be! My model actually did! Torrey. You rock. And you are perhaps the most beautiful person I know in real life--inside and out!

You can see Torrey's entire photo shoot here.

LOVE Bucket List

When I was young and idealistic and whimsical and braided my long hair so that if fell over my left shoulder and wore sundresses and loved that my room was flowery and sweet and soft...when I was that age, I made a list of things that I wanted to experience in the world of love. I wrote them on little pieces of yellow paper. I folded them up and I put them in a small dish that I never gave back to a boy I dated. He had given me raspberries in that little dish. He gave them to me on our first date. They were fresh and round and red and he taught me how to burst the flavor of them by pressing my tongue to roof of my mouth. He gave them to me instead of flowers. Sometimes, I'll day dream about those raspberries, their taste, and the fact that we both kissed each other with remnants of them still in our mouths.

That little glass bowl is packed up in my belongings somewhere. I'm hoping to find it next month when I finally get my own house and can finally stop living out of a suitcase.


I remember a few that have come true. I wanted to kiss and kiss and kiss in a parking lot during a rainstorm...just like Molly Ringwald at the end of Pretty in Pink. It happened, and it was, if you can believe, even HOTTER than this. It was good. So, so good.

I miss kissing. I think about it a lot because I don't really want a boyfriend. I've had those. They don't stick the way I want them too. They either want too much from me or I want too much from them, but lately, it's been the former and it makes me wonder why I can't seem to make any sort of commitment. But I want kissing. I haven't kissed for two months. Maybe that doesn't seem like a long time. But it is. And I want it.

My wish list in the realm of love, I think, is simple. There is something attainable in that kind of simpleness.

One of the other simplistic wishes on my Love Bucket List is for a man to buy me the perfect used book for no reason at all other than the fact that he knows I would appreciate it. This happened, out of the indigo blue. It was a little French version of a small tale that I read when the sun is shinning. It was perfect.

What is one of yours?

Golden Nuggets

In response to my dating rant a few days ago, a dear friend (one of the men out there that continuously gives hope to women like me) sent me this video.

I love a good dating metaphor.

Why I Sometimes Wish I had a Pet

A Stage Mom's Halloween

One of the best parts about being a high school teacher is the fact that I get to do most everything I never did in my OWN high school days. I never dressed up for Halloween, never went to a prom or a homecoming, I never dated or kissed in the hallways (wait, I don't do that now). I never did a lot of things. Most of my high school days, sadly, were spent suffering from immense insecurity and a huge battle with anorexia.

So, now I am like those stage moms who never had a chance to shine and thus try to live through their slightly talented offspring. Almost. Except, I'm living through me. Yes. This post makes sense. You just think that it doesn't. Last year, for prom, I sweetly asked my 31 year old boyfriend to go with me. And while I secretly wished he would have bought me a wrist corsage, he did dress up in a nice suit to attend. I, yes, finally got to wear a prom dress and eat a fancy dinner in it. We danced and took pictures, and quietly stole into the parking lot with the Biology teacher and his date to take a few swigs out of some carefully concealed bottle or other (actually, I didn't, I take my job too seriously, but the biology teacher did, and boy did he tear it UP on the dance floor.) And, while I'll never be crowned Prom Queen (or will I), I certainly enjoy being one of the cool teachers you can count on to embarrass themselves on any given occasion.

So, today, of course, I dressed up for Halloween in a costume that won 5th place (did you hear that people!). I entered the pumpkin carving contest and while my rendition of a baby alien head didn't win (the math teacher carved the symbol for Pi on her pumpkin= Pumpkin Pi--you just can't beat that folks) I was happy to have tried to appeal to the wide range of sci-fi students I have.

There are a million things I could say about teenagers and the power of dressing up. I'll just say one.

Walking down the hall I saw a number of students dressed like polygamists. Since I actually teach in a school where a large population of polygamists (a la Sister Wives) actually attend, I was wondering when it became a popular costume (and I was worried it would be offensive to some). Everyone seemed to take it well. And, to my surprise, when I saw the polygamist children arrive today dressed as an array of pimps and hos, I just stopped worrying altogether. These kids are the future. And there isn't a whole lot I can do about it :)