"I wish I had a river...

...I could skate away on." -River, sang by various artists.

The other weekend, my brother was here. And we both were in the bathroom. Well, not together you see. We both WANTED to be in the bathroom. But we didn't even talk about it. No, "hey, remember that I need to shower too!" We just waited until the other was finished and entered in silence. And it was then I'd realized we'd matured....You see before, if I (or he) walked past the bathroom and he (or I) was in it, we'd open the door a crack and keep walking. And then the one in the bathroom would shout (attempting to sound angry, but actually happy). This prank happened ALL the time. Now we're older and don't do things like that.

I thought my parents would be the only ones affected by empty nest syndrome, and that was true. I didn't notice that they had an empty nest, especially since I wasn't in it. But now that I'm home for a little while and my brother and sister are gone, it IS very lonely.

The British House of Commons was on C-Span 2 the other night. and while I usually don't watch TV just for kicks, I was drawn to it...I had been required to watch some House/Senate action in high school and this was SOOOOOO much more interesting than the C-Span coverage of the U.S. gov't. They were arguing and "here, here!"-ing and standing up when they agreed, and interrupting each other, and making snide comments about "the opposition." They jabbed each other with well thought out words and phrases. I am not that clever!! It was PROPERLY rude. so entertaining!!

So I continue to get rid of things I don't need anymore. One of those things is a bottle I brought back from Chile. It has ferns etched into the bottom of the bottle. My friend and I had gone out to eat chocolate cake in the arty district (Bellavista) and I was to embarrassed to drink out of my fake Nalgene at this nice restaraunt. So I bought a bottled water, and I was served this squatty bottle that had ferns coming up from the base. I already threw it away, but now I wish I had a photo to show, but I didn't find any on the WWW. The marca was something like "puehelecho". After being relentless and searching in Spanish "companies that distribute water, national copmanies that distribute water with echted ferns in Chile" and all sorts of other stuff, I found it!

http://www.aguamineralpuyehue.cl/

The opening photo is the best of the bottle that I found on the internet. But I don't know how to save photos from flash sites.
In the process of finding this I really enjoyed looking at Coca Cola, Danone, and Nestle's propaganda public relations sites.

Yesterday I visited the school that I had worked at for 2 years. (I hadn't been there in 1.5 years) The kids were SOOOOO tall. They are in a new building and it's BEAUTIFUL. and I was so touched that I had worked with people that work their butts off to give those kids a better future. My favorite quote from my visit was "I'm not in trouble Ms. B, I chose to walk out of the class room." (he was one of my big trouble makers when I worked there) and "How do you know my name?", and "you used to be the art teacher"...no, that wouldn't be me. And the kids who didn't use to speak very much English before, didn't sound like they had any Spanish accents any more. And then one kid, who IS hispanic, and his mom is bilingual said "I don't know that much Spanish" after we'd been speaking in Spanish together for a few moments. That made me sad. I found myself not knowing what to say, but then I remembered that was how his Spanish was 2 years ago. Sometimes not being around people or to not think of them is the best way to not miss them.

In the last 2 weeks, 3 people who were in my childhood have died. Granted, I haven't really interacted with these people in recent years. But it has seemed strange to me. Maybe if there were no winter months we'd have less death? right?

Our city thinks it's big enough for those road signs that advise how many minutes to the next hwy intersection. But I think it's lying to us. They are currently "constructing" and so the legal MPH is 45. The sign says, "ABC Hwy 5 Miles, 5 minutes" wait, how is that possible if we aren't even allowed to go 60 mph???

One thing I've enjoyed back in the states are the fruit snacks. yummy! That's one thing I've never really tried to "import" from San Diego.

I had a dream about my girls the other night. I gave one of them a present with Winnie the Pooh on it, and she said "this isn't winnie the pooh" and told me she didn't want it, and then I woke up.

I played piano for a church's prayer service yesterday night. It didn't go how I would have liked it to go, I was so nervous. But they've asked me back. :)

I finished "Never let me go" by Ishiguro, I highly recommend it for a fiction book. I hope to read Merton's Contemplative Prayer, and Lamott's Plan B. Now maybe I need to stop reading Danone's website and actually do something helpful.