When we last heard from Joanna...

... she was bored as anything. Since then she, um well, is still bored. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right, the boredom NEVER ends! :-)

No really, want to hear my lame-ish weekend thus far? Actually it wasn't all lame. Last night I went to bed at 8 pm. Look I'm a school teacher; I get up early! I was tired! Sheesh quit judging... I could have had a date if I wanted one! But I didn't. We won't go there. Anyways, because of the early to bed thing, I had a huge early to rise moment this morning at 7:30. Yes, I got up at 7:30 and did not go back to sleep or take a nap today. Total out of body experience. I did lay about watching TV -- see if I hadn't have woken up early I never would have happened across the A&E Biography on Dolly Parton, and since she's my heroine that would have been a cryin' shame! I was so pumped to get to watch that; good start to the day!

I actually took a shower and was out of the house by 10 am. It's ok, you can sit there in shock for a moment at the absurdity of the earliness of my morning! I went and made an appointment to get the perm taken out of my hair (it's falling out and I'd like to go straight for a while -- straight haired, I'm already straight...). Then I went on what became the great odyssey for tempra paint! (Cue echoing movie voice man) On a journey unlike any other, one brave school teacher sets out to find enough tempra paint to create a jungle in a high school hall way! Going above and beyond the call of duty, she will go all across 3 cities and through 7 stores to find the paint to end all paint... (Ok cut echoing movie voice man, I'm struggling to write like that!) To find enough paint (powdered or otherwise) in the right colors, I had to go to (in this order) Michael's of Lewisville, Joann's, Garden Ridge, Mardel, Michael's of Lewisville, WalMart, Teacher Tools, and Michael's of Plano. Either the store didn't have all the colors I needed, the paint type I needed, or both. I had the school's credit card, so I wanted to make one purchase and be done. It took 5 hours (granted I had lunch with Paul and Jennifer in that time -- thanks for meeting me ya'll). End of story: I have the paint we need to transform the hallway from the office to the cafeteria into a phenomenal jungle. I'll post pictures if it turns out well.

I've also been enjoying my share of little projects today. In an effort to save power, I decided to get a couple of night lights for the bathroom (where Sprinkles stays when I'm out), so I wouldn't have to leave the lights over the sink on. The lights actually seem to put off a bit of heat... Turns out two night lights (even in front of a huge mirror) don't put off enough light to light the room enough to not totally throw off his internal clock. I'd leave it dark, but he'll end up sleeping in the day and not at night, and that's just not worth it. Anyone else have any other ideas to not have to turn on the huge row of lights? Please share!

I have painted pink glitter paint on a bell I bought for my classroom to ring when it gets too noisy. This occurs very rarely this year, but I think this will be more pleasant than my usual shout of "oi!" or "ya'll"! What else? I'm about to start making the Christmas presents for my colleagues at work, or I'm going to continue crocheting my afghan... or maybe I'll read, but they all sound rather productive, right? I've changed my school and home keys over to new key chains and put all of my discount cards and library cards onto a key chain all their own. (Helps to hand the card over to people to hand them a simple ring of cards rather than with keys attached.) I have walked Sprinkles quite a bit and come up with more Christmas present ideas.

Ok, now I'm stretching to make my day sound productive. Truth is today I realized I don't have many "call them and go out to do stuff" friends out here in TX. I love the people I work with and the people I go to church with, but most of them are married and/or have kids, and that's something that keeps them from just going out with me. This didn't really bother me until I pretty much quit dating Kris (oh yeah, did I mention I've been dating someone since July? ha! Kept that under my hat fairly well, eh?). Having someone to go out with whenever and then not is a bit hard.

Oooooh want to hear another blessing in my life? I had my observation by my department head this week and go an amazing evaluation from her. The lesson I was teaching was one that always gives me fits, and I dread it because I know the kids will have a hard time with it, but she had sooooo many good things to say and really nothing much that was bad. It's always nice to feel like you're doing your job right. It was really nice this time because I've been feeling great about my job this year, so getting that affirmation that it's great and I'm going it right is nice. :-) On that happy note, I need to go. Sprinkles has curled up on a pillow on the floor and keeps looking at me as if to say, "cuddle with me!" Have a good night ya'll!

Hm -- guess my day wasn't sooooo boring after all -- just mildly lonely. Not a bad thing.