Happy 40th Birthday, Sesame Street

A complete staple of my childhood, I just wanted to quickly share a few of my favorite clips, although there are too many to count. I dare you to try not to sing along. As far as I'm concerned, it did nothing negative at all for me; it did not hinder my attention span, make me eat too many cookies, or anything else. It taught me how to be a good friend, to say "open" and "closed" in Spanish, to count to twelve, to not be scared of monsters, and countless other important skills. What a brilliant, wonderful creation.

Who's your favorite character? I always loved Grover the most.

- Opening

- Oscar singing "I love Trash"

- "C is for Cookie"

- Ladybugs Picnic

- Counting to ten (I had totally forgotten this!)

- One two three FOUR FIVE, six seven eight NINE TEN, eleven twelve!

- Orange sings "Carmen" (totally odd, but I always remembered it as a favorite)

- Elmo's song

- a little Spanish

- a loaf of bread, a container of milk...

- The Twiddlebugs!

- Typical Bert and Ernie

- Prairie Dawn reciting

- Kermit and Cookie

- Super Grover!

- Big Bird deals with the loss of Mr. Hooper (I know it's sad, but I think it's beautifully done)

- So here's a happier Big Bird and Snuffy

- And we'll end with one that everyone knows (hint: it's about something that makes noise when you squeeze it....)

The Weight of Weight

I mentioned this a little while ago, but I thought I'd get going. Sometime over the last year or so, my weight has crept up. It hasn't been anything drastic; otherwise, I would have noticed. (OBVIOUSLY) Oh, sure, I've observed that things that used to fit did not fit quite as well, but I could still get them on and thus continue the denial. I've never had to worry before. Don't despise me for writing that; I just got lucky that until my mid-2os or so, I had a great metabolism where I could eat more or less what I wanted.

Cut to over 30: No longer the case. Plus I can no longer exercise for two weeks and retransform. Ah, aging. For me, it's a combination of denial and poor habits. I don't eat badly, but I do eat too much of things. I've watched T deal with it for as long as we've been together, supporting him while silently, secretly thinking I was glad I didn't have to deal with all that. Well, I do.

The final straw came when I went to put on a pair of pants from the winter wardrobe and could not close them. I burst into silly tears, though T assured me that I wasn't being stupid or silly. He was lovely. Fortunately as well, we have many Weight-Watcher friendly cookbooks and recipes that I will now utilize in terms of portion control. Plus I have a great friend who's a personal trainer and she gave me suggestions and showed me all kinds of tummy and butt moves. She also suggested this wacky "no carbs after 1pm" idea, which I know is wise and right, but it's sooo hard to do. I didn't realize how many of our dinners, albeit Weight-Watcher friendly, have carbs in them. EVIL CARBS! So I have attempted to not eat as many carbs after 1pm, which is total crap and I need to step it up. I've gotten better about exercising and writing things down, which, I swear, is the key to stopping overeating. Seriously, if you know you have to write down everything you eat, you actually, shockingly, think about what you're eating before you simply shovel it into your mouth-hole. I'm also trying to do the whole smaller-meals-more-often thing, and with my 10:00am lunch period, that's working out quite nicely. Then I eat the rest at 2pm. I think my problem, too, is that I do wait too long and then I'm RAVENOUS and I overeat.

I haven't been 100% diligent for various reasons: I got sick. I had grades due. I wanted to sleep past 5am. Those things. And I swear, every time I start a new exercise kick/routine, I get sick. Is my body trying to tell me something? But I've done more, exercise-wise, than I have in the past, which is good.

I think it's all about control, and I'm also fortunate in that this is something I can control, if I so choose. In fact, my jeans feel a bit looser today than they have. I don't care if it's all completely in my head; it gets me motivated. I don't feel the need to get back to my college weight or anything; I just want to be healthier and to fit into my clothes because, as I've said and written before, I don't have money to buy all new clothes.

I realize you might not be super-thrilled to hear about my exercise habits, but it's just one more way I'm trying to keep myself healthy and gain control over a certain part of my life. It's a reality face-slap, and I'm willing to take the slap if it means I can get healthier than I've allowed myself to become.

Thus, when I go out to dinner tonight with Mom, I'll take care in what I order and skip the bread. Happy Friday, folks.

Sookie, My version

As promised, here are the pictures of me as Sookie Stackhouse, or, a vampire-bitten waitress. T is the Buffalo Bills' offensive coach; hence the clown nose because the guy's a joke.

See the vampire bites? (You can see them better if you click on the picture. I got the bruising and everything!) I also had to wear jeans because it was 40 degrees out and I was outside a lot, so I couldn't do Sookie's little shorts she wears. I do NOT live in Bon Temps, Lousiana.

OK, if you don't watch the show...

I was Sookie Stackhouse from the dark HBO show True Blood. If you don't watch it, I was a vampire-bitten waitress. Apparently I did a good job on my vampire bites: I walked into my brother's house and he and his wife gasped, "Oh my God, what happened to you?!" The trick: dark red nail polish surrounded by small circles of dark purplish-blue eyeshadow to look like bruising.

Feathernester, you will go CRAZY when Season 2 comes out. You won't believe what happens! Let's just say I have a newfound respect for Jason Stackhouse. And I haven't read all of Eclipse yet, so I may switch from Camp Jacob back to Edward. We'll see....

Guess who I was for Halloween?

Originally uploaded by kfclark

I'm trying this from Flickr--guess it does work

Update on costumes

Costume contest at school:

Winner for individual:
- The girl who dressed up like Roz from Monsters, Inc AND did the voice perfectly.


Winner for group costume:
1st place: three girls who dressed as "God's gift": They wore wrapped gift boxes and had their heads sticking out
2nd place: An amazing Alice in Wonderland group
3rd place: Four guys who dressed in full regalia as KISS.



I'm so sorry I don't have pictures of the real thing, but I wanted to point out that these students all made their costumes and worked hard, so I thought the blogosphere should know about it.

Halloween Friday Musings (or What I couldn't post on Facebook or Twitter because I left my phone at home)

I also forgot my camera because I am a sillyhead, so no pictures! :-(

- The teachers all dressed up as clowns today. I have a parent conference at 2:00, so my make-up is minimal. Not sure what it would mean to a parent if I came to a conference dressed in full make-up and rainbow wig.

- As usual, students push the boundaries of proper school costumes. I saw two students dressed as the gentlemen from the "dick in a box" video. I nailed both of them and said they had to remove the boxes. One kid said, "But Mr. L [vice-principal] saw it and didn't say anything...." to which I replied that he might not have gotten the reference, but I did. I even told the kid: funny but inappropriate. We also always have a few sexy something-or-others and two boys dressed as Teletubbies. I've seen some other fun ones as well; this is the best day of the year for some students.

- We found a tick on Penny this morning. I had to remove it and felt like Bad Mommy because I KNEW we were late with her flea-and-tick treatment but this neverhappenedbeforeofcourseshe'llbefinemypoorfuzzylittlegirlnoooooooooooo. She seemed fine. The vet said to keep an eye on it and keep it clean. Crisis averted.

- It is hard (or just lunacy) to give a test on Halloween Friday when teachers down the hall are playing "Thriller". Everyone's either giving tests or throwing a party.

- Tonight I think we're going to build a fire--our first of the season! It's going to be one of those hideously rainy fall evenings, perfect for bad movie and crackling warmth and Southwestern Mac and Cheese. Yum!

- I can't stand Bella Swan...yet I can't stop reading Eclipse. Damn you, Stephenie Meyer, and your Harlequin teen trash. You suckered me right in. Does anyone else feel Edward's a totally static character and kind of wish Jacob would get a break...by falling in love with someone who's worthy of him who isn't the hot mess that Bella is? Am I getting too into this? Probably.

- How is Monday already November 2? When did that happen? And don't forget to turn your clocks back!

Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!

Odds and Ends

There's not a lot to report, really. I'm enjoying the fall colors--one benefit of our cold, wet summer is a riot of gorgeousness right now. This has always ranked as my favorite time of year, perhaps because it's so fleeting, perhaps because I love the crisp, briskly cold, sunny days and the sharply nippy nights that make you want to snuggle in a warm bed (and a sweet, cuddly dog on your feet doesn't hurt), perhaps because I get to break out my courderoys and my leather jacket. And there's just something about a fall sky with the clouds on one side and the sinking sun on the other that just sings to me. I can't quite explain it. Do you know what I mean? Mind you, having a fire drill occur on Monday during one of those 45 degree mornings didn't suit quite so well with me, but the state requires us to perform a certain number, etc.

Anyway. Rambling, sorry. I'm just moving along, business as usual. The faculty this year have decided to dress as clowns for Halloween. How fitting. Just kidding. Maybe. I thought about dressing up as a famous politician but figured I'd keep that sort of humor for when I get tenure. In addition, in my freshman classes we were talking about our biggest fears and more than one student named clowns as the biggie. Considering it's tradition not to tell the kids what we're dressing up as, this year could potentially send numerous kids into therapy. (I'm thinking of The Simpsons: "Can't sleep...clown'll eat me. Can't sleep...clown'll eat me....") I'll let you know. We do have a party to go to and I'm dressing up as something different, but I won't tell you what. It's nothing that amazing; I just thought I'd give you all something to look forward to.

In the meantime, as I wrote before, the flu has begun sweeping through our school. I had one girl take a test today who'd missed two days, saying, "Yeah, I was sick but my mom made me come in." GET WITH IT, MOM. WE SENT LETTERS HOME ASKING THAT YOU DO THE OPPOSITE OF THAT. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, KEEP YOUR LITTLE SICKIE AWAY. We're at 10% right now out, and if it keeps going up, they'll close school for a few days. That happened when I was in high school--some 36 hour virus spread through and they closed school for a day. Mind, I was in a boarding school in a smallish environment and a quarter of the population meant 125 kids out of 500.

One final point in this odd post and then I'll end it (HAH! Get it? Look at the title! I am so witty.) If you plan to take your kids to see Where the Wild Things Are, reconsider it. It had gorgeous sets and monsters, but the underlying added psychological elements made it a bit dark for kids...and adults, frankly.

So have a good day and wash your hands!

addendum

The absentee rate is due to illness. Colds and FLU. Yes, FLU. I think most of it is regular flu. I'm getting my shot on Monday (regular as well) and I just sprayed my entire work area down with Lysol. Now I'm going to go home and gargle with bleach. When you work in a building with 1300 teenagers, you don't take chances.

OK, maybe not bleach. At the least, I'm going to stock up on Airborne. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I had SEVEN kids out in one of my classes yesterday. You understand.

30 second post

Doing fine. Absentee rate at school is at 10% and climbing. We're watching To Kill a Mockingbird in 10th grade and reading about Greek gods in 9th. I've started to kick my own butt because none of my pants fit (more later on that gem). It's Wednesday.

That is all.