Graceland Pilgrimage Planning

We've set a date for our Graceland pilgrimage...July 13th is the estimated departure date, and we will book our king-size suite for 3 nights at the Heartbreak Hotel in Memphis tomorrow. I found a super package deal on elvis.com, which has tickets to Graceland (including the planes and the jumpsuits), as well as to the zoo, Hard Rock Cafe on Beale street, two soul museums, and Sun Records. How damn cool is that? Well, pretty cool if you know your Elvis like my Hubby does.

Elvis recorded his first vinyl single, "That's All Right Mamma," at Sun Records in 1953. (His actual first recording was "My Happiness" which he recorded for his mother's birthday at a fair.) He stopped by on his lunch hour from driving a truck. And the rest is history, as "they" say.

Now we just gotta get a new road-worthy, hybrid vehicle to make said pilgrimage with. Gas prices are going through the damn roof, nearing $4 as I write and predicted to go to $15 before it's all said and done.

Why does politics permeate every aspect of our lives?

I just wanna see the jungle room -- OH, and nobody has phooned the exterior of Graceland (can you say stitched-together panoramic shot?) or the jungle room....so we got goals.

Life is good. Except for two things: Hubby's brush with the law (another story) and my brush with Mr. Head Human Resources Guy. He said he'd meet with me before the end of the school year on that other matter, which leaves exactly 4 days and I've heard nothing.

Back to Graceland and our pilgrimage...it will be a blast, especially if that damn yearbook is done by then. It's always something, I guess.

That is the rich tapestry of life: Hunka hunka.

Hobbies

I have a hobby, that I've mentioned in previous blogs: phooning. This harmless hobby combines my love of photography and loathing of sports into one interesting pursuit.

We phooned on the famous AE cows in East Des Moines this weekend, and it was really fun:

When we arrived, the sprinklers were on, but that didn't stop us!

Check out more at phoons.com.

Well, I'm in good spirits still, and it's a 3-day weekend so all is well on this gloomy Sunday morning. I'm thinking about summer, which is a week away, and I'll be glad when we're settled into the June routine: Hubby is teaching summer government and I'll be working on the yearbook most of the month. The youngest boy will spend his mornings at the school, and I will hardly ever see the oldest, now that he's almost 16. We will however, visit and phoon at Graceland this summer, if it's the last thing I ever orchestrate. It's been done before, so I have to find interesting backgrounds on the way and while in Memphis.

So glad that hobbies and not school is on my brain today...that over-active, hunk of junk brain that I seem to be cursed with.

Happy About End of School Drama

Don't know why or how, but my attitude has shifted. I'm happy again. I'm having fun again. Well, I always have fun with high school students: I've never taken it out on them. They don't know the real truth though, which feels dishonest, but I did warn them that big brother is watching and I don't want any computer dishonesty.

But I still catch the little shits on their myspaces....but I guess I can understand. Although I NEVER blogged or played on company time: let's state THAT for the record.

Why am I happy, when I got bad news yesterday that I'm still trying to digest? (I dunno, it might even be approaching PMS, which would be counter-intuitive to my good mood.) Well, my selected editor-in-chief of the yearbook, Kiwi, can't fit yearbook into her schedule. Let me repeat: I've lost my yearbook editor.

She's one bright cookie and has taken AP (Advanced Placement) everything, which are only available during yearbook time, of course. We've decided, after much hand-wrangling and near crying, that she will be co-editor with someone in class. Then, she is taking a yearbook independent study class during first semester and help me get the book organized, and she promised to help at home and during the summer.

That, and the ever-present end-of-year dramas persist: some kids just like school and want to be there and are sad about summer; others are in relationship crisis and are staying away from me, which makes me sad; and everyone else just wants to be out of there -- NOW, and have really left me in the lurch in yearbook, AGAIN.

So, I'm happy amidst the drama.

Lottery Tickets and The Future

The future would be infinitely easier if I would just win the damn lottery. I play occasionally, so my odds aren't really that good. But I live in a small, mid-western town that would make a really good story for the news cameras. Big city girl goes small town and wins big.

Plus, I like to think I'm photogenic. You have to look good in that picture with the big check...don't want the relatives coming out of the woodwork.

The first thing I would do, if I were to even win, is to publish my blook (yes, I said blook. That's the blog to book lingo). I mean it's nice to be an obscure writer, but if I could quit that pesky day job in that conservative community and travel a little with the hubby and kid to do book signings...ahhhhhhh, THAT would be the life. Only problem is, at this time, I only have one publisher who has bitten; and that's a subsidy publisher which means they will allow me to spend $10,000 of my own money to see it to print.

So I need a sugar daddy or a literary agent or a freakin' clue.

I choose the agent. So call me. Soon. There's only a few months of summer when I can rely on my moods, and only so many lottery tickets I can buy.

After Graduation

Graduation is today at 3:00, and once again, all I can think about is the talent drain that I'm experiencing. I'm happy for the future of those kids, I truly am. But I'm just a selfish pig.

I'm not even going to graduation this year. I just don't have it in me. When the call for volunteers to work came out, I just said, "Fuck it." I've worked the past two years and it is truly a Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs higher-level, self actualization, kind of day.

But I feel like laying low. I've been building a website for our family business instead. Always gotta be dinking around on the web...and dreaming about the future.

And of course, what I think about now is what happens after graduation, when I still got over 150 pages of a yearbook to submit...

It will get done. That is certain. Breathe in, breathe out.

Wine and Cancer Sticks

I predict I will die of lung cancer. I've seen my husband's dad die of lung cancer, and it ain't pretty. But in this time of stress I have resorted to self-medicating behaviors: drinking boxed wine and smoking cigarettes, again.

Damn me.

But, it's coupled as my new weight-loss plan, which has been a bonus. I only lose weight when I'm freaking out about something, and I gain weight when I'm happy. I was happy for quite awhile before "the incident" and so I've developed a healthy belly and rump. So the losing weight part is good for my health. And therein lies the rub.

This too shall pass, I am sure, but I am enjoying every puff in the meantime.

Sick of it all

I'll have another flashback later, to catch you, the invited reader, up.

Right now, I'm sick of it all. Sick of school, the kids, the adults, the work, and for sure, the damn yearbook.

My suspension and censoring has played a severe toll on me: I'm stressed to the max, and cursed with a bad attitude that wasn't there before I got scolded.

And I hate it.

That's all.