Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Almost a milestone

Today is my 49th birthday and this is my 200th post.

When I was 33 and diagnosed with cancer all I wanted was to be able to live to see 40. I was lucky enough to get the entire decade and for that I am truly thankful. Now, I think I'm going to shoot for 90!

Happy Birthday to me and happy birthday to my twin sister, Tori.

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

More of the same...

Jason's comment on the entry below caused me to think of another mispronounced word that drives me nuts. I'm very lucky that I don't have to hear it on a daily basis any longer because I don't have the pleasure of being an attendance clerk for a high school these days. I swear that I would cringe every time I had a parent call in and tell me that their student wouldn't be at "skoo" for what ever reason they made up at that very moment. "Skoo"? It gives me the willies even to write it!

On the subject of being an attendance clerk the couple of memorable excuses I received from parents that I remember....

I was completely taken aback the first time I got a call from a parent excusing her son from school that day because he was witnessing the birth of his son. What a green horn I was!

In the 14 years that I was an attendance clerk I got several calls from moms telling me to excuse their student simply because they said so. I tried to explain that I had to have a reason, no matter how vague, so that the state could determine if it was an allowable excuse and thus still pay us for the student. These moms all apparently went to the same school of etiquette because they were not to be deterred. They all stuck to their "because he/she is my child and I said so" declaration. I just love it when people cooperate.

I will never forget the "harumph" of indignation when a parent would call in or write a note to excuse a student because they were needed at home for baby sitting purposes and I had to tell them that not only did the state not consider that a valid excuse for being absent but it was also illegal. Of course suddenly these students would all of a sudden have many appointments with the doctor or a sudden rash of illness. High school grades be damned.

Anyway, just in case any one is still reading at this point...I saved my most memorable phone call for last. One morning I had a very nice lady call in and tell me, "My daughter won't be at skoo today because she's...you know..."atministrating". I was gracious. I didn't laugh. I just took her excuse, wrote it down and knew that I would remember that call forever.

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Thursday, March 05, 2009

I must be in a bad mood...

The next time I hear anyone use these words I think I'm going to pinch them. Hard.



Cu-nent (Couldn't)

Wu-nent (Wouldn't)

Shu-nent (Shouldn't)

Coon't (Couldn't)

Wun't (Wouldn't)

Shun't (Shouldn't)

Hunnert (Hundred)

Senence (Sentence)

Alls


Who's with me?

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Ok...I'm back...sort of....

I sure hope I have any readers left after my sabbatical. I thought my first post after being sick would be about my adventures in Epstein-Barr Land but I've grown weary of even thinking about what's gone in this last month so I'm going to write about something else. Maybe in a couple of days I'll rehash the events of my illness but not today.

I would like to show you the works of my favorite new artist, but first I need to apologize for the red aura on the 2nd picture. No matter how I tried to take a picture of his drawings my flash would drown out the drawing. The red flash is the pre-flash warning light on my camera. If I take a picture with the flash turned off and my camera thinks I should have the flash turned on it gives me the red warning light.

So with no further ado I present the sketches of:


"CHRISTIAN BAXTER"


This work depicts a parade whose participants include all of the characters from the movie "Wall E" and 4 members of the "Peanuts Gang". The character leading the parade is Christian. He created an animated character to portray himself and he includes the character in most of his drawings.



This second drawing portrays Mickey and Minnie Mouse tickling the artist.


What is so amazing about this artist? You've seen better you say? Well, what if I told you the artist is a 4th grader? A 4th grader with Asperger's Syndrome? I wish I could make these pictures bigger so that you could see the detail included. I didn't get to watch him draw these two pictures but I have been able to watch him draw. With just a pencil and a blank piece of paper the artist whips these out in about 2 minutes and then moves on to the next one. He. Is. Amazing.

Rumor has it Christian is going to send me some more of his drawings. When he does I am gladly going to post them so that all the world can see just how proud I am of him.

Christian Baxter of southern California. Remember that name. You'll be glad you did.





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