Sunday, September 13, 2009

...things that make me smile (and one that makes me giggle!)

A few things that brought a smile to my face this weekend:

  • Working my butt off in my classroom yesterday so I was free to renew my spirit today.
  • An invitation to join my very good friend for some patio time. Even though I was knee-deep in work in my room and didn't want to stop, I appreciate the phone call.
  • Beautiful, gorgeous, perfect weather for riding this morning. My buddy Scott flaked out on me, and the only other people to show up were 2 of the fast guys. I told them not to worry about me--I didn't want to hold them back, and didn't want to work as hard as I'd need to to try to stay with them. So I rode by myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.
  • Riding to the Potato Sheds and saying, "Good job, Sue!" just like the guys do when I finally reach the top.
  • Passing a corn field as it was being harvested. Ah, what a delightful smell! Ditto for the newly cut mint fields.

  • Finding a recently harvested red onion along the side of the road. It fit perfectly into my center back pocket! It almost looks obscene, doesn't it?? (There's the giggle.) I contemplated the watermelon field for a minute, but couldn't figure out where I could carry one. :-)

  • Some time on the bike was spent trying to recall my new students' names. A few are easy: Azucena. Beautiful. It just rolls off the tongue. And she prefers to be called Susie. Like I said, easy. But the boys...oh, the boys. They like to see if they can trick me, so I created a cheat sheet for myself. That works in the classroom, but I still don't have names and faces matched once they're not in front of me.

  • My parents having been doing their own dance steps together for 57 years today. :-)

  • An impromtu picnic and hike with John on top of the mountain that separates us. We each drove 45 minutes. The day was still beautiful, perfect for talking, hiking, and laughing. We had a hard time getting this picture because we couldn't quit being silly long enough. Good to see him in person again.

And some things that DIDN'T make me smile:

  • Almost getting hit by a vehicle not once, but twice on Friday afternoon. Yikes. They were in a rush to get past slow farm trucks.
  • The dog with the hungry look in his eye this morning who thought my leg looked like breakfast. I prevailed. Gave him the full-of-authority teacher voice, "NO!"

A busy weekend, but I'm ready (in more ways than one) for the week ahead. And that makes me smile.

1 comment:

Leslie Morgan said...

Oh, I'm a pushover for an obscene onion! Perhaps if you'd tucked the watermelon in front, the vehicle drivers would have pitied the pregnant cyclist and not tried to take you out. I think ou know my story of being on a bike when a dog appears. ;{

Your parents married when I was 3 weeks old!

I've BEEN on the other side of those smiling faces, Dooz. That's a nice thing to see.