personal

sipping chardonnay out of a juice glass

And making the gourmet beenie weenies. By gourmet, I mean that I sauteed some onions and hotdogs, added some garlic salt, and dumped a can of baked pork and beans in the pan.

Yummy!

Lest you believe that economic hard times have befallen the Johnsons, fear not. There’s a significant difference between being broke and being poor. I am in a perpetural state of broke-ness, but have not been reduced to hotdoggies as a regular feature of the dinner table. Rather, my suggestions for more conventional dinnerfare were met with shrugs and choruses of “whatever”.

So “whatever” it is, and I get to retire early to some grading and reruns of Smallville.

So much to catch up on!

I seem to be a little obsessed with the exclamation point! Sheesh!

I’ve used it in just about everything I’ve written in the past week. Time to wrap it up and put it away for a long time. Or until I feel like using it again.

Anyway, I’m behind. I’m behind in just about everything except work. How’s that for irony? Don’t worry, it won’t last for long since I collect some assignments tomorrow. For today, I’ll bask in the delusion that I am ahead there, too.

Still, I’m going to organize myself a little bit this afternoon, and come back later with a report of my progress. I figure, if I say I’m going to do it, then I’ll have to follow through with it, right? Hmm. Maybe.

where in the world are you, John Ringo?

So this morning I was listening to the Daily Breakfast as I worked, and something that Fr. Roderick said in the episode’s post-production had me thinking about a period in my life when I was heavily into (um, perhaps that period has not ended) science-fiction, and I was thinking about some nerdy friends that I had way back then.

They were BOYS. Oh my. Because really, none of the girls I knew liked science-fiction, they were too busy liking BOYS. Riiiiight.

I often tell young ladies to marry a nerd—they make good husbands and make good livings.

As I was saying, I was reminiscing joyfully about some of those guys, and I remembered two—John Webber, who sat at my table during math class, and we spent more time drawing and creating ‘zine-like scenarios for Space:1999 than perhaps paying attention to the algebra concepts, and another guy, John Ringo, who was in my grade but not in my class. I kinda liked John Ringo. He had a lot of redeeming qualities. He had a great vocabulary and he was taller than me. That was very important in the 8th grade.

We ended up going on a date or two, and then, who knows—adolescence. I remember Pizza Hut, and some godawful school dance where no one danced. I suspect we could have waltzed. He probably knew how. Ha!

Anyway, that was the night that my brother stood on his bed with binoculars and watched John and his sister and brother-in-law (our ride and chaperones) drive up to get me. I think we went to a movie on another occasion. Ha, again!

That is all. I thought I’d share. I mean, it was clearly destiny that I should marry a guy named John. He was a nerd. And he’s a good husband. And he has a good job.

***

There’s a science-fiction writer named John Ringo, but I’m not going to do the creepy facebook stalking thing. I mean, for what? I can’t say I’m all that interested in resuscitating anything from my school days (they were good enough—just not into the whole re-living the past thing), but here’s hoping he turned out well.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox! ! !

Meh.

It just means it’s fall, or autumn as we pretentious few prefer to say.

I appreciate the cooler weather, although in Atlanta that brings a lot of dreary weather with it — rainy gray days. In a perverse way, I kind of enjoy it that way, but there are plenty of people who don’t, and it makes driving even more dangerous around here. What is it with Atlanta drivers and precipitation? In Miami driving through a monsoon was pretty much SOP, and in Germany snowfall was measured in meters, not quarter inches. Ha!

Anyway, I look forward to the changing leaves, even if I do have to clean up after nature’s adolescent stage.

Hey, do you make your bed first thing when you get up?

I’m essentially a slob at heart although I’ve come to the conclusion that 5 slobs cannot co-exist under the same roof, so I have spells of clutter-anxiety-induced neatnik bouts. Before I went back to work fulltime, I seemed to have things under control, but I’ve relaxed the reins and now I feel like a new bout is going to hit. It will be a total sucker punch for my family who is boycotting the blog because they don’t like that I moved. Good. That means I’ll talk about them here. Bahaha.

Anyway, I have discovered that if I make my bed first thing in the morning, the rest of the day seems organized. I said “seemed” okay? I am well aware of things like self-fulfilling prophecy and all that psycho-babble.

Still, it works for me. Look, it’s not even 6:30 and after making my bed I have almost finished a blog entry. See? It works. I might just finish grading papers today.

Do you make your bed?

In Which I Embrace “Putting on the Ritz”

Besides my outrage at the woman next to me who actually helped herself to my handwritten blog notes, I will begin with another review of food. We began with another exquisite breakfast of assorted and exotic fruit, delicious breads, organic yogurts, and a croissandwich that shames the self-proclaimed King of Burgers.

Then, more plenary sessions and workshops, another tasty break, more workshops, and then…lunch.

Ha. Back to the gastronomic tour: lunch, again, was incredible. The obligatory hotel chicken was neither rubbery nor dry. Yum! There was some pretty good other stuff, too, but I want to fast-forward to dessert and the creme broulee.

Actually, I want to fast-forward to the guy who sat next to me: after carefully selecting what appeared to be low-calorie fare on his plate, he proceeded to pig out on the creme broulee. Really, I don’t blame him – – I guess he saved all his calories for dessert. I should have done the same!

The problem with this kind of big-guns lunch is returning to the workshops. Still, all very good, informational, meaningful stuff. Am I a sucker, or what?

Dinner was once again on us, but who wants to eat dinner when they’ve been feeding us all day? I took a bit of a break and checked out the pool and other areas. I didn’t bring my bathing suit for a multitude of reasons, but sat outside by one of the two bars and watched the kids (and adults). They have this lazy river motif going on that looks fantastic. Imagine plopping onto a float and letting a current float you along a “trail” through shady and sunny areas. Nice!

Deborah (my hero!) of sqpn roadie fame rescued me from the opulence of the Ritz and hauled me over to Disney opulence, where we enjoyed an unhurried stroll through EPCOT and had a light dinner in Germany (with me for mich). We saw some of the exhibits and then watched the great fireworks over the lake before heading back to the hotel. It was only 10 pm, but I hit that bed hard.

The only thing better would have been spending the evening with my honey. Happy birthday, Foofy!

went to a new church last night

Leaving soon for a conference in Orlando. I’ll be in a technical blackout for several days, except for the human leash: my cellphone. My early departure today precipitated a search for a local church that had a “late-ish” vigil, and we found one that is actually only a couple of miles further than what we already travel, and about the same time-wise.

It’s always interesting to attend mass at a different church. Everything is sooooo different. And, everything is soooo the same.

Except this one has stained glass. And a less creepy risen Christ (at least there is also a somewhat prominent crucifix.)