…and on sidewalks, driveways, and streets in my town. I love the quiet.

I don’t love the missed rehearsals the day before a concert, however. This was going to be our last one. Oh well…we do what we can, and hope everyone enjoys it. My normal reaction would be to flip out and stress and get all apoplectic about it, but I’m trying a different approach this year. We’ll do our best, and hope everyone enjoys it. And that’s the ticket. My mantra for this performance: Let it go. It’s all good.

Worst part about snow days? I can’t go back to sleep like seemingly everyone else can. Hiss. But hey, there’s always Netflix on the TV and my electric blanket (yes, I have an electric blanket on the living room couch because the Thriller is awesome), and coffee and my Nook and the Christmas tree lights. What’s to complain about? Feh.

Yesterday’s chocolate craziness was ten kinds of fantastic. We made all the goodies and set them out on the sideboard in the dining room. Then we all “went shopping” and filled up our goody bags and gift boxes with stuff to give away to family and friends. This is becoming a yearly tradition — what fun!

Speaking of fun: off I go to not stress about tomorrow night.

FO

As my attitude has improved at school, that of my students has also inched forward in a positive direction. Inched. But that’s better than regression.

There. Now that I’ve put that in writing, the wheels are going to fall off. But it’s been an interesting experiment. I’ve always said that students will reflect about 50% of your energy, but 100% of your attitude. It really is true. Attitude shapes everything, and the kids know it.

Stay away, snow. Just until Thursday, please.

Now where the dinkly doo did all those cool things go? I don’t know why, but last night, I was in quite the melancholy, nostalgic mood. Watching news coverage of the blizzard up in Cleveland while sitting on my couch, wrapped in my electric blanket, eating a cheezer and chicken soup made me all wistful and maudlin. Sometimes I get that way, and I can’t explain it. It’s very much like the feeling I get when I hear certain harmonic progressions or lyrics, especially if they’re sad. I can’t describe it, but it’s pretty intense.

Anyhow, I started thinking of things you just don’t see anymore:

1. Rotary pay phones (for the ‘snappers, they look like this)
2. Milk delivered to the doorstep (our Grandmas Johnson and Murphy had metal milk boxes on their porches)
3. “Service stations” where guys in blue uniforms pumped the gas, checked the oil and cleaned the windshield, at no extra charge
4. Mimeographed copies (also called “dittos” or “spirit masters”). I loved the smell of them as a kid.
5. Basketball players wearing shorts that didn’t look like saggy, wet diapers (at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before they’re wearing palazzo pants)
6. Paper grocery bags by default
7. Kids using a clothespin to fasten a playing card to their bike wheels so the spokes made noise
8. Roller skates that required a key
9. The “dime store” – haha
10. School milk cartons that had the round pull tab on the top

What do you remember? I’ll bet you miss lots of things from a time when the world was simpler. Like last week.

FO

Merci beaucoup, gracias, danke, hvala lepa, bedankt. Thank you, thank you.

Thank you to whoever or whatever gave me this plague. You have no idea of the passion with which I long to repay you for your generosity. Not only can I not see my grandchildren today, I get to clear away clutter and wrap gifts and do school work.

I know, stop complaining. Truthfully though, I’m amazed at how many family and fiends are ill right now, all with one of two ailments: terrible sinus infections and nasty colds (me, the Thriller, others) and the dreaded stomach virus. Jake and Justin’s other grammie has pneumonia. This is awful. Happy holidays, right? However, cursory research on the topic reveals it’s pretty much S.O.P.

According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation:

The URI (upper respiratory infection, or the common cold and its cousins) is estimated to cost $3.5 BILLION a year in the US alone, and accounts for 40 percent of the time lost from jobs and as many as 23 million lost school days.

That’s a lot of Kleenex and DayQuil, fiends. But hey, at least we have remedies to help with symptoms. Here’s a weird thing, though: I know people who don’t take anything to lessen their misery — and it’s not because of physical issues like high blood pressure or allergic reactions. They just resign themselves to suffering it out, and in the meantime, lose hours upon hours of sleep to incessant coughing or the inability to breathe with their mouths shut. This baffles the Fink. I mean, I’m all for being a tough guy and all, but when it interferes with my beauty rest, and hence my mood/performance/attitude at work, I’ll be a simpering weenie any day. Besides, I need all the beauty rest I can get.

Speaking of which…

Nah, nevermind. Coffee’s done and there’s work to do. Boo hoo. Happy weekend to you.

FO

Cripes.

Know what I hate? Oversleeping. It’s one of the few things for which I have little to no patience. It ruins my morning; puts me in a terrible mood. (Yay for my choirs.)

So how about them Cavaliers? Alas, the humiliation continues. Dear Lord, thank you for Finkday.

Early dinner with some teacher fiends after school, then off to the first basketball game tonight — go Trojans! But for now, I really want to go back to bed. Blerk.

:-/