Ode to Excedrin Migraine

March 21st, 2006

i have 20 minutes until the homeowners meeting, so i thought i’d post. i had a headache but it’s fading. what’s new is i am still teaching high school in santa ana. im having a blast, even though i never want to do this again (it takes over one’s life). that said, the teacher (jen) who has been on maternity leave is going to be very lonely when she comes back in two weeks, because i am taking all of her students home with me. the golf may be a sub-compact, but it has a large trunk, and if they leave their books and violas behind (did i mention this was an art school?), i think we can squeeze. i just love them all. even the annoying ones, even the whiners, even the bored ones who are too cool for school. i havent told steve yet but i put our names in to adopt as many teens as they can give us because i decided i love teens. theyre so dramatic and fresh and wild. theyre overwhelmed, theyre underwhelmed, theyre just plain whelmed. we adults try not to be whelmed, so teens are refreshing.

in cat news, mia and linus continue to fight and poop a lot. linus continues to trounce our heads all night long, and mia continues to wake the entire villa monica in the middle of the night with banshee-like howling. when i got back from texas last weekend and asked steve how it went here at no. 6, he said, “i spent most of the weekend trying to figure out what she was screaming about.” good man.

so i went to texas, to AWP in austin. it was good and fine, but i was in an off mood. i don’t think i made the most of it. friday night i went to burlington coat factory. saturday night i went to the mall. i was worn out and lonely, and when i feel lonely, i like to go into chain-stores and shop and while im there pretend im in a chain-store somewhere else, like my hometown or santa monica. anyway, i did tool around austin some. i did eat tasty texican food, and i did attend some AWP panels. and i did run into meredith from UNLV, and her sweet, mellow laugh made my weekend. austin’s cool. AWP’s cool. meredith is super cool.

i ordered collapsible silicone measuring cups online and they arrived today. theyre so space-age. too bad we never measure anything.

my niece, erica, turned seven on saturday. seven seems like a big year somehow. her hair is long now, long enough to shag over her eyes all the time. she has lost some teeth, which have been replaced by giant beaver-teeth in front. she’s become an incredibly astute and sensitive girl, comic and driven. she reads like a grad student and with dramatic flair. her imagination is larger and more full of black holes than the universe. if she forgets her lunch box at school, she goes into sobbing hysterics. if she farts, she makes sure everyone’s heard it. she called a few weeks back because she wanted me to pledge to a jump-rope-a-thon for school. she asked, “who do you live with?” and i said steve. she remembered him but asked why he doesn’t visit with me anymore. i told her he works a lot and has a hard time getting away, and she said, “he should take a break.” so i think she will grow up to be either a pop star or a life coach.

her sister will grow up to be either a radio DJ or a representative standing by for time-life books. the talking never stops.

ok, time for homeowners. let the spam-comments begin.