Pre Christmas Eve Jitters

Well, it's the day before Christmas Eve and all I have on my mind is my homeless buddy, Howard. Thinking about him is making me jittery. I saw him today outside church. As I hobbled along to daily mass with my possibly broken toe I saw Howard waving at me and calling me over to him. I said, "Are you talking to me Howard?" He said, "Yeah, baby." I said, "Did you get in out of that snow we had? I hope you weren't out in it." He said, "I'm okay." Howard looked extra messy today. And he looked very cold. I said, "Howard, please try to keep yourself warm.' He said, "You comin' tomorrow?" I said, "I'm not sure. What day is tomorrow?" He said, "It's Christmas Eve." I said, "Probably not. Why? Do you want some food? I'll try to make you some cookies if I can come." He said, "No, forget all that stuff. I don't need that now. Can you get me coat with a hood? Anything with a hood? To keep my head warm. Do you have somethin' at home you can bring me?" Howard has never asked me for anything so this sort of shook me up. And it was obviously difficult for him to ask me. He must be so cold. I said, "Oh, I don't have any men's clothes. But let me figure out something." He said, "That's ok. Don't worry." I said, "Hmmm, I know, I can ask a friend inside the church. He talks to you all the time." Howard protested. He was not happy about me asking someone else. I said, "Look Howard, you know him. He's really nice to you. He's cool. I bet he can get you a coat or something." Howard said, "No, I don't want to bother no one. And I don't want him to know it's me asking. Don't tell him what I say to you." I said, "Howard, if he gives you a coat just take it. Don't worry. I have to find you a coat" Howard then went on to tell me that all the other ladies don't him like I do. LOL Poor Howard. He said, "They yell at me all the time. They all think I'm the man who breaks into their cars, but I'm not. I try to explain to them that I don't bother no one.It's that other guy that comes around." I said, "I know it's the other guy. You would never do that. I don't like that other guy." Howard smiled at me.

Anyway, I talked to my friend before and after mass and he's going to try to bring Howard something warm to wear. Howard will be mad at me for asking someone else to get him a coat but at least he will have one. I don't have any money to go buy him a coat. If I had money I would just go buy him one. This is one those times I wish I had money. And I'm really wishing I never spent my little bit of money on all that candy I made to mail to people. I could have bought Howard a coat with that money. Dang. But if my friend comes through Howard will get a Christmas coat from my friend and some Christmas candy from me. It might just end up being a good Christmas for Howard. :)

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. Mother Teresa

Frightful Stuff

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...

Time Flies and minutes are fleeting & bugs bug me..

Friday Dec. 11, 2009 9:30 pm

It's been over a month since my last blog. I guess the lack of verbosity says it all. Not much to say. Not much to tell. Been way too busy with all my jobs to disserate or post. The plan for now is to NOT renew one job come January. I started off with 4 jobs this semester, then went down to 3, and now realize I will never get this dissertation started if I have more than two jobs. My evening teaching job ends next week. THANK GOD! I have no idea what I was thinking when I said yes to all these jobs. All I know now is that next semester I'll have only two jobs. I'm completely burned out. Being burned out is not the way to go into starting a dissertation.

On a side note. You know what I hate--I hate those long legged centipede bugs--you know the ones with all those legs. Well, one just crawled over my bed and I jumped right out of bed. UGH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Now for the rest of the night I will be scratching thinking bugs are crawling over me. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH And jumping out of bed was not a good move for my bad back. I went to my chiro yesterday. Last weekend I had horrible food poisoning and threw out every single one of my bad vertabrae and bulged every rotten disc. OUCH OUCH OUCH and OUCH. And now using my laptop in bed is making my bad neck feel worse. So I will sign off for tonight. I'll pick this post up tomorrow. YAWN!

PS Friday 10:10 pm. Bug Update. I just squashed the nasty ugly hideous little long legged creature. Thank you God for showing him to me before I lay me down to rest. Now I can sleep peacefully and buglessly. :)

Saturday 11:15PM

I'm back. Did you miss me? :)

I have one thing to report that is dissertation related. My evening teaching job is at a local library. Recently the library needed my room for an author lecture and book signing. I got to meet Steve Luxenberg. And wouldn't you know his book falls into my dissertation category. His book's title is Annie's Ghost. Here's his website. http://www.steveluxenberg.com/content/index.asp
I also met his wife and daughter. They were so nice and helpful with ideas for my disseration. Mrs. Luxenberg gave me info on a Victims of Torture group who uses writing for healing. Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma --http://www.astt.org/

What else is new with me? Not much. Been super busy with my work and my students. I love teaching ESL. And I LOVE my students. My morning class runs in 8 weeks sessions. We had a party the last day of class which was cool because Zully taught us Latin dancing and Mekfira and Andenet taught us Ethiopian dancing. We have a lot of fun--maybe too much fun. :) Not sure if I'm teaching them much. But two moved on, and 4 went up to another level within the class, and most raised their pretest scores. So I guess I'm teaching them something.

Are you wondering what's new with my homeless buddy Howard? You remember him. he shows up regularly in my posts. :) I'm starting to feel real bad for Howard. It's getting cold and wet out there. This past week it was rainy, windy and cold. And there's Howard just chillin' on the corner. He's like the postman. He shows up no matter what the weather. I said to him, "Hey Howard, it's getting cold out here. Why don't you go inside someplace and get warm?" He said, "I'm all right." He never goes inside the church like some of the others do. I wish he would keep himself warm. One particulary chilly day I was practically skipping along with my can of smoked almonds I had just bought. I love smoked almonds and hardly ever treat myself to them. I was dreaming about eating them later in the day when I spotted Howard looking particularly miserable. I stopped and said my usual, "Hey Howard, how ya' doin'" He sadly said looking away from me, "I'm so hungry." Now you see Howard never asks me for food. Here is where I sigh with a heavy heart. I said, "Howard, do you like almonds? I just bought some. If you like them, you can have them." He said looking at my bag, "What you got there?" I pulled them out of my bag. He said, "Oh, man, peanuts!" I said, "No, almonds, Do you like almonds?" He said, "Yeah". I said to myself, Bye bye almonds.

The other day I saw Howard again. He didn't hear me say hi. I looked up (Howard towers over me). Howard had headphones on. LOL. I yelled, "Hey Howard!" He took off one of his head phones. I said, "You got headphones?" He just smiled. I said, "What are you listening to?" He shrugged his shoulders. I said, "You don't know?" He said, "No" and chuckled. I started chuckling too. I said, "Ok Howard. That's cool that you have some music. See ya' later." He said, "Bye Baby." And inside the church I went. I love when Howard calls me baby. :) I got to get a pic of Howard one of these days.

I got a new Ashley Cleveland CD recently. Like Howard I need my music.

PS Ignore my typos. I'm too tired to fix them right now.