Grand Slam Communication
There were a couple of earthquakes in North Texas today.
The biggest was a 3.8.
The news reporters, in disaster-mode voices, reported that there was no damage noted.
Well duh.
You’ll have to do a whole lot better than a 3.8 to impress this SoCal girl.
Although I shouldn’t get cocky.
I still tend to freak out over tornadoes.
At the baseball stadium, a little kid was sitting in front of me, eating a lollipop.
When he was done, he looked around to make sure his family wasn’t watching him, and he threw the used stick down into the crowd.
I was horrified.
If either of my boys had done something like that, I would have marched them down to retrieve their garbage, and I would have made them apologize to every single person along the way.
This kid was proud of himself.
He giggled and held his arms up in a victory dance.
Until he turned around and saw me.
I leaned in, and I gave him the stink eye.
He gasped in fear and ran to sit on his mama’s lap.
He remained there for the entire game.
Every now and again he would peek over her shoulder to see if that mean lady was still there.
I was.
I gave him the stink eye all night long.
That will teach him.
My poor little dog.
She’s never been accused of being bright.
We got a new doggie door that makes a little whooshing noise.
This scares the daylights out of the poor little doggo.
It took us ages to train her to actually use the door.
Today something has spooked her, and she’s afraid of it all over again.
She just got groomed.
She had a significant amount of fluff removed.
She has no more padding.
I think that the door is hitting her a$$ on the way out.
I guess that would spook anyone.
Can laughter make you smarter?
This was a very interesting question posed to me today.
My answer, as an ESL teacher, is a qualified yes.
Qualified because the non-stop class clown jokes are distracting and not at all helpful.
However it is a public speaking axiom that when the audience is laughing, they are leaning in to listen.
With that in mind, I always try to get at least a chuckle out of every class session.
In teaching conversation, the human connection is far more important than grammar rules or vocabulary lists.
If I can garner so much as a hint of a smile, I know I will have a successful ESL session with that student.
On National Punctuation Day, one of my ESL students had trouble getting into the online classroom.
I had the IT guy work with him while I started up with the rest of the students.
He finally arrived.
He wrote in the chat box, “I’m in yay.”
Another student wrote, “Where is Yay?”
I didn’t laugh out loud.
I never laugh at my students.
But I did stop the lesson to discuss the importance of punctuation.
Happy National Punctuation Day!
Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Bob must have been a pirate in another life.
He’s fluent.
He’s playing golf today.
But he refused to dress in pirate gear.
We have pirate costumes.
They are in a box in the garage marked “Pirate Crap.”
I tried to get rid of it when we moved.
Bob insisted on keeping it.
But for what?
He won’t dress up on International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Arrrggghhh!
With hoarding tendencies.
When we moved last year, I got rid of 50% of my stuff.
It was very liberating.
Lately I have noticed that some stuff is starting to build up again.
Specifically, shoes and books.
The shoes are easily explained.
I hate shoes.
And they hate me back.
Ever the optimist, I keep looking for that one, elusive, comfortable pair of shoes.
Sometimes I think I have found it.
However, I have an entire closet full of pinchy shoes that prove otherwise.
Every one of them hurts.
I’m still looking…
The books are another story altogether.
I can blow through several books a week.
That adds up to a lot of clutter.
I have started to read e-books to cut back on the piles of stuff.
Somehow, though, the books continue to stack up.
My bookcases are all full.
Now the books are piling up on tables and in corners.
I need more shelves.
I have no idea how this is happening.
And that’s the story I’m sticking with.
The Grown Son and his Roommate were hanging out at my house.
Me (to Grown Son): Pick up after yourself – you’ve left a debris trail all over the house!
Roommate: That’s funny. That’s exactly what he always says to me.
Me: Really?
Grown Son:
Roommate: Uh, sorry Dude.
I went all summer without any bug bites.
The bugs have suddenly realized that they need to catch up.
There was a party on my left ankle last night.
The thing I have learned, since moving to Bug Country, is NOT to scratch.
Scratching spreads the venom and makes the itching even worse.
If you can hold off scratching, the misery subsides quicker.
How do you stop the itching?
It’s a very stinky procedure.
But it works.
I sloshed vinegar on my ankle all morning.
The swelling subsided.
The itching stopped.
And my family has stayed far, far away from me.
Vinegar – it stops the itching,
AND it keeps the family at bay.
It’s a win-win situation all around.
