You spin me right round

My head is spinning, I have so much work to do. You will not get many blogs from me in the next little while. I MUST, MUST, MUST finish my Fosse paper this week and send it to my professor in Oregon. Of an equally urgent nature, last night I discovered that I'd wrongly assumed a deadline for my lecture document. Never, never, never assume... It's completely my fault, but I just hope that someone at UO will actually get back to me and let me know if I'll still be able to graduate this June. I may need to have my first draft finished by next week. I've only done one out of the six interviews with oboists so far. My lesson with Ray Still in Annapolis won't be until the beginning of April.

Did I mention my head is spinning?

Randomness

In this post (a to-do/to-write to remind myself!):

MyItThings, Canadian chocolate, early morning visitor, early leaving husband.

OK.

So I now have yet another website to distract me from academia. I'd received an interesting email this weekend, from someone who said they regularly read my blog (news to me! I figure I had four or five friends reading regularly...), and she wanted to invite me to become a writer for the online magazine, MyItThings.com. At first, I felt flattered. Then I checked out the website, and I realized the invite probably wasn't really based on personal interest. Hey, websites need traffic if they're going to survive. So now I'm traffic. :) The way it works (if you're not interested in clicking on the above link and checking it out for yourself) is that the readers are the writers of the magazine. Anyone posts something in their own little "writer's lounge", and every day the editors pick the top blurbs to publish on the website. You're published anyway (like a blog), but the main traffic I'm sure is from this daily compilation. It sounded interesting. It's kind of like People magazine online. You comment on Entertainment, Fashion, Technology, Body and House. What? No oboe? I guess I'll be sticking to this blog. Here's where they get you though. I posted a blurb (pretty randomly) about body lotion, then people vote on your column. I've already checked back several times to see if more people have voted, and after midnight, when the daily publication is made, it would be neat to see mine selected. Ah yes, a new kind of addiction. This is also why I keep checking in with MySpace. I don't blog there, but I just love the "so-and-so wants to be your friend!" messages. I feel liked. Also strangely powerful...I also like denying a person my "friendship"...evil?? Anyway, if you're interested in my favourite body lotions, you can click on the link to the right of this, under "It's All About Me"--MyItThings. Or just click here.

Moving on...

I'm also addicted to Canadian chocolate bars. Not in the "I must have one a day" or "week" or even "month" sort of way. I do, however, feel comforted at having a stash (I won't say where for fear of looting--eck-ghem, Dave) for emergency chocolate cravings. Yes, Canadian chocolate bars are that much better than American. Sorry, folks. Even bars of the same name are different south of the border. Kit Kats just taste better up north. My personal favourites (I need in my stash): Crunchie, Aero, Cadbury Dairy Milk (oh my yum.....), and Laura Secord's French Mint (double oh my yum....). The reason why I'm writing this is that today I had my last bar. It was a Crunchie, and I thought I'd have half this afternoon and half this evening. The next thing I know, it has melted in my mouth--all of it. Again, I stress that I don't eat much junk food! This is one of two bars that made the trip back from Calgary with me at Christmas. Dave finished his within a week. I was like this with Halloween candy when I was little. I had it perfectly timed to finish up last year's batch just as I was putting the finishing touches on my costume for trick-or-treating that night. What does all that mean to you? If you love me, you will send me chocolate.

OK, I'm glad I wrote that reminder list at the top!

Dave had to be at Simpson College this morning for 6:00am...yes, that's right. Crazy! The jazz band and wind ensemble are on tour this week, visiting glamourous places like Omaha and Kansas City (actually, I want to go there). They had their first concert this morning at 8am! An hour away from here. (!) I was still asleep. I had been awakened (awoken?) by an early morning visitor though. At 6:45am, my doorbell rang! What the heck?! It was followed by a light knock. I stayed snug in my bed. If it were an emergency from a neighbour, I'm sure they'd call or ring the bell again. (That's what I'm telling myself now, because I feel slightly guilty for staying in bed.) I wonder who it was? Perhaps my five-year-old student who lives next door? Wanting to say hi? There was nothing on my door or my porch, so it wasn't a delivery. Who knows?

So I'm alone this week. Dave gets back on Friday (he doesn't even know what time), the same day that both his parents arrive for a visit. Yeah! Depending on the various arrival times, I may have to go to the airport twice and Simpson College once. I always look forward to Paul and Margaret's visits though. They always bring a calming presence with them. (And perhaps this time...Canadian chocolate?)

Oh, one more thing! My terrible decision arrived yesterday! That would be the Entertainment coupon book I ordered in my attempt to get a free ipod. The good news is that there are lots of coupons I'll actually be able to use! There are 2 for 1 tickets to the Des Moines Metro Opera, 2 for 1 entrees to several of the restaurants we frequent (including one in Indianola!) and several discounts to places I'd been meaning to try out. We'll probably use a bunch with Paul and Margaret next week. So there ya go. Terrible spur-of-the-moment decisions do pay off sometimes (except that I'm still getting about 20 junk emails a day), and I'll even save some money! Now who's an idiot? ...don't answer that.

Teaching in 30 minutes. I'd better get some fresh air before then! Did you last to the end of this blog? Good for you!

And the winner is...

In other news, I am a complete idiot. I wondered how far I would need to go when submitting my information for a "free i-pod". What is wrong with me????? I know these are ridiculous stunts on the internet that don't result in a free gift. I have so far received 5 junk emails, and there was no way to even complete the ipod give-away process. I even had to click on "at least" one of the related sponsors give-aways. I know that's how they make their money. I tried to pick the least threatening sponsor, so I bought an entertainment coupon book. Let me stress that once I was on the "final step" of the ipod gift page, there was actually nothing to press like "confirm shipping address" like they claimed there would be. Please just put me in a padded room now. All along, I was thinking "just stop now. You have nothing to prove. You know what the end result will be. There ain't no ipod. You're really much smarter than this." I guess I'm not. Now these people have my mailing address, my phone number, my email address (though I gave them a lesser-used one...is this a saving grace?).... Shouldn't this be against the law--to promise a free gift and not follow through? I'm also mad that I'll likely get more junk mail, which will only contribute to the wasted paper I already move straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin every week.

I know I'm an idiot. If even one person points that out to me, I may have to clobber them. That means you too, Dave.

I like to think that maybe I was just trying to show a little faith in humanity. In honesty. Ah, who am I kidding? This is about $$$ and greed and advertisers and the knowledge that there will continue to be stupid people like me to help them make money.

I'm going to get away from civilization now. I think I need some perspective. Maybe a long bath will qualify.

Did I mention I'm an idiot?