Its not you, its me

I am not sure why but I have been in a grumpy all this week so if I have been bitchy or distracted or have been sighin a lot, its not you its me. I have been sooo bored too. It probably doesn't help that the apartment is in disarray and it is about 100 degress in there at all times so I have no motivation to do anything but lie in bed with a fan on me watching Sex in the City. Around dusk it is usually hotter in my apartment than it is outside but I can't open any windows because Sophia jumps out of them. I am also frustarted at work because I am not being challenged and there is no social interaction to distract me. Yeah, things could be a lot worse, and these are small things I know. I don't think you should ever be totally satiafied with your life though, thats when things get really stale and you stop trying new things and challenging yourself. I think thats exactly what I need, a new challenge...

I said time out!

I was browsing through the news headlines and after filtering through all of the Paris Hilton articles, I came upon this little gem that made me chuckle.

Back to Cali

Well after a whirlwind 10 days of a touring around Europe I am back and am happy to be home. I had a great time and I am so thankful for the opportunity to see other parts of the world. I will probably not write about the details because it would be easier to just talk about that when I see people. Also, I forgot my phone at a hotel in London (brilliant, I know). It has supposidly been mailed back to me but I havent receieved it yet. So, in the meantime I am borrowing my moms work cell phone so you arent going to be able to reach me on my cell. Anyone know how long it takes to mail something from Europe to reach Fresno?? I will text everyone my temporary number so you can get a hold of me (I know you have all been dying to talk to me right?). Ok then, back to work, will talk to everyone soon!

Europe here I come!

Although everyone already knows this, I will be taking a brief leave of absence so I can tour thru Europe with Kendall and a bunch of 15 year olds. We are leaving tomorrow to LA and we will take an overnight flight to London and arrive Tuesday morning. I don't think I have ever been confined anywhere for 13 hours so hopefully I don't get clausterphobic. I brought some tylenol pm with me if I can't handle it because I think getting a cocktail may be frowned upon. After London it is off to Paris, Florence, and Rome! Until a week from Wednesday, Ciao!

People of the week

Since I missed last week and I will be gone for two weeks, I have chosen two people of the week. These aren't individuals, but groups of peopole who are doing some very cool things for kids.

First, a group of teachers from San Diego wanted to improve the performance of their students who were strugling to meet standards. Their solution was to spend 25 minutes at the end of every school day to help students one-on-one. 25 minutes may not seem like a lot, but that adds up to 3 weeks of extra teaching time that they are not getting paid for. I have a great respect for teachers and I especially respect this group for putting their students in front of themselves and giving them the time they need to improve and it seems to be working as dramatic gains have been shown. What is unfortunate is that the educational system isn't able or is unwilling to provide more for these teachers and every teacher for that matter for all the hard work they put into their job and the difference that they make in the lives of their students and ultimately in society.

Second, the Make-A-Wish foundation has fulfilled the 150,000th dream for sick kids. Currently, the foundation grants one wish every 41 minutes, but is able to fulfill the dreams of only about half of the children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses every year. I also think this is a great organization that makes a difference in some very sick kids and their families.

Cheers to making a difference in the lives of kids.

I like the word fuck

I also want to work here.

sometimes I want to strangle my mom (longest post ever)

Family time has not gone well with the Wilson's lately. My sister is here in town and my parents threw her and my brother-in-law a wedding reception on Saturday. I was witness to all of the hard work and money they put into getting the house looking nice and making all of the arrangements and everything was set for a good event. That is until my dad got involved. Now my dad is usually pretty dependable so although my mom and I questioned some of his ideas in regard to him being the MC of the event, he would respond "Don't worry, it will all make sense and all come toether". So despite our doubts, we let him run with it because he was so excited about doing this for my sister and has never done anything crazy before, we felt we could trust him. That was our first mistake. I won't go into detail but basically the theme was talk a really long time if you are up and talking in front of everyone and if it doesn't make any sense then thats even better. It was literally one embarassing distaster after the next and the night ended when a vase of flowers fell over and short circuited the dj after the 3rd song. My dad could not have been any further was so far off the mark with all of his ideas, and it resulted in my sister being incredibly embarassed, my mom in tears and me in desparate need of a stiff drink and a smoke. I am really not exagerating either. So ever since then things in my family have been tense. Take this conversation I had with my mom today:

"Hey mom I ordered more paper plates yesterday because we ran out"

"We ran out? I thought there were some in the back"

"Oh, I didn't know you kept plates there I thought you kept them in the kitchen"

"Didn't you look?"

"I didn't think to look because the only thing in the back is cleaning supplies and I didnt think they would be kept there-"

"You should have asked me"

"You haven't been here in 4 days-"

"You could have called, I have a phone" (by the way this was said almost viciously)

"I wasn't going to call you about every little thing. It is not big deal we will eventually use all the plates" (had I called her about paper plates, I guarantee she would have bitched about me bothering her about little things when she was taking some time off)

"We don't need to spend a lot of money on supplies and have a bunch of extras that arent neccesary and you go and order-"

"Dude mom we are talking about paper plates, I don't think it even cost 5 bucks. You want me to pay you 5 bucks and take the plates home I will" (yeah sarcasm galore)

"Don't say that" (non verbals here were pricelss, I thought her head was going to explode and daggers literally came out of her eyes)

At this point I am mad because she is being unreasonable and lame for no reason and I can't even get that across to her because she is hell bent on getting pissed off at me. Pretty much a pattern with her, I get most of my moms wrath in the family although I am not really sure why.

"You are being ridiculous mom, this is paper plates we are talking about"

Then she storms away I eat my hot pocket, just about boiling over myself but knowing I can't say anything because of 1)the fact that we are in the office and 2)she is thinking so irrationally because of her emotions I am not going to get anywhere. About 5 minutes later she comes in and apologizes. The stress and disappointment from the weekend has begun to overwhelm her and she took it out on me, and the paper plates of course. This happens a lot and she always apologizes later which is cool, but man I really want to strangle her sometimes.

Rant Concluded. Oh, families:)

Help Wanted

About 2 years ago I aquired a digital camera from a friend of mine that is supposidly a pretty decent camera. The problem is I have been using point and shoot digital cameras for years and now I don't remember how all of the functions work anymore (i.e. adjusting the apperture, manual focusing etc.). I tried awhile back to read the manual and figure it out but I got frustrated and gave up. If anyone knows anything about cameras and would be wiling to take a look at it and help me out I would really appreciate it and reward you with beer or a cocktail to show my appreciation. Muchas Gracias!