Bad Weather Days are like eating one too many pieces of cake.....

Before, I begin, I've been locked up in my house by myself since Monday. I enjoy sloth time and down time WHEN I CHOOSE. Being holed up in the house is a different matter.

So they called off school for us on Tuesday in anticipation of the bad weather.... that never came!! We basically had a rain day! It wasn't that bad, I finished a book, started another, played on the computer, napped and slothed like noone's business. And I'm a rule follower, I didn't leave my house at all, rather I ordered in lunch and then fired up the crock pot for dinner. I basically wasted the entire day away - I guess you have to do that now and again, right?

I was okay with this day because I knew it would just shave a day off of a long weekend - we'd have a 3 day Easter weekend instead of a 4 day one. I was okay with that.

Then, last night, the weather gets worse. Ice pelting for like 2 hours. It's below freezing - you know it's gonna be a mess! This is when you KNOW we need the day off. They called a two hour delay before I went to bed and then called the whole day at 6 AM today.

There was no way we could have made it work this morning. I know that. But now my Memorial Day weekend has been shaved from 4 days to 3 days. Again, not too bad, but it would have been nice, especially since I was kind of planning a little getaway that weekend. Oh, well.

It's like when you are in the flow of school, you don't want to use your days. BUT, once you are in the bell jar enjoying the time off, you can't help it - you pray for another day - you get greedy!!

Bad Weather Days are like eating an extra piece of cake.... right then it tastes sooo good, but later on you regret it.

I can tell you, the cake is tasting good these past two days.... but it'll be hell in April and May.

Happy 1st Birthday, 38 and Ab Fab!!

Happy Birthday to my Blog!! One year ago, I started blogging about my adventures and what was going on in my life. It really wasn't going to be something I shared plus I truly thought no one would ever want to read about me, but it's fun to write and to read the comments and see where my readers come from. (Dublin and London are the farthest so far!)

I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be a crazy year!! With travels (Hot Springs, South Dakota, NY/NJ), turning 39 and starting the countdown to 40, more musicals, and more chances to make a fool of myself..... I plan to document it on here so you can enjoy it.

Please keep the comments coming - I love getting them.

(Ed.'s note: Today is an ice day and we don't have school. WOO HOO!! I've ordered Cheesecake Factory and am waiting for it to be delivered (was gonna order a pizza, but Dining In had a deal on CF, so it was cheaper than pizza). I plan to watch movies, relax, and finish my book so I can start a new one today. I'm gonna hit 50 if it kills me this year!! I need to keep cleaning out my Tivo, it's almost full AGAIN!!)

Cleaning before the maid arrives - what is up with that?

One of the gifts that I gave myself with my new job was to have a maid come monthly to clean. Since I live alone, I thought if they came once a month, I could spot clean throughout the rest of the month and still be able to enjoy the extra time spent not cleaning. I have to admit, it has been great!! There's nothing like leaving for work and coming home to a clean house. I love it!!

So, she comes every four weeks on Wednesday, and tomorrow is her Wednesday. So what will I spent tonight doing? Picking up, taking out trash, doing laundry.... all those things that she COULD do, but I'd rather her clean. It's just silly - I do this every month - clean before the maid cleans.

What about you?

I LOVE Duran Duran!!

As you know, I'm really into my Facebook and I'm loving connecting with friends from yesteryear. That coupled with my 20th high school reunion in October has left me thinking about things from my teen years that I probably haven't thought of, well... since my teen years.

I loved Duran Duran! I don't even think that captures it..... I LOVED Duran Duran!! First of all, let's meet the band:

Flixster - Share Movies

1. Simon LeBon - who doesn't like Simon? He's hot, he's got a great voice, he knows how to ride on the front of a yacht, can run through the jungle, and use a Walkman as a bomb detonator... that's hot, people!!

2. John Taylor - the tall, sexy bassist!! Everyone loved John, he was so cute!

3. Roger Taylor - the cute, but painfully shy, drummer. I loved him too - apparently I have a thing for drummers (Exhibit 1: Jon Farriss of INXS; Exhibit 2: Larry Mullen, Jr. of U2; Exhibit 3: Roger Taylor of Duran Duran.)

4. Nick Rhodes - we were all convinced that he was GAY!! Remember Simon and John wore a little eye makeup, but Nick always went full tilt, down to the shiny lip gloss. I now know that he wasn't gay, he just liked makeup. So I apologize to my gay friends for trying to lump him in with them.

5. Andy Taylor - does anyone remember poor Andy? He always had some weird jacked up hair going on. He's hardly in the videos, except for when he pushes his accordion button and makes Nick Rhodes's camera explode in a View to a Kill.

Can you guys my favorites? It was a toss up between Simon, John and Roger. Loved them!!

I'm currently reading Andy Taylor's book: "Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran" and I'm learning a lot about the band. Simon and John fought to be the cute boys; Nick may have been the genius behind the band, and they sure enjoyed drinking and some coke (not coca cola, if you catch my drift).

Duran Duran has been around for some major milestones in my life.

1. "The Reflex" - one of my favorite songs, but also the name of a softball team I played on the summer after 8th grade. One of our friends older brother was our coach. We sucked. Bad. But we had fun. We cut the sleeves off of our shirt, wore Jams instead of shorts, and jammed this tune prior to each game. What we lacked in game play, we made up for in spirit and style.



2. "View to a Kill" - I used this song to try out for drill team officer at the end of my sophomore year of high school. Didn't make it, but this was such a kick ass song to dance to.



I'm sorry this video was cool as shit. Simon using his walkman to blow up stuff... look at those headphones..... yeah, baby!! John using the viewer to shoot stuff.... Nick as the fashion photographer.... Andy as the blind accordion playing assassin.... and Roger operating the flying cameras and talking on the phone? Plus Roger Moore and Grace Jones? C'mon... it DOESN'T get better than this!!

3. College Roomie Kara - She had a VHS of Duran Duran videos that we would watch over and over. You have to admit that Duran Duran makes some of the best videos of the early MTV era. (Ed.'s note: For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, MTV used to just show music videos. All day. And night. And we ate that shit up!)

I have to post two more videos:

Rio:



Hungry Like the Wolf:



Thanks for indulging me for a bit with Mo's Blast to the Past. Next lesson, we'll talk about the two splinter bands for Duran Duran: The Power Station (with John/Andy plus Robert Palmer) and Arcadia (Nick/Roger/Simon).

Do You Like My New Page Layout?

Today is such a total sloth day... it's 3:10 PM, I'm still in my jammies. I've watched episodes of Oprah and Facebooked until I passed out for a mid-afternoon nap.

I wasn't finding my blog visually appealing anymore. So I visited "The Cutest Blog on The Block" and find myself a new background and adjusted my color schema to match.

What do you think?

Blog background: Blog :: New Outfit: Mo

Can't wait to hear your thoughts!! :)

Is it a curse, a random coincidence, or a chance to bring us all closer together?

If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I'm a principal of a brand new school that opened in August. Being a first year principal is tough. Opening a brand new school is tough. Being a first year principal while opening a new school is really tough. Being a first year principal while opening a new school while dealing with some serious trauma is almost impossible.

Here's my argument:

1. In August, one of my teachers finds out her husband has testicular cancer. He has surgery and treatment, and is doing well now. But she missed half days several days a week to take care of him which made for a hard start of the year for both her and her class.
2. In October, one of my teachers falls down and thinks she's just sprained her ankle. Turns out after three weeks, we find out she's broken her foot and leg and that walking on it has really messed it up. So she has extensive surgery and is out of commission from mid-November until we return in January. She's back and doing well, but still trying to use her foot and waiting to get closer to 100% recovery.
3. In November, my secretary's husband falls off a roof in a freak accident, spends 25 days in ICU, and passes away. The loss is just unbearable. I've blogged about my friend Richard and just need to say that I miss him.
4. Over the break, one of my teachers' husbands has a heart attack. They were able to do surgery and he is doing well now, thank goodness.
5. In January, one of my pregnant teachers goes to the doctor because her blood pressure is high. She ends up having peripartum cardiomyopathy (not sure if that's right) and ends up in ICU (same one that Richard was in two months ago). She spends a week in the hospital and they end up taking the baby today. Mom and baby are both doing well - thank you so much, God!!
6. My assistant principal is on maternity leave from this week until March 23. She had a beautiful healthy baby girl, but the fact that I don't have any backup for the next 8 weeks makes me very nervous. I have to do it all and it makes me tired just thinking about it. I have to work this weekend, and I fear that this will be like last year when I was working on the new school, I worked every weekend and was lucky for one day off a week for me. But I'll suck it up... if it doesn't kill me, it makes me stronger.

So what do you think? Is my new school cursed? Is it just a random coincidence that these things happened and that we were all brought together for them? Or is this just a chance for our staff to really connect and bond for long haul?

Discuss.

NyQuil.....

.... is the greatest invention ever made!!

The nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever so you can rest medicine.

Well, at least that's what it is SUPPOSED to be used for.

I use NyQuil for a variety of reasons:

1. Can't fall asleep on a Sunday night and I've got to get up at 5 AM to go to work..... shot of NyQuil and I'm out like a light....

2. I feel something "coming on" - a shot of NyQuil, I'm out like a light, and I usually wake up the next day feeling pretty good........

3. I'm actually sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, have a stuffy head and fever and can't rest.

I love NyQuil. I love Denis Leary. Denis Leary loves NyQuil. Does he love me? Hmmmm.... I can't wait to see him in April!!

Anyways, he does a great bit about NyQuil on his "No Cure for Cancer" standup. Here it is: it starts at 1:50 of this clip and goes to about 3:39. I can't say it any better than Denis. (Ed.'s note: Denis loves the f word - if you don't, then don't watch the clip. If you hate the f word and watch the clip, that's your problem - you were warned!)

Winter Break '08-'09 in Review

Tomorrow I go back to work after a wonderful two week break. I do feel rested and ready to deal with my job - I wonder how long before my job has me too stressed out?? ;)

So I'm going to go through my to-do list and see how well I did:

* Finish reading books to get to my 50 for the year - this gets red because I did not complete this task - I read 44/50. But I will get 50 read in 2009 - mark my word!

* Go by school and pick up all of my plants and flowers that I couldn't carry out today - I did do this. I also went by and dumped my recycling and did a few things in my office one day because I wanted to!! Don't get me wrong, I still have PLENTY to do tomorrow - I'm hoping we get an ice day because I could do all of it from home in my pj's - how awesome would that be??

* Clean out my Tivo - I think I have a few movies on there and the entire season of 30 Rock while I get caught up with Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix. BUT... I am caught up on all of my shows and started some new ones, including Confessions of a Teen Idol today and Nip/Tuck on Tuesday. I will NOT watch the Bachelor because Jason has beady eyes and he looks freaky when he smiles. They also talk about what a great dad he is - but he left his kid once for 8 weeks only to get dumped by DeAnna - so what does he do? Decides to leave his kid for another 8 weeks while he's a ho and probably still won't find love. UUGGHHH!!!!

* Christmas shopping - haven't even started, not even sure what to get people..... yikes.... - bought, wrapped, delivered..... I believe most customers were satisfied.

* Scrapbook my last three trips - well..... sorta? I got Thanksgiving done. I haven't done summer, but I do have 3/5 days of our DC trip done. This gets a yellow because it was started, but not finished.

* Create my calendar pages and get those mailed out - um, no..... so Betty, Jennifer, and Brooke..... I'm working on it and I hope to have at least January and February to you by the end of the week..... the rest of the year is coming.......

* Pick up box of checks that has been sitting at the bank for at least a month now...... - mission accomplished!! And I did two months worth of balancing my checkbook and all of my bills are paid up...... it's nice to have that done!!

* Get my 02 sensor fixed on my car and hope that's the end of my car troubles - yes!! A million thanks to David for doing this for me..... my car is working great, I'm thrilled!! :)

* Clean out my office closet and go through my clothes - another yellow one here. My bedroom closet and hall closets were cleaned and a bunch of junk was dumped. My office, I didn't even start on - this will be my MLK weekend project - it will probably take all 3 days!!

* Catch up with some friends that I haven't seen in a while - I did this. I had lunch with Sandra, my college roommate for 1.5 years after not having seen her in 11 years. We had a great lunch and I hope that we get together more often. I also had brunch today with Duce, an old friend from elementary school. We "went" together for a bit in 5th grade - I probably haven't seen him in 24 years, it was a lot of fun!! I also just got to hang out with friends and have fun - something I hadn't been doing too much of in the past month or two.

* Blog about my Thanksgiving trip and post some photos - nope.... and do you really care? I'm over it.... I'm on to my next trip - Spring Break B&B Spa Weekend in Hot Springs!! 10 weeks to go!!

All-in-all, a pretty productive two weeks off!! Woo hoo!!

Have a great first day back at work tomorrow!! :)

Does anyone remember "The State?"

Once upon a time (1993-1995 to be exact), in a land far away (well, the USA), after MTV was about music videos and before MTV became all about reality shows... there was a show called "The State." It was a group of 11 friends from NYU who wrote and did their own comedy. The show was hysterical!! There were many great characters, but two of my favorites were Barry and Levon.



They wrote a book in 1997 called "State by State with The State." My sister Sarah, who supports my book addiction, bought this for me. It's out of print and copies are going for $100 used on Amazon. You couldn't pay me to part with the book, it's hysterical!

This show has been off the air for 13 years, and MTV refuses to release it on DVD. Why? Are they too busy with "Viva La Bam," "Super Sweet 16" and other crap? C'mon and release it.....

Friends - if you used to watch The State, what is your favorite sketch and/or characters?

Happy New Year 2009!!

It's the first day of a brand new year...... it's always full of promise and hope.

Part of that is making resolutions.... I'm not very good at doing this - I tend to make this ridiculous grandiose resolutions that I can't maintain past the first few weeks of the year. So this year, I'm not doing resolutions - I'm doing New Year's Suggestions.... I'm hoping that I'll do these and maybe I will, but if I don't, I won't go into the shame spiral that I have in years past......

Suggestion #1
Increase my physical health - this includes exercising more and eating less. (Ed.'s note: Notice I don't say diet? I will surely fail if I do.) In addition, I will go to my regularly scheduled doctor wellness exams instead of waiting for something to be wrong with me to get medical attention. If our body is a temple, then my temple is in need of one massive Extreme Home Makeover and this is the year it's gonna happen. (Especially if Ty comes with it!)

Suggestion #2
Increase my mental/emotional health - this includes writing in my gratitude journal DAILY and not just when I'm drunk and in the "I love everyone" mode. Having good relationships with clear boundaries is also important. Making sure I don't sloth too much and interact with society (besides through the computer) will be a focus too. (Ed.'s note: One of my two biggest fears in life is to grow up and become the "crazy cat lady." Technically, I won't - since I'm allergic to cats - but you get the drift of where I'm going here. My other fear is that I'll die alone and no one will find me for weeks and it'll be all over the news and crap. If you are my friend, I know you won't let that happen to me, right?)

Suggestion #3
Read for pleasure, knowledge, and growth - both personal and professional. My goal will be 50 books again this year and I hope to reach it. I enjoy books from all genres and will continue to read a variety of materials so that I continue to be the awesome trivia partner that I am.

Suggestion #4
Instead of talking about it, do it. I've wanted to see Mount Rushmore and South Dakota, so I'm going. No more shouldas, wouldas, couldas... if it's possible, then I will work toward it. This includes travelling, developing my photography habit (I'd like to take a class to learn more), and trying new things and meeting new people.

Suggestion #5
Quit bitching about my age. So what if I'm going to be 39 (gulp) this year? I don't think I look my age and I don't think I act my age. I'm going to embrace my age (gulp) and be grateful that I'm young, healthy and able to do what I want to do. So if you hear me talking about how old I am or bemoaning my upcoming birthday, please throw the bullshit flag on me.

Also, as like a Suggestion #5, Part B.... I'm going to quit bitching about being single and alone. Who cares? Maybe I'm one of those people who will always be single? Maybe not..... maybe Mr. Right got lost and hasn't found me yet.... maybe not..... who knows? I'm a cool person and if it's supposed to happen, it will... but until then, I'm just going to focus on my five suggestions so that when/if he comes along, I'm not some kind of neurotic freak that he takes one look at and says, "Forget her!!"

I think these things are enough to keep me busy for 2009. I don't foresee any big life changes this year, so I'm hoping I can focus on these and make them happen.

I wish you the best on your resolutions for 2009. Happy New Year!!