Turning Pages

Because I don’t.  

I just can’t get behind it. It’s not that I’m opposed tweeting on twitter per se. I just can’t fathom that anyone would want to read it.  I still can’t believe people read my blog.  I’m really just not the interesting. For instance, this is what my twitter tweets would have looked like today:

about 8 hours ago: Just graded a student’s prospectus.  I dread having to grade the essay that comes from this.

about 8 hours, 5 minutes ago: Tired of grading prospectuses.  Procrastinating by checking the same 5 web sites I check all day long.

about 8 hours, 10 minutes ago: Graded another prospectus.  This one was slightly less nauseating.

about 8 hours, 15 minutes ago: Procrastinating by folding laundry.

And repeat ad nauseam.  How can that possibly entertaining?

Plus I think that twitter reminds me too much of AIM away messages, and I seriously overdid it on AIM during the year and a half that Dave and I spend at separate colleges and then separate continents.  I really got tired of knowing when my friends were in the shower or at the gym, not too mention the seriously TMI updates. So I burnt out on telling people the minutiae or my life.  Even facebook status updates are a stretch for me.

Another good reason I don’t twitter? I’ll make you jealous. This is my weekend twitter:

about 3 hours ago: Class over.  Vacation beings!

in about 16 hours: The fam gets here!

in about 40 hours: Headed to St. George Island where I will refuse to think about anything school related. Beach, ocean, and sleeping late, here I come!

See, it’s best I don’t twitter.

This Saturday I headed to Destin to visit my friend, Katie, who was vacationing there with her in-laws.  The day was perfect for the drive and I made good time, until I got off of I-10 that is.  At that point I became one of seemingly hundreds of people driving into Destin, with just as many driving out.  It was a tedious 40 miles.  But it was well worth it when I got to my destination and got to see my 6-months-pregnant friend.  I so miss being around people like Katie who know me so well.  

I especially miss going shopping with them, which is exactly what Katie and I did.  We headed to the outlet malls where I found some pretty daggum good deals, for both Dave and myself.  But perhaps the most fun was shopping for baby clothes for Maddy (the yet-to-arrive Williams baby); it’s nice being able to shop for tiny, adorable clothes but not being the one spending money on it!

After out shopping extravaganza, we headed to the beach with Bryan’s family, where we just relaxed, conversed, and of course took the requisite photo:

After watching some parents being cited for allowing their underage daughters to drink on the beach and seeing two catamarans (one of which Katie and crew had been on the previous day) fall over and have to be towed in, we headed in to get ready for dinner.  Bryan’s sweet family (really, they were amazingly kind to me - even letting me crash on their couch!) then treated me to dinner at a fantastic seafood restaurant, after which I demonstrated my consistently mediocre putt-putting skills.  The night ended with late-night girl talk (also something I seriously miss).

In the morning, the Williams families headed home and I met another long lost friend, my best friend from high school, Amy, for breakfast.  It was so good catching up with Amy, and I even got to see her family, which was one of my second families throughout high school.  It was a much needed reunion.

Unfortunately, the reunion ended and I had to head home to a stack of papers waiting to be graded.  But as always, my darling husband rescued me from my undesired task and whisked me to the movies, where we saw Dark Knight.  It was very good and, despite my skepticism at the reviews surrounding Heath Ledger’s performance, he truly stole the movie and made it more than just a comic book movie. 

When we got back, though, there was no escaping from the grading, which has basically been my life for the last couple of days.  The process culminated today when I was forced to confront a plagiarizer.  More than any thing else, plagiarizers infuriate me.  It’s such a stupid mistake! Luckily she took it well and now I get to concentrate on my next trip to the beach.  This Sunday we get to head to St. George Island with our Altmaier clan.  I can’t wait!  Let’s hope I don’t have to bust any more students in the meantime.

I feel like I’m always recommending something or talking about how cool something else is rather than reflecting on my own “somethings,” but I guess that’s what happens when you spend an entire week practically begging college students to keep reading through a non-linear, non-spatial novel that they just refuse to have the patience for.  So I figure, if my own life offers nothing of interest to the general reader, I’ll find someone’s who does.  That’s fair, right?

You may or may not remember Ken Jennings. He was the guy that spent an unprecedented amount of time on Jeopardy.  I have to admit, I didn’t watch while he was on the show.  I was in college and it just wasn’t at the top of my to-do list.  But I started reading his blog a while ago and he has since become a minor hero of mine.  Okay, that might be stretching it.  But I would like to commission him to paint my future child’s bedroom.  He has spent more than a year painting a border of classic storybook characters in his daughter’s room.  See. Hello? That’s my dream room, or at least what I dream of for my own child.  He has even been so kind as to pick characters that I, too, love.  And I am terribly impressed at the meticulous time, thought, and effort he has put into the project.  What a fabulous room to grow up in, to be inspired in, and in which to be constantly reminded of your father’s love.  Very cool.  So I guess I better get Dave started on those art lessons soon (because goodness knows how long it will take him to be ready to paint Harry Potter on a wall).

In more personal, realistic news, I’m driving to Destin tomorrow to visit my friend Katie, who is a little less than three months away from welcoming her own excuse for home improvement, I mean, baby into the world.  I can’t wait to see her!  And I really can’t wait to see her pregnant.  I love that my friends are starting to have children; it just gives me another excuse to wait, because Lord knows how long Dave will have to be working on those art lessons.