Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Swimming Pools, Movie Stars, It's me Ikey



Guess what everybody??? I got to go to Palm Springs this past weekend. Yup, I got to see where Hollywood goes to play when it's raining or cold in LA or San Diego. I strapped on my scarves, jumped into my convertible and off I went. Well, not quite. I'm a guy so I don't wear scarves, maybe a bandanna now and again, and we don't have a convertible. Mommy has told me stories about her different convertibles, but it makes her sad to think about them, so I guess I shouldn't bring it up. It was raining here Friday when we left and driving through the mountains was S-C-A-R-Y with a doubleYYYY. Dad was driving way too fast for the conditions, at least that was what Mommy was saying "Jon, slow down, your going 55 in a 45", was what I heard. I did feel a little queasy on the ride so maybe he was going a little fast. Mommy rolled the window down so I could put my head out the window for a little bit, but the dust was getting in my eyes, so she closed it again. I love the wind blowing through my beard sometimes, but not when it's raining dirt. I slept most of the way after that....not much else to do in the car. I'm not too good at the license plate game as I am only two and don't know all my numbers yet:) I can play the bridge and tunnel game where you pull up your feet so they don't get wet going over a bridge. In Colorado there were a lot of bridges and tunnels. I stood on the seat for the tunnel to hold it up by my harness, which is much stronger than my legs. As far as bridges, I always have my feet on the seat as not to get them wet:))) See, I can play those games. When we got to Palm Springs, we were not actually staying in Palm Springs but a Place called Rancho Mirage. I hope it's not just a mirage, I see lots of open areas to play ball, and if it's just a mirage, I will be Bummed out..... We had to do something called "check in" and I had to help Mommy down the stairs "step, wait, step, wait" says Mommy, and I follow her instructions by going down one stair with both paws and then waiting. We have been working on stairs for almost a year now, so I think we have gotten it down. I can't believe it's been almost a year that Mommy and I have been a team. She came up to where I was a year ago, and I got to pick Mommy out of all the people that were there. The people at Canine Support Teams let us dogs pick the people that we wanted to work for and I had no doubts about the human I wanted to work for. Mommy was sitting in a chair all by herself away from all the other people. She was sad and afraid and I just wanted to hug and kiss her right off, but I knew if I showed too much interest in her I wouldn't get as many cookies. I played that one right and she gave me HANDFULS of cookies. Maybe I should stop giving so many kisses again?. I picked her and we started working together that week. Later on the next week we went to the movies, Mommy fell on the wet floor and then I had to go visit her at that smelly place. I hate that smelly place with all the pokey things and bad buckets! Enough of that story

The place that we "checked in" told Mommy that the "room" wasn't ready yet. Mommy looked disappointed but Daddy said it was fine and we went someplace that I kind of remembered called a "casino". This "casino" smelled bad, a different smelly place, but smelly all the same to me. It was hard to breath and if you wanted me to sniff out someone in this place I wouldn't be able to do it. The tables had lots of people at them and there was a lot of ringing going on. I heard a familiar "wheel of fortune, tick tock, tick, tock" put I didn't see a "tv". The TV that I did finally see had horses on it. I like horses. Mommy got my harness fixed for me by a guy who has horses. He also had two dogs that wanted to herd me. One named Roper didn't want me to go any closer to his person so I stayed away, but watched for Mommy's safety from the car.

The TV with horses had lots of numbers on it too and lots of people watching it. I have heard that my friends the "greyhounds" run after fake rabbits and humans watch them. I have also heard (gasp, cry) that people MAKE my buddies the "pitbulls" fight each other! I couldn't believe it when I was watching Animal Planet and they said that people make dogs fight each other. What if we dogs made the people fight each other....how would you like that. If you don't fight each other and maybe kill each other than YOU will get killed. Shock and awe is all I have to say about that. I don't want to believe it. I thought we were people's best friends. How could you do that to your best friend....I can't believe it.

Back to this story

So Mom and Dad are waiting to "check in" and we walk around this very LOUD and smelly place looking for something to " pass the time" as Daddy said. He found a "machine" and sat down at it. Mommy and I kept walking. We found a "machine" and sat down". Mommy fed it some money( I don't eat money) and I pushed a button for her. The "machine" started spinning and Mommy got excited for a minute, "One seven, two sevens, three sevens. oh my gosh Ikey, one more and"......nothing, she looked so sad. Then out of nowhere some lady walks up and sits down next to mommy. She says the same thing " One seven, two sevens, three sevens, fours sevens, and a triple bonus Oh My God!!!!"""" Lights start flashing, the woman is screaming and everyone is watching. I look at Mommy and she is not too happy. I wonder why Mommy is not happy?? All the other people around us are happy. Mom gets up and we go find dad. Mom says " I had my choice of two machines to play and guess what, the lady next to me won three hundred dollars". THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! The way Mommy said that I know that would get me lots of toys and bones. I know Mom spent twenty dollars once at Petsmart for me and Daddy said that was a lot, so THREE HUNDRED Dollars must be more than twenty. On that Mommy and Daddy leave and we go "check in"

We open the door to our "room" and I am in love, yes, in love with "our room". It has lots of room for me to play ball. I don't get to play ball in the "room "at our place because it doesn't have much open space and the other "Kids" are there. This "room" has a lot of open space. I run around for a little bit while Mom and dad check out "the room". Ladeedadaa I go around the room sniffing and playing with my toys....ladeeda..wait...stop the press...hold your bones...it's not...wait it is.... A GOLF COURSE!!! Little white balls are flying everywhere. My head goes left, right, left, right, I can't keep up with them. This is killing me. I want to, no I NEED to, chase these white balls that are flying around right in front of me. Mommy looks at me and can read my mind "No Ikey, you can't go after those", but why not??? That stupid man just hit it into the bushes and can't find it. Finders keepers, losers weepers is my motto! " No Ikey, you can't chase those" Mom says again, louder this time. Okay, Okay I get it...I will wait until dark after those men have left and I will FIND the balls that they couldn't. I know exactly where they are...haha on the men....

After Mom and Dad have put their clothes away and I have had my dinner, we leave in the car so they can have dinner. I don't know why they don't bring their dinner????

Dinner was not very exciting for me, I got to go underneath the table and there were not many crumbs on the floor. Mommy doesn't know that I eat crumbs off the floor at "dinner" places, so puhlease don't tell her, wink wink

After dinner we go for a walk in Palm Springs. I LIKE Palm Springs, wanna know why??? Lots of TREES for me to smell and mark as MY territory. Those Yorkies think it's there town, well, move over pugs, move over yorkies, , there is a new Sheriff in town...They call me MR Labradoodle. Ikey's the name and golf balls is MY game, so don't come near my bushes again...got it! Did I scare you????

After a walk around the town and lots of marking we finally go back to our "room" and I get to go outside

Once outside I immediately run to the bushes where the man couldn't find his ball. There it is, it's right there, where they hit it, how could he not have seen where he hit it. I saw it hours ago and I still know where it is. I am wunderdog...all knowing and all ball seeing..Ikey!!!

I get the golf balls and it's time to go back inside and rest. This place has what they call a "heavenly bed" and boy I agree. Too bad it's white and I will leave my black fur on it, but right now, it's off to puppy dreams for me.....swimming pools, movie stars and the best of all...Palm Trees


Love and licks...Ikey

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Supreme Court Justice












dingbat

NOUN:
Slang. A person regarded as strange, eccentric, or crazy: crackpot, crazy, eccentric, lunatic. Informal : crank, loon, loony. Slang : cuckoo, ding-a-ling, kook, nut, screwball, weirdie, weirdo. See WISE.




Now, this is not a name I have given myself, I wanted you to know that upfront. We will get back to that later.

Classes are going okay. I feel very overwhelmed by the amount of work and homework it is taking to just keep up with everyone else in my classes. The students all seem so energized all the time. I feel like a tired old vaccum next to the Roombas:) Tuesdays and Thursdays are very long. Today is going to be especially long as I have been up since 1 am. I just couldn't stop my brain from thinking about school work and all that I don't know. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have two classes in a row that last about 4 hours. It's long for Ikey too as he just has to lay there on the floor, not making any noises. It's very funny when he starts with his puppy dreams in class. His nose starts twitching, his lip comes up and you can see his teeth, and then the low growl begins. Hurrmmph, Hurrmphh, he sounds like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz!. All the students turn to look over at him and start chuckling to themselves. He really is not bothering anyone as the teacher is deaf. The other day there was VERY loud construction going on outside the classroom. As I was the closest to the door, everyone looked to me for answers. How would I know what they were doing out there? The teacher just kept talking as he can't hear, and we the students couldn't hear the teacher, it was that loud. Finally the teacher realized that he no longer had our rapt attention and asked a student who can sign to let him know what was going on. He told us that we would just have to listen better to hear him over the noise. I missed lots of notes that day and so did most of the class. In this class there is no prerequisite that you have to know sign language. It is SUPPOSED to be a cultural class. The teacher, since he does not have a translator this year, has decided to only call on the students in class that can sign. Since the first day of class this is the way that it has been. The students who can sign, not only sign, but they do not speak either. They can speak, but they have chosen not to when signing. Soooooo, half the class sits there on our thumbs not knowing what the he%^ is going on. There is a great dialog going on between the students who sign and the teacher, while the rest of us pick at our fingernails. FINALLY, after sitting through two weeks of this and knowing that we will get tested on the material, I raised my hand and he actually acknowledged me. " Professor, for those of us that do not sign, could you please translate what these other students are saying, as I am only getting half the conversation". I'm not sure that the students were very happy with me on either side!. The ones who don't sign and don't care would have liked to continue oblivious to what was happening, and the students that were signing were mad that their little game had been discovered. They are so proud of themselves and wanted to show off in front of the rest of us and now they would have to use their voice., oh no..no..not that. The teacher claimed that he was not aware of the students not using their voice and thanked me for pointing it out. It lasted ONE class and the signers are again not using their voices and I am getting as much out of this lecture as Ike who is asleep, perchance to dream:) He is dreaming about this cute Pound Puppy stuffed animal we saw on ebay. He begs me every day for it ( pictured above). Bad mommy hasn't bid on it yet because she is unemployed:)


Okay, back to the Supreme Court. The teacher Barney Fife, or as he would like to be now called Mr. Curemundeon ( he made us look it up) is back from having his baby. Before he left we had some interesting topics covered, none that had to do with first aid. He told us that he was Scott Peterson's golf coach and was one of the last people to be with him before he was arrested. He called on me to identify a picture on the board, who for the life of me, I couldn't place. " It's Perry Mason you dingbat"...moi...a dingbat??? The last person to call me that was my sister and it was when I was still calling her Chrissy, a long, long time ago. I may be older than most students but I am not old enough to really know who Perry Mason is, am I?. He told us that all men are pigs and that when they get drunk at frat parties they do horrible, unmentionable in ths blog as it is pg-13, things to each other and girls should take heed of his warnings. We then had to do a chapter on how to correctly move an injured person. He had us first hike a mile out to a field and then wait 20 minutes while he takes a phone call. Ike and I are hoofing it along with everyone else as not to be more singled out then we have already been. Tick tock, tick tock, come on guy, my shoes are getting all wet and I am tired of standing. He finally gets out there and decides it is too wet. "Let's all Hike a mile back and go to the gym" says Barney. Does he not notice that he has less than 15 minutes left to class. In the gym he splits everyone into groups of three's. He pushes Ike and I out of the way and goes on down the line. What is that suppossed to mean?. Do I join a group of three, do I just stand there...helloooo. While the first groups get going Ike and I walk over to where he is standing " Professor, what would you like us to do" I ask. "N-O-T-H-I-N-G", and walks away. Great, I could have gone home and hour ago. The other students in the class now realizing that I don't have to participate, grow a little more distant. "How can she get the same grade as us if she doesn't have to participate" I overhear a girl saying. I wish I could do everything that they do, that would be great, but right now my reality isn't so.

Next class he has his baby and we have a test. Monday is a holiday....yipppee

Wednesday comes and we get our tests back. I realize that one of my answers was marked wrong as I had some eraser marks still left on the paper. I get myself up and go to the front of the room where I am promptly told "Go sit down Dingbat, I'll get to that". Here we go again! Now, I look at my test and with the answer being correct even though it shows wrong, I have only missed two questions out of 50. Whohoooo, yeah....I'm no dummy.



The teacher asks that anyone who has higher than a 45 to raise their hands. Myself and three others raise their hands. " You four are now the Supreme Court" says Barney Fife. "If we get to a question that you had wrong, you have the power to give anyone else who got that one wrong as well and extra point, as long as more than half the students got that one wrong". Of course, now everyone is staring at us. I am being singled out again. We go through the test and get a couple extra points for everyone. I ended up with 100% correct. I am sure my other classes are not going to go as well, especially after missing half the dialog. Now, out of the blue the teacher calls out " Mizz Supreme Supreme Court Justice, by the way, are you a mom, because I want to call you Mom" WIERDO...anyway. He calls me up to the room and hands me everyone's test. "Since you did the best and can afford not to listen to today's lecture I need you to mark everyone's grade into my book, now go back to your seat and I need it by the end of class". Great, not only do I now have to do the teacher from the Asylum's work, but I will miss the lecture that will help me get a good grade next test. I finish just in time and bring everything up. As Ike and I are leaving he says " Thanks Supreme Court Justice, I had you pegged when I said you would be the one to cry if you missed one question, and I was right, you were the first to come up to show the mistake the scanner made with your eraser mark, next time erase better" That was it, no thanks for your help, no great job, just a jab in the side, which is better than a fork in the eye which he has promised other kids.






Debedebebe That's all folks



Wednesday, February 20, 2008

It Never rains in Southern California and other Mythical songs



So, I have heard the song " It never rains in Southern California", and I have to say that songs that mislead the public make me a little upset. If it NEVER rains in Southern California then why, I ask, have I gotten wet the last 2 weeks!. I know that I have not written anything on here for a while, one, my computer blew up, really, it just flashed lights and then,wahhhnnnn...nothing. I called HP and they said that I have to send it back and I will lose everything on the hard drive. If you do not get a Christmas card from me this year it is because I no longer have your address!. I finally gave in and took all the envelopes that I had with return address labels and put everyone's address in the computer, not thinking that it would just die. Technology is great isn't it. So, back to the song. Valentines day, I got up early to do my hair, put on cute clothes and actually put on makeup. I wanted to look good for my Valentine. I spent extra time doing all of this and as I head out the door, guess what, yup, rain. Poor Ikey, with no raincoat:( We got to school and this day was the day I needed to change status on two of my classes. I got Ikey out of the car and we ran to the Student Services building, remember that I said Services. Okay Ikey, maybe we didn't run (he is looking over my shoulder as I type). We walked quickley ( is that better Ike) in the dreching rain, to the Student Services Center. Now, I was there early but even Bankers are at work by 10:30!. Where is everyone? Ike and I walked all the way around the whole building without seeing anyone. Where is the service part of Student Services!. Finally, without any help, we find the form that I need. Ike is not only a service dog, but a slueth detective as well. We grab the form and head back to the car, getting soaked the whole way. Back in the car Ike shakes himself off.WHOOSHHHH as he shakes and rattles all over me and the car. So much for my clean clothes. We fill out the form and head b-a-c-k to the Student Services. Now, not only is there someone there to help, there is now a line about 10 people deep. Where did these people come from?. Is there a secret entrance that we don't know about. It's now 10:45 and I have class at 11. So, Ike and I wait, and we wait, puddles forming on the floor where we stand. It's finally our turn and I hand over my form. The woman sitting there looks up at me and says " Is it raining THAT hard out there?". What, do I look like it's raining, maybe I decided to take a shower in the parking lot...duhhhhh. With that comment I can only imagine what Ike and I look like. We leave and head over to class. We stop at the woman's restroom so I can try and wipe Ike off. The only thing they had was paper towels. The one's you remember from school. The really cheap kind that barely dries your hands. yes, that is what I tried to dry Ike off with. All that happened is that Ike ended up with brown paper in his hair. But, back to the misleading songs. Another song that comes to mind is the great Garth Brooks, "The Beaches Of Cheyenne". Now, I know that you need to be deeper and take the song as a sort of poem, not taking it at face value. That is all good and great but what if you are not any deeper than a snow drift on Hawaii?. What if you listen to this song and decide "hey, the beaches of Cheyenne, let's go". You pack the kids, bathing suits, bucket ( Ike likes those) pails and shovels and off you go. You get there and the only beach is the puddle of water pooled at the horse trough, with dirt mixed in. I decided that maybe I am wrong and maybe there are beaches in Cheyenne. Nope, no beaches. I looked up the Chamber of Commerce of Cheyenne and searched for beaches and....nothing. The Coyote Motor Inn has a heated pool....yippee. Not only does it rain in Southern California, it snows. It snowed last week about 30 minutes from our house. We packed all the dogs in the car, all four, and headed off to the mountains. too bad that the highway had a landslide and we couldn't even get close to the snow. We had to turn around and head home. We passed a few casino's on the way...that would have been fun, but we of course, could not leave three dogs in the car. So, it's raining and there is nothing to do. I decide to take Ike shopping (he hates it like all men). We get to the store and guess what is playing on the elevator music, "it never rains in Southern California" you have to be kidding me, where is the hidden camera.

Love, Jennifer and Ike

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

It's me...Ikey...with Mommy's scary day



Today I was really scared. Mommy was not feeling well this morning. I tried making her feel better by giving her lots of kisses, and although she said it made her feel better, I don't think that it did. Mommy is so great to all of us and she is trying so hard at school that I think she is just exhausted. I liked it when Mommy stayed home all day. I got to play with her, we went shopping a lot ( not my favorite thing, but I'm a guy, what can I say) and we went to a place called "the beach". I love "the beach" . When Mom says I was a good boy and get to go to "the beach" I know I have been extra good. At the beach I get to run around without my harness on, but only when the lifeguards are not looking. Although I am allowed on the beach because of my "job" with Mom, I don't know that the lifeguards would think I was working if I was off-leash. "The beach" is so neat, lots of birds, lots of sand and my favorite...WATER. I don't know if Mom has mentioned how much I love to swim. Well, I LOVE TO SWIM!!!! I purposely throw my toys in the pool so that I just have to go get them. I pretend to be all upset that my toy fell in. I go "whooowooowoo" with my head thrown back for added effect so that Mom won't know that I am secretly happy to go in and get my toy. She tells me "Go get the toy" and I "whooowooo" again once more, and then I JUUUMMPPP in and I land right on top of the toy. It's great!!!! Maybe Mom will make a video and put in on here so you can see me, but I will really have to pull a Benji ( world's best actor" for that one to happen:))) Enough about my love of swimming.





After Mommy told me she didn't feel good and my lame attempts at trying to help her, she talked to someone I couldn't see, on a device, and loaded me quickly in the car. I could tell we were not going to "the beach". She was crying and I was really nervous for her.



We arrived at a building where there were many people running around. I thought I remembered the smell from somewhere else that I went with Mommy. Someplace that took my Mommy and I didn't get to see her for a really long time. Now I know I can't tell time, but I know it was a long time because I went home without Mommy, I woke up without Mommy and then when I got to see her it was in a very smelly place, with a very small bed. I still got to lay on the bed with Mom, but I had to be real careful.

This new smelly building with lots of people took Mom and I to a different room. This room was quieter and it was just me and Mom and this nice lady who gave Mom a bucket. Buckets can be fun...at " the beach" but the way Mom looked at this bucket I know it was no" day at the beach", no" walk in the park", no "sunshine on my shoulders" type of bucket!. Mom kept the bucket but I could tell she didn't want it.

The lady then brought in some bags of what looked like, to my big brown eyes, water. She also brought in some pokey things that Mom's eyes grew very big upon looking at them. Oh Mom, I am so scared for you. I want to help you, sluuurppp slurrppp. There, I made Mom all better by some big tongue kisses on her hand, since right now it's the only place I can reach.

They take one of the pokey things and put it into Mom's arm. The Lady who brought them in keeps moving it around, making Mommy cry. She can't get it in Mommy's arm. She goes for the hand. Oh boy, that sure looks like it hurts. Poor Mom. The Lady finally gets the pokey thing in and then hooks up one of the bags of water and leaves Mom and I alone.

We are alone only for a little time when Mom calls out for someone. The Lady comes back in a they notice that Mom's arm is all red and has BIG bumps on it. The Lady takes the bag of water away and leaves again. Mommy is worried about her arm, as she keeps looking at it. The Lady comes back with some more water and asks Mom to feel the bag. " It feels warm" I hear Mom say and that must be a good thing because the Lady smiles and hooks the pokey thing back up to the bag. She gives Mom something else, but in my vast doggie knowledge, it all looks the same.



A little while later Mom asks the Lady to take the bucket and give me some water with it. "See Mom" I say to her, this is a nice bucket". "Maybe we can bring it to The Beach". The Lady gives me water and then I jump back up on the bed. I can't leave Mom alone.



We walk to the bathroom ( I know that word) and then Mom gets dressed. I guess she is okay. The Lady takes the pokey thing out of her hand and off we go.



I was sure scared this day.



It's me Ikey...It's Ikey....WOOOFFFFF



p.s Today I got to go swimming. Woowoohhooo

sorry of bad spelling, I'm only two and something called spell check is not working:(

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Girlz in da Hoodie!!





Okay, Okay, yes, I gave in and wore a hoodie to class. Ike thought it was a very lame attempt on my part to fit in when obviously I was the oldest student on campus ( thanks Ike for the
support!). My teacher's have been doing a great job of pointing out just how old I am! In my sign language class the teacher was asking students to sign their birth year. Now, I have put my hand up on serveral occasions to sign the alphabet, words, home address, but when this example came up I was looking down at my book, pretending to be absorbed in the text. " Jennifer, would you like to sign your birth year" . Okay...you want me to let all the students in class know just HOW much OLDER I am. Not just that I am older, but REALLY older. The teacher than realized what he did and then made the situation even more uncomfortable "Oh, wait, you can do just the day and month if you want, you don't have to do the year". So, now, if I don't tell the year I am embarrased, and if I do I am as well. Thanks Teach! So I go ahead and sign all of my birthday 9-12-1968. GASPS and WHISPERS abound in the classroom and I shrivel up like an old prune ( need some prune juice too:)). This girl who sits near me with her cute hoodies and skinny jeans and looks like a computer generated avitar( see I am hip) says " My Dad is the same age as you". In my other class, with the teacher from the asylum, everytime he makes a reference about something from the 80's he looks right at me, pointing to me. " You remember the Aids scare and all the publicity that went with it right" " When your kids get sick, I bet you get sick as well" " When Madonna was a virgin you were graduating High School right". So that's two classes that I have failed misreably in blending into the group. Maybe, If I hadn't colored my hair brown and took out my extensions, I would have been mistaken for a young 30. One can hope, right:) So, even after wearing a hoodie, crankin my IPOD up,and talking on my cellphone at the same time, I am still just an almost 40 year old freshman, no if's, how's, why's or when's about it.



So, I am sure you are all just dying to hear updates from previous posts, even if your not, just humor me because my team, the New England Patriots, just lost the Super Bowl. How very sad to be me right now. I could have rooted for the Giants and it would have been okay since I did live there for a very short while. I get to cheer for many different teams as I have lived in many different places, some twice!. The New England Patriots, The Boston Red Sox, The Philadelphia Philles, Eagles, Flyers and 76'ers, the Texas Rangers, The Dallas Cowboys,Mavericks, Stars, The Arizona Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Phoenix Suns...and the list goes on. I would have to say also that I am a lucky charm...no...not the little Leprechon that promotes cereal, but the four leaf clover kind of luck. When I lived in Dallas the Stars won the Stanley Cup and when I moved to Arizona the Diamondbacks won the World Series over the Evil Yankees and I was there at game 7. It was a great day for Red Sox fans as well as someone finally brought the evil empire to it's knees!. Okay enough already....back to updates.



Do you remember the crisis from one of my first blogs...the one that had me driving all over town, calling bookstores, searching the Internet ( thanks Maureen:) and finally calling the Red Cross. Yes, that's right, the WORKBOOK. I got the workbook, two to be exact. I wasn't sure that the one I ordered from Amazon would get here in time to have all the work completed, chapters 1-6 to be handed in on Monday( assigned on Wednesday), so I had one overnighted by the Red Cross. I did all the work that was required, all eighteen pages of work. One of the workbooks I received had the answers all ready written in, I could have passed that one in, but Nooo, I had to do all that work myself. It would not have been cheating, in a way, since the answers are written in the back of the workbook so you can check your answers ( thinking like a freshman...how can I justify cheating, of course I never did cheat, I was too afraid to get caught). Like the time that my friend Susan I got caught lying when we snuck out meeting Lifeguards on Martha's Vineyard ohhh so long ago. Lying just doesn't feel good, and cheating is the same feeling. You know your going to get caught...it's when that is the unknown factor. Susan and I got caught as soon as we returned to the campground, at least the punishment was swift and justice was fully served up by our parents.....I was so afriad of her father after that!. My parents were a little lighter on my sentence as I was just the blind follower, not the evil mastermind of our sorted rendevous at dawn ( Okay, yes, it was 8pm, but for us...it will always be dawn:). How did I get off the subject so badly. My mind is just pulling things out from so long ago...stop it brain. Back to the workbook.
The teacher walks in and says " Hey Dudes, did you get my e-mail". I look around the room in horror...I think to myself " E-mail....he doesn't have MY e-mail address, so I guess I am off the hook!" " Dudes...anyone anyone, Buehler Buehler" Now no one in the class gets that joke but me, and everyone in the class knows it, another strike for fitting in. " Okay slakers...I sent an e-mail to your Palomar e-mail addresses so I know you got it" sweat begins to pour down my back, I remember vaguely that I too was assigned a Palomar e-mail address when I registered, but I thought it was just a standard thing and it was for the students to use if and only if they wanted. Not for teachers to actually send us things!. The teacher then drops the BOMB.....are you ready everyone....hold on to your seats and remember to breath.....
" NO WORKBOOKS ARE NEEDED" silence falls over the class....or anyone who didn't get the memo. One brave student, the voice of the few, the proud, the one's who, like me, had searched high and low for the workbook. "but....I got the workbook and did the work, can I get some credit for it, the voice says" "HAHAHAHAHHAHA, you MUST be joking right, I should dock you points for not following the directions and not reading your e-mail".
I never said a word, I just sat there quitely, with my two workbooks, and hoped the teacher wouldn't see them.


The teacher then decides to pass out a rope. I am not sure after serveral students had spent almost $100 in getting now adjunct workbooks that handing out a rope in class is the smartest thing to do, but Barney Fife knows best:) While passing out the rope he asks us if we showered and brushed our teeth today. If your 18 years or older and don't brush your teeth everyday you probally don't have any teeth!. The rope, as I am sure you are waiting with baited breath ( do you brush your teeth every day:)) was for tying yourself to a fellow student and having to get apart without un tying the rope. Yes, anti-climactic, I agree.


One student was being nice and brought a Surfer Magazine in for the teacher. He had said he was a "dude" and loved to surf. When she brought it up to him he pushed it away like it was a three day old tuna sandwich...yuck!!! Sorry if I am being too graphic, I just put the first thing that came to mind. " That Magazine is for punks and toads, no thanks". He did not just do that. He did not just insult this poor 18 year old who was trying to do something nice. He will not be getting any chewy sprees from me ( the BEST candy ever). As far as I am concerned he is the TOAD and the rest of the class are the prince and princesses, and no one is going to kiss him, even with our bad breath!.


Until next time Folks...Goodnight and Goodluck!