my neices and nephew at myrtle beach

MRYTLE BEACH

One week in Mrytle Beach is long enough to lose track of what day it is... Ahhhhhhhh, relaxing.

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GERMANY FOR CHRISTMAS

Since I'm taking a break from work, I'm totally enjoying seeing my family again. (I keep expecting somebody to hand me a Christmas gift, though, since that's usually the season that brings all of us together under one roof).

Speaking of Christmas, I talked to my brother Dan tonight about the possibility of nabbing a cheap (ha ha) ticket to Germany and spending a couple three weeks sharing their fa la la's, ho ho ho's and the like.

What do you think? Should I go to Germany? Maybe I'll never come back... It could happen. What would Mom and Dad think about me moving to Germany (or to Japan to teach English at a university) the same year that Dan moves back home to Mississippi?

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SO THIS EHARMONY THING...

So this eHarmony thing is interesting, but it takes up a lot of my computer time, so I've not been posting regularly. But back to the grindstone...

I went camping a couple weekends ago north of Birmingham. I called Terry on Friday, and he & a group of friends were driving up there to hike & camp. I was driving up to my sisters' in the city anyway, so I borrowed a sleeping bag and jacket and drove north to join them.

Hiking in the mountains, enjoying the campfire and the views, the whole time I couldn't stop thinking about God and how much he deserves our praise. I needed that realization that weekend in particular; I was getting a little mopey, but I'm cured now.

wikipedia.org...

NUMBER, PLEASE

My brother in law got a phone message late tonight. He was going to bed at 10 without returning the call. My sister fussed at him, insisting he call back because, "the man is waiting on you to call him back!"

Wow! I'm glad she doesn't know my dirty little secret. Apparently, I'm the world's worst at returning phone calls. Evidence? I've got, like, 15 missed calls/voice messages/text messages that have built up the last couple of weeks that I've yet to return. 'I've been busy' sounds like a totally lame-o excuse, since I'm not working yet. I mean, I guess I have been pretty involved with getting re-acquainted with my sister's family and helping around the house. Three small kids in one house are enough to make you forget that you have a phone, I'm finding out. But I'm thinking the real reason I've procrastinated is that I'm not ready to talk with my acquaintances about my feelings about the hurricane, and I suspect everyone is going to try to make me talk about it before I'm ready. I'm more of a wimp than I thought... I need to call them tomorrow. They probably will understand if I explain that I don't want to talk about it right now.

How long was the longest time you ever took to return a phone call? Come on, beat my record if you can!

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COMFORT FOOD?

So, I'm sitting in the wing chair working on pictures on Snapfish when the phone rings, and its Sarah: "We're in the driveway. Throw on some clothes so we can go to dinner at Cracker Barrel." And I seriously dressed so fast I hurt myself. Literally...I smashed my toe, and it bled. Yikes.

But dinner was nice. Nothing like Sunday night breakfast dinner. Mmmm. I've eaten so much while I've been in Birmingham - too many cookies and not enough veggies. I think that comfort food is making me feel less comfortable. While dressing for dinner I realized that I've gained a few pounds since the Hurricane. In that regard, I'm looking forward to being in Ruston where I'll be back on my regular running schudule and back to my normal diet. Goodbye comfort food. Hello being comfortable in my clothing.

So, if you are in a stressful situation, I've got 4 words for you: Don't eat too much.

That's all for tonight. Thank you.

oldtimeconfection.com...

WHERE SHOULD I MOVE?

OK. So here goes. I am relocating. The question is - where? Any suggestions?

johnmhightower.com...

HAPPY OCTOBER!

Happy first day of October to you! I love Fall. I can't wait for the first crisp day when the heat of summer disappears and I get a little burst of energy brought on by the colder temperature. Sarah just invited me to go with her and the kids on their Fall Break vacation trip to the Carolinas. Hooray. Now I don't have to be sooo sad about missing Summer Break the last two years. (Boo! Hiss!) I guess I'll just ebay until after the trip, and then it will be time to find a real, albeit temporary, job until next school year starts.

Speaking of Fall, there's always a big debate in Christian circles about Halloween. Is it just a harmless holiday or is it a demonic ritual, or what? What's your opinion?

DIGITAL BLISS

Snapfish rocks! Have you tried it?

HARDY COURT

Every time I watch a movie at a Rave or Cinemark Theater, I think about the improvements that movie houses have made in the last couple of decades. Can you imagine doing without stadium seats with cushy padding and cup holders? But for all their amenities, there’s a missing quality in these new megaplexes, something special that my old hometown theater had. It seemed like it was my theater, like it existed just for me.

The seats at the Hardy Court Theater were sticky, uncomfortable and smelled a little like dirty socks, but they were the first place I watched a big screen film. In 1986, I turned 12. Previous years my parents threw me a regular birthday bash with a cake and balloons. Desperate to grow up, that year I asked for something other than a kiddie party, so Mom drove my friend Steve and me to the theater. I can recall a few sketchy details of that evening. I know what gifts I received. My parents gave me a Swatch and an Ocean Pacific sweater; Steve gave me a Transformer. The food is a little less clear, but I think we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream after the flick. More vivid are my memories of the theater and the movie. I perceived them as a milestone - a first taste of adult life, so both made a big impression.

Flight of the Navigator is about a 12-year-old boy (one hit wonder Joey Cramer) who’s abducted by aliens. He ends up in the care of a robot (voiced by Paul Reubens), and he must fight to return home. It’s a coming of age story, and the boy gradually learns to make his own decisions and to “navigate” life. There’s a time travel twist that complicates things for him. When the boy returns to Earth, he finds he has traveled 8 years into the future. To his confused dismay, everything once familiar is now different, and everyone he loved has changed. It’s that discontinuity, life flying by as he slowly matures, that I identify with now. It sustains the original memory - the connection fostered that night.

Many changes are driven by people’s constant desire for improvement – bigger, better, faster, more. So it’s appropriate, if not totally symbolic, that the Hardy Court Theater closed in 1987 to make room for a laser tag maze. A new and improved theater across town took its place. I saw many shows there as a teenager, but I never felt that same special connection with a movie or a theater, like I did at the Hardy Court watching Flight of the Navigator.

THE MATCH GAME

Am I having an early midlife crises brought on by hurricane displacement? On a whim, I logged onto a match making service and took the personality quiz! Mostly I was taking it for self-discovery purposes, not expecting anyone to respond to my profile. I wondered whose personality the super computer would suggest as a match. Lo and behold, a couple of women (who live far away) have shown interest.

I'm more shy than I thought. It's taken me two days just to get used to the idea - and to work up the nerve, and today I'm going to respond to their inquiries.

What's your opinion of online match making? What about long distance relationships?

WIT

Sa and I just watched a chick flick: Mike Nichols' Wit. I picked it up at the library, thinking she would appreciate an Emma Thompson picture. At the end, while my sister was bawling her head off, she reached over and slugged me. "Don't ever bring another movie like that into my house."

Regardless of Sa's reaction, I think it was good for us to watch it. Seeing somebody die of cancer really puts things into perspective. Bravo to Ms. Thompson for her performance.

What is your favorite tearjerker?

HOLY WATER IN A SIPEE CUP

I took my neice to preschool this a.m. She was late. It took me 10 minutes to get her into the child safety seat. She was cooperative. It was the seat that gave me problems. Mysteriously, it was no longer attached to the car. And two of the straps were twisted. As I wrestled with the seat, struggling to reattach it and straighten the belts, it seemed to take on its very own personality (not a nice one, by any means). I think I will nickname the thing "Emily Rose." Please don't get the impression that I am planning to see that movie. Have you seen the preview? I had to get up and leave, it freaked me out so much.

When I pick up a novel, I may get a movie from the Hoover library tonight. I dropped off a couple of books there the other night for my sister. It was so much better than my last library - the one my class just visited on a field trip. Hoover has the nicest small branch I've ever seen, and it was packed at 9 at night! It has wireless internet, as well as computer stations. And the selection of books, periodicals and movies was top notch. Forget checking out the mall or country club. When I'm picking a new town, one of the things I'm going to check out is the library; I want to make sure I relocate to a community of avid readers.

I just finished reading my last novel, and I'm hungry for more. It took me a little longer than usual to finish it; my neices and nephew love to climb all over me while I'm trying to read. I usually ended up putting my book away and reading one of theirs, so at least we clocked some good literary time together. My favorite book of theirs so far is Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. It's written like a child's response journal. The main character begins writing poetry. It reminds me of my own students, and my own feelings about writing.

A BURGER BY ANY OTHER NAME

I heard my surname more times during my first year of teaching than I had during the previous years of my life combined. The students whined it every few minutes, and with each request I hated the sound of my own name more. The effect was so nerve-wracking that my own last name began to echo in my waking thoughts and to haunt my dreams.

One day I had finally had enough of the students’ calling. I wrote my name on the board and crossed through it. “This is no longer my name,” I instructed. From now on, my new name is, “Here’s five dollars.” Use my new name in place of the old one. For example, if you need to borrow an eraser, you will now address me in this way: “Here’s five dollars, can I borrow an eraser?” If you need the bathroom pass, you should say, “Here’s five dollars, can I have the pass?”

The new name only lasted for a day, but it broke the strain of hearing my real name repeated so frequently. The nightmares stopped and my sense of humor returned.

That wasn't the first time work had given me funny dreams. For my first job, I did a stint at the local fast food dive the summer after my high school senior year. I had a girlfriend and dates to support, so I worked a lot of hours. After the first few weeks, I started dreaming about taking people's orders. Then one morning, when the alarm clock rang, instead of rolling over to turn it off, I woke up saying, "May I take your order?"