I'm still here

It's been a while since I've been to this blog. Things have been hectic, but sweet and amazing this summer. I decided to take two classes this summer and with working full-time things have been interesting. And by "interesting" I mean jam packed. As I type this I am behind on posting for several chapters in one class....something I hope to have corrected by this weekend.

I made a major decision this summer too. I've decided to apply to PhD programs in my field. I wanted to get my doctorate before but thought I should start out small by getting a MAC first.

Now that I'm in the program and doing well while working full-time it feels like the time to fly. I'm scared and not scared. I'm excited and positive about my chances of getting into a good program. I'm feeling really great about getting into the program that at this moment speaks to me most. It would mean not having to leave/rent out my home and not having to make some outrageous commute daily. Any commute over 15 minutes and I'm tense - unless I'm driving somewhere on vacation.
Things are good and getting better despite the fact that I can't get everything done each day.

Right now life is consumed with work, school and my home. And I'm behind on several projects in all three of those areas. My place is coming along...I finally, FINALLY found a wall color I liked once it was ON the wall. Things are falling into place when I have the time to work on hanging art, organizing etc.
Once I have things in place I'll post some photos. I'm trying to work out roman shades at the moment. I love having large windows, but I am not loving the cost estimates for roman shades for those windows. The cost may be why all my neighbors have curtains or blinds. I don't care for either so roman shades it is for me.

Other than work, school and home, my maternal grandmother has been ill this summer. That's been stressful, but I also see the grace in it as it is giving my family time to work through her illness. She's 82 years old and her nickname is Sweet.
I realize that 82 is "old" to some, but in my family we expected her to be around perhaps another 20 years so this has come as a shock in many ways. My paternal grandmother is 102 years old and she still drives and goes out dancing. I don't have a relationship with this grandmother, her choice, and so Sweet is the grandmother I've always known and loved. I'm not ready for her to leave, but I understand if her body is tired.

When my great grandmother died in 2008 she was one month shy of her 101st birthday. My mom and I had driven to Mississippi to see her for a visit. She was very clear of mind, but she said her body was tired. She also said that she'd like to see her mother again. Her mother died when she was 11 and her sister was 1 years old. I can't imagine losing your mother at 11 years old and waiting almost 90 years to see her again. I'm grateful that my great grandmother had her sister at least. I wonder how her sister feels having lost her mother 91-92 years ago...

I've babbled enough for now. I'll try to come back and update this more often and stop slacking.

I do that. I disappear.

I've completed my first year of graduate school and that feels good. I started the summer courses this week - after a whole week off between semesters.
Things are good, intense, stressful, fun, amusing, lovely and unexpected. But overall good.
I'm looking forward to finding more funding and a good PhD program.

Oh, I'm looking forward to a lot of things including going home this summer for a brief second to harass my family and friends.

Yes, still grateful.

I've been working on keeping a positive attitude for the holidays.
The holidays can be tough for a lot of reasons, mostly the message to spend, spend and then spend some more.

Although the economy is sucking air for many, there is still the message to go out and buy and people are going out and well, BUYING.
I'm all for kids having something under the tree. As a kid I remember how excited, nervous, about to throw-up I felt on Christmas morning...at 4am. But I don't think the throng of people I suffered through Saturday were buying only kids/pre-teen/teen toys.

My holiday zest was also a bit diminished by an experience I had with the local and corporate offices for the storage unit I rent. Living in a loft means either being minimalist - which I am not, or having a small storage space - which I do.

I won't go into detail, but I will say they were rude, refused to respond to calls and emails, seemed not to understand what the contract agreement, pretended they hadn't told me information that they had in fact told me and openly told me the manager did not report to anyone at corporate when asked for her supervisor's name. I had decided that I had to walk away, do what I could and move my stuff out of there the first of the year...oh and file a complaint while moving.
This brings me to my second reason to be grateful. See #2.


Okay, I'm going to get off my semi-Christmas shopaholic rant. It just amazes me that people forget what the season is about and only focus on the buying that retailers want you to focus on as if your life depended on it.

So...back to yesterday. On Tuesday I lost my favorite ring. I don't have many rings and I only wear this one when the mood hits me. Well, yesterday afternoon after meeting with my new mentor (grateful story to follow), I realized that I'd lost my ring. Sad, sad, sad indeed.
I did my best to remember that it was only a material thing and that there were worse things to be sad about...so I sucked it up and tried to move on. And viola! My third thing to be grateful for, all before 8am today.

:D



All of my babble leads to my three things to be grateful for:

1) That my professor has agreed to mentor me for graduate school. Oh and he gets the places I want to go with my doctorate. Thank you Prof. Jones for your support.

2) I just discovered that the storage company gave me one month free. (No one called, wrote or emailed this information. It is quietly reflected on the monthly statement.) I am grateful and surprised, but grateful most of all.

3) I found my beautiful and costly ring. It was a gift to myself after going back to school and doing well.

Tuesday's Gratitude

This is a quick one today since I STILL have to write two papers and develop a brief presentation.

Today I'm grateful for:
1) Coffee.
I've had too much of it today on an empty stomach though.
2) Band-Aids.
I magically cut my hands and fingers often and thus need band-aids often.
3) Nice, hot showers.
I do a LOT of thinking in the shower. And on a tough day I usually sit in the bottom of the shower. It relaxes me tremendously while alarming my cats who sit on the other side of the shower curtain.

While you're making plans

While you're making plans to do things tomorrow or next week or next year....

I got a message from a friend over the Thanksgiving break saying that her only brother has died suddenly.
He went to the dentist the day before Thanksgiving, had a reaction to the medication and blink Trey was gone.
Gone.

I remember him smiling. In my 20s I had the biggest crush on him.... I'd hang out with her and her mom and Trey would come by for something or just to harass his sister.

I was sad hearing the news, am sad still for her, her brother and her family. They've been through a lot and I believe her mother died suddenly on or near a holiday also.
Her parents have been divorced most of the decades I've known her, then her mother passed away quickly and without warning and now her brother.

My friend learned after his death that he was planning to fly to Mexico to get married the following weekend. (They weren't close, but not because my friend didn't want to have a close relationship with him.)


It's but some areas of my life in a clearer perspective...all those things I've put off and put off and said that I'd maybe get to later. Supposed there is no "later"?

Tuesday's Threefold Thankful List

Today I am thankful for:

1) Pain killers. STRONG painkillers.

I have a high tolerance for pain, but I also have a high tolerance for pain meds. They don't last long in my system. There's nothing like waking up during surgery....I've done that more than once.
I don't know how people survived before the invention of pain pills. I really don't.

2) My jeep. Sure, it's almost a decade old, but I still love it.
Now if only some guy would volunteer to wash and clean it for me.

3) This is going to sound uber-corny, but I don't care.
I'm grateful for the moment I wake up. I LOVE mornings, the silence, the semi-darkness, the loud purrs and whiskers touching my face and the potential of what the day might bring my way.

Grateful

With Thanksgiving approaching everyone is posting things they are grateful for having, doing, being etc. I added this to my 43 Things list some time ago - when I realized I was being needlessly cranky about, well, everything. Owning a home alone, dealing with construction, working full-time, not getting a raise and going to school will do that to you. (Or it did to me.)

I'm grateful/thankful for many things...some good, some bad, some both simultaneously. This week I'll post some of the things I'm grateful for here:

1) For the 4am wake up snuggles from the kittens. Bee Bop will wake up and jump over me all to sleep on my pillow while facing me. The sound of his soft purring is sweet.

2) For all the “NO” responses I’ve gotten in my life.
I hear them and in that moment and sometimes, years later even, that “NO” hurts. But then your “NO” always leads me to a better and happier life.
I’m thinking of a particularly unprofessional professor I had years ago who said I couldn’t pass statistics (in the summer nonetheless) and that I’d probably never make it to graduate school. I got the only “A” in statistics that summer and IN YOUR FACE! I’m in graduate school with my eye on a PhD.

3) For all the people who helped make me who I am today, flawed, impatient, independent, giving, temperamental and most of all loving.

4) For shrimp and crabs. (Hey, I am from New Orleans. I can’t help it.)

I was minding my own business
living my life
I was happy. Very happy.

And then in a store one morning he changed that.
I knew he'd be trouble
something about him said to ignore him.
So I did.

But he wouldn't allow me to walk past him on the aisle.
"Go away" I said with my hands, with my eyes, with my movement in the other direction.
But no, he wouldn't go away and he
changed directions.

I ignored him thinking he'd just get lost in time
and I'd be free to live my life not
thinking of him or the possibility of him.
And then he caught up to me forcing his basket into mine.

I was minding my own business
living my life
I was happy. Very happy.
And then he came along pushing his way into my life, my world and my brain. Making me want to be with him.

I was happy and knowing him makes me happier.

My secret(s)

Things I like.

Things I love.

Things I probably shouldn't openly admit.

I love:

• Mornings. Early mornings. Oh, you'd love me in the mornings.
• Christmas.
• New Year's Eve. It is filled with so much potential.
• The french language.
• Accents. (I'm not talking about home decor either.)
• Spending time with my friends.
• Listening to my cats purr loudly when they sleep close.
• Spending time with people who've known me for decades.
• Laughing with and at my family.
• Art. So much of our lives is an art and art.
• Not having curtains and still being invisible.
• Hearing James' voice.

I like:

• baristas who know the sound of burning, rather than heating, milk.
• Lattes with the right amount of foam. Not too dry, not too wet.
• Naps. I miss taking naps. I always feel so much better afterwards.
• Thinking that someone that I want is thinking about me. (Not in a narcissitic way either.)
• A good run. A peaceful run. A run where I can make my mind blank.
• A good cabernet on a tough day.
• Hearing and watching the birds early in the morning while I stay in bed.
• People. I'm very social and a loner at the same time.
• Documentaries.

I shouldn't openly admit:

• That I like to have my forehead kissed by the guy I like.
• That I used to "liberate" lawn ornaments from people's lawns.
• That some of those ornaments found their way onto other people's lawns.
• That when I love someone I never stop loving them.
• That I stood on my balcony in my nightie on Halloween while a bike parade (with LIVE band in tow) passed by the house. They were friendly.

We're only making plans

Listening to XTC's 'Making Plans for Nigel' reminds me of being young and thinking of what my life would be like "when I got older".
It makes me laugh now to think of what I thought I wanted, what I changed, how I changed and how so much of doesn't change.

I won't reveal here what I wanted fully, but I can tell you that I didn't think of being married or having kids. I thought about living in exotic places and traveling and meeting new people and most of all, living.
Those things haven't changed. And I'm managed to do some of those things, perhaps not as intense as I thought at that time, but I did them none the less.
It feels good to know that who I thought I'd want to be didn't change much from who I became... well, except the wanting to be married and have kids part. That did change...because now I want those things.
And it only took me decades.
;D

Marshmallow fluff

I've been absent for a while. I have no excuse. Not.One.Valid.Excuse.

In my absence I met someone - well, I met them a while ago. Since dating this person I have realized that I'm not as evolved emotionally as I thought. I'm working on that because I want to change.

We are no longer dating....we date, we don't date, we date and on and on for six times. Currently we aren't dating...we aren't even speaking.

I do not want our relationship to be so dramatic. I like him. But I also know that I need someone who communicates with me. I want to be with someone who communicates well, not abundantly, just well.
This of course may mean that I'm single forever as I'm having a hard time finding this quality in someone I'm attracted to physically and mentally.

I'm not sure what will happen at this point. I'd like the relationship to work out, but I've been close to marriage more times that I’d like to admit…. six.

Six is the unmagic number, but I knew deep down that none of these were right. I also realized that people often “settle” for someone. I don’t want to settle – not that I’m better than others. I just want more than settling for something. I won’t settle when it comes to furniture or fabrics or my education, so why would I settle on a partner?


My brain, in an effort to take my mind off of this whole relationship thing, decided to provide interesting dreams last night. I can only hope this continues as the dreams were great.
Last night my brain created a dream in which I was shopping at the Woolworth’s of my childhood with the gang from Scooby Doo. No, they were not cartoons at all, but real, live people….dressed exactly as they were in the show. And yes, Scooby Doo was there and well behaved I should add.
We shopped and when we finished we went out to the Scooby van in the dark parking lot.

I should add that the most interesting part of this dream is that I was wearing yellow tights. Not just any yellow tights though. I was wearing yellow tights made of the banana fluff in the center of banana Moon Pies.
Yeah…


Update: My foster kittens went back to the shelter for adoption. They'd been my charges for five weeks. Five weeks is a long time and I'd hoped they would get a loving home together.
After ONE day at the shelter I called and adopted them via phone. Two days later they came home for good and I'm glad I opened my home to them.
And yes, I am now officially a cat lady.

I love you. Stop eating paper.

This past week I've said things I never thought I'd say.
Things like, "I love you. Now stop eating that paper."
I volunteered to foster kittens at the Austin Humane Society.
I have two wee babies, Bee Bop (he lives up to his name) and Bam Bam, who looks just like a mini-Bootini (my 11 year old cat).

Bee Bop is very, very active and if a minute goes by when I don't see him I have to find him. He's always into something. That something often includes him pouncing on the head of Boo, Bam Bam or myself. The head doesn't matter much, just that Bee Bop gets to POUNCE! I really am thinking of calling him Tigger....

Bam Bam is timid and also a bit sickly. He's the sweetest and fluffiest kitten. When we (Boo and I = we) got him he would run each time you came near. He discovered Boo and started modeling after him, but me he ran from every time. Then finally I started sneaking up on him and forcing him to let me love him.
It took two days.
And now he no longer runs. He is such a sick little boy, but he just wants to be loved. Right now we're giving him his meds and trying to fatten him up.
I think we may keep him....he tried to suckle on Bootini yesterday. That was something to see. Boo was so patient - it was sweet.

Here are some photos of the wee monkeys. Bee Bop has personality to spare and he's such a sweetie too. These guys are scheduled to be with us for three more weeks and will be available for adoption via the Austin Humane Society on Anderson Lane.
I've fallen in love with both of them, but also want to make sure other kittens get time in foster homes, so if you are interested please contact me.

:D

I'm totally slacking...I know it.

It's been a while since I've been here to write. I wish I could say that nothing had happened since the first week of May, but I'd just be lying to you.

In the middle of May I found out through a third party friend that someone I've known for about 20 years was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I consider myself much too young to know people with such serious illness...I know better as I've lost people I love more than myself at ages when death seems a distant event.

Within days I found out that he was speaking and I called him hospital room hoping to speak to him - to let him know that I was saying a prayer for him, thinking of him, whatever I could to convey that he was on my mind. I tried his room, but got no answer.

I should say that calling this hospital was no easy thing for me as two people I loved died of cancer in this same hospital. Just calling it brought back memories of sitting at my aunt's bedside and the crushing moment when I realized my aunt Gloria no longer knew me....
Crap. And again that moment of not being able to take in air and feeling like the world stops is back. I feel pressure inside and I don't know how to let it out.
No one told me or her that the cancer we'd just discovered in her breast had advanced to her brain already. This brillant, loving brain who had been there for my kinder graduation (when my mother couldn't be) no longer remembered the neice who loved her more than she loved herself.

A few years later a college friend was diagnosed with cancer in her leg. She lost her leg and we made pirate jokes - just happy she'd still be alive. We thought of ways she could save on clothes and amazing stories we could make up to explain her missing limb.
And then the doctors again told us about spreading cancer and just like that Deanna was gone.

I hate this hospital.
It is the physical manifestation of grief to me. So calling this hospital brought back a lot of pain, but I did it because it was more important to let my friend know that he was on my mind.

I was afraid to call over and over because he was sick and I thought he might be resting. So I waited a few days.
And then I got an email that Jules had died. And just like that he's gone. Blink.

He was diagnosed with a brain tumor or tumors and was gone in one week. One week. Jules was the sweetest person - never heard him say anything bad about anyone. He wanted justice for everyone and he always had a smile. When I met him I was filled with rage and angst at everyone, but really only at my dad and stepdrag. And Jules? He was filled with hope and love and kindness.


So I've been thinking....and each time I've lost someone I loved, my aunt, my very young cousin, my very old great grandmother and far too many friends, I think about how I have to change some things.
Oh, I make lists of things I'd like to accomplish. And I do many of those things like getting my degree and going to graduate school.

But.

But there are other things, other lists, that I need to do and stop hiding from/making excuses for. And I've taken a step towards one of those majors goals today. I don't want my love for my aunt, my cousin Jonathan, my friends and of course Jules, to be wasted. There's something in the sadness I feel beyond just being said.

Why not use the theme song for Star Wars?

Tomorrow I graduate from college. I'm excited, but only allow myself to feel a small portion of that excitment.
I do that. I deny myself the full extent of whatever goal/milestone/event I've accomplished.....I don't know why I do this. At least I'm aware of it.

I don't want to sound like I am not happy to have reached this goal or that it isn't a big deal. I know millions would love the opportunity to get a college degree and can't. So I don't mean to sound ungrateful - I am.
But I realize that I only have seconds where I allow myself to live in the moment of some success. I wonder if it's because I fear getting too lost in the moment or becoming too filled with pride.

One of the things I try to do is to be aware of what life is like for others - how my words or actions will impact others. This sounds like it takes up more time than it actually does. It isn't hard to consider how your actions might harm or help someone or something else.

I don't want to forget that I am and have been able to live, travel, think, speak and just be as a result of many people in the world, over time, realtives and strangers. Everyone does not have the same opportunities or access and I try to remember that - I don't want to forget how blessed and lucky I am and have been in life.
I start graduate school in August, something I am also quietly celebrating.

The commencement ceremony is tomorrow morning. I am not attending.
I don't see the point and didn't want my family to spend a ton of money flying into Austin. I don't feel the need to walk across a stage and have people see me get my fake diploma (the real one comes later in the mail).
The most important thing to me is that I've done it....I've graduated and gotten into graduate school. I think I'll walk for the next graduation, but I keep imagining that moment with the music from Star Wars rather than the traditional music.
Maybe that just means my brain needs a break.

One or the other

Men. They don't know how priviledged they are in life. They haven't a clue. And sometimes I want to thump them on the head for that - being clueless.

Why? Because I have one emotion or the other every few weeks. And. I. hate. it.

I can't control it. I have learned to recognize it though. The emotions? Oh, either sadness or anger. Not your run of the mill slightly sad or slighty pissed feelings either. I'm talking full on rage or hysterical crying.

And no, I've no mental issues - well, just the normal ones that I admit to freely. (I talk to myself, I hate warm milk, I pretend not to speak english sometimes.) So why am I having either crying fits or fits of anger?
It's my body forcing me to go through insane changes including bloat, cramping, soreness and those wacky emotions. And men have no idea how blessed they are in this regard. (Note: I would not trade being a woman - seriously, we are smarter. Sorry boys, it's true.)

So when I find that I'm crying over a cat food commerical, which has happened, and my cats are just staring at me ball....I know what time it is. Or when I feel like I want to punch someone, (like the freak who kept driving past while I jogged, asking me on a "date" until I flagged a policeman down), I know what time it is.

This month's theme was sadness. I'm fine now and really, some months there's no wacked out emotion at all. But when I hear men make jokes about "that time of the month" I just want to punch them in a special place. They have no clue how priviledged they are not to have their body make them feel either sad or crazy or crazy angry.

7 things I love

Ah, this is some Monday.... I've been awake since 3:42am.
The smoke detector apparently wants new batteries and isn't afraid to say so very LOUDLY.
After thirty shrill minutes I wanted to smash it to pieces, but luckily it's too high to reach. Which means I also have to find a very tall ladder somewhere and fast.

Wendy received an award today over at Among Mad People.
Yeah, Wendy! :P
She also tagged me so you're going to learn more about Brie than you want to know.

Brie's 7 Loves:

1) A nice snogging. (There I've said it. And it has been almost four years since I last had one, good or bad.)

2) A great red wine, preferrably cabernet or petit syrah. I do like the bubbly too though.

3) Touching. I'm a toucher. The texture of things impact how I feel about them. If I see something I like visually, I have to also like how it feels. This means my bed, sheets, sofa, chairs, shoes, towels etc "feel" nice to the touch.

4) Art that moves me. The medium doesn't matter - just that I connect with it somehow and it makes me feel better, make a change, go out on a limb or feel sad.

5) A very hot and long shower. I do a lot of thinking in the shower and the water never lasts long enough. I also like to sit in the shower and let be.

6) When something unexpected happens and it seems bad, but then turns out better than you could have ever planned.

7) That feeling when someone really sees you for the first time.

It's Mardi Gras!

Today is Mardi Gras day and I miss home.

I miss the insanity, the days off from school and work, the holding of parade spots, the king cakes, the insanity, the rush and push and more insanity.


Growing up in New Orleans it doesn't occur to you that other cities don't do this every year. That everyone isn't off work, well almost everyone since people still need to eat and shop and get gas etc.
You don't realize that seeing drunk people at 7am on a weekday is a big deal in other places. You don't realize that not everyone knows not to slap the police horse's rear end.


I miss my home.
I miss my friends.
I miss hearing Mardi Gras music everywhere. "Mardi Gras mambo, mambo...."
I miss staying out for days at a time, running around until your feet hurt no matter what kind of shoes you wore, encountering "odd" people, watching tourists because you can spot them a mile away and meeting strangers who later become friends (if you remember them later.)


I have so many memories of Mardi Gras with my family and later my friends. Pretending that we were English or dancing with strangers on bars or seeing the usual suspects in the French Quarter. Avoiding tv cameras, well any cameras for that matter. No one wanted to be caught on tape!
I miss Mardi Gras, but I'm happy that there continues to be a Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Family

An email from my mom today:

Mom: You know your grandmother will be 80 years old next month?
(My maternal grandmother. My paternal grandmother turns 101 this month.)

Me: My grandmother will be 81 years old next month.
(I'm probably going to pay for that later.)

The Link Between Linen Pillows and Rocky Horror

If you've ever been to my home you know that I like pillows. Big pillows, cotton pillows, linen pillows, small pillows, cotton floor cushions (aka LARGE pillows), arm rest pillows (ok, they came with the sofa). Pillows, pillows, pillows.

Several years ago I found these nice linen covered pillows at a discount store. I favored these linen pillows. Over several years the pillows began to leak their stuffing. One by one I've had to say goodbye to them when sewing the edges no longer worked.

And now I am down to my last linen pillow.

This morning I woke up with the last pillow of its kind and went straight to brush my teeth. Looking in the mirrow I realized that this last linen pillow reminded me of the first time I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show. My friends had all seen it and we go together for my birthday. What no one warned me about was the rice. Someone should always warned others about things that could take up residence in your hair. If someone had said something I would have worn a hat. I enjoyed the movie but I kept finding rice in places, mainly my hair, for two weeks AFTER the movie.

So this morning brushing my teeth in the mirror I was reminded of Rocky Horror because I have little, white tuffs of pillow stuffin in my dreadlocks.
Great.
I am sure I'll be finding little white surprises for weeks. I love my hair, but it does has a hoarding problem.
I can only imagine what people behind me in line at the grocery store will think.

Is it me?

The other night, after my run, I realized I'd somehow caught a cold. I was fine before the run, or at least I felt fine. Afterwards the sneezing started.

I went for a run early in the evening. I used to run daily, but with moving and travel for work got out of the habit. Running for me is important for two reasons: 1) weight control/toning and 2) stress relief. When I run my mind goes blank, which I look forward to happening. I'm always thinking and I welcome my time to focus on nothing.

The weather has been nuts here lately, warm, then cold then overcast with a chance of rain (yet no rain appears) and back to warm and then cold all over again. I put on a sweatshirt that I'd forgotten I had and went out to relieve stress and start getting back into shape. All was fine until I noticed this truck slowing down next to me. Okay, fine, whatever.

I put on my really mean face (people always ask why I'm so pissed off when I run), to show that I wasn't interested. I was jogging. Unfortunately my mean jogger face didn't deter this guy - he drove back and forth and back again, over and over. I yelled that he was being, "#*&@! creepy!" And yet he continued to follow me no matter how mean I looked or how often I crossed the street.

And I complain that men never ask me out on dates.

This unwanted and creepy attention was really pissing me off. Are there prostitutes that jog to attract customers? Is there a group of call girls that work out as a way to entice creepy men? Forget police stings on prostitution, just send some female officers out for a jog. Seriously, why would a woman in bulky sweat clothes remind anyone of a prostitute?!


I couldn't just enjoy my run and I was becoming more stressed rather than less stressed. Finally I flagged down a cop and let him deal with the creepy truck guy. He was nice about it and drove around until I got back to my house. My run was ruined by some idiot and when I got home the sneezing started.

The next morning I was sure that I'd caught a cold. Bleh. So I went to get some herbal tea and homeopathic medicine. I get the medicine without incident and head over to get some tea at a local coffeeshop. For some reason I'm surrounded by cops, not one or three, but no less than six. I drink my tea, thinking positive thoughts about beating this cold, and I notice the guy sitting in front of my table has his camera phone pointing at me. Seems he was trying to "read" some text message - except he wasn't trying to read anything. He kept that phone trained on me the entire time. As soon as I noticed I put my sweater over my front and my book in my face.

The best part? Camera phone guy was there with his wife and trying to get a photo/video of me while the wife sat there. She didn't have a clue and she never looked at his phone.
He finally put it away after I kept the book up and gave him a pissed look.

Why do all the perverts like me?!