bought it at the five and dime, played it 'til my fingers bled

1. I am learning to play The Beatles' "Blackbird." This is a) a fine challenge b) good fun c) causing great pain. I love finger picking and I really, really, want to improve. My fingers just hurt a lot. I'm also learning David Wilcox's "Strong Chemistry" which is unlike anything I've ever played before--bending strings and whatnot. Robin has set a goal for me to take the techniques and chords in these two songs and use them in songs of my own. This is generally what I do anyway. I learn a new song with a new trick and I crib it. But having it thusly formalized into an assignment makes me a little nervous. Especially the Wilcox. Should be interesting.

2. I finished reading Jane Eyre. Let me say that a)I am a really fast reader and b)it is my goal this year to take advantage of having everybody in school from 12:15-3:15 and I took advantage of it this week by reading Jane Eyre. Also, a couple months ago I bought a Mighty Bright Book Light at Prairie Books and it has changed my life. I know, it's a book light. But now I can sit up (or lie for that matter) in bed with a tiny little led light illuminated my pages and not disturb Paul. It's the greatest.

But back to Miss Eyre. She is EVERY BIT as SAUCY in the book as she is portrayed in Master Piece Theater. I just never read it that way. I read her as akward and unused to soceity. But she totally flirts and teases Mr. Rochester. Perhaps it's because she is unused to soceity that she takes such liberties, but she totally takes them. It's fantastic. The scene at the end Sunday night where she asks leave to see her dying Aunt Reed and needs her wages is straight off the pages. He gives her the money and says he wants it back, she holds her purse behind her back and tells him he's "not to be trusted." There's all sorts of back and forth that is just delicious.

If you haven't read it, do. It's creepy and scary and romantic. Aaaaaaahhhhh...Jane Eyre.

3. I scheduled my PRAXIS test. This is the standardized test I need to get into the masters program at Hastings College. This is THE MATH. By Monday March 12 I need to have my ducks in a row. I borrowed a book from the library with practice tests and whatnot and it is all a little scary to me. It's been a long time since I've studied for anything--really sat down and systematcally studied for a test. And then to have it be math?! The last math I took was Algebera II my junior year in high school.

4. We should be getting our Fit in a couple weeks. At first the salesman got on the computer to try and find us a car and we realized he wasn't even talking about real cars, but potential cars. He was looking at which cars were slated for production in February and March...in Japan. So the car would have to first be built and then shipped over. It would be like eight weeks from the cars birthday to when we got it. At that point Paul and I were both thinking that we could have an XB in our driveway next week, wouldn't that be nice?

But Mr. Salesman had one potential Fit coming his way (red and automatic, we want silver and stick) so he put that up for trade on some Honda dealer website and somebody bit. So when the potential red automatic is born it will be shipped to Portland. In the meantime silver stick Fit is being put on a train in Portland headed toward Kansas City, and then on a truck to Grand Island. What a world we live in. When I think about all the carbon emmissions used in getting us our high gas mileage vehicle I wonder what the point is.

5. Today I am going to Ollie's preschool class with my icecream maker! We're going to make icecream for snack. Now, I know I talk all the time about wanting to be Laura Ingalls, but Laura Ingalls had to make ice cream with rock salt and churning and whatnot. I'm sure that would be fun for the kids...and educational. But that's not what is happening today. Today I am taking my stainless steel Cuisinart state-of-the-art icecream maker, filling it with milk and cream and sugar, plugging it in and in 30 minutes we will have ice cream. There are days when it pays not to be Laura Ingalls.

6. Yesterday the City of Hastings trucks rolled up in front of our house to take away the branches from the ice storm Dec. 30. Oliver and I stood on the porch and watched the great machine scoop up the piles of branches in it's great teeth and drop them in the back of the truck and then smash them down. It was very cool. And cooler yet: they broke for lunch and left the giant scooper (I'm sure it has a real name) parked in front of our house--a four year old's dream. We no longer look like we live in a beaver dam.