Holidays

The view from our hotel window.

Yes friends, holidays aren't just Christmas and Easter and the hallmark celebrations that get so many people in trouble with their significant others... holidays can also be VACATIONS.... and as far as those holidays go, Florence was AMAZING. I have actually put off writing about it because I wasn't sure how to properly convey my experience, ah, but i will try. Have you ever flipped through a calendar of Italy and seen the winding streets that are framed in arches, and cobblestone streets that draw you around a dimly lit corner, the orange light spreading out over the rooftops and the ornate buildings rising out of the neighborhoods strangely out of place but perfectly placed... that is Florence. I don't think that I have ever visited such a beautiful place. I could have seen nothing, wandered around aimlessly with Ben for days and it still would have been the perfect holiday. Pisa wasn't nearly as picturesque. I was glad that we had a few hours to take in the leaning tower, and the tourist areas, but I was pleased to move on to Florence. Everything about the holiday was magical. I felt like royalty (you all know my princess tendencies) in our hotel. I have never been treated with such hospitality. It was the piece de resistance of the time in Florence,.... amazing food, a beautiful place, wonderful people. Every aspect of the city was steeped in art. Sculptures adorned the bridges, and buildings, and the collections by famous painters in the multiple museums were inspiring. The only part I wish we could have seen (which was impossible because the museums are closed on Mondays) was Michelangelo's David. I saw many replicas but not the real thing, so I guess I will just have to return to Florence again. I am in love with the depth of history that so many places in Europe offer. There are so many places for me to see that I hope that this is just one of many 'holidays' that I will take in the next few months.

the unexplainable...

So many of you are probably expecting a post about Ben's visit, or our trip to Florence,or for those of you involved pictures from bowling... and rest assured I will blog about all of that...maybe even tonight, but I have more pressing thoughts at the moment... the unexplainable things that I encounter here in Belfast. Yesterday I took Ben to the bus station at 8:00 in the morning to catch his bus to Dublin. I would have driven him, but I am not sure he would have made his flight... so the bus it was for him. I watched him pull away and decided i would stop at the grocery store and get some fruit and juice. But being so early in the morning nothing was open except a little fruit stand on the lisburn road. So I parked the car and open the door and DINGGGG... that annoying bell went off that i had forgotten to turn off my lights, so I reached down and turned off my lights... and yet the dinging continued... so I closed the door, turned on the lights turned off the lights and opened the door again... DINGGGGG... couldn't be the keys --they were in my hands, couldn't be the lights, they were off... so I closed the door, put the keys back in the ignition, turned on the car, turned off the car, turned off the lights, opened the door and DINGGGGGGG Ugh.... mind you if anyone were watching they would have thought i had OCD or was clinically insane. So I closed the door, turned the car back on and backed out of the spot and back into the spot... turned off the car, turned off the lights opened the door and DINGGGGGGGG.... so i got out of my car and walked to the front and the left headlight refused to turn off, even though the lights were off.... so I locked the car and went into the fruit market and left it on... I figured a few minutes wouldn't kill the battery and i was right. when I got home, tuned off the car and the lights, opened the door and was greeted with silence... who knows! Another unexplainable event is at the video store. I was exhausted last night... so i decided to stay in and just watch a DVD. So i went to the video store and was looking up and down the isle of new releases... and there were a couple of movies that I was thinking of watching so I was looking for them... and as I am looking one of the workers comes and takes all of the Mr. and Mrs. Smith movies off of the shelf, and then two shelves up he took all of the dukes of hazard movies off the shelf...and then he put the mr and mrs smith movies on the dukes of hazzard shelf and the dukes of hazzard on the mr and mrs smith shelf. Then he moved onto another row... by the time i had left about 10 minutes later most of the new releases had been rearranged... although not another movie was added... any ideas why the pointless work...ummm yeah... we are going to need you to move those boxes that you moved yesterday back to where they were yesterday. And finally the last unexplainable incident... i stumbled on MCHammers blog... really... a blog by mchammer? Since I was such a big fan in the 80s I thought I would send his link to all of you... so... mchammer.blogspot.com. (I am so glad that i didn't use that one for my blogger address!) hope that you enjoy!

Horse racin'

You can bet that not a single horse that is in any of these pictures is a horse that i thought would win. Do i know how to pick them, or do i know how to pick them. Stick with me guys and you are headed straight for the top!

in the mundane...

I was just thinking that it has been a really long time since my last post, and the reason for that is that life is absurdly normal. How do you blog when there is nothing funny or unusual happening to you? Last week I had parent teacher conferences. All of the parents were very complimentary... i think that they are just happy that their children are enjoying school. Today was Valentine's Day, and here, there are no parties and no hoopla... only a small valentine's day card for their mums and dads... which a lot of the children put Christmas themed things on the cards. Partially my fault...we have a craft box in the classroom that has old wrapping paper and cards that the children can use when they are making collage art -- cards, pictures etc. Some of the children cut out characters from the cards... not a single child cut out a construction paper heart...so strange. Anyway, i was circling the room checking in on the kids progress and I got to my first Christmas Valentine's day card and i said the little boy in a joking manner... Christmas... christmas... it is valentine's day it is all about hearts and flowers and love, and he looked at his little card that had santa with his arm around rudolph and he said to me, well santa loves rudolph... of course.. clearly i missed the deeper meaning.. it wasn't at all about Christmas.... mostly about love. Ahhh, there little brains are so interesting. This little boy is known for rationalizing work so that it is acceptable to his vision. He was working with a group of children to create a painting of spring... it was all going well, the children were painting blueberry bushes, and rainbows, and bees, (giant killer bees if you ask me) flowers, all the good spring things, and everyone seemed to be heading in the same direction until another little girl pulled out the purple paintbrush and started making purple rain (clearly her mom listened to Prince while she was in the womb). It was clear as C. grabbed his hair and let out an ughhh.. that she had deviated from the plan... or at least his plan. A look of horror came over her face, and C. immediately felt bad. You could see he was trying to satisfy his vision for this painting... clearly no purple rain, and poor j's feelings. So he stammered for a few seconds and the proudly announced that perhaps the rain was splashing off the blueberries and that was why it was purple. He was satisfied and so was she.. so the painting was finished and now hangs in the classroom. If only all conflicts in the world could be handled so eloquently.