Pizza and Monsters and Birthdays

Doesn’t anybody sell pizza by the slice out here? Seriously. After leaving work tonight I had to run a couple of errands and the traffic was horrible. I keep thinking about the pizza we had yesterday, and wanted some more. To safe myself the horror of getting an entire pizza, I started looking around for a slice. I took a detour off of University Ave to stop by this teeny little pizza place in the middle of nowhere. (Or, I guess, in the middle of Provo.) I thought- this place has GOT to have pizza by the slice. When I asked they said, “What? One slice?” and I said “Yes, one slice,” and they looked at me like I was from mars. Or maybe Jersey. Needless to say I grit my teeth and went on with the errands with no food- telling myself that hunger is good. It burns calories. (I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s what I tell myself.)

Work today was good. We had an offer for publishing. Just like that. It’s amazing how smoothly it happened. Looking back- I’ve been working on this project for 9 months- and we’ve got about 5 chapters completely done- 19 more in queue, and a proposal that caught some attention. It’s been a lot of work. A lot. Fortunately, in non-fiction, you submit a proposal and a few chapters in order to get signed, unlike fiction, which usually requires a complete draft. I’m excited to get with a real publishing house and editor to get some real guidance with what we’re doing. It feels good that people are liking it so far.

Yesterday was John’s birthday :) We went to church in the morning. I taught my new class which was full of 8 year old little girls who were full of wiggles and chattiness and willingness to participate. Not a bad combo. I could never, ever be an elementary school teacher.

When we got home we made some GF pizza- and a cake. The pizza turned out GREAT. The cake- well, I’ll try again next year. It wasn’t BAD, but it didn’t hold a candle to our wedding cakes- either of them! Then we just watched movies and ate, and spent the day together. I timed the cake frosting just in time for John’s parent’s to call and sing to him :) He also got calls from one of his brothers and both of his sisters. I know he pretends to not like his birthday- but I think he really appreciates hearing from his family. He even likes the singing. I think. ;)

I gave him his presents at midnight. John has the ability to guess what I’ve gotten him for a special occasion by simply walking into the same room with the wrapped package- so I changed it up a bit. I took a couple books off his shelves and wrapped them up, and then deposited the REAL gifts into the gym bag under the bed.  Just to cover the bases. When he opened the books and was confused, I got to tell him I was the MASTA PLANNA and hid his real presents. Was fun. I had gone to the Apple store and gotten him an extra power supply and then a speaker thinger for his ipods. My parents chipped in a bit in place of sending him something else.

So yes. I also had a very weird dream last night. Neil Gaiman-esque even. I was in a closet trying to figure out which way I should get out, backwards or forwards, when I heard a monster outside of one of the doors. I had to squeeze in between a couple of boards to get into the other side of the closet and out another door, the whole time I heard the roaring outside. I escaped into another room where there was a girl sitting quietly on her bed looking out the open window. She said, “I knew you were coming. Now he knows you can get out. I’ll have to jump.” And I saw an image of her jumping out the window and falling onto the pavement a couple stories below. Instead, I took her hand and we ran down some stairs and outside. As soon as we got outside she said, “But it’s going to rain.” And I said, “Ok, we’ll get wet.” And she just said, “No,” and we ran into a mall nearby just in time for the rain to start. But instead of water, it rained pennies- punching the pavement as they fell.

And then I woke up. Weird, I know.

Protected: Dreams

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They Told Me I Should Go To Rehab

John got home from work and I was looking at thesuperficial.com, which resulted in this conversation:

Erin: Who is Amy Whinehouse?

John: Her name sounds familiar.

Erin AND John: Rehab!

Erin: I had a dream about that song last night!

John: I had a dream last night that you were accused of being a prostitute, by a doctor we were both seeing.

Erin: Awkward. I dreamt that I went to rehab, and Jo Lo was running it, and I told her I didn’t want to be there and so she sang Rehab.

*And, just as a side note, I had a dream a couple months ago that Jo Lo was pregnant. The next day I went to my brother’s apartment and saw a people magazine, a cover line announcing Jo Lo’s impending Mommy-hood. I’m like psychic. Except…I hope not about the rehab.

Oh Subway

Becca postulated that perhaps JOHN put the cotton ball in his pocket.  I guess that’s just as possible as the other way around.  I wish we knew how it got there.  That’s too funny!

Anyway. So today has been interesting.  Got up.  Went to class- we had a quiz in William James.  A quiz that revealed that no one had read.  Well, hardly anyone.  So then Dr. Paulsen opens up discussion about how to structure the class in such a way that we are more likely to read and prepare- which spurred a discussion between the two extremes.  Extreme A) Philosophy majors seniors and extreme B) undecided major freshman.  I think the BIG problem here is the fact that BYU has designed a class that would put these two groups in together…but getting past THAT…group A kept saying things like, “I am able to understand the text at home.  This is college, no one needs a recap on things they should have already read.”  The OTHER side said, “I don’t pay tuition to sit at home on the weekends and stuggle through philosophical texts on my own.”  It drove me CRAZY.  There is no problem with this class!  Dr. Paulsen does a GREAT job reviewing the text in such a way that everyone can understand it, and then allowing us to have conversation about it.  The problem comes in when the seniors don’t want to sit through the explanation (although the quality of their comments prove they NEED it) and the freshman don’t want to listen to the conversation, and just want to hear what Dr. Paulsen will want to see on the exams, and no more (don’t take philosophy!).  It’s very frustrating.  Very, very frustrating.  And then we go through class and half the people are gun-shy for conversation, and the other half are laughing and being LOUD to make up for the face that we all just failed a quiz.  Oh my.

It was interesting, to say the least.  Then there was science class- and we came home.  I did some of my online course, worked on philosophy of film a bit, and am currently trying to get some files to open for work, to no avail.  I did some cleaning tonight- and actually started writing something.  In the midst of scrubbing the tub I had an idea for a story that I fell in love with.  I told John, an he asked me what it was, and all of a sudden I realise why he doesn’t talk about Alicia Grey.  I feel like if I try to explain it and don’t do a good job, the magic will just disappear.  Not that it’s about magic, but you get the point.  I’m going to spend some time this weekend trying to get that out…we’ll see how it goes.  I’ve never had an idea like this before. 

Sleeping has been interesting lately.  The other night (or was it last night?) I had a dream that I was in the midst of some action movie…coupled with a thriller story where we were running from some unknown horror that left disgusting crime scenes in it’s wake.  The weird thing was…I kept getting hungry, and as we were driving around and trying to figure out what happened to different people and protect ourselves from the murderer, I made whoever I was with stop at Subway.  I had all of their specials.  Meatball, club, tuna fish, chicken teriyaki….every few minutes I needed more.  THEN I decided I needed some cookies.  I knew the murderer was coming, but I NEEDED the cookies…so I reached in and grabbed a few and ran out the door.  What Frued would say about me, I have no idea.

So yes.  The weekend is upon us.  We desperately need to get some homework done, so I really doubt we’ll do anything that exciting.  But at least no work for John :)  He’ll be home with me.  I have some things to do for work this weekend…so we’ll see how it goes!

Staples

One more thing.  WEIRDEST dream last night.  I dreamt that I got a job at Staples, and that the management were like, CRAZY INTENSE.  After my shift the whole team walked back to the office together to “review the day,”  and I was on the phone talking to someone.  They gave me a dirty look, so I hung up, and we all started marching and chanting camp style: “I don’t know but I’ve been told, I don’t know but I’ve been told, Staples supplies are good as gold……”  Honestly.  I’m at a complete loss as to what to make of this.  Complete loss.