It's 3 AM, I must be lonely...

On my bottle of Imuran, there's a label warning against being near people with infectious diseases, as my risk of catching those diseases increases.

Hmm. I guess I can't avoid it as well as I used to, as now I'm working with 123 7th graders in a confined space.

Needless to say, I've caught some sort of disease. I don't think it's serious (I hope it's not pneumonia!), but it IS certainly inconvenient. And for some reason, most of the ailments I catch seem to settle in my chest... and when that happens, a terrible cough develops, and I can't get any sleep, so my body can't rest to get better, and it just keeps going and going and going.

It's 3 AM, and I'm wide awake. I don't want to lie in bed, as I'll keep James up, so I'm here, talking to you all. Thanks for keeping me company. I guess I'm fortunate that I still have some super cough syrup left over from the spring, when I got my last Totally Rediculous Cough. Hycodan, I suppose, is my DOC. Only wusses get dependent on cough syrup. I'm SO Little League.

Oh! In other news, I bought Paul's camera. Joy! Pictures again! But I don't want to send a picture of me coughing or anything, nor of me at 3 AM.

Oh, and Skye? Just a few minutes ago, I was in the bathroom on the toilet nonetheless, and I looked up and there was a spider on the ceiling! I'm not afraid of most spiders, as I used to have a tarantula and it's just rediculous for me to be afraid of them anymore, but this one was so so so icky. FYI.

I also have an eye twitch. I've had it for five days now. It's slight enough that people don't notice (last night's Seinfeld episode: George's eye tick gets him in trouble), but bothersome enough that it, well, bothers me.

Well (hmph), I suppose I ought to try to sleep again. I think Super Cough has kicked in. Yay for Super Cough!

Autumn is close!

I am very very very excited for autumn. It's my favorite season. I have pumpkins and colorful Indian corn and fake leaves spread about the place. Which reminds me of my wedding decorations! ...which then reminds me that it's our one year anniversary in a month and a half! Sheesh! Where has the time gone?

Looking for a digital camera. One of my friends just bought a new fancy one; I think I'll buy his old one. That would mean that I haven't had a new camera since I was about 12, if ever. But I'm looking forward to posting pictures again. Toby's getting big. And, you know, so much more exciting stuff is going on.

I've started my practicum. The kids are hilarious. They're seventh graders. This morning, one of them opened the school door for me, and some of them said, "Good morning, Ms. Wright!" as they walked in the classroom. It's only my third day, but some of them are already taking full advantage of my attention. And the thumbsucker cracks me up. Isn't there always a thumbsucker? I'm also very impressed with the amount of technology they have in the classrooms. The last two days, each student has been working on a laptop and digital cameras, altering photographs and doing picture analysis. It's great! Oh, and totally fun. Click here to do what we did, and go to "Portrait Project." Have a digital headshot of yourself handy, and play!

Great band: Devotchka. Check them out.

I'm sickly. My body's fighting it, but I'm afraid it's a losing battle. My poor little white blood cells. Go, little leukocytes, go! Oh, and I took the rest of my biology Praxis tests last Saturday. Maybe I passed. Maybe.

I've been having strange dreams lately.

Half a decade later...

Benjamin Franklin
There never was a good war or a bad peace.

Abraham Lincoln
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'"

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

Gandhi
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

Isaac Asimov
Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.


























The best film I've seen about 9/11 is called simply, "9/11." Two French brothers were filming a documentary about a rookie fire fighter in lower Manhatten the day it happened. There is no political commentary, no blaming, no talk of war in Iraq. Simply the raw emotions of these men as it happened. Your local library has several copies; please borrow it.

My hard weekend

This past weekend I drove 2000 miles, spent 24 hours in a car with two toddlers, was stung by a bee, and my underwire broke in the middle of NOWHERE in Montana and the town we stayed in has NO place to buy a new one. Those parts of my weekend were all okay.
I won't go into details, but I had the hardest 48 hours I've ever had in my life. I'm recovering now, but I'm still sad about a few things, one of them the failing health of my grandfather. Most of my family gathered in Driggs, Idaho to spend some time before the winter comes and he passes away. It was good to see Pat and Libby, Ginny and Craig, my niece and nephew, my parents, my cousin and aunt, and my grandparents, especially. My grandma and I even had a little sleepover in her room for two nights, due to so much company. We had some good talks. And my grandpa is as sweet as ever. And I got to know my great Aunt Laree, my grandmother's sister. She's the sweetest old lady I've ever met in my life. And so hip! It's hard to believe she's in her mid-eighties.
In the 40's, my grandparents bought a house in Driggs with cash. The house was built around 1918 and has been in our family for 65 years. Both my grandparents were raised in Driggs, and their parents, and theirs, etc. Actually, my family name is Driggs. We settled that valley a long time ago, and no matter where I live, I consider that "home base." I love that house. I planned on taking lots of pictures of it while I was there, and lots and lots of my grandparents, but before I had taken more than a few, my camera bit the dust. So, the plethora of pictures I hoped for were never taken. Here are, however, a few.
















My grandpa owned a sporting goods store, and they used to play poker and slot machines. When he sold it, he kept the 5 cent and 10 cent slot machines, and my siblings and I used to spend hours annoying our family playing. We could, of course, take out the spent coins from the back of the machine, so we could go on forever. This is my nephew, Noah, getting addicted to the 5 cent machine.




















My grandpa has been the greatest fisherman in Teton Valley for years and years. He made a red boat, and he used to take us out fishing on Teton River when we were kids. We'd practice casting in the big backyard by the lilac bushes, and when we'd catch a big fish, he'd teach us how to hold them in pictures so they looked bigger.


















We'd play Hand and Foot (the official Driggs family card game... it takes hours, and it gets very heated) in the kitchen nook. In the summer, the petunias in the windowboxes attract hummingbirds. I saw three this weekend!




















Until recently, the house was warmed with coal. As a kid, I was terrified of the basement, not only because it was dark and cold and had a huge pile of coal, but also because this Canadian Lynx would peek around the corner to stare at me.
















These are the four surviving Floyd sisters. My grandma, DeEtta Maxine Floyd Driggs, is in the green shirt. I've always thought it was rad that my grandma's middle name is Maxine.