Body-Checking and Toe Picks

I just now realized I never posted this... It's cuz I wasn't able to e-mail the pics to myself like I normally do in order to save them on my computer and then load them on here.  That's the primitive process those of us without real cameras have to go through in order to post pictures online.  

Tonight I went ice skating.  Normally I get hockey skates but the ones they gave me were not fitting right and were absolutely killing my ankle, so I got figure skates instead.  

As I was putting my figure skates on, the friend I went with was saying how the toe pick was going to get me and when it did he was going to skate right by, laugh, and say "Toe pick!"  In a high-pitched "Cutting Edge" voice.

I was doing very well, I must say, but he gave me some grief about some close calls with a couple of 5-year-olds saying how I was trying to body-check them.  So (to be funny) I started skating really fast right towards this little girl who was probably right around 5 years old, hunched down like I was going to take her out with a shoulder, but then went around her at a reasonably safe distance.  (Just so you people with kids know, her mom was right there and she didn't even suspect anything... That's how far away from actually hitting her I was)

Anyway... I went around her, but then while doing a little cross-over to round the corner, sure enough, that stupid toe pick on my left (back) foot caught the ice and pulled me down.

So now you have to put all the pieces together.  

Accelerated speed + cross-over + toe pick = incredibly awkward fall.  

I really wish I could've seen it.  At any rate, I got the wind knocked out of me a little bit, got a huge bump/bruise on my right knee, scraped my left hip, and totally slid a few feet Superman style.  

And yes, my friend kept his word about mocking me, but only after making sure I was actually ok.  

Anyway, like I said, I haven't been able to e-mail my pictures, so you're just going to have to use your imagination.  It was a very colorful bruise.

Most Disturbing Yet... Sorry, Jaron.

Just to let you know straight up, I do not in any way injure or kill Jaron in this dream.  

Now that we have that clear, let me tell you what I remember from this one.

The beginning of this dream is set in a golden field of wheat.  Jaron was there and he was having an argument with someone.  This other person started running away and Jaron pulled out a gun and shot him in the back.  

I screamed and Jaron turned to me and raised his gun again.  I begged him not to shoot, but he put the barrel of the gun up to my mouth and pulled the trigger.  I kept telling him to stop but he kept shooting.  The sensation was really weird...  My teeth and lips felt numb like I had just gone to the dentist.  Then he put the gun under my chin and squeezed the trigger again.  Instead of a bullet though, that one sent shrapnel through my chin and neck.

Just then the rest of the family appeared and I went through each member (including Jaron even though I was still mad that he'd shot me) and told them how much I love them as I lay there dying.  

Kindy suggested that we go to the hospital and see if they could save me.  I agreed to go, so we hopped on our bicycles and started down the street to the hospital.  After a few feet though, I was so dizzy it was clear I couldn't ride my bike all the way to the hospital.  I told Kindy that and she said, "ok... I guess we can take my car then."

Then I woke up, very disturbed.

Mermen and Shoot-outs

K, let's see how much of this I remember at the end of the school day.

It started out like I was watching a movie.  There was a lake or river or something with a traffic bridge over it.  The bridge started to raise in the middle but there were two cars that were headed towards each other.  They flew off their respective bridge sections and almost smashed into each other, head-on, but then at the last second they missed and landed in the water.  

Out in the water there was a small boat with a crane on it, fishing for the cars that had just fallen.  The passengers in the car closest to me were both in the water, conscious and yelling to get the boat's attention.  The crane operator had just started to lift the car out of the water, when one of the people near the car started screaming at the top of their lungs in anguish.  Then they realized that the crane was actually pulling this one passenger up and was hooked just under the mastoid bone (behind the ear) where the skull attached.  They got the person unhooked, then the scene changed.

I was in my roommate's room and she had all these elaborate kerchiefs and wooden dolls hanging on the bedpost on the foot of her bed from all the different countries she's visited.  I remember one doll in particular.  He was a very Scandinavian-looking doll with the red, pointy nose, cheeks, and chin.  His upper body was dressed in a white dress shirt and his arms were attached at the wrists so that they were always folded on where his knees would have been but his lower body was a fish.

I left that room and started feeling funny.  I asked someone if I had a scar under my ear on my right side because I think I may have gotten a hook stuck in it earlier but I wasn't sure... It could have been a dream or something...  She told me there was a scar there and asked if I was ok.  I told her I was and kept wandering around.  So apparently the person getting dragged out of the water was me.  Good to know.

Then the scene kinda changed again and this part is kind of fuzzy.  I was still feeling funny from having been lifted up by the skull with a crane, but I was with a group of about 3 people I knew somehow in a mall or something.  They were family, or step-family, but I don't know who they were.

Anyway, the woman in my dream who was like my step-mom pulled out a gun and started shooting, but it turned out to be a toy gun.  I stepped in as back-up and threw her mine (I think I had taken it from my roommate's room) but I think it turned out to be a toy as well.  

Embarrassed and scared, we jumped into our tight little Audi TT and took off.

Then I woke up.

"You are everything I hope to become someday"

Today I got the sweetest note from one of my students.  She seems like more than a student though.  She's had somewhat of a rough young life and had to mature more quickly than normal because of it.  I've kind of taken her under my wing and let her vent to me and I to her more so than a typical teacher/student relationship would allow.  I think she needs it though, and I'm sure I do too.  At any rate, she spends a lot of time in my classroom and we see each other at Deaf Community events.  We've even gone bouldering together. 

Today she gave me a Christmas present and this note was with it.  The title of this blog is a line from that note.  I can't help but to feel like she doesn't have her sights set high enough.  

Isn't it interesting how other people perceive us?

To her, I'm a successful, independent, active woman who has everything together.  To me... well, that line just makes me laugh.  I mean, I definitely enjoy my life and I'll admit I'm not a complete screw-up, but I am far from the end product I hope to become.

It makes me think, though, about the people I admired growing up and those I look up to now.  It's so interesting that they're just people.  Now it makes sense why, any time I said something like that to a neighbor or friend's parent or anyone really, they would roll their eyes, blush and say thanks and usually refer back to their messy house or undone hair.  

Spiders and Catholics

So I had kind of a weird dream last night.

Actually it had two parts.  What I remember of the first one is super short.  I dreamed that there was this little brown spider and I was with one of my friends who told me that I should play with it cuz it wouldn't bite me.  I told them I didn't believe that it wouldn't bite me so I picked it up and put my finger right on its mouth and held it there for a little while until it totally clamped down and I couldn't get it off my finger.  It hurt like hell but at least I'd proved my friend wrong.  :)

Then I had a dream that I went to a catholic priest (I JUST now realized that I got a message from a guy last night who had a priest collar on!  Now it all makes sense... Kind of...) and he told me I had to do 30 Hail Marys but didn't tell me how.  I knew that I needed to kneel on a bible and one of their prayer books but I didn't have one of those so I used a bible and a book of Mormon.  I knelt down and said (in my head) "Mary, mother of God," crossed myself, kissed my thumb, then kissed the ground.  I did that 30 times but I still didn't feel like I was forgiven.

Then I met this woman in my mom's ward and I asked her how to do it.  She laughed and said that I was close, but that after the beginning I needed to state my sin and end with "Amen."

I was a little put out because I had just done this mini version 30 times.  I tried the longer version once but then got distracted.  I decided it was too much work and thought maybe I'd just go to a Mormon bishop or something.

Meanwhile, the relief society was having a pilates/yoga/kickboxing workshop and there were all these different rooms where people were doing these things and I was wandering from room to room looking for that lady again to ask her if I did it right.  (I didn't want to do 30 of the wrong ones again...) 

In each room I would sit down and watch people for a few minutes and make comments to myself out loud about what they were doing and then get surprised that they had heard when they responded to what I had said.  

After a while, Alicia, mom, and Kindy came out of their classes went to the dessert tables outside.  There were two tables.  One with chocolates on them and one with banana-flavored stuff.  I woke up still trying to decide which one I wanted...