When do friends become family? When do family members become friends? I’ve heard many times that you choose your friends, but are born into your family. Is there ever a time you choose your family as your friends? Do you ‘adopt’ friends as family?

All deep questions, to which I have very few answers. I know how I feel about some family, and some friends. But that can’t be the same for everyone, can it?

I was born into a large family. When I came into this world, I had 1 brother and 3 sisters. A younger sister came along just a few months later (22.5 or so). I liked to think I could be friends with all of them. At times I was, at other times we were just siblings. I married into a family and got 2 more brothers, and 1 more sister. Yes, this is the way I thought of them. Time and distance prevented a normal ‘friendship’ but I felt it could be that way if distance wasn’t an issue. My sisters married and I got more brothers. My brother married and I had another sister. Marriages came and went, so did some of the new siblings.

Now I have four daughters. Two of them have husbands, so I now have sons. I don’t know how they think of me, I tend not to pry, but it doesn’t really matter. As long as they treat my daughters well, they will continue to be sons to me. It will be this way for all my girls and their spouses. I don’t buy the in-law route. You’re either family or not. And I’m beginning to think my family are also my friends. Different from my chosen friends, but to me they are friends on some level. This allows me to give that quality of concern that should be expected of family.

Now for friends I choose. Yes, some of them are very much like family. The brothers/sisters/cousins/strange-aunt or uncle 😉 that I found instead of being born into the family. Friends are the family I choose.

And when the weather turns cold (figuratively or realistically), it is good to have friends and family, or both.

Perhaps in an attempt to cash in on the Indiana Jones craze sweeping the nation (not to mention this blog), a treasured crystal skull was stolen from a New Age store in Claremont, California.

Hunt for the Crystal Skull Begins Early

Let me just point out that I was nowhere near California on the date in question.

Perhaps authorities should begin by questioning the two three young men (?) responsible for grave robbing to retrieve a skull to use as a bong. I was surprised to learn of the laid-back nature of the store. Although they have never had any trouble with shoplifting in the past, it would seem that such a high profile item would draw considerable attention. As with the MacGuffins (the Ark of the Covenant, Sankara stones, and the Holy Grail) used in the previous 3 Indy adventures, the crystal skull does have its basis in reality perhaps just not as widely known as some of the others.

Skip the lines. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tickets on sale now!

I just found out today that Amie is no longer going down to Texas to be the live-in-nanny for her sister-in-law. In fact, her sister-in-law is going to be coming up here next month after Amie’s brother goes over seas. I am excited and scared at the same time. I am glad that Amie is not leaving, though it seems to me that there is something coming between us lately. It hurts, but I also know it happens. I am also scared that her sister-in-law will say things to me, like she has been doing. That hurts worse than losing Amie’s friendship because it is not just about me. It deals with my friends and my boyfriend! I am praying that things will turn out differently than what I think is going to happen. I am praying that God will help patch up what has happened in the past and build our friendship again, and maybe it will be easier between Amie and myself.

IT for short, not to be confused with information technology which was a possible career track for me once, was where I was Monday and today.  This is the class that was once know as shop, as it used to consist solely of things like woods, plastics, and metals.  Nowadays those three still exist, but are played down by the age of computers and such lessons as audio engineering, CAD, CAM, robotics, digital music and photography, and more.  How does a teacher fit all this in in one quarter (eight weeks)?  Well, in the case of one school the students select different “modules” they will work in for ten days apiece.  That means if a student abhors woods he doesn’t have to take it.  How other schools do it I am not sure.  It does seem that at the school I was at today they are always working with wood so it may simply be up to the teacher or district.  How do these two districts compare?  Read on.

The school I was at Monday actually has an assistant in the room meaning the students do not have to give up their regular work.  Ordinarily a sub in IT would mean a video or seatwork as subs are generally not certified on the machinery.  Thankfully, as I do not want the responsibility of keeping 20-30 students at a time from getting hurt.  It was extremely fortunate that this school had the assistant because apparently the teacher had been out for a week before I came in.  If they had to do seatwork all this time they would have had some serious catching up to do.  Plus, with two there situations like this can’t happen…

So Monday my time was spent signing off on modules, passing out module quizzes, getting items students needed, and otherwise helping students.  Well, the latter generally consisted of “let me get the TA for you.”  Okay, I am a computer person but even so I can’t know all there is to each of the computer modules.  I did help where I could though.  All in all this was a fulfilling day and I enjoyed it.  I forgot to give back the keys and had to come back, but I enjoyed it.

Then there was today.  One teacher, no assistant.  I arrived before the teacher left (half day afternoon position) and of course the students were working with wood.  Well, now that I think about it I guess some of the class was in the computer room so that would be why there is so much working with wood.  Still, even with this in mind this school does a lot more with wood than the other one.  Anyway, with no assistant that meant- drum roll please- seatwork.  Last time I was there it was a video on drywalling.  A time before that the video was tiling.  Today, seatwork.  And not just any seatwork- they worked on word searches of all things.  All period.  Eight of them.  Well, only one or two got through all eight.  A few students barely got through one.  Which type of student were you in middle school?  Anyway, this was not nearly as fulfilling as Monday.  I just sat back and handed out new word searches as they finished the old.  Thankfully it was only a half day.  Two full periods, and a period with only seven ELL students.  Difficult students I may add, but I don’t want to get into the whole ELL student thing again…

The next two days will be middle school PE again.  Same two districts I just compared IT in.  Maybe a PE comparison in the future?  We’ll see.

I’m currently listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony.  I wanted to put the 9th in, but didn’t see it in my cd area.  I found it after I started the 5th, and I’ll never turn down a 5th (quote from many movies, and books, not my usual mode of operation).

I’ve always liked Beethoven.  Maybe it was the fact that I started listening after reading all of those “Peanuts” comic strips.  Maybe it was because one of his symphonies was in Disney’s Fantasia.  Maybe is was because we had to listen to it in School.  Who knows.  But I do like it.  I like other classical music too, but I don’t get much chance to listen to it.  The younger people in my house tend to cringe when I put in classical or Jazz.   I’m eclectic in my music tastes though,  I like a lot of different music, as long as I can tell it is music. Don’t get me started on the Rap stuff.

Anyway, I quietly relaxing.  Typing the blog, and listening to good ol’ Ludwig.   Not much I can say about this piece.  But I’m wondering how many people actually would know it without the famous opening.  I’m at a point in the symphony now, that I don’t really remember from the last time I listened to it.  I imagine if I played this segment, most people would not put it together with the 5th.   Just makes me wonder.

You know who you are.  The people who pop in look and never say Hi.  In other words lurkers.  Hello and welcome.   Reason I mentioned this is I was looking at the new back end, and again hit the site statistics area.  I don’t go there much, because I thought I knew who was visiting.  I was wrong.

There are people from the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, and others   People using PC’s or Macs or other.  People using IE, Firefox, or other.  Seems like a lot of Others here, but they only make up a small percentage.

It is also interesting to see what other people find interesting here.  Not always what I consider the most interesting, but it was at one time, because I wrote it.

So if you like, leave a comment.  Unless you’re on the already approved list (made one comment), your post will be moderated.  If you don’t want anyone else to see your hello, let me know. It will be our little secret.

Just having fun with all of you.  For those who do post comments, thanks.  For those that don’t, I hope you found something interesting in my Random Thoughts.  This is probably as random as it gets.

Oh yes, the main page is the most popular by far, but the post visited the most right now list on the bottom right of the page.

Hello world….

Today was a rather dull day at work. The rain did not help although Wednesday’s are notoriously slow days. I found myself staring out the window of the store at the lamppost across the street at the post office and remembering Gene Kelly dancing and splashing with his umbrella while Singin’ in the Rain. An excellent movie musical even if you can’t dance.

Later this afternoon, things picked up. I happened to be glancing at the front page of our area newspaper and I saw the face a certain young lady who I know quite well in full color right on the front page. I must admit to being slightly jealous.

About 2:30, the mother of one of my high school classmates came in just to deliver something she had for me. She went out to her car and brought back a picture of me dressed as the Herald from Cinderella along with her four granddaughters.
I made it a point to mention Little Women coming at the end of June. She was not sure if the girls were old enough to appreciate this show but she would ask. I am sure that the oldest of the four would definitely be.

So, a little sunshine was spread on a rather dismal, rainy day.

In my previous post, I touched on “Where are they now?” when it comes to celebrities.  I read an interesting article the other day about the “kid” who played young Forrest in Forrest Gump, one of my favorite movies.  Michael Conner Humphreys is now a 23-year-old young man who is currently serving in the army like Forrest Gump did in the movie, ironically enough.  Another twist of irony – in the movie, a young undiscovered Elvis Presley teaches young Forrest how to dance, and Michael Conner Humphreys served in the same place that Elvis did in Germany when he was in the army!  Humphreys joined the U.S. Army in 2005 and is currently an infantryman assigned to a tank battalion and is known by the nickname Gump.  After a year deployed to Iraq in its dangerous Anbar Province, Humphreys was transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas.  He will leave the Army when his enlistment ends on June 4, 2008, and has already landed a part in an upcoming World War II film, Pathfinder.  It’s nice to see a former child actor making a good name for himself.

One of my daughters lives in Florida with her husband and kids. This weekend, on Mother’s Day, some wildfires started in their part of the state. By Monday, their town was hit with fires. Sections of I-95 were closed due to heavy smoke. Monday night I was on-line looking for maps of the exact locations of said fires, and seeing if any area near them was being evacuated.

There are many things a parent worries about when it comes to his/her children. When they are younger it is how much they get to eat, how much they sleep, why they are crying, what hurts, why does it hurt, are they sick, ect. When they get older there are different things to worry about. School, sports, friends, drugs, ect. When they move out, most of the time you can put worry behind you. Until of course something big happens where they live.

Accidents in the area they live in, with cars that look similar to what they drive are seen on the news. Fires in their apartment complex. And then any other acts of nature, in this case droughts and wildfires.

For the better part of the day, I was more than a bit concerned about my ‘little girl’ and her family. I finally got another phone call saying that all the fires are contained. A relief was felt.

The other part of this, is that I am an ONLY parent. I emphasized the ‘only’ for a reason. On this earth, there is no other parent than me. This is a huge responsibility. I don’t have an Ex who can share some of the burden (I burden I gladly took by the way). No one to share ideas with. No one to complain about the kids too. I tend to internalize all of this, for better or worse. I know my girls can see it most of the time, but I’m not sure about the rest of the world. Even as the children grow older, and need a parent less and less, the worries still come. There are times when I wish I wasn’t on my own in this. Fires scant miles from where one of your children is, is exactly one of those times

We put in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire for the kids the other day, and I was curious about what happened to the youngest daughter in that movie, Mara Wilson, because I’ve always thought she was so cute.  So I looked it up on imdb.com, and discovered that this movie is 15 years old already!!!  Which means that little Natalie, the cute girl from the film, is almost 21 years old!  I looked her up elsewhere on the internet because I get curious about the “where are they now” aspect of celebrities, and I found the following interview she did while promoting a Cinderella stage play she was in.  It was from 2006, when she was 18, but little “Natalie” is all grown up, and it’s weird to see her as an adult…  well, a legal one anyway.  Here is a link to the video:

https://www.spike.com/video/2702330