News about the dangers of weeding

Well it has been a busy month. Between birthdays and anniversaries I felt like I was constantly buying and wrapping presents but I made it through. Right now My Mom, Dad, Brother and Andrew's Mom have their birthdays within the same 8-day span. In addition, my parent's anniversary is my Father's birthday. This is a bad idea according to my Mom who thought it would be easy for him to remember but now it is never JUST their anniversary. A warning for anyone planning a wedding.

Planning a wedding, you say. Yes, the wedding plans are steamrollering on. My to do list has shortened significantly and we are only 5 weeks away. Last weekend I went to see Heather in Kitchener. We went to buy new make-up and decide hairstyles. And because we cannot leave the house without something wacky happening, I have a story. We decided to go to a large Shopper's Drug Mart because they have a good selection of stuff Heather likes to use and the bonus was they were having a 20X the points weekend. The last time Heather had a bride in tow there was a lovely, elegant cosmetician who was extremely helpful. Well this time a very friendly woman greeted us. She had a curly weave of alternating black and white hair that cascaded halfway down her back, fuchsia lipstick and eye shadow that matched and an array of body and face piercings. Now that is definitely "a Look" but not the look we were going for. The cosmetician had one bride to be in her chair and was preparing to make her up. Heather and I started picking things and the cosmetician decided we needed help and so abandoned the girl in the chair for us, the walking, talking commissions. After some helpful suggestions, we shooed her back to the panicked looking bride in the chair. Heather and I continued to shop with Heather singing the "circus song". We also introduced Riley to how "plumping lipsticks" work. We just put it on her hand ...it kind of ballooned, stung and itched for an hour...but she will never waste her money on that product, I assure you. Happy we had bought enough war paint we went to the checkout. The bride was half done and grabbed Heather's hand imploring, "It isn't too beige? Is it? Do I need all this?" While Heather assured her that her face wasn't complete and that she should relax until it was finished I did some damage to my credit card. We of course cracked up once we reached the car. Honestly, the cosmetician was very nice and she knew her stuff but I really think she should be selling make-up on Queen St instead of suburbia in Kitchener.

My darling friend Lori cannot come to the wedding for the best of reasons. She's pregnant! She got married and graduated from seminary school in one weekend last May and she is due in October. Because she is taking a year off after the baby is born she really can't take a weekend off in June too. We will forgive her if she brings a baby for us to see next year.

The receptionist at my school was getting married this weekend but yesterday I walk into work and there she was. Therefore, I went into the Boss' office and said, "Isn't Jennifer supposed to be getting married today?" The CEO and Academic Manager bother give me a panic-stricken headshake as in do not ask. I noticed on my way back to class that her left hand was bare. She and her fiancé had been battling for about 2 months about everything so I guess it was called off. So that's why my Bosses have been constantly asking me if Andrew and I are Okay and if I need any time off to finalize preparations? Yes we are fine...no fights, yet, but we have not finished planning the music...so you never know.

My last student on a waiting list got accepted to Carnegie Mellon on Friday, so I was completely successful in getting every one of my students into an American University somewhere. Now it's time to start pressuring the next bunch. Yesterday's essay topic was a doozie. It is "Can little events have a large impact?" I received many hypothetical incidents about picking one convenience store and buying a ticket and winning the lottery. Imaginary stories are not convincing folks. One kid had a better idea about how High School assemblies could save a kid's life. But one line made me laugh for an hour. He wrote High School assemblies on the dangers of sex, smoking, drinking and weeding could save your life. ....Who knew that removing unwanted plants from the flowerbeds was such a dangerous activity? Why hasn't the perilous removal of dandelions been in the news more? I grabbed my mangler of English and asked him what he meant? He then did the international hand gesture for smoking marijuana. I set him straight on the idiom and then giggled my way through the rest of the essays.

My plants are doing well. I planted my outside planters 2 weeks ago and now have little shoots peeking out of the soil. I just need to keep the squirrels from eating them. When I came home from Kitchener my tomato plants had been decimated by a hungry squirrel. So I covered all the planters with clear garbage bags so hopefully that will be enough of a barrier to keep their little paws off.

I think that's all my news for now.
M.